Art History

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About Art History
Art History Admission Requirements and Application Procedures
Application Procedures
Application Dates and Deadlines

About Art History

The graduate program in Art History offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees and is extremely active. The programs cover a wide range of areas of study delimited by the Department's fields of specialization, which include the following:

Ancient
Medieval
Renaissance
the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries
Global Contemporary
Indigenous
Canadian
East Asian
Architectural History
New Media
Print Culture
Gender and Sexuality
Race and Representation
Art historical methodologies, notably Feminism, Postcolonialism, and Queer Theory

Our faculty members are outstanding scholars in their respective fields. With our students, they regularly undertake a wide range of major collaborative and individual research projects. Many involve faculty from other universities, departments, and programs including English, Social Studies of Medicine, Religious Studies, History and Classical Studies, and the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. These research collaborations allow us to offer innovative, interdisciplinary research training opportunities and assistantship to our graduate students.

McGill is situated in one of the most vibrant cities in North America. Our Montréal locale offers myriad opportunities for graduate students to engage with local arts and media venues. We have long-standing relations with institutions such as the Musée d'art contemporain, the Musée des beaux arts de Montréal, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec offer grants and research opportunities for our graduate students. We collaborate with a variety of independent contemporary art galleries, feminist arts spaces, and media collectives. In addition to McGill's own Visual Arts Collection, our students often work in and for university-based venues including the Redpath Museum and the McCord Stewart Museum (which houses the Notman Photographic Archives and the McGill University Archives). Through initiatives including Le séminaire des nouveaux modernes, our faculty and students maintain close relationships with researchers at Montréal's three other major universities: Concordia University, Université de Montréal, and Université du Québec à Montréal. Combined with institutional relationships, these informal links connect our students to a broad network of additional courses, lectures, and colleagues across the city.

To obtain financial aid information, please consult the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website.

Further information in available on the Art History and Communication Studies website.

Residency Requirements

For students entering the master's program in Art History, three semesters of full-time resident study at McGill University are required to complete the degree. “Residence” means that the student is enrolled on a full-time basis during this period (i.e., it does not refer to housing or accommodations). This residence period represents the minimum time required to obtain the degree; however, there is no guarantee that the required coursework can be completed within this time. Students may register for additional semesters to complete the program, and most students take four semesters (see Time Limitation).

Coursework

Before classes begin, each student will meet with either the Graduate Program Director or with their supervisor to determine an appropriate selection of courses which, when considered in relation to the student's previous record, will provide a balanced breadth of coverage and specialization.

The candidate is required to pass, with a mark of 65% (B-) or better, all those courses that have been designated by the Department as forming a part of their program. These are the courses that have been entered on the registration form. A few extra courses may be taken, but it is then the responsibility of the student to ensure that they fulfill their course requirements.

Art History Admission Requirements and Application Procedures

Admission Requirements

Entrance into either the M.A. or Ph.D. programs is limited to the best qualified applicants. A minimum CGPA of 3.3 or the equivalent, i.e., 75%, is highly recommended. The Department requires a research proposal of at least 500 words outlining the candidate's particular research interest in Art History as well as a sample of their written work such as a seminar paper or, in the case of Ph.D. applicants, all or part of the M.A. paper or thesis. For a complete list of materials required, see Application Procedures below.

For graduate applicants whose mother tongue is not English, and who have not completed an undergraduate or graduate degree from a recognized Canadian or American (English or French) institution or from a recognized foreign institution where English is the language of instruction, documented proof of English proficiency is required prior to admission.

M.A. Program

To apply to the M.A. program, candidates are normally expected to have a B.A. degree in Art History or in another closely related field; candidates may come from other fields such as literary studies, comparative literature, ethnic studies, Canadian studies, architecture, urban planning, film studies, history, performance studies, or philosophy/aesthetics, but must have taken at least 10 courses relating to the history and theory of some aspect of the visual arts, preferably covering a wide range of historical time periods and geographical regions. In exceptional cases, applicants without a strong background in art history may be admitted but with additional requirements arranged in consultation with the Graduate Program Director to be completed before matriculation in the M.A. program.

Ph.D. Program

In order to apply to the Ph.D. program, candidates must hold an M.A. degree preferably in Art History or in a closely related field together with an appropriate number of art history and related courses such as are described for entrance into the M.A. program. All candidates for the Ph.D. program are strongly advised to contact a potential supervisor well in advance of submitting the application in order to establish a relationship; however, a positive response from an individual faculty member regarding supervisory interest does not guarantee admission. Applicants who have not vetted their research proposal with a potential supervisor are unlikely to be admitted.

Application Procedures

McGill’s online application form for graduate program candidates is available at mcgill.ca/gradapplicants/apply.

See University Regulations & Resources > Graduate > Graduate Admissions and Application Procedures > Application Procedures for detailed application procedures.

For any admissions problems, please contact Natasha Klein-Panneton, the Graduate Administrative Coordinator:

Telephone: 514-398-4933
Email: graduate.ahcs@mcgill.ca

Additional Requirements

The items and clarifications below are additional requirements set by this department:

Writing Sample (in English or French)
Research Proposal
CV

Application Dates and Deadlines

Application opening dates are set by Enrolment Services in consultation with Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (GPS), while application deadlines are set by the Department of Art History and Communication Studies and may be revised at any time. Applicants must verify departmental deadlines and documentation requirements well in advance on the website at mcgill.ca/ahcs/graduate/admissions.

Information on application procedures and deadlines is also available at mcgill.ca/gradapplicants/how-apply/applying-mcgill.

Admission to graduate studies is competitive; accordingly, late and/or incomplete applications are considered only as time and space permit.

Note: There are no Winter or Summer term admissions for the M.A. and Ph.D. programs.

2025-2026