duke art history thesis

Ed Triplett Hosting Photogrammetry Workshop

Assistant Professor Ed Triplett will host a photogrammetry workshop  Monday, March 18th at 3:30 pm at Smith Warehouse, Bay 12.

Duke’s Digital Art History & Visual Culture Research Lab  is a  dynamic research community  of faculty, staff, and students. We engage and advance critical digital methods to promote new approaches to  scholarship and pedagogy  in the study and interpretation of the visual arts, architecture, cultural heritage, and  urban environments . Learn more…

Spring 2024 Courses

Creative Cartography

Students learn how maps and map-making has always existed in a contentious position between art & science, culture & nature. Course combines discussion of readings…

Historical & Cultural Visualization Proseminar 2

Core studio practice-based course for advanced computational methods; emphasis on development of individual artistic and/or digital research practice through prototyping and critique. Introduction to key…

Digital Durham

Representing Durham past and present with digital media. Digitize historical and cultural materials, research in archives and public records and present information through various forms…

Featured Projects

World Building at Duke in an Emerging Durham: 1924-1932

This project is part of the 2023-2024 Bass Connections Duke’s Centennial popup theme. The establishment of the Duke Endowment in 1924 enabled the massive building…

Mapping Occupied Krakow

As is well known, Krakow became a key location within the National Socialist plan for military expansion and the implementation of genocide in Eastern Europe…

Dictionary of Art Historians

https://vimeo.com/835706833 Hear from Dictionary co-PIs Lee Sorensen and Hannah Jacobs about the history of the project. The Dictionary of Art Historians started as a long-standing…

The primary goal of the Sandcastle project is to enable researchers to visualize non-Cartesian, premodern images of places in a comparative environment that resembles the…

Ed Triplett to Host Photogrammetry Workshop

Dictionary of art historians site launch.

Ed Triplett to Present on Early Modern Chorography

Lab calendar.

ISS 356 / CMAC 758 - Digital Durham (Szabo & Stern)

March 7, 2024    10:20 am - 12:50 pm

See more details

ISS 536S - Public History & Memory (Buerglener)

March 7, 2024    1:25 pm - 3:55 pm

ARTHIST 306S Creative Cartography (Triplett)

March 7, 2024    4:40 pm - 5:55 pm

Bass Connections

March 8, 2024    9:00 am - 11:00 am

Lab Meeting

March 8, 2024    12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

March 8, 2024    1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Spring Break

March 9, 2024 - March 17, 2024   

Digital Art History/Computational Media Thesis Writing Workshop

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G-AHV-AM - Digital Art History/Computational Media - Master's

Degree designation.

Two specialties are offered: a track in digital art history and a track in computational media. Both are eighteen-month to two-year programs. The digital art history track integrates historical disciplines and the study of cultural artifacts with digital visualization techniques for the analysis and presentation of research. The computational media track focuses instead on new approaches to computational processes, and forms of interpreting quantitative and qualitative data. Both programs build on courses and well-developed strengths at Duke University and require ten (10) courses over three semesters in addition to summer research. Students affiliate with an existing faculty research initiative, from which they develop their own independent research project for the MA thesis.

The digital art history track prepares students for future work in fields such as graduate study in Art History and Archaeology, public history, city planning and architectural design, cultural heritage, museum exhibition design, and visualization-based journalism, and provides a springboard for more advanced study in art history, archaeology, architectural history, and visual or media studies. The ideal candidate seeks engagement with the digital humanities, digital art and architectural history, or digital archaeology; this student can conceptualize digital visualization as a part of the research process and for the publication or presentation of scholarship. Common themes that unite the various projects are the visualization of process, the representation of change over time, the recontextualization of displaced objects, and the biographies of objects. The digital art history track encourages applicants from across the Humanities and Social Sciences, whether from established disciplines, such as history, archaeology, and art history, or emerging fields of study, such as spatial history, media arts & sciences, and cultural geography.

The computational media track explores research and presentation strategies enabled by the information sciences, new approaches to computational processes, and new forms of interpreting quantitative and qualitative data. The goals of the program are for students to understand the critical affordances and potential of digital media, to develop competencies in data-driven and computational approaches to knowledge production, and to develop a hybrid theory-practice MA thesis that demonstrates their expertise in action around a particular subject. Students in this track affiliate with an interdisciplinary Lab focused on digital archeology, generative media arts, art history, law, and markets, digital humanities, physical computing, or information science and studies as a way to learn new technologies and situate their work within a specific research domain. The program’s skills-centered instruction, combined with the requirement for lab affiliation and collaborative research and the emphasis on theoretical analysis, will produce graduates who not only have hands-on know-how and technical skills but who have developed a sophisticated understanding of informational globalization and a rapidly changing world.

For more information, visit the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies graduate web page: aahvs.duke.edu/graduate/degree-programs .

Data Scraping Art History Survey Texts

November 4, 2021.

Holland Stam

The Dean’s Summer Research Fellowship Grant was a pivotal opportunity in aiding my ability to do research for my undergraduate honors thesis. With the funds provided, I was able to extend the scope of my data and collect information. To provide context, the first research question my thesis will address is how do art historical survey texts change through editions? What are the demographics of the artists included and how, if at all, does that change through time? This past spring I examined the text, Janson’s History of Art, cataloguing 9 various editions of the text through time. This summer, I broadened my scope to include another highly regarded introductory text of art history: Helen Gardner’s Art Through The Ages.

This grant allowed for me to invest my time in manually data scraping 8 of the 16 Editions of her text. Such manual data scraping consists of recording every two dimension artwork produced after c. 1750. The variables I recorded this summer were as follows: Artist Name, Title of Work, Artist Gender, Artist Race, Artist Nationality, Medium, Date of Work, Length of Text of Work in CM, Width of Text of Work in CM, Height of Actual Work in CM, Width of Actual Work in CM, Height of Work in Text in CM, Width of Work in Text in CM, Location of Work, and Page Number. I use a ruler to measure the length and width of text regarding a particular artwork, as well as the height and width of the image of the work within the text itself.

Collecting such data will allow for me to examine the change of Helen Gardner’s Art of the Ages through time, looking at the demographic of the artists included. I will then be able to compare the demographics of artists included by Gardner compares to Janson.

The second research question I will work to answer with my manually scraped data is which variables, if any, predict the likelihood of an artist’s inclusion in art history survey texts? Does a higher median price of the works of an artist at auction influence the likelihood of inclusion? Is there a correlation between inclusion in exhibition spaces with inclusion in an introductory art history textbook? How do publications by art experts on an artist impact the likelihood of inclusion? I am working to create a statistical model that works to best predict why an artist rises to fame through canonization.

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• Master of Arts Requirements

The Master of Arts degree can be completed within two calendar years. Our program is very competitive, and we rarely admit students specifically to the M.A. program, although many doctoral students obtain a M.A. en route to their Ph.D.

In order to standardize the MA process enroute to the Ph.D., a student’s portfolio defense will include the MA defense.  While a complete portfolio equates to the department’s current milestone for Master’s work,  the student must also have met all minimum graduate school and departmental credit requirements for the MA .   Students   who leave the doctoral program with a complete portfolio still have the chance to earn an MA as long as they have met all graduate school and departmental requirements.

Academic Requirements

30 course credit units.

All Duke Master of Arts programs require a minimum of 30 units of course credit. At least 24 of these units must be graded course work. The other 6 units may be credits for "ungraded research." Students may take graduate courses in other disciplines that relate to their areas of interest with permission of the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).

Required Courses

• Students must take HISTORY 701S: Research Seminar in History or HISTORY 702S: Research Seminar in History, or with the permission of the DGS a similar course sequence in historiography/theory and research methods.
• At least one course at the graduate level that explores a specific methodology.

Two Seminar Papers

You must demonstrate proficiency in primary research and writing two seminar papers (of 25-35 pages each). Normally these are products of courses you take.

Foreign Language Reading Proficiency

Candidates for the M.A. degree (but not the JD/MA program) must have a reading knowledge of at least one ancient or modern foreign language. Read guidance on the departmental language requirement .

Non-Thesis Examination or Master's Meeting

Graduate School requires all M.A. candidates to have a final examination administered by your M.A. committee. The History Department chooses to consider this a "meeting," rather than a formal exam, and it expects the committee to consist of three professors familiar with your work. This meeting should occur after the other degree requirements have been fulfilled and after the required written work has been read and approved by all three committee members. This Master's meeting can be relatively brief (30-90 minutes in length). After you set up a time with your committee members, contact the DGS Assistant to arrange a place for the meeting. It is up to all four participants to see that this is a positive, informal, and candid discussion of strengths and weaknesses, prospects and possibilities. Ideally, it is an opportunity for professors to receive some feedback on the functioning of the graduate program and for you to get candid, focused responses about prior and planned work.

Intention to Receive Degree Form

You must file an "Intention to Receive Degree" form with the Graduate School before, or at the start of, the semester in which you intend to complete all four requirements for the Master's degree. You must turn this form into the graduate school ONE MONTH BEFORE THE FINAL EXAMINATION MEETING and no later than:

• January 25 for commencement in May
• June 15 for a September degree
• October 15 for a December degree

If you intend to finish in a specific semester must be sure to file this form. If plans change and you are unable to finish, simply complete the same form again for the subsequent semester.

Non-Thesis Master's Examination Card

Just before the Master's meeting, you should ask in the DGS Office for a Non-Thesis Examination Card to indicate completion of all requirements for the M.A. degree. After the final meeting, this card must be signed by the three committee members and returned promptly to the DGS Office as notification. It is then the responsibility of the DGS Office to transmit the properly signed card to the Graduate School Office.

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Experimental and Documentary Arts

The Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts at Duke University brings together two forms of artistic activity—the documentary approach and experimental production in analog, digital, and computational media—in a unique program that will foster collaborations across disciplines and media as it trains sophisticated, creative art practitioners. Successful completion of the program requires the development of a complex understanding of documentary practices and traditions as well as creative skills in experimental media and new technologies.

The philosophy of the program is guided by a belief in the intersection of personal artistic work with interpretive knowledge and of the relevance of the individual documentary/experimental artist within the cultural history and life of communities. A key component to the program is the notion of creative engagement through the arts and the role of the artist in society. Graduates are expected to generate work that has impact both within and outside the academy.

MFA EDA 2018 Thesis Exhibition

Work by twelve graduating MFA students in Duke's Experimental and Documentary Arts program is now on view across campus and in several downtown Durham galleries through April 20. Explore the 2018 Thesis Exhibition website for exhibit locations, events, and more.

• EXHIBITING ARTISTS
• HARETH YOUSEF
• MARIE GAYESKI

MAXWELL SCHULTE

Natasha lehner, nora zubizarreta, sara alghesheyan.

• SHIRAZ AHMED
• TIANMING ZHOU (ALARIC)

TRISTA WENG

March 22 - April 19

March 22 – April 19

OPENING RECEPTION Rubenstein Arts Center Studio 124 March 22, 5:00pm ~

Shiraz ahmed this world rubenstein arts center film theater premiere:  march 30, 3:00pm, between memories and dreams ruby gallery rubenstein arts center 235 on view:  march 22 – april 14 artist talk:  april 10, 6:00pm ~, marie gayeski elemental juanita kreps gallery center for documentary studies on view:  march 22 – april 13 artist talk:  april 13, 2:00pm, more of everything cassilhaus march 21 – april 23 (by appointment) reception:  april 14, 2:00pm artist talk:  april 15, 6:00pm see artist page for rsvp details, emergency entertainment rubenstein arts center painting studio, on view:  march 22 – april 14, red is the warmest color rubenstein arts center studio 128 on view:  march 22 – april 2 free pickup:  april 1 – 4 ~, hareth yousef stoic terraces of palestine: grandmother’s memories rubenstein arts center film theater premiere:  march 24, 5:30pm encore:  april 17, 6:00pm, tianming  zhou (alaric), seen fredric jameson gallery on view:  march 22 – april 9 artist walkthrough:  april 8, 3:00pm rubenstein arts center film screening:  march 24, 2:00pm ~, near nowhere the murthy agora at the rubenstein arts center on view:  march 22 – april 14 artist talk:  april 1, 5:00pm, microcinema, notes in the margins: films from the mfa|eda class of 2024 shadowbox studio april 19, 8:00pm.

The MFA|EDA is grateful to our partners for their generous and ongoing support of the students and the exhibitions:

Duke art, art history & visual studies center for documentary studies, rubenstein arts center, duke cinematic arts duke arts cassilhaus, shadowbox studio duke mfa in dance, kenan institute for ethics, rubenstein library archive of documentary arts.