JCU to Launch Art History MA in Fall 2017

John Cabot University is delighted to announce the inauguration of its new Master of Arts in Art History in the Fall semester of 2017. The MA will be the first graduate degree program based entirely in Rome offered by a U.S. accredited university. The program will provide professional training in the history of art and architecture with emphasis on first-hand research in Rome’s museums, archaeological sites, historic libraries, and archives.

Art History Master

Art History Master

“An MA in art history is a next logical step for the university, given the success of our existing programs, our international, research-oriented faculty, and the astounding wealth of art and art-historical documentation available in Rome – material pertinent not only to Rome itself but also to the broader history of art,” explained Prof. Lila Yawn, director of the new degree. “From our campuses you can easily walk to the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Library, the Capitoline Museums, and dozens of other monuments, libraries, and art collections of world-class importance and impact.”

“We’ve designed the curriculum to guide students toward mastering the big picture—the practices, materials, and methods of art history—through direct study of the visual culture and built environment of Rome, Italy, and the Mediterranean across time. The quantity, continuity, variety, and global reverberations of artistic and architectural production here, from Classical Antiquity, through the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque, all the way down to William Kentridge’s colossal murals along the Tiber inaugurated last April, make it hard to imagine a place better suited to such a project.”

Designed to be completed in three semesters of full-time study, the MA consists of thirty-six credit hours of graduate-level coursework, including a professional apprenticeship and a Master’s thesis.

According to Dr. Portia Prebys, President of the Association of American College and University Programs in Italy (AACUPI) and Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee of the JCU Board of Trustees, “The establishment of an MA program in art history inaugurates a new dimension in research and scholarship for John Cabot University. This innovative program is specifically designed to enhance study in Rome and promises to provide a rich, direct experience and a deep understanding of the visual arts for today’s world. It is enthusiastically endorsed by the university’s Board of Trustees as a necessary addition to an already successful four-year liberal arts degree program.”

For further inquiries: [email protected]