In March 2026, in collaboration with Derek Hoeferlin (Landscape Architecture) and Laura Perry (Center for the Humanities), Ila Sheren organized a group field research trip consisting of seven graduate students (MA and PhD) to west Texas and New Mexico.

In January 2026, Associate Professor Nicola Aravecchia was joined by Department of Art History and Archaeology graduate students Margaret Culuris-Harp, Claire Lyman, and Mo Stein at the archaeological excavation at Amheida in Egypt’s Dakhla Oasis.

Undergraduate field trip to Bellefontaine Cemetery, Halloween 2025.

Undergraduate class of 2026.

Dr. Swan's class on the Amsterdam field trip for her travel seminar "Revisiting the Dutch Golden Age: Amsterdam as and at the Center of the Early Modern World," Spring 2025.

About Our Department

The Department of Art History and Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis offers a diverse program of study in art history, archaeology, and visual studies at the undergraduate and graduate level. We are home to some 60 majors and minors, and to over 20 graduate students working on MA and PhD degrees. We enjoy strong partnerships with other Humanities programs on campus, and with local arts institutions.  Housed within the distinguished School of Arts & Sciences, the Department is an active collaborator with schools across the Danforth campus, as well as with the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

The Department of Art History and Archaeology respectfully acknowledges that we are on the traditional, ancestral lands of the Osage Nation. The process of knowing and acknowledging the land we stand on is a way of honoring and expressing gratitude for the ancestral Osage people who were on this land before us. For more information about the Osage Nation, click here.  

The Department is also broadly committed to racial justice, and pledges to use our classrooms and curricula as tools to advance these efforts. To read the statement written and approved by our faculty, click here. 

 

Nancy Rubin ‘Above and Beyond’ Award

Hannah Wier Receives Nancy Rubin 'Above and Beyond' Award

The department is thrilled to announce that Hannah Wier is the recipient of the 2025-2026 Above and Beyond Award. This award for graduate students was established in honor of Nancy Rubin, the department’s longtime administrative assistant, who passed away suddenly in 2020. It honors Nancy’s exceptional character, values, and ethos of generosity and compassion. Hannah, a Ph.D. candidate, was nominated by her peers for her exceptional contributions to cultivating an environment of warmth, community, and departmental participation. In the words of one of her nominators: 

“Hannah has worked hard to foster an inclusive and supportive environment for graduate students. She constantly takes the time to listen and offer advice on personal and academic matters and has demonstrated a keen interest in getting to know her peers on a deeper level beyond simply being colleagues. She is generous with her time and energy, always going above and beyond to support us.”

Tribute and collection of memorial statements by students, staff, and faculty

upcoming
events

See More Events

2026 Morrin Lecture: A Conversation with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

The Dead of Chaeronea: Unearthing a Lost Battlefield

FMS Colloquium Lecture Series: Ken Eisenstein, “‘Ecstasies of Restraint’: ‘Erotic Predicaments for’ Structural Film”

Our Alumni

We actively encourage multiple outcomes for our students of art history and archaeology, and alumni follow diverse career paths both in the United States and abroad. Our majors and minors pursue graduate and professional degrees in a variety of disciplines, ranging from art history, visual culture, and archaeology to advanced work in all aspects of the humanities. Many go on to curatorial and museum education work, collections management, the business of the art market, arts criticism, and diverse positions in arts management. Still others pursue advanced professional degrees in law, medicine, business, social work, and international affairs. Our doctoral program is the oldest in the midwest, and our network of alumni stretches internationally to Europe and Asia.

Learn more about our undergraduate alumni

Learn more about our graduate alumni 

"Elizabeth Mangone, M.A '23"