Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture

Contemporary culture is saturated with visual representations. We are bombarded on a daily basis by advertisements, posters, and digital photographs. Courses offered in HADVC teach students to understand our visual world, its messages, and its histories. From the history of museums to performing bodies in contemporary art and China's design revolution, course topics range widely. Students explore practices of slow looking, learn how to pose original questions of artworks, and engage in creative research and curatorial projects.

BA Honors Degree Program

Honors students begin by taking introductory (100- and 200-level) courses designed to foster skills of visual analysis and the ability to understand and analyze visual cultures of diverse historical periods and places. HADVC courses typically consider objects and pictures from the early modern, modern, and contemporary eras. Advanced (300- and 400-level) courses concentrate on specific themes and visual media. At this upper level, students learn how to undertake original research, produce scholarly essays, present their ideas orally, and engage critically with various art-historical methods.

Coursework in a language other than English (*6 at the senior level, normally in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese) prepares students to conduct research in their advanced courses and in preparation of their honors essays.

In their fourth year, honors students work one-on-one with a professor to develop and complete a research project of their own that culminates in an original thesis (35 pages of prose). The project typically focuses on a particular historical theme or question, and explores a topic that the student formulates in consultation with the student's faculty advisor.

The Honors program in HADVC prepares students for careers in visual culture. Graduates are employed in art galleries and museums, where they curate exhibitions, develop educational programs, write promotional material, and work in fundraising and development. Employment opportunities for graduates also exist in community arts organizations, publishers, auction houses, exhibition installation companies, and elsewhere in the private sector. BA Honors graduates may also pursue additional study at the graduate level, which leads to MA and PhD degrees in the History of Art, History of Design, Museum Studies, Visual Culture, and Art Conservation.

Students interested in applying for the BA Honors program in HADVC are encouraged to contact the Fine Arts Undergraduate Student Advisors.

Applications for the program must be submitted through the Undergraduate Admissions website by 1 May.

Honors Program Requirements

The University of Alberta Calendar details both the general requirements for the Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree and the specific requirements of the BA Honors program in History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture.

The minimum requirements of the Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree in History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture are typically distributed across four years of study.