Curriculum

In year 1 you take 7 compulsory courses and 4 elective courses. 

Compulsory courses

• Period 1
  • Trends and shifts in art history, 2000-2015 (Fundamentals I) (5 EC)
  • Digital Perspectives: a course on computational art history and its development (Fundamentals II) (5 EC)
  • Art history: institutions and current research (5 EC)​
• Period 2
  • Art History I: Knowledge, Technologies, and Material Culture (10 EC)​
• Period 3
  • Art History II: Global and Transcultural Art History (10 EC)​
• Period 4
  • Research design: Art History (5 EC)

The three courses in period 1 are worth 15 EC in all. In practice, however, it is somewhat less, as the course ‘Art history: institutions and current research’ is set up as a series of lectures throughout the first academic year.

Elective courses

In the periods 2, 3, and 4 of the first year you normally choose your four elective courses:

• 2 courses offered by the Dutch Graduate School of Art History (OSK). 
• 2 courses from the 'master-apprentice' modules offered by the Art History Programme or one such module, plus a second elective from another RMA programme in the Humanities. The master-apprentice modules are: 
  • Medieval art
  • Renaissance art
  • Art of the Golden Age
  • Art of the nineteenth century
  • Modern and Contemporary art
  • Technical Art History

The 'master-apprentice' modules are basically tutorials and will allow you to acquire in-depth knowledge of a certain period or an approach. If needed, you can even take a 'master-apprentice' tutorial with a specialist outside the University of Utrecht (Art History – open); this option needs the special approval of the programme coordinator.

Some of the electives from other RMA programmes require approval for participation by the course- or programmecoordinator. 

In the first semester of year 2 you can choose either to do an internship or to study abroad.

• Internship (30 EC)
  You can do an internship at a major art museum or research institution. Dutch students usually take this internship abroad, whilst non-Dutch students complete the internship in either the Netherlands or Belgium.
• Study abroad
  Alternatively, you may choose to study at a European or North American university.

In the second semester you will write your concluding Master’s thesis (30 EC).