Asato Ikeda
Job Title
Assistant Professor, Art History
Employer
Fordham University
Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD)
Overview
Students in the PhD in Art History program are encouraged to situate art in its historical context, to analyze its impact on the world around us, and to develop theoretical frameworks that contribute to critical thinking and engage with debates in the field. The program involves coursework, two foreign languages, a comprehensive examination, dissertation proposal, roundtable presentation, doctoral dissertation, and oral exam.
What makes the program unique?
The Art History PhD program encourages high scholastic achievement, original research, and a firm theoretical grounding. Alumni of the program have made considerable contributions to teaching and research in universities, museums, and galleries worldwide.
Program Structure
The PhD program opens with the rigorous two-term required Methodology seminar led by two professors who are specialists in divergent areas. Seminar offerings within the Department are broad and diverse, and students are encouraged to take seminar coursework outside the Department as well. This typically provides our students with ways of complementing their art history courses either by pursuing their specialization or by extending the scope of their studies. We have well-established links with Social Geography, History, Anthropology, Women's Studies, the Institute of European Studies, the Institute of Asian Research, the Latin American Institute, and First Nations Studies, amongst others.
A successful PhD thesis is founded on high scholastic achievement, original research, and firm theoretical grounding. At the mid-stage of thesis research, PhD candidates share their findings with peers, faculty, and the public through a Round Table presentation to receive critical feedback.
Quick Facts
Program Enquiries
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Admission Information & Requirements
1) Check Eligibility
Minimum Academic Requirements
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC). The graduate program that you are applying to may have additional requirements. Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in:
Each program may set higher academic minimum requirements. Please review the program website carefully to understand the program requirements. Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission as it is a competitive process.
English Language Test
Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.
Minimum requirements for the two most common English language proficiency tests to apply to this program are listed below:
TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language - internet-based
Overall score requirement: 100
Reading
22
Writing
21
Speaking
21
Listening
22
IELTS: International English Language Testing System
Overall score requirement: 7.0
Reading
6.5
Writing
6.5
Speaking
6.5
Listening
6.5
Other Test Scores
Some programs require additional test scores such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Graduate Management Test (GMAT). The requirements for this program are:
The GRE is not required.
Prior degree, course and other requirements
Prior Degree Requirements
Normally, admission to the Ph.D. requires the completion of an M.A. in Art History, including reading knowledge of one language other than English. Students with master's degrees in related fields may be required to complete additional art history courses for their Ph.D. program.
2) Meet Deadlines
September 2023 Intake
Application Open Date
15 October 2022Canadian Applicants
Application Deadline: 31 March 2023
Transcript Deadline: 31 March 2023
Referee Deadline: 31 March 2023
International Applicants
Application Deadline: 31 March 2023
Transcript Deadline: 31 March 2023
Referee Deadline: 31 March 2023
September 2024 Intake
Application Open Date
15 October 2023Canadian Applicants
Application Deadline: 05 January 2024
Transcript Deadline: 06 January 2024
Referee Deadline: 08 January 2024
International Applicants
Application Deadline: 05 January 2024
Transcript Deadline: 06 January 2024
Referee Deadline: 08 January 2024
3) Prepare Application
Transcripts
All applicants have to submit transcripts from all past post-secondary study. Document submission requirements depend on whether your institution of study is within Canada or outside of Canada.
Letters of Reference
A minimum of three references are required for application to graduate programs at UBC. References should be requested from individuals who are prepared to provide a report on your academic ability and qualifications.
Statement of Interest
Many programs require a statement of interest, sometimes called a "statement of intent", "description of research interests" or something similar.
Supervision
Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.
Instructions regarding supervisor contact for Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD)
Applicants should browse faculty profiles and indicate in their application who they are interested in working with. No commitment from a supervisor prior to applying is necessary, but contacting faculty members is encouraged.
Citizenship Verification
Permanent Residents of Canada must provide a clear photocopy of both sides of the Permanent Resident card.
4) Apply Online
All applicants must complete an online application form and pay the application fee to be considered for admission to UBC.
Tuition & Financial Support
Tuition
| Fees | Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat | International |
|---|---|---|
| Application Fee | $112.00 | $168.25 |
| Tuition * | ||
| Installments per year | 3 | 3 |
| Tuition per installment | $1,802.52 | $3,166.73 |
| Tuition per year (plus annual increase, usually 2%-5%) | $5,407.56 | $9,500.19 |
| Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (if eligible) | $3,200.00 (-) | |
| Other Fees and Costs | ||
| Student Fees (yearly) | $1,081.64 (approx.) | |
| Costs of living (yearly) | starting at $18,517.90 (check cost calculator) | |
* Regular, full-time tuition. For on-leave, extension, continuing or part time (if applicable) fees see UBC Calendar.
All fees for the year are subject to adjustment and UBC reserves the right to change any fees without notice at any time, including tuition and student fees. Tuition fees are reviewed annually by the UBC Board of Governors. In recent years, tuition increases have been 2% for continuing domestic students and between 2% and 5% for continuing international students. New students may see higher increases in tuition. Admitted students who defer their admission are subject to the potentially higher tuition fees for incoming students effective at the later program start date. In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the UBC Calendar, the UBC Calendar entry will be held to be correct.
All fees for the year are subject to adjustment and UBC reserves the right to change any fees without notice at any time, including tuition and student fees. Tuition fees are reviewed annually by the UBC Board of Governors. In recent years, tuition increases have been 2% for continuing domestic students and between 2% and 5% for continuing international students. New students may see higher increases in tuition. Admitted students who defer their admission are subject to the potentially higher tuition fees for incoming students effective at the later program start date. In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the UBC Calendar, the UBC Calendar entry will be held to be correct.
Financial Support
Applicants to UBC have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based (i.e. based on your academic performance) and need-based (i.e. based on your financial situation) opportunities.
Program Funding Packages
All full-time students who begin a UBC-Vancouver PhD program in September 2021 or later will be provided with a funding package of at least $22,000 for each of the first four years of their PhD. The funding package may consist of any combination of internal or external awards, teaching-related work, research assistantships, and graduate academic assistantships. Please note that many graduate programs provide funding packages that are substantially greater than $22,000 per year. Please check with your prospective graduate program for specific details of the funding provided to its PhD students.
Average Funding
Based on the criteria outlined below, 13 students within this program were included in this study because they received funding through UBC in the form of teaching, research/academic assistantships or internal or external awards averaging $29,401.
- 6 students received Teaching Assistantships. Average TA funding based on 6 students was $9,801.
- 2 students received Research/Academic Assistantships. Average RA/AA funding based on 2 students was $1,850.
- 13 students received internal awards. Average internal award funding based on 13 students was $16,644.
- 5 students received external awards. Average external award funding based on 5 students was $20,667.
Study Period: Sep 2020 to Aug 2021 - average funding for full-time PhD students enrolled in three terms per academic year in this program across years 1-4, the period covered by UBC's Minimum Funding Guarantee. Averages might mask variability in sources and amounts of funding received by individual students. Beyond year 4, funding packages become even more individualized.
Review methodology
Review methodology
Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding)
All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education. The database lists merit-based scholarships and awards and allows for filtering by various criteria, such as domestic vs. international or degree level.
Teaching Assistantships (GTA)
Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students. Full teaching assistantships involve 12 hours work per week in preparation, lecturing, or laboratory instruction although many graduate programs offer partial TA appointments at less than 12 hours per week. Teaching assistantship rates are set by collective bargaining between the University and the Teaching Assistants' Union.
Research Assistantships (GRA)
Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their direction. The duties usually constitute part of the student's graduate degree requirements. A Graduate Research Assistantship is a form of financial support for a period of graduate study and is, therefore, not covered by a collective agreement. Unlike other forms of fellowship support for graduate students, the amount of a GRA is neither fixed nor subject to a university-wide formula. The stipend amounts vary widely, and are dependent on the field of study and the type of research grant from which the assistantship is being funded. Some research projects also require targeted research assistance and thus hire graduate students on an hourly basis.
Financial aid (need-based funding)
Canadian and US applicants may qualify for governmental loans to finance their studies. Please review eligibility and types of loans.
All students may be able to access private sector or bank loans.
Foreign government scholarships
Many foreign governments provide support to their citizens in pursuing education abroad. International applicants should check the various governmental resources in their home country, such as the Department of Education, for available scholarships.
Working while studying
The possibility to pursue work to supplement income may depend on the demands the program has on students. It should be carefully weighed if work leads to prolonged program durations or whether work placements can be meaningfully embedded into a program.
International students enrolled as full-time students with a valid study permit can work on campus for unlimited hours and work off-campus for no more than 20 hours a week.
A good starting point to explore student jobs is the UBC Work Learn program or a Co-Op placement.
Tax credits and RRSP withdrawals
Students with taxable income in Canada may be able to claim federal or provincial tax credits.
Canadian residents with RRSP accounts may be able to use the Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) which allows students to withdraw amounts from their registered retirement savings plan (RRSPs) to finance full-time training or education for themselves or their partner.
Please review Filing taxes in Canada on the student services website for more information.
Cost Calculator
Applicants have access to the cost calculator to develop a financial plan that takes into account various income sources and expenses.
Alumni on Success
Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats
These statistics show data for the Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD). Data are separated for each degree program combination. You may view data for other degree options in the respective program profile.
Enrolment Data
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applications | 24 | 30 | 30 | 12 | 20 |
| Offers | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| New registrations | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Total enrolment | 28 | 29 | 31 | 34 | 32 |
Completion Rates & Times
This program has a graduation rate of 89% based on 9 students admitted between 2008 - 2011. Based on 6 graduations between 2017 - 2020 the minimum time to completion is 5.33 years and the maximum time is 9.00 years with an average of 6.86 years of study. All calculations exclude leave times.
Disclaimer
Admissions data refer to all UBC Vancouver applications, offers, new registrants for each year, May to April [data updated: 7 April 2022]. Enrolment data are based on March 1 snapshots. Program completion data are only provided for datasets comprised of more than 4 individuals. Rates and times of completion depend on a number of variables (e.g. curriculum requirements, student funding), some of which may have changed in recent years for some programs [data updated: 19 October 2021].
Research Supervisors
Supervision
Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.
Instructions regarding supervisor contact for Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD)
Applicants should browse faculty profiles and indicate in their application who they are interested in working with. No commitment from a supervisor prior to applying is necessary, but contacting faculty members is encouraged.
Advice and insights from UBC Faculty on reaching out to supervisors
These videos contain some general advice from faculty across UBC on finding and reaching out to a supervisor. They are not program specific.
Doctoral Citations
A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Dr. Poon studied Canadian abstract painting in Toronto in the 1950s. She highlighted the artistic and practical strategies used by Toronto artists to establish themselves as the vanguard of modern painting in Canada. Her research considers the contributions made by Canadian artists towards the international world of modern art at midcentury. |
| 2018 | Dr. Muckart examined a series of sixteenth and seventeenth-century Church of England martyr portraits. Her study demonstrates how these prints and paintings emerged from and engaged with early modern conceptualizations of the English nation. |
| 2018 | Dr. Parent studied performance art in Vienna in the 1960s. She considered it to be symptomatic of a collective trauma, rooted in the body, and tied to cultural repression and capitalist exploitation. She argues that feminist actionist Valie Export's work exposed women as the disavowed worker body, which exacerbated fragmented social ties. |
| 2018 | Dr. Bell studied a missionary exhibition of First Nations art at the Vatican in 1925. Through an analysis of beadwork, statuary, and children's games, Bell presents a new historiography of the mobility of Indigenous visual culture drawing on Indigenous theories. This research illuminates the ongoing confluences of archives and Indigenous histories in Rome. |
| 2018 | Dr. Lee examined the work of American photographers who arranged multiple photographs in sequence beginning in the late 1960s. He then revealed how their work influenced the practice and discourse of photography in France over subsequent decades. |
| 2017 | Dr. Crosby studied 19th century Salish Passion Plays - a public form of live religious theatre. Her findings revealed that local and global news coverage of these plays indicated an overlap with religious and secular practices of First Nations and that Indigenous leaders exploited this media interest and inter-cultural exchange for political benefit. |
| 2016 | Dr. Guo studied how consumers interacted with metal mirrors during Han dynasty China. He argues that these mirrors served as a dominant form of affordable luxury, signaling personal intimacies, monetary wealth, and aesthetic enjoyments. His work increases our historical understanding of early imperial art and economics. |
| 2016 | Dr. Narusevicius investigates Conceptual artists and their practices by focusing on the link with educational institutions, student protest movements, and a desire for autonomy in the 1960s and early 1970s. It is through an analysis of the relationship between Conceptual art and the various notions of autonomy that this research provides a deeper insight and understanding of Conceptual art. |
| 2016 | Dr. Boychuk studied the art of 16th-century Europe, with a focus on the works of Joris Hoefnagel. She demonstrated how Hoefnagel used illumination to attain a position of prominence at the courts of the Holy Roman Empire. Her research challenges established views of early modern illumination and adds to the scholarship on Central European art. |
| 2016 | Dr. Coughlin analyzed works of painting and architecture in the 16th-century Veneto to demonstrate the operation of prudence in visual realms. By evaluating how pictorial and architectural representations often substituted for written interpretations, he considers the crucial role visual imagery played in philosophical debates at the time. |
Pages
Sample Thesis Submissions
Further Information
Specialization
Art History offers advanced study in the major periods of European and North American art, in certain areas of Asian art, and in the indigenous arts of the Americas.
Program Website
Faculty Overview
Academic Unit
Program Identifier
VGDPHD-B4
September 2023 Intake
Application Open Date
15 October 2022 Canadian Applicant Deadline
31 March 2023 International Applicant Deadline
31 March 2023 September 2024 Intake
Application Open Date
15 October 2023 Canadian Applicant Deadline
05 January 2024 International Applicant Deadline
05 January 2024 Program Enquiries
Still have questions after reviewing this page thoroughly?
Contact the program
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