Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences

DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY

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.

Get Started

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)

Featured Courses

Our 200-level courses are a great introduction to Art History. Check out Art History 240: Introduction to Asian Art with Professor Yuthika Sharma and Art History 260: Introduction to Contemporary Art with Professor Antawan Byrd this Spring.

Faculty Spotlight

Faculty Spotlight

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

woman presenting at a lecture

Warnock Gift

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

News & Events

Department News

Congratulations to Professor Miguel Caballero (Affiliate Faculty, Spanish & Portuguese) who is a finalist for CAA’s 2026 Charles Rufus Morey Prize for his book, The Monument of Tomorrow: Creative Conservation and the Spanish War (Penn State UP, 2025).

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.

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

faculty_dowad

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

Events

There are no upcoming events at this time

News

Congratulations to Ashley Kim (Art History Major, Class of 2027), who will spend the Fall Quarter ’26 at the University of Oxford.

Congratulations to Min Kyung Lee (PhD 2013) on winning the Spiro Kostof Book Award for "The Tyranny of the Straight Line: Mapping Modern Paris."

Congratulations to Alissa Schapiro (PhD 2024) on being appointed the Senior Curator at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkeley.