The Department of the History of Art and Architecture serves the undergraduate and graduate student communities at Brown by offering training in the history and theory of art, architecture, material culture and related fields of critical inquiry.  We also serve the discipline, the academic community, and the humanities generally, through the creation of innovative scholarship that expands --and challenges-- current understandings of the cultural past. We are dedicated to the study of diverse cultures on their own terms, to the analysis of materials in their own visual languages, and to the humanistic value of our discipline.

The Department grants undergraduate degrees in the History of Art and Architecture, Architectural Studies, and Architecture. Undergraduate and graduate students complete their courses of study with attention to the history and theories of art, architecture, and urban development, examining how objects of material culture are made, viewed, and collected.

We also maintain a longstanding commitment to Museum Studies and the study of objects through a close working relationship with the RISD Museum, and the Bell Gallery housed in the List Art Center at Brown. Graduate and undergraduate students have the opportunity to hold proctorships and internships at the museum, and to work with the Bell Gallery.