Graduate students in our department are members of a collegial and highly productive community of scholars. Close contact with faculty is the standard, enhanced by a rich array of opportunities for professional and personal engagement across the university—including at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Kinsey Institute, Lilly Library, Indiana University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Jacobs School of Music, and the IU Cinema. Our students have an excellent track record with respect to research funding and job placement. And they supplement their academic work in rewarding ways—Bloomington is a fun and exciting place to live!

The online application portal for both M.A. and Ph.D. programs opens on September 3 each year. The deadline to apply is January 5. 

No. We encourage applications from students who have training in other humanities programs, such as classics, anthropology, archaeology, or other area studies.

There are no special requirements for the personal statement, though we recommend a statement that is 1-2 pages in length (double-spaced). The personal statement is an opportunity to share how you became interested in art history, what types of interests have driven your research, what you hope to gain from graduate study, and where you hope to go next in your career. If you are applying to the Ph.D. program, you must indicate which current faculty member you would like to serve as your advisor.

Most writing samples are between 20 and 30 pages in length, excluding bibliography, notes, and images; however, there is no minimum or maximum page number. We recommend submitting your strongest piece of writing that demonstrates your ability to make a cohesive argument based on your interpretation of primary and secondary texts and visual evidence.

The Department of Art History does not consider GRE scores for the M.A. or Ph.D. application.

No. Transcripts uploaded to the online application portal are not considered official. Official transcripts for any degree that you have previously earned should be emailed directly from the institution to arthist@iu.edu or mailed to the Department of Art History.

We assess applications holistically, in terms of an applicant’s demonstrated skills, capacities, and experiences. We review the transcript, CV, personal statement, writing sample, and letters of reference to ascertain whether your academic preparation and potential, motivation, and experience make us confident that you will thrive in our department and at the university more generally.