In this Rome-based graduate program, students attain a wide-ranging mastery of art-historical objects, methods, and research skills through study of the arts of Rome and Italy in a global context from antiquity to the present. At the program’s center are primary research—direct observation and analysis of art objects, environments, and documents—and building professional skills and experience in an international setting.
Concept. The program is unique: a rigorous Master’s degree in the distinguished US tradition of graduate education in art history—with its emphasis on student research and faculty mentorship—taught in one of the world’s richest art-historical environments: a city with more two thousand years of uninterrupted artistic culture, unparalleled in its world-wide impact on the history of art and architecture.
Location. The laboratory of the degree is Rome and its incomparable array of museums, archaeological sites, palaces, churches, urban spaces, galleries, academies, libraries, and archives. All courses involve on-site study and research in the city. Many also include professor-led excursions farther afield—to Milan, Venice, Florence, Assisi, Perugia, Athens, Paris, London.
Faculty. All courses are taught by JCU professors with decades of experience in Italy and abroad. Diverse in national background and leading specialists in their fields, they hold PhDs from prominent universities in the US, UK, Italy, Germany, and France. Their concentrations span the chronology from Classical Antiquity, to Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque, through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, down to the Modern and Contemporary.
Internships. Professional experience—in curation, teaching, research, and more—is a key element of the program. Each student interns for at least one semester (two if they prefer) at a Roman museum, gallery, foundation, or research institute, or as a teaching or research intern at JCU. The university’s Career Services Center and specialized professors help students locate and secure internships ideal for their interests and career objectives.
Community. Now in its eighth year, the MA is at the heart of a thriving, US-accredited international liberal arts university, with students from more than seventy different countries. Collegial collaboration and learning are fundamental to the program’s ethos. MA students tend to work closely together and with their professors and to form strong bonds that last well beyond graduation. Many participate in JCU’s very active Art History Society and build friendships and professional networks in the wider international scholarly community through events at Rome’s many museums, learned institutions, libraries, and foreign academies.
It begins with a Foundation Phase and culminates in a specialized Master’s Thesis and Professional Experience. Total credit hours for the degree are 36. Students opting to do a second internship graduate with 39 credits total.
The Foundation Phase (the first year of full-time study) lays the groundwork for advanced research and professional practice through eight courses (24-credit hours) and three independent components (0 credit hours). Upon completing these requirements, students attain MA Candidacy and embark on an MA Thesis (12 credit hours), Thesis Colloquium (3 credit hours), and Professional Experience (3 credit hours).
Two graduate-level courses in art-historical methods (6 credit hours total), one focusing on historiography and current practice (AH601), the other on direct work with primary sources: objects, environments, archival documents (AH600).
Six graduate-level courses in art history (18 credit hours), including at least three research seminars (700 level) and one course in each of the major periods into which Roman and Italian art have traditionally been: Ancient; Late Antique and Medieval; Early Modern; and Modern and Contemporary. (We maintain this four-part schema for didactic purposes but also talk back to it!)
These elements are prepared independently and graded on a pass-fail basis. They carry no academic credit but are noted on the transcript.
Cultural Events Reviews: Students attend and analyze six scholarly lectures, conferences, or special exhibitions over the course of two semesters.
Language Reading Knowledge: Through a language exam, each MA student demonstrates the ability to understand a scholarly text in Italian, French, or German at the B2 (upper intermediate) level in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
Master’s Exam: This exam tests mastery of the basic image-repertoire, chronology, and methods of art history, with emphasis on Rome and related cultures. It is administered once a year, on the last Friday in May.
This culminating phase of the degree—the second Fall or Fall-Spring of full-time study—has three elements:
An MA Thesis (6 credit hours), an original, article-length study of an object or building, written under the guidance of a professor (thesis advisor). MA theses grow out of research done in Foundation-Phase courses or seminars and involve direct consultation of primary source material (objects, built environments, documents). The 6 credit hours can be concentrated in one semester (Fall) or divided evenly between two (Fall-Spring).
A Thesis Colloquium (3 credit hours) accompanies and structures the first semester of thesis writing through workshops and peer review, culminating in the presentation of the MA thesis at a public scholarly conference at JCU.
A crowning feature of the degree, the Professional Experience consists of an internship (3 credit hours) at a museum, gallery, historic library, art foundation, or research institute, or at John Cabot University, assisting a professor with a course, research project, or conference. One semester of Professional Experience (3 credit hours) is required for the degree. Students writing their MA theses over the course of two semesters can opt to do a second internship with no impact on their tuition.
The MA can be completed in approximately fifteen months of full-time study, or over the course of two academic years, with the option of a second internship. Students choose freely which timetable to follow and commit to it at the beginning of the program.
Fall semester
Spring semester
Summer term
Fall semester
Fall semester
Spring semester
Summer term
Fall semester
Spring semester
Some variations for full-time students are possible. It is possible, for example, to complete the Foundation Phase with the Intensive Format, have the summer free, then switch to the Biennial Format for the Thesis and Professional Experience.
Students with their own right to live in Italy independent of student status, may opt for part-time study and different timetables.
Full-time status requires at least 9 credit hours of course registration in Fall and Spring of the Foundation Phase and 6 credits per term for the rest of the program.
Full-time status requires at least 9 credit hours of course registration in Fall and Spring of the Foundation Phase and 6 credit hours per term for the rest of the program.
Each student chooses freely, with one exception (see below*).
The Intensive Format tends to work best for those who enter the MA with a substantial art history background and a strong undergraduate GPA. Those newer to the field or who prefer a more relaxed but still challenging pace often opt for the Calendar-Year Format.
*The only exception: the Biennial timetable is mandatory for US Students who plan to receive Student Loan disbursements during summer, given their need to maintain full-time student status (6 credit hours of course registration) during the Summer term.
