Art History (PhD)

Your completed application will include:

• Application form and fee
• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• Three Letters of Reference and assessment form. References from Art History professors are preferred. Referees will be contacted for letters as soon as the student submits their application. Once contacted by the university, referees have 14 days to submit their letters. After that, the link provided to them will no longer be valid. For any questions contact Art History.
• A letter of support from the applicant's proposed supervisor at Concordia University
• Statement of purpose (5-8 pages) should discuss why the applicant has chosen to pursue a Doctorate in Art History at Concordia University. Like a detailed research proposal, the letter should indicate the project that the applicant aims to develop, the contribution to scholarship it will make, and how the applicant's academic and professional background has prepared him/her to undertake the proposed research.
• A writing sample (15-20 pages), usually a chapter from the applicant's MA thesis
• Transcripts for all post-secondary institutions attended
• Proof of Canadian citizenship (if applicable)
• Official language test scores if required

Please apply and submit your documents online. Read the how-to guide for application procedures.

For applications after this deadline, please contact the Graduate program director.

The PhD in Art History provides you with an academically rich and collaborative learning environment, infused with professional development opportunities.

Review the PhD seminars offered and consult the graduate calendar for a complete list of courses.

All new applicants will automatically be considered for a number of entrance fellowships, awards, and teaching assistantships.  

Most of the students in our program are also offered teaching opportunities during their degrees. Please consult Concordia’s graduate funding page and departmental funding opportunities.

Faculty members are actively engaged in innovative research across a wide variety of areas:

• Indigenous and Inuit art
• Architecture history & theory and studies of the built environment
• Craft history, theory and methodologies
• History of painting, sculpture and other media from the 16th to the 21st centuries
• Social contexts of art
• Art, architecture and religion/spirituality
• Photography history and theory
• Art theory and historiography
• Visual culture
• Material culture
• Black studies
• Sensory studies
• Museum studies
• Curatorial studies
• Diasporic studies and globalization
• Art and social justice (racial, environmental, etc.)
• Feminisms, gender and sexuality studies
• Fashion and design histories
• New media art
• Canadian art
• Montreal art and architecture

The Department of Art History is home to the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canada Art, and houses the Journal of Canadian Art History, and the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative, Graduate students benefit from these academically-rich environments and, through the Faculty’s Visual Collections Repository, have access to 300,000 circulating slides and digital images that range from the pre-historic to the contemporary.

Review an inspiring gallery of thesis topics and read about some of our exceptional graduate students.

The Art History Graduate Student Association (AHGSA) is the student representative body, while the department is home to student research groups including Ethnocultural Art Histories Research Group, (EAHR), the Afrofuturism Research Collective (ARC), and the Global South Working Group.

Student research activities provide additional opportunities to curate exhibitions, publish journals, organize conferences and present papers.