columbia phd in art history

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AN INTERDISCIPLINARY AND INTERDEPARTMENTAL PROGRAM AT COLUMBIA

The Ph.D. program in Classical Studies attracts students with a broad range of interests in all fields of ancient studies. Unique in its scope, the Classical Studies Program provides access to the intellectual and organizational resources of the four participating Departments: Art History and Archaeology , Classics , History , and Philosophy . Students are eligible to work with the materials of Columbia’s archaeological, epigraphic, and numismatic collections, can apply to Columbia’s excavation projects, and participate in the numerous initiatives organized by the University: seminars, lectures, conferences, museum trips, and more.

The beginnings of this integrated approach to antiquity go back at least as far as “Altertumswissenschaft” in 19th century Germany. For Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, classical scholarship was a “science.” It should “re-create the poet’s song, the thought of the philosopher and the lawgiver, the sanctity of the temple and the feelings of the believers and the unbelievers, the bustling life of market and port, the physical appearance of land and sea, mankind at work and play.” Today, the study of antiquity is a methodologically diverse field, looking to discover the past, but also to engage with art as art, and to do philosophy with the ancient philosophers. In the words of Momigliano, historians work with sources. But their work is not to interpret these sources. It is to interpret the reality that these sources refer to: “it is this ability to interpret a document by not making it a document, but a real episode of life in the past, that ultimately makes someone a historian.”

Variety and flexibility are among the defining features of the program. Each scholar graduating from Classical Studies has a different profile. Through one-on-one advising and a vibrant research community, we help students define their interests and move toward independent scholarship. As students enter the program, we encourage them to develop advanced language skills and to learn about aspects of antiquity that they may not yet have explored as undergraduates. As students proceed toward dissertation work, they are advised to find topics that reflect inter-disciplinary training and that allow them to make original contributions to the field. All Classical Studies Ph.D. students receive a full funding package which includes both the cost of tuition and a stipend.

For more information about the program and the application process, please get in touch with faculty , Chair Ellen Morris, or the administrators of Classical Studies , and consult the Classical Studies admissions page as well as the admissions page of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University .

Requirements

The requirements below should be read in conjunction with the general requirements of the Graduate School.

After admittance to the program, students should consult the Chair to set up an advisory committee to assist in planning a course of study for each term in residence. Typically, the Chair and the Vice-Chair of the program shall act as advisors, and an individual advisor shall be assigned depending on the specific interests of the students. Each student’s program of study must be approved before registration.

Requirements for the free-standing M.A. degree in Classical Studies and the M.A. degree taken en route to the Ph.D. are identical (see M.A. requirements). The M.A. dissertation must be approved before the student is permitted to continue on to the M.Phil. degree.

Phases of Study

The program of study for the Ph.D. tends to fall into three phases: (i) coursework and language training, (ii) developing advanced research skills and deeper knowledge of topics relevant to a dissertation project, to be demonstrated in qualifying exams, as well as a dissertation proposal, to be defended at a proposal defense examination, (iii) the dissertation phase during which the student completes a Ph.D. dissertation.

Students are encouraged to apply for additional external fellowships, and to consult GSAS guidelines about fellowship applications. Students should consult with their advisors about fellowships suitable to their phase of study and research profile.

M.Phil. Requirements

Students in the Ph.D. program are admitted to candidacy for the M.Phil. degree upon completion of all requirements for the M.A. degree.

Languages: Competence in a second ancient language, Greek or Latin, to be demonstrated by course work or examination, and in a second modern language (one of the two must be German, the other may be French or Italian), by examination.

Courses: Six additional courses for a letter grade beyond those completed for the M.A., to be taken in the Departments of Classics, History, Art History and Archaeology, or Philosophy. No more than three of these courses may be in any one department, and at least two of them must be colloquia or seminars. Students are expected to maintain at least a B+ average in their graded courses.

Qualifying Examination: Examinations in three topics are taken after the completion of all language and course requirements. Each student is examined on selected topics from the three fields of ancient study most relevant to the student’s research interests (to be determined with the help of the student’s advisor, and to be approved by the Advisor, Chair and Vice Chair). The examination includes both written and oral sections.

Dissertation Proposal Examination: In addition to completing successfully all requirements for the M.Phil. degree, students must pass a proposal defense and successfully complete and defend their doctoral dissertations in accordance with the regulations of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Continuation beyond the M.Phil. degree is authorized by the student’s dissertation proposal committee (sponsor and two further committee members), the Chair and the Vice-Chair.

Dissertation Phase

Ph.D. candidates must be enrolled full-time. 

Dissertation: Topics are approved by the student’s Dissertation Committee, the Chair and Vice-Chair. Topics usually require a substantial amount of scholarly expertise in more than one of the three disciplines. The student must present and successfully defend the dissertation.

Teaching Requirement

Participation in the instructional activities of one or more of the participating departments for three years. As a rule, in the second, third and fourth years of study, students gain exposure to teaching as assistants to professors in undergraduate courses, as section leaders in lecture courses or as language instructors. Students who are interested in broadening their teaching apprenticeships are eligible to teach in the Core Program once they have received the M.Phil. Students may only apply to be a preceptor if they have or expect to have the M.Phil. by the May prior to being appointed as a preceptor, which includes having successfully defended a dissertation proposal, if they have completed at least two substantive chapters of the dissertation, and if they are not past their sixth year of registration during the first year of the preceptorship. Students may not hold instructional appointments after year seven.

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Ph.D. in Architecture

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The PHD in Architecture addresses the development of modern architectural form and ideas as they have been affected by social, economic, and technological change. In broad terms, it encompasses the relations between the profession, practice, civil institutions, and the society at large.

As a doctoral program, it is oriented toward the training of scholars in the field of architectural history and theory. Its structure reflects a dual understanding of the scholar’s role in the discipline at large: as a teacher and as a researcher making an original contribution to the field, with an emphasis on expanding and reinterpreting disciplinary knowledge in a broad intellectual arena. Course requirements are therefore designed to give entering students a solid foundation in historical knowledge and theoretical discourse, with sufficient flexibility to spark and support individual research agendas. The program’s focus is on the history and theory of modern and contemporary architecture and urbanism in an international and cross-cultural context, from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Within this, a wide range of research is supported through the varied expertise of the faculty and through strong relationships with other departments throughout the university and beyond.

The Ph.D. in Architecture is a program within the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) while the actual degree is granted by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS).

Admission for 2024

• The application deadline for 2024 admissions was January 4, 2024 and is now closed.
• For additional information on the application process and requirements, please see the GSAS website.

Lucia Allais Barry Bergdoll (Art History) Ateya Khorakiwala Reinhold Martin Mary McLeod Felicity Scott Mark Wigley Mabel Wilson

Affiliated Faculty

Zeynep Celik Alexander Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi

All students entering the PhD program in Architecture receive two Residence Units of Advanced Standing, having entered with a master’s degree in architecture, architectural history, or a related field. As such, students must complete the M.Phil. degree within three years from initial registration and the Ph.D. within eight years from initial registration.

Year 1: Students begin required coursework, including language proficiencies Year 2: Students complete required coursework and language proficiencies; begin required teaching apprenticeship Year 3: Students complete required teaching apprenticeship; complete M.Phil. Examination (by mid-February); and defend the Dissertation Prospectus (by early May) Year 4+: Students research, write, and defend the doctoral dissertation

At least once each semester, students should meet individually with the director of the program or with their program or dissertation adviser. Students are assigned a program advisor in the first year, the duties of which are assumed by their dissertation advisor in the third year. Students must have acquired a dissertation advisor by the seventh week of their sixth semester. Students are allowed to change both their program and dissertation advisers during the course of their studies.

All students are expected to meet the requirements of Satisfactory Academic Progress as stipulated by the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Renewal of student funding packages each year is dependent upon their maintaining good academic and administrative standing .

Students are required to spend four semesters in residence during which time they are expected to take thirteen courses (39 credit points), of which at least eight must be taken for a letter grade. The remaining five courses can be taken for R credit. The required academic course work breaks down into the four sections described below. In addition to the doctoral colloquia and doctoral seminars, five further classes should be seminars (not lecture courses). At least six of the thirteen courses should be taken with faculty from the Ph.D. in Architecture committee. It is assumed that these thirteen courses will be spread out approximately evenly over the first four semesters of study, although students can complete a larger number of courses in the first year to accommodate teaching requirements in the second year.

For any course in which a student receives an incomplete, the student must complete all outstanding coursework before the beginning of the next academic year. To remain in good standing with the program, students cannot hold more than one incomplete at any time. Students must complete all incomplete coursework prior to taking their M.Phil. examination.

Section 1: Doctoral Colloquia All students are required to take two doctoral colloquia in the fall semester and at least two doctoral seminars in the spring semester over the four-semester sequence. Three of these must be taken for a letter grade.

Section 2: Architectural History/Theory To complete distribution requirements, students will be required to take graduate-level courses from the following areas of study:

• One pre-1750 (Western or non-Western)
• Two courses either in Eighteenth-Century Architecture and Theory or Nineteenth-Century Architecture and Theory

At least half of the syllabus must address these time frames for a course to satisfy the requirement. At the discretion of the program director, these requirements may be modified for students who have had previous, relevant graduate-level courses.

Section 3: Social and Critical Studies Students should take at least one course outside of Architecture and Art History. Representative departments in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with an emphasis on comparative historical and critical studies include: African American and African Diaspora Studies, Anthropology, East Asian Languages and Cultures, English and Comparative Literature, Germanic Language and Literature, History, Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies, Philosophy, and Political Science, or within relevant University Centers and Institutes. The specific topic and the choice of faculty will be decided in consultation with the student’s program adviser or the director of the program.

Section 4: Electives Remaining coursework is completed through elective courses in students’ areas of interest, the selection of which should be decided in consultation with the student’s program adviser or the director of the program.

The four-semester program has been designed to give doctoral candidates sufficient training for the M.Phil. examination, with a special emphasis on the ability to teach classes in modern architectural and urban development and its relationship to parallel developments in material history and contemporary thought. Students must complete their M.Phil. (generals) examination no later than their sixth semester in the program.

The M.Phil. qualifying examination is divided into three interrelated sections:

Three revised coursework papers, chosen to reflect the student’s research interests and abilities

Two essays written in response to specific questions formulated by the examining committee, one essay pertaining to the major field and one to the minor field. Students will receive two questions pertaining to the major field but only answer one of them.

The oral examination

The qualifying exam will be divided into major and minor fields. These fields are to be determined in consultation with the program faculty supervising the exam. The major field should be fairly broad and involve cross-cultural comparisons and/or cover at least a century in time. The minor field should focus on another topic, historical or theoretical in character, distinct from the major field. Students must consult the relevant supervising faculty in deciding on their major and minor fields.

The examining committee will be comprised of three members, two covering the major field and one covering the minor field. At least two members of the examining committee should be drawn from the Ph.D. committee or from the program’s associated faculty. Each student prepares the two bibliographies in consultation with these faculty and distributes final versions of the bibliographies one month prior to the oral examination. Each member of the committee will be responsible for one question, which the student receives a week after submitting the bibliographies. The papers are to be completed in a two-week period and submitted at least one week prior to the oral examination. The oral exam consists of discussion of the submitted essays, the coursework papers, and the bibliographies.

To receive the degree of M.Phil. students must complete the required coursework, the M.Phil. exam, the required four semesters of teacher training, and must have demonstrated proficiency in two languages other than English.

After successfully completing the qualifying examination, each student defends his or her dissertation proposal before a faculty committee, composed of the student’s dissertation adviser, who must be on the list of approved Architecture Doctoral Dissertation Advisors , and two other readers, at least one of whom should be from the list of Architecture dissertation advisors or associated faculty. Defense of the dissertation prospectus must take place before the end of the sixth semester.

The student will then be free to pursue the research topic independently, in ongoing consultation with the dissertation adviser. It is expected that the dissertation be completed approximately two to three years after approval of the topic. Since all students come into the program with Advanced Standing, students must complete the dissertation within eight years of entering the program, approved Leaves of Absence notwithstanding.

The dissertation must be submitted four weeks before the dissertation defense. A copy is to be provided for each member of the examining committee. This committee consists of five people, at least three of whom are approved as a dissertation advisor in Architecture or the associated faculty. At least one member of the committee must be from outside GSAPP. The student is granted the Ph.D. upon defending the dissertation successfully and depositing the final copy in accordance with University regulations.

For more information on the Ph.D. dissertation, refer to the GSAS Dissertation Toolkit .

• For information on Ph.D. student employee compensation and benefits, click here .
• For information on available resources for parents, click here .
• For more information on the GSAPP PhD Travel, Conference, and Exhibition Participation Support program, click here .

Spring 2024 Courses

Related events, other architecture programs at gsapp.

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Art History

Department Office: 826 Schermerhorn Hall; 212-854-4505 http://www.columbia.edu/cu/arthistory/

Director of Undergraduate Studies: Prof. Barry Bergdoll, [email protected]

Director of Art Humanities : Prof. Zoë Strother, [email protected]

Coordinator for Undergraduate Programs: Emily Benjamin, [email protected]

The goal of the major in the Department of Art History and Archaeology is to explore the history of art, architecture, and archaeology across a broad historical, cultural, geographic, and methodological spectrum.

Department courses take advantage of the extraordinary cultural resources of New York City and often involve museum assignments and trips to local monuments. The department offers a major and concentration in art history and in the history and theory of architecture, and a combined major in art history and visual arts.

At the heart of the major is  AHIS UN3000 INTRO LIT/METHODS OF ART HIST , which introduces students to different methodological approaches to art history and critical texts that have shaped the discipline. The colloquium also prepares students for the independent research required in seminars and advanced lecture courses, and should be taken during the junior year.

Surveys and advanced lecture courses offered by Barnard and Columbia cover the spectrum of art history from antiquity to the present and introduce students to a wide range of materials and methodologies. Limited-enrollment seminars have a narrower focus and offer intensive instruction in research and writing. The opportunity for advanced research with a senior thesis is available to students who qualify.

The major readily accommodates students who wish to study abroad during junior year. Courses taken at accredited programs can generally count as transfer credits toward the major, but students must gain the approval of the director of undergraduate studies. Similarly, any transfer credit for the major must be approved by the director of undergraduate studies. Generally no more than 12 points of transfer credit are applicable to the major. The form to petition for transfer credit can be found on the department website . Eligible Art History courses taken at Reid Hall and through the Berlin Consortium are counted as Columbia courses, not transfer courses.

All newly declared majors and concentrators should visit the department office and speak with the undergraduate program coordinator about the requirements and their planned curriculum.

The director of undergraduate studies regularly communicates with majors by e-mail to announce departmental events, museum internships, and other news. Students who do not receive these messages should email the undergraduate program coordinator. The director of undergraduate studies is also available to talk to students about their professional goals and plans to study abroad.

Course Information

Attendance at the first class meeting is recommended.

For information about enrollment in the required colloquium  AHIS UN3000 INTRO LIT/METHODS OF ART HIST ,  students should consult the department during the registration period in the semester prior to the one in which the course is offered. Interested students must sign up using an online form; majors will be informed of the sign-up dates and deadline via the majors mailing list. Enrollment is limited and admission is at the discretion of the instructor. It is recommended that students sign up for the colloquium in their junior year.

Students must submit an application in order to be considered for enrollment in department seminars. These applications are due around the time of early registration (April for fall courses, November for spring courses). Interested students can apply using the Google form applications which are linked below each seminar description on the website, as well as in the "Notes" section of each Directory of Classes listing. Students should then join the SSOL wait-list for any seminars they have applied to.

Bridge Seminars

Bridge seminars are open to graduate and undergraduate students. Bridge seminars also require an application, which is due in the semester prior to the semester in which the course is offered (August for fall courses, December for spring courses). Interested students can apply using the Google form applications which are linked below each seminar description on the website, as well as in the "Notes" section of each Directory of Classes listing. Students should then join the SSOL wait-list for any seminars they have applied to.

Bridge Lectures

Bridge lectures are open to undergraduate and graduate students. They do not require an application.

Travel Seminar

In the spring, one or more undergraduate seminars in the Department of Art History and Archaeology may be designated as a travel seminar. Travel seminars receive funding to sponsor travel over the spring break to a distant site related to the subject matter of the seminar.

Reid Hall, Paris

For information about the Columbia University in Paris Art History Program at Reid Hall, including summer session courses, visit the Office of Global Programs website.

Summer Program in Italy: Archaeological Fieldwork at Hadrian's Villa

Columbia University offers a four-week summer program that provides undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to excavate and learn together at Hadrian's Villa, a UNESCO World Heritage site near Rome and the most important Roman villa. It synthesizes Roman, Greek, and Egyptian architectural and artistic traditions and has attracted scholarly attention for centuries. For more information, visit the program website .

Columbia Summer Program in Venice

The Department of Art History and Archaeology and the Department of Italian offer a summer program based at Co' Foscari University in Venice. The program uses an interdisciplinary approach to understanding Italian culture through study of its language, literature/film, architecture, art history and conservation. and economy. Students have the opportunity to gain a deeper appreciation of the rich Venetian culture, traditions and history. The program is open to qualified undergraduate and graduate students from the U.S. and Italy. For more information, visit the program website .

Columbia Summer Program in Greece

The Department of Art History and Archaeology and the Program in Hellenic Studies offer a new summer program in Athens. "Curating the Histories of the Greek Present" examines aspects of Greek history and culture through the organization of an art exhibition  under the general theme of the environment. The project is structured around classroom seminars, museum and site visits, walking tours, and workshop sessions in which students will learn about and gain experience in all stages of curating an exhibition. For more information, visit the  program website .

Departmental Honors

In order to be considered for departmental honors, students must write a senior thesis and have a GPA of at least 3.7 in the major. The faculty of the Department of Art History and Archaeology submits recommendations to the College Committee on Honors, Awards, and Prizes for confirmation. Normally no more than 10% of graduating majors receive departmental honors in a given academic year. 

Senior Thesis Prize

A prize is awarded each year to the best senior honors thesis written in the Department of Art History and Archaeology.

• Alexander Alberro (Barnard)
• Zainab Bahrani
• Barry Bergdoll
• Julia Bryan-Wilson
• Michael Cole
• Jonathan Crary
• Francesco de Angelis
• David Freedberg
• Anne Higonnet (Barnard)
• Kellie Jones
• Branden W. Joseph
• Holger A. Klein
• Rosalind Krauss
• Matthew McKelway
• Jonathan Reynolds (Barnard)
• Simon Schama
• Avinoam Shalem
• Zoë Strother

Associate Professors

• Diane Bodart
• Zeynep Çelik Alexander
• Noam M. Elcott
• Elizabeth W. Hutchinson (Barnard)
• Subhashini Kaligotla
• Ioannis Mylonopoulos
• Lisa Trever Jin Xu

Assistant Professors

• Gregory Bryda (Barnard)
• Meredith Gamer
• Eleonora Pistis
• Michael J. Waters

Adjunct Faculty

• Dawn Delbanco
• Rosalyn Deutsche (Barnard)
• John Rajchman
• Frederique Baumgartner
• Susannah Blair
• Lucas Cohen
• Sophia D'Addio
• Alessandra di Croce
• Nicholas Fitch
• Iheb Guermazi
• Janet Kraynak
• Sandrine Larrive-Bass
• Martina Mims
• Kent Minturn
• Nicholas Morgan
• Freda Murck
• Irina Oryshkevich
• Nina Rosenblatt
• Susan Sivard
• Leslie Tait
• Stefaan Van Liefferinge
• Caroline Wamsler
• Leah Werier

Guidelines for all Art History and Archaeology Majors, Concentrators, and Interdepartmental Majors

HUMA UN1121 MASTERPIECES OF WESTERN ART (Art Humanities) does not count toward the majors or concentrations, and no credit is given for Advanced Placement exams.

Courses in which a grade of D has been received do not count toward the major or concentration requirements.

Only the first course a student takes in the department may be taken for a grade of Pass/D/Fail. Classes taken in the Architecture or Visual Arts departments to fulfill the studio requirement may be taken for a grade of Pass/D/Fail.

Senior Thesis

The senior thesis project consists of a research paper 35-45 pages in length. It is a year-long project, and students writing a thesis must register for AHIS UN3002 SENIOR THESIS for the fall and spring terms. Much of the fall semester is devoted to research, and the spring semester to writing.

All thesis writers are required to participate in class and, on alternate weeks, meet as a group or individually with the instructor. Group meetings are designed as a series of research and writing workshops geared toward students' research projects. Students receive a total of six credits for successful completion of the thesis and class.

In order to apply, students follow a selection process similar to the one currently used for seminars. Students must identify a thesis topic and secure a faculty adviser in the Department of Art History and Archaeology. Applications must indicate the subject of the thesis, a short annotated bibliography, and the name and the signature of the adviser, followed by a one-page statement (400 words) outlining the topic, goals, and methodology of the thesis.

The application deadline is set for August before the senior year. Please check the department website  for exact dates. Applications may be delivered in person or emailed to the coordinator for undergraduate programs. The director of undergraduate studies, in consultation with the thesis adviser, reviews the applications.

Students who intend to write a thesis should begin formulating a research topic and approaching potential faculty sponsors during the spring of the junior year. Currently, the department offers the Summer Research Travel Grant fellowship, which supports thesis-related research and travel during the summer. Additional senior thesis research funding during the academic year is administered through Columbia College and General Studies. 

Senior thesis applications may be found at:  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/arthistory/undergraduate/forms.html

Summer Research Travel Grant

The department offers the Summer Research Travel Grant, which may be used for travel to museums, building sites, libraries, archives, and other places of interest relevant to the thesis project. Students normally use these funds to conduct research during the summer before senior year.

Travel grant applications require a carefully edited thesis proposal, itemized budget, and supporting letter from a faculty sponsor. Applications are due in April of the student's junior year. Students will be notified of deadlines as they become available. Please contact the coordinator for undergraduate programs with any questions.

Major in Art History

Please read Guidelines for all for Art History and Archaeology Majors, Concentrators, and Interdepartmental Majors above.

The year-long senior thesis project (for qualified students; see below) AHIS UN3002 SENIOR THESIS may substitute for one elective lecture course. Seminars may substitute for lecture courses and may count toward fulfillment of the distribution requirements. Barnard Art History courses count toward the majors and concentration requirements. 

The requirements for the major are as follows:

Historical Periods

• Ancient (pre-400 CE/AD)
• 1700-Present

World Regions

• Europe/North America/Australia
• Latin America
• Middle East

NOTE: These chronological divisions are approximate. In case of ambiguities, please contact the director of undergraduate studies.

Major in History and Theory of Architecture

Majors can take advantage of one of the strengths of the department by focusing on architectural history. This track combines an introductory studio in architectural design with a slightly modified program in art history.  Major requirements were updated in February 2019; please contact the director of undergraduate studies with any questions.

 NOTE: These chronological divisions are approximate. In case of ambiguities, please contact the director of undergraduate studies.

Major in Art History and Visual Arts

Students interested in the combined major should contact the coordinator for undergraduate programs in the Art History department, as well as the director of undergraduate studies in the Visual Arts department. 

Up to two 3-point courses in art history may be replaced by a related course in another department, with approval of the adviser. The combined major requires the completion of sixteen or seventeen courses. It is recommended that students interested in this major begin working toward the requirements in their sophomore year.

• 1700-present

Concentration in Art History

The requirements for the concentration are as follows:

Concentrators are not required to take the majors colloquium, a seminar, or a studio course.

Concentration in History and Theory of Architecture

Concentrators are not required to take the majors colloquium, a seminar, or a studio course. 

Fall 2024 Undergraduate and Bridge Lectures

UNDERGRADUATE LECTURES: 2000-level courses. Attendance at first class meeting is strongly recommended. BRIDGE LECTURES: 4000-level courses. Open to graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Attendance at first class is strongly recommended.

AHIS UN1007 Introduction to the History of Architecture. 4.00 points .

This course is required for architectural history and theory majors, but is also open to students interested in a general introduction to the history of architecture, considered on a global scale. Architecture is analyzed through in-depth case studies of key works of sacred, secular, public, and domestic architecture from both the Western canon and cultures of the ancient Americas and of the Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic faiths. The time frame ranges from ancient Mesopotamia to the modern era. Discussion section is required

AHIS UN2300 Early Italian Art. 3 points .

Discussion Section Required Not offered during 2023-2024 academic year.

An introduction to the origins and early development of Italian Renaissance painting as a mode of symbolic communication between 1300-1600. Artists include Giotto, Fra Angelico, Masaccio, Mantegna, and Leonardo da Vinci. Emphasis on centers of painting in Florence, Siena, Assisi, Venice and Rome.

AHIS UN2405 TWENTIETH CENTURY ART. 4.00 points .

The course will examine a variety of figures, movements, and practices within the entire range of 20th-century art—from Expressionism to Abstract Expressionism, Constructivism to Pop Art, Surrealism to Minimalism, and beyond–situating them within the social, political, economic, and historical contexts in which they arose. The history of these artistic developments will be traced through the development and mutual interaction of two predominant strains of artistic culture: the modernist and the avant-garde, examining in particular their confrontation with and development of the particular vicissitudes of the century’s ongoing modernization. Discussion section complement class lectures. Course is a prerequisite for certain upper-level art history courses

AHIS UN2415 History Painting and Its Afterlives. 3.00 points .

This course will study the problematic persistence of history painting as a cultural practice in nineteenth century Europe, well after its intellectual and aesthetic justifications had become obsolete. Nonetheless, academic prescriptions and expectations endured in diluted or fragmentary form. We will examine the transformations of this once privileged category and look at how the representation of exemplary deeds and action becomes increasingly problematic in the context of social modernization and the many global challenges to Eurocentrism. Selected topics explore how image making was shaped by new models of historical and geological time, by the invention of national traditions, and by the emergence of new publics and visual technologies. The relocation of historical imagery from earlier elite milieus into mass culture forms of early cinema and popular illustration will also be addressed

AHIS GU4027 Architecture in Western Europe 1066-1399. 3.00 points .

This course explores architecture in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The time frame starts with the conquest of England in 1066 and ends with the appointment of Gothic experts in 1399 to advise on the construction of Milan Cathedral towards the end of the Middle Ages. The first historical event coincides with the creation of architecture of a bewildering scale while the second reflects the end of building without architectural treatises or architectural theory - in a modern sense. The course will also introduce students to new digital technologies such as laser scanning and photogrammetry for the study of medieval architecture. No preliminary knowledge of medieval history or architectural history is needed, and no knowledge of digital technologies or specific computer skills is expected. The monuments selected belong to a period that starts when architecture moved away from Roman antique models and ends just before the re-adoption of Classical standards in the Renaissance. In this course the originality of medieval architecture, its relationship with earlier and later monuments, and the dramatic effort involved in its creation will be discussed. Major themes of medieval society such as pilgrimages, crusades, piety, the cult of relics, and the social and intellectual context of the Middle Ages are also part of this lecture. In the first weeks, important concepts of medieval society and its architecture will be presented in combination with a number of new technologies recently adopted in the field. These introductory classes will offer the foundations needed to understand artistic and architectural developments in the Middle Ages. While the course will focus on architecture, different media are included when they provide valuable information on the artistic and cultural context to which buildings belong. New technologies serve as a basis for a critical discussion about the changes in method introduced by new media and technologies in the field of architectural history

AHIS GU4093 Sacred Space in South Asia. 3.00 points .

“Sacred” space in the Indian subcontinent was at the epicenter of human experience. This course presents Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, and Jain spaces and the variety of ways in which people experienced them. Moving from the monumental stone pillars of the early centuries BCE to nineteenth century colonial India, we learn how the organization and imagery of these spaces supported devotional activity and piety. We discuss too how temples, monasteries, tombs, and shrines supported the pursuit of pleasure, amusement, sociability, and other worldly interests. We also explore the symbiotic relationship between Indic religions and kingship, and the complex ways in which politics and court culture shaped sacred environments. The course concludes with European representations of South Asia’s religions and religious places

Fall 2024 Undergraduate and Bridge Seminars

UNDERGRADUATE SEMINARS: 3000-level courses. Open to undergraduate students only. Interested students must submit an online application (April deadline for fall courses, November deadline for spring courses). Visit the "Courses" page on the department website to find a list of undergraduate seminars and links to application forms. BRIDGE SEMINARS: 4500-level courses. Open to graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Applications are due in August for fall courses, and January for spring courses. Visit the  "Courses" page on the department website to find a list of bridge seminars and links to application forms.

AHIS UN3413 NINETEENTH-CENTURY CRITICISM. 4.00 points .

Prerequisites: junior or senior standing, and the instructor's permission. This course examines a diverse selection of social and aesthetic responses to the impacts of modernization and industrialization in nineteenth-century Europe. Using works of art criticism, fiction, poetry, and social critique, the seminar will trace the emergence of new understandings of collective and individual experience and their relation to cultural and historical transformations. Readings are drawn from Friedrich Schiller's Letters On Aesthetic Education, Mary Shelley's The Last Man, Thomas Carlyle's "Signs of the Time," poetry and prose by Charles Baudelaire, John Ruskin's writings on art and political economy, Flora Tristan's travel journals, J.-K. Huysmans's Against Nature, essays of Walter Pater, Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy and other texts

AHIS GU4646 FOUCAULT AND THE ARTS. 4.00 points .

Michel Foucault was a great historian and critic who helped change the ways research and criticism are done today – a new ‘archivist’. At the same time, he was a philosopher. His research and criticism formed part of an attempt to work out a new picture of what it is to think, and think critically, in relation to Knowledge, Power, and Processes of Subjectivization. What was this picture of thought? How did the arts, in particular the visual arts, figure in it? How might they in turn give a new image of Foucault’s kind of critical thinking for us today? In this course, we explore these questions, in the company of Deleuze, Agamben, Rancière and others thinkers and in relation to questions of media, document and archive in the current ‘regime of information’. The Seminar is open to students in all disciplines concerned with these issues

Majors Colloquium

Required course for all majors in the department. See the department website for more information. Students must sign up online by the deadline, which is posted on the department website.

AHIS UN3000 INTRO LIT/METHODS OF ART HIST. 4.00 points .

Required course for department majors. Not open to Barnard or Continuing Education students. Students must receive instructors permission. Introduction to different methodological approaches to the study of art and visual culture. Majors are encouraged to take the colloquium during their junior year

The year-long Senior Thesis program is open to majors in the Department of Art History and Archaeology. For more information, please visit the Senior Thesis information page on the department website.

AHIS UN3002 SENIOR THESIS. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: the departments permission. Required for all thesis writers

Spring 2024 Undergraduate and Bridge Lectures

AHIS UN2119 ROME BEYOND ROME. 4.00 points .

This course will approach the art of the Roman empire from two vantage points. In its first half, it will consider it from the inside. Through a regional survey of the art and architecture produced in the provinces of the Roman empire between the 2nd c. BCE and the 4th c. CE, it will focus on the mechanisms by which models emanating from Rome were received andadapted in local contexts (so-called “Romanization”), as well as on the creative responses that the provincials’ incorporation into the empire elicited. The second half of the course will consider the art of the Roman empire from the outside, i.e., from the perspective of its neighbors in the Middle East and in Africa, as well as its self-proclaimed successors andimitators. On the one hand, we will see how ancient states such as the kingdom of Meroë and the Parthian empire, or regions such as the Gandhara, interacted with the visual culture of Rome and its empire. On the other, we will explore the degree to which the classical roots of the modern colonial empires in Asia, Africa, and the Americas both managed and failed to shape the visual cultures that these empires developed. CC/GS/CE: Partial fulfillment of Global Core requirement

AHIS UN2305 RENAISSANCE IN IMPERIAL SPAIN. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: Required discussion section AHIS UN2306 The course will survey Renaissance art in Hapsburg Spain, considered in the wide geographical context of the extended and dispersed dominions of the different crowns of the Spanish monarchy, which connected the Iberian Peninsula with Italy, Flanders and the New World. It will concern visual art in its various media, mainly painting, sculpture and architecture, but also tapestries, prints, armor, goldsmithery and ephemeral decoration, among others. Works of the main artists of the period will be introduced and analyzed, giving attention to the historical and cultural context of their production and reception. The course will particularly focus on the movement of artists, works and models within the Spanish Hapsburg territories, in order to understand to what extent visual arts contributed to shaping the political identity of this culturally composite empire

AHIS UN2400 Nineteenth-Century Art in Europe. 3.00 points .

How do you represent a revolution? What does it mean to picture the world as it “really” is? Who may be figured as a subject or citizen, and who not? Should art improve society, or critique it? Can it do both? These are some of the many questions that the artists of nineteenth-century Europe grappled with, and that we will explore together in this course. This was an era of rapid and dramatic political, economic, and cultural change, marked by wars at home and colonial expansion abroad; the rise of industrialization and urbanization; and the invention of myriad new technologies, from photography to the railway. The arts played an integral and complex role in all of these developments: they both shaped and were shaped by them. Lectures will address a variety media, from painting and sculpture to the graphic and decorative arts, across a range of geographic contexts, from Paris, London, Berlin, and Madrid to St. Petersburg, Cairo, Haiti, and New Zealand. Artists discussed will include Jacques-Louis David, Francisco Goya, Théodore Géricault, J.M.W. Turner, Adolph Menzel, Ilya Repin, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, James McNeill Whistler, C. F. Goldie, Victor Horta, and Paul Cézanne

AHIS UN2411 History of Photography. 3 points .

Few media have shaped the course of modernity more powerfully than photography. Law, science, journalism, criminology, urban planning, and entertainment are but a handful of the fields remade by the introduction of photography. More ambivalent has been photography's relationship to art. Once relegated to the margins, photographic practices now occupy the center of much artistic production. This course will not attempt a comprehensive survey of the medium. Rather, we will trace central developments through a series of case studies from photography's 19th century birth to its current, digital afterlife. We will cover seminal movements and figures as well as more obscure practices and discourses. Particular attention will be paid to the theoretical and methodological questions concerning the medium.

AHIS UN2500 ARTS OF AFRICA. 3.00 points .

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

Introduction to the arts of Africa, including masquerading, figural sculpture, reliquaries, power objects, textiles, painting, photography, and architecture. The course will establish a historical framework for study, but will also address how various African societies have responded to the process of modernity

AHUM UN2604 ARTS OF CHINA, JAPAN AND KOREA. 3.00 points .

Introduces distinctive aesthetic traditions of China, Japan, and Korea--their similarities and differences--through an examination of the visual significance of selected works of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other arts in relation to the history, culture, and religions of East Asia

AHIS UN2702 PRE-COLUMBIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE. 3.00 points .

The Western Hemisphere was a setting for outstanding accomplishments in the visual arts for millennia before Europeans set foot in the so-called “New World.” This course explores the early indigenous artistic traditions of what is now Latin America, from early monuments of the formative periods (e.g. Olmec and Chavín), through acclaimed eras of aesthetic and technological achievement (e.g. Maya and Moche), to the later Inca and Aztec imperial periods. Our subject will encompass diverse genre including painting and sculpture, textiles and metalwork, architecture and performance. Attention will focus on the two cultural areas that traditionally have received the most attention from researchers: Mesoamerica (including what is today Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras) and the Central Andes (including Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia). We will also critically consider the drawing of those boundaries—both spatial and temporal—that have defined “Pre-Columbian” art history to date. More than a survey of periods, styles, and monuments, we will critically assess the varieties of evidence—archaeological, epigraphic, historical, ethnographic, and scientific—available for interpretations of ancient Latin American art and culture

AHIS GU4023 Medieval Art II: Castles, Cathedral, and Court. 4.00 points .

This advanced lecture course is intended for students with little or no background in medieval art of Latin (“Western”) Europe. It provides a comprehensive introduction to a period spanning roughly one millennium, from Pope Gregory the Great’s defense of art ca. 600 to rising antagonism against it on the eve of the Protestant Reformation. Themes under consideration include Christianity and colonialism, pilgrimage and the cult of saints, archaism versus Gothic modernism, the drama of the liturgy, somatic and affective piety, political ideology against “others,” the development of the winged altarpiece, and pre-Reformation iconophobia. We will survey many aspects of artistic production, from illuminated manuscripts, portable and monumental sculpture, stained glass, sumptuous metalworks, drawings, and reliquaries to the earliest examples of oil paintings and prints. While this course is conceived as a pendant to Medieval Art I: From Late Antiquity to the End of the Byzantine Empire ( AHIS GU4021 ), each can be taken independently of one another. In addition to section meetings, museum visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters, and The Morgan Library are a required component to the course. Students must register for a mandatory discussion section

AHIS GU4064 Arts of the Silk Road. 3.00 points .

The term “Silk Road,” coined by German geographers in the nineteenth century, denotes a network of ancient inland routes that traversed between East Asia and the Mediterranean. This course, by focusing on the arts of the Silk Road, introduces cultural and religious exchanges among various regions in Asia, spanning a time period from the sixth century BCE—marked by the establishment of the Achaemenid Empire—to the thirteenth century CE, which saw the rise of the Mongol Empire. The course is organized into three sections: arts of empires, arts of kingdoms, and arts of migrants. Students will examine monuments, objects, and artworks originating from major Asian civilizations and religions, utilizing a comparative and historical perspective. Through this exploration, they will be equipped to understand ancient Asian history as a process of continuous interaction and interconnection between diverse peoples and cultures—a process that precursors globalization in the contemporary age

AHIS GU4082 Islam In the Making: An Art and Architectural History. 3.00 points .

This lecture course offers an overview of Islamic history through its art and architecture. It spans fifteen centuries and three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. Organized chronologically, each session of this course will examine one Muslim city at a particular period of time. Starting with Mecca in the 6th century and ending with the urban and architectural expansions of the same city today. Damascus, Baghdad, Samarra, Kairouan, Cordoba, Bukhara, Cairo, Konya, Istanbul, Algiers, Touba and others will be examined and a critical depiction of urban and architectural monuments, influential artistic schools, and notable artworks that were produced in and around each of these urban centers will be offered. Each session is a snapshot of a city at a specific period of time with a clear emphasis on the broader intellectual, economic, ecological and political contexts surrounding the production of art and architecture in the Muslim world. Turning away from a classical dynastic reading of Islamic arts, this course centers the role theological debates, Sufi mysticism, legal innovations, economic exchanges and migration of people, ideas and technologies played in the birth and developments of a Muslim aesthetic tradition

Spring 2024 Undergraduate and Bridge Seminars

AHIS UN3101 The Public Monument in Antiquity. 4.00 points .

This seminar will focus on the invention of the public monument as a commemorative genre, and the related concepts of time, memory and history in the ancient Near East (west Asia), Egypt, and Greece. Public monuments will be studies in conjunction with ancient texts (in translation) as well as historical criticism, archaeological and art historical theories. The seminar considers ancient monuments in relation to, and in the context of, modern concepts of monuments, history and heritage and the debates surrounding them. The seminar also introduces these methodologies and debates to students

AHIS UN3322 Bruegel’s Comic World: Everyday Life in 16th-Century Netherlandish Art. 4.00 points .

We are told, in one of the earliest accounts of the life and work of the Netherlandish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569), that his prints and paintings elicited laughter. From his visualizations of carnival celebrations and children's games to peasant weddings to riotous hellscapes, the comic Bruegel makes his viewers, both in the late sixteenth century and today, question whether any of it should be taken seriously. This advanced undergraduate seminar examines Bruegel's innovative comic practice and the social context of laughter and humor in the era of the Dutch Revolt, a time fraught with social, political, and religious strife. We will explore the reception of Bruegel's work in his time, in particular the possibilities of both entertainment and didacticism for viewers. Our studies of pictorial humor in Bruegel's oeuvre will include broader investigations of the secularization of the image in the Reformation context, iconoclasm, the vernacular artistic mode, print culture in early modern Europe, humanism, global expansion and trade, the relationship between pictorial and literary humor, and the functions of satire in visual art. A field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art will allow us to encounter Bruegel's images in person

AHIS UN3444 REFLEXIVITY IN ART ＆ FILM. 4.00 points .

This seminar will explore a range of individual works of Western art from the 16th century to late 20th century in which the tension between illusionism and reflexivity is foregrounded. It will focus on well-known paintings and films in which forms of realism and verisimilitude coexist with features that affirm the artificial or fictive nature of the work or which dramatize the material, social and ideological conditions of the work’s construction. Topics will include art by Durer, Holbein, Velazquez, Watteau, Courbet, Morisot, Vertov, Deren, Godard, Varda, Hitchcock and others. Readings will include texts by Auerbach, Gombrich, Brecht, Jameson, Barthes, Didi-Huberman, Bazin, Lukacs, Mulvey, and Daney

AHIS UN3454 Zines by Artists. 4.00 points .

Most often associated with the explosion of punk rock at the end of the 1970s, self-published booklets, fanzines, or simply ’zines actually arose first in the context of science fiction collectors in the 1930s. Beginning in the early 1970s (independently of, and before the advent of punk music), artists adopted and developed the format as a vehicle for visual expression, drawing from precedents in pop art, artists’ books, mimiographed literary magazines, historical avant-garde movements such as dada, and more contemporaneous developments in conceptual art and mail art. Overlooked in favor of artists’ books and artists’ magazines, on the one hand, and in favor of various types of music- or personal expression-based zines, on the other, the artist’s zine forms a rich and multifaceted genre spanning over five decades of practice. This course will examine the artist’s zine in the contexts of both art and music history, issues related to the expression and exploration of race, gender, and sexaulity, and the notions of networking and community building. Although distinct from the development of punk rock, artists’ zine practice has forged and maintains a close connection to it and to its evolution into Queercore, Riot Grrrl, and Afropunk, all of which are covered in the course readings

AHIS UN3461 Handicraft and Contemporary Art. 4.00 points .

This seminar examines the resurgence of craft within contemporary art and theory. In a time when much art is outsourced — or fabricated by large stables of assistants — what does it mean when artists return to traditional, and traditionally laborious, methods of handiwork such as knitting, jewelry making, or woodworking? Though our emphasis will be on recent art (including the Black feminist reclamation of quilts, an artist who makes pornographic embroidery, a cross-dressing ceramicist, queer fiber collectives, do-it-yourself Indigenous environmental interventions, and anti-capitalist craftivism), we will also examine important historical precedents. We will read formative theoretical texts regarding questions of process, materiality, skill, bodily effort, domestic labor, and alternative economies of production. Throughout, we will think through how craft is in dialogue with questions of race, nation-building, gendered work, and mass manufacturing. The seminar is centered around student-led discussion of our critical readings

AHIS UN3463 Pastel in 18th-Century Europe. 4.00 points .

This seminar focuses on the practice of pastel in eighteenth-century Europe. Known for its luminosity and fragility—two characteristics linked to its powdery essence—as well as for its practicality, pastel as an artistic medium reached an unprecedented popularity in the eighteenth century. While some painters used it on occasion (Jean-Siméon Chardin, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, John Singleton Copley, to name a few notable examples), others made it their medium of choice, including Rosalba Carriera, Jean-Étienne Liotard, and Maurice-Quentin de la Tour, three of the most sought-after artists of the period. This seminar will examine these dazzling works, many of them portraits but not exclusively, from different perspectives: technique, artists’ manuals, and trade in materials; makeup and the aesthetic discourse; vision and touch; color and the rendition of skin tones; the construction of artistic identity; art criticism; and the commission, collecting, and display of pastels. The seminar will include at least two museum trips, including one to the Frick Madison where the exhibition Nicolas Party and Rosalba Carriera is currently on view

AHIS UN3624 Narrative in Chinese Art. 4.00 points .

This course introduces pre-modern Chinese narrative arts, their visual storytelling techniques, and the interpretive questions they raise. What constitutes narrative art and what are its particularities in the East Asian context? How are certain narratives reproduced and translated, and understood in different geographic locales and time periods? We will study popular narratives from the 10th century to the early Qing dynasty, depicted in diverse mediums such as murals, handscrolls and hanging scrolls, ceramic pillows, painted fans, and printed books. The course will be organized thematically and address topics such the influence of Buddhist artistic and liturgical practices, representations of borderlands and the foreign, literati and popular culture, urban life, utopias, and depictions of labor, class, and gender. We will approach narrative from a variety of disciplines and perspectives, including social and cultural history, religious studies, environmental history, and gender studies

AHIS GU4721 Medieval Illumination in the Low Countries. 4.00 points .

The course 'Medieval Illumination in the Low Countries: Origins, Sources, Materials' aims to reflect on the place of illumination and the illuminated manuscript in the artistic profile and cultural, literary, political and religious life in the Low Countries and beyond. The development of illumination is closely linked to the cultural and economic situation of the Low Countries during more than eight centuries, but it is also deeply influenced by the intersection of contacts in European artistic, religious and intellectual contexts. The links between artistic networks in other media, the mobility of artists, models and materials are crucial to understanding the production of illuminated manuscripts and to framing them as fully representative of the dynamics of the cultural habitat of the Low Countries. The course will be illustrated with numerous examples and case studies of manuscripts in collections in Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as in collections in US and around the world. A special file rouge in the course will be devoted to recent research approaches in material culture and digital access of illuminated manuscripts. The course will be accompanied by PPP and a reading list to guide students ( scans and online resources will be provided). Courses will be held on campus, with several visits to the Manuscript and Rare Book Collection of the Butler Library and to the Manuscript Collections of the Morgan Library

AHIS GU4741 Art and Theory in a Global Context. 4.00 points .

What is “globalization”? How does it change the way we think about or show art today? What role does film and media play in it? How has critical theory itself assumed new forms in this configuration moving outside post-war Europe and America? How have these processes helped change with the very idea of ‘contemporary art’? What then might a transnational critical theory in art and in thinking look like today or in the 21st century? In this course we will examine this cluster of questions from a number of different angles, starting with new questions about borders, displacements, translations and minorities, and the ways they have cut across and figured in different regions, in Europe or America, as elsewhere. In the course of our investigations, we will look in particular at two areas in which these questions are being raised today -- in Asia and in Africa and its diasporas. The course is thus inter-disciplinary in nature and is open to students in different fields and areas where these issues are now being discussed

AHIS GU4745 Re/Building the American Dream. 4.00 points .

The term “American Dream” conjures images of white, middle-class or affluent families inhabiting single-family houses in the suburbs. But the population of the United States is – and always has been – characterized by considerable racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. Those varied populations have imagined, created, and altered domestic environments in ways that don’t fit the stereotypical vision of the “American Dream.” At the same time, the concepts of race, ethnicity, and gender themselves have shaped (for better and for worse) the buildings, landscapes, neighborhoods and cities in which US populations reside. From suburban ranch houses to Southwestern mission landscapes to urban public housing projects, domestic environments have been fundamentally shaped by racial, ethnic, and gendered ideologies that define who can live in what building, in which neighborhood, and in what domestic configurations. This course will explore how the concepts of race, gender, and ethnicity bear upon domestic spaces as well as how power relations embedded in designed environments have disparate impacts on people whether as individuals or in groups

AHIS GU4762 Art and Archaeology of Immigrants in Chinese History. 4.00 points .

This seminar examines the art and archaeology of immigrants and immigrant communities in pre-modern China. Since the beginning of China’s dynastic history around the first millennium BCE, people from surrounding regions and even further afield have consistently moved into the Chinese heartland. These groups include not only nomads from the Mongolian steppes and the Tibetan Plateau, but also merchants, missionaries, and Muslims arriving via the so-called “Silk Roads”—a network of land and sea routes connecting China to the rest of the Eurasian continent (India, Persia, Central Asia, etc.). In certain periods, descendants of the Chinese diaspora and refugees in frontier regions also played significant roles in Chinese history. This seminar focuses on the archaeological remains and artistic expressions of these immigrants, as well as their interactions with native Chinese art and culture. Topics covered range from painting, sculpture, and calligraphy to crafts and architecture

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Cognitively Stimulating Jobs May Protect Against Dementia

People with a history of cognitively stimulating occupations during their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s had a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia after age 70, according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, The Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center , and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The findings highlight the importance of cognitive stimulation during midlife for maintaining cognitive function in old age.

The study is the first to fully advance the association between cognitively stimulating occupations and reduced risk for MCI and dementia with objective assessments rather than subjective evaluations. The results are published in Neurology .

“Our study highlights the importance of mentally challenging job tasks to maintain cognitive functioning in later life,” says Vegard Skirbekk , PhD, professor in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health  and the Columbia Aging Center , who initiated the project. First author Trine Holt Edwin from Oslo University Hospital, adds, “This study shows the importance of education and cognitively stimulating work life for cognitive health in older age.”

The researchers collected data from the Norwegian administrative registry and coupled it with occupational attributes of more than 300 jobs from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database17 of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration. Routine task intensity (RTI) index was computed as a measure of occupational cognitive demands based on measures from O*NET. A lower RTI index indicates more cognitively demanding occupations. This research builds upon previous findings showing trajectories of occupational physical activity.

Group-based trajectory modeling identified four groups of distinct occupational cognitive demands according to the degree of routine tasks in p articipants’  occupations during their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. The researchers analyzed the link between these trajectory groups and clinically diagnosed MCI and dementia in participants in the HUNT4 70+ Study (2017-19). Additionally, the researchers accounted for important dementia risk factors such as age, gender, educational level, income, overall health, and lifestyle habits from assessments made in 1984-86 and 1995-97. 

Within age groupings, the researchers looked at such occupations as primary school teacher, salesperson, nurse and caregiver, office cleaner, civil engineer, and mechanic, among others.

After adjusting for age, sex, and education, the group with low occupational cognitive demands (the high RTI group) had a 37 percent higher risk of dementia compared to the group with high occupational cognitive demands.

“Education confounded most, but not all, of the association between occupational cognitive demands and MCI and dementia, suggesting that both education and occupational complexity matter for MCI and dementia risk,” says Edwin.

The findings advance the field in several ways, according to the authors. "First, occupational cognitive demands have often been assessed via retrospective, subjective evaluations. Additionally, our utilization of registry data on occupational histories strengthens the existing evidence,” says Yaakov Stern , PhD, in the Department of Neurology  at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons  and principal investigator of the project at Columbia.

“Overall, our study demonstrates that high occupational cognitive demands are related to lower risks of MCI and dementia in later life,” noted Skirbekk, indicating that both education and occupational cognitive demands play a crucial role in lowering the risk of later-life cognitive impairment. “However, we recommend the commissioning of further research to validate these findings to pinpoint the specific occupational cognitive demands that are most advantageous for maintaining cognitive health in old age.”

It is important to note that this study identifies associations rather than direct causation of dementia. Moreover, the study did not distinguish between different cognitive requirements within the same occupational category, nor did it consider the evolution of job responsibilities over the years. 

Co-authors are Asta Kristine Håberg, Ekaterina Zotcheva, Bernt Bratsberg, Astanand Jugessur, Bo Engdahl, Catherine Bowen, Geir Selbæk, Hans-Peter Kohler, Jennifer R. Harris, Sarah E. Tom, Steinar Krokstad, Teferi Mekonnen, and Bjørn Heine Strand.

The study was supported by a collaboration of the HUNT Research Centre (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)), Trøndelag County Council, Central Norway Regional Health Authority, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and the Cognitive Neuroscience Division, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Media Contact

Stephanie Berger, [email protected]

Related Information

Meet our team, vegard skirbekk, phd.

• Senior Researcher, Columbia Aging Center

Department of the History of Art

Professor schopp receives award for excellence in graduate teaching and mentorship.

We are thrilled to announce that Caroline Lillian Schopp , a distinguished member of our faculty, has been honored with the prestigious Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship awarded annually by the Krieger School. This accolade recognizes Dr. Schopp’s outstanding contributions to the academic and professional development of our graduate students.

The Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship is a testament to Dr. Schopp’s unwavering commitment to fostering a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment. Through personalized mentorship, Dr. Schopp has helped students navigate the complexities of graduate studies, encouraging them to push the boundaries of their research and scholarship.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Schopp on this well-deserved honor.