Contact Us
Katzen Arts Center , Room 101 on a map
Art 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016-8004 United StatesArt History at American University
The Art History community at American University interrogates power structures that underlie image-making and interpretation. As the only art history program dedicated to feminist study and its intersections, we are devoted to revisionist historical approaches that investigate a variety of human experiences in a global society. It is our collective endeavor to explore relationships between images, power, and identity in all dimensions, including gender, race, class, and sexuality. Available programs include the MA in Art History, the Art History BA, a Minor, and Combined Bachelor's/MA.
Why Study Art History at AU?
Innovative Courses Taught by Leading Art Historians
Our art history curriculum offers breadth, depth, and access to outstanding professors who are leaders in their field. With approximately 40 undergraduate and 25 graduate students active in the program each year, the Art History Program is a close-knit community, and all students receive faculty mentorship throughout their time at AU.
Master's students can specialize in Italian Art: Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque; Modern European Art (18th to 21st century); American Art (18th to 21st century); or Asian Art (modern and contemporary). Undergraduate students can major or minor in art history and can tailor the degree to a specific area of focus.
Our Prime Location in Washington, DC
American University's campus is an 84-acre arboretum centered in a safe neighborhood close to Embassy Row. The Art History Program is located in a dramatically designed post-modernist building, the Katzen Art Center, which offers cutting-edge facilities and houses the American University Museum. Other world-renowned museums are just a Metro ride away, with the Tenleytown Metro stop accessible by a short walk or free shuttle bus service from campus.
Unique Opportunities Including Museum Studies
We offer several courses in museum studies and encourage all art history students to intern at the AU Museum or at one of the many prestigious museums in the DC area. This rigorous training provides students with valuable hands-on experience in museum practices. Our alumni have used internships as springboards to a variety of museum and art-related jobs in the DC area and beyond. They can be found in a wide range of professional careers in museums, galleries, auction houses, publishing, and many other areas.
News
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Congratulations to all of our wonderful 2026 graduates, including Phi Beta Kappa inductees Katelyn Fessler and Aidan Dowell!
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Congratulations to Sarai Marshall MA '27, who is a 2026 Mathias Conference winner! She received the Graduate Arts Award for her research presentation "Camille Billops, An Archivist: The Preservation of Black Artists in Art History."
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Congratulations to Aidan Dowell BA ‘26, who received an Outstanding Scholarship award for his Honors capstone titled, "From Mexico via Florence: Reexamining the Medici Relationship to the New World and its People Through Ludovico Buti's Armeria Frescoes (1588)." He developed this project in Dr. Butler’s Late Renaissance Art class. Aidan also received AU’s institutional nomination to be a Fulbright applicant in the coming cycle.
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Professor Ying-chen Peng's book Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi's Image Making, first published by Yale University Press in 2023, is now available in a Chinese edition courtesy of Rock Publishing House in Taiwan.
- Professor Juliet Bellow's book Rodin's Dancers: Art and Performance in Belle Époque Paris was published by Yale University Press.
- Professor Nika Elder reviewed the exhibition Amy Sherald: American Sublime at the Baltimore Museum of Art for CAA Reviews (College Art Association).
More News
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Professor Joanne Allen’s Katzen Arts Center exhibition Constantinople/Istanbul was reviewed by AU’s student-run newspaper The Eagle in “Istanbul, Constantinople Collage inspires at Katzen Arts Center.”
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Listen to Dr. Butler's discussion of the history of the papal conclave and the Sistine Chapel on NPR.
- Graduate students curated the exhibition Still, Moving at the American University Museum. On view in spring 2023, the exhibition featured works drawn from the museum's Corcoran Legacy Collection.
- Dr. Nika Elder's book William Harnett’s Curious Objects was published by University of California Press.
- Incoming MA student and American University Museum Alper fellow Claudia Watts told the Washington Post how she would spend her perfect day in DC.
- Dr. Nika Elder co-edited essays for the summer 2022 edition of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum journal.
- Dr. Joanne Allen published Transforming the Church Interior in Renaissance Florence (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
- Michael Quituisaca (MA '20) and Alexandra Schuman (MA '20) co-curated an exhibition at the American University Museum, Home-Land: Exploring the American Myth.
- Jenna Wendler (MA '22) won the Günther Stamm Prize for best presentation at the annual graduate student symposium at Florida State University for her paper, "Ideals of Femininity in the Dutch Baroque: Analyzing Systems of Power, Class, and Gender in Casper Netscher's The Lacemaker (1662)."
- Hannah Nanette Karkari and Rebekah Potter were among the winners of the 32nd annual Mathias Student Research Conference.
- Alumna Blair Bailey (BA, '11) was interviewed by American magazine on her work as a paintings conservator at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Dr. Joanne Allen spoke to the BBC about what makes Leonardo Da Vinci's Vituvian Man so iconic.
