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Art History

Why Study Art History?

 

Our Program

Art History professor with undergraduates from 2025.

In Art History, we study the art and architecture of cultures around the world and across millennia. We take a variety of approaches to our objects, but focus on understanding their aesthetic and historical significance as well as their social relevance.  

 

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Warnock Lecture Series

October 29, 2025: Adriana Zavala (Tufts University)

January 28, 2026: Esra Akcan (Cornell University)

May 6, 2026: Antonio Somaini (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris)

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Faculty Spotlight

Faculty Spotlight

Congratulations to Professor Krista Thompson, who has been named the Bahamian Pavilion curator at the 61st Venice Biennale.

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Warnock Gift

The Liz Warnock Gift to Art History provides generous funds to support an array of programming in the department.
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News & Events

 

Department News

 

Professor Bihter Esener 

Congratulations to Professor Bihter Esener on being selected for the 2025 –26 Searle Fellows program by the Northwestern Office of the Provost and the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching.

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Congratulations to Professor Jesús Escobar on being appointed as Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor in the Humanities.

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Congratulations to Professor Thadeus Dowad on being appointed the Crown Junior Chair in Middle East Studies.

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Congratulations to Professor Krista Thompson, one of the 2024 recipients of the Guggenheim Fellowship. 

Rebecca Zorach

Congratulations to Professor Rebecca Zorach on being awarded the Ver Steeg Fellowship.

Events

 

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News

 
Congratulations to Professor Krista Thompson, who has been named the Bahamian Pavilion Curator at the 61st Venice Biennale.
Associate Professor Emeritus Rob Linrothe led a workshop on "India and Southeast Asia: Two Episodes from Shared Past and Connected History" at Nalanda University.
John P. Murphy (PhD, 2017) has published “New Deal Art: Culture and Crisis in the Great Depression”, a book that appears as part of Thames & Hudson’s World of Art Series.
Associate Professor Emeritus Rob Linrothe will be the keynote speaker at the "Chhath Festival: Historical, Social, and Cultural Perspectives" symposium in Patna, India.
Congratulations to Faye Gleisser (PhD 2016), whose book has won the Charles C. Eldredge Prize for outstanding scholarship in the field of American art, and to Emilie Boone (PhD 2016), whose book was shortlisted.

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