Innovative new Ph.D. in Art History:
RASC/a at Southern Methodist University

Generous Fellowships; accepting applications this Fall/Winter 2010-11

The Department of Art History at Southern Methodist University, Dallas
announces opportunities for students in our new doctoral program in art
history. Called RASC/a—Rhetorics of Art, Space, and Culture—our
innovative, multidisciplinary Ph.D. program prepares students for
academic and museum careers in several areas of specialization, both
European and Latin American. Our curriculum encompasses historical and
new media, spatial arts, and critical theory in culture, race, and
gender. We also emphasize transnational scholarship of the arts of
Latin America, Iberia, and the Americas, currently a focal point in our
research and teaching.

Our students enjoy close mentorship within a small-program setting. We
offer generous funding: a fellowship package of five years of tuition
and health benefits plus a stipend of $24,000. Students also receive
support for off-campus and international research and travel. In
addition, the department conducts annual site-specific graduate seminars
that take students off-campus for about two weeks (Venice in 2009/10,
Mexico City in 2010/11).

Our campus boasts a number of significant resources for graduate
training. In addition to a dedicated art and art-history library (Hamon
Library), our campus resources include the Meadows Museum of Art, one of
the largest and most comprehensive collections of Iberian art outside
Spain; the Bridwell Library, an internationally-recognized collection of
manuscripts, incunabula, and early print media; and the DeGolyer
Library, with significant holdings devoted to early voyages and travels,
Western Americana, and the history of science and technology.

Dallas/Ft. Worth is home to numerous museums and collections of
international stature, and our students enjoy access to these remarkable
resources as well. The Dallas Museum of Art holds an encyclopedic
collection of over 30,000 objects, with particular strengths in Modern
and Contemporary, Classical, American decorative arts, and
Pre-Columbian. The Kimbell Museum, housed in Louis Kahn’s landmark
building, houses a smaller but superlative collection of art from around
the world. The Amon Carter Museum holds one of the world’s best and
most comprehensive collections of American photography, with strong
holdings in American art and sculpture. The Nasher Sculpture Center
(Dallas) and the Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth house fine collections
of twentieth and twenty-first century American and European art. These
collections are joined by a number of smaller museums in the area
(including the Dallas Latino Cultural Center, the McKinney Avenue
Contemporary), as well as several first-rate private collections. Our
students receive internships at these institutions, as well as regular
instruction in their galleries and storage rooms.

We hope that you will make your students, colleagues, and friends aware
of these opportunities for graduate study in the RASC/a program at SMU:
please direct them to our website, at www.rasc-a.com. You may also
forward them this message and invite them to contact us directly at
aherringsmu.edu. For admission requirements and deadlines please
contact hoseltonsmu.edu.