Honours

The honours program in art history at UBC is for exceptionally motivated students who intend to continue their studies with advanced and focused work in art history, whether through graduate study or a career in arts and heritage or a related field.

Building on the major program outcomes, as an honours graduate you will gain further research and writing experience, and develop an enhanced capacity for independent and self-directed study in art history by completing an extended research thesis.

Program Requirements

Students enter the honours program in their third year and must have completed 12 credits of 100- and 200-level ARTH courses. Honours students should have a high B average in all first- and second-year course work and a minimum A- average in art history. If students cannot maintain that minimum average in their third-year art history courses, the program will advise them to revert to the major program.

The honours program has the same course requirements as the major’s program with the addition of:

  • 12 additional upper-level ARTH credits
  • ARTH 499: Honours Essay (6 credits)

Completing these additional requirements gives honours students a minimum of 48 credits in art history over their third and fourth years.

The honours essay offers the student an opportunity to develop a specific interest in a topic of significant depth. The honours essay’s scope and length are defined in consultation with an art history faculty advisor.

  • No more than 6 credits of cross-listed courses (indicated in course description as "Equivalent: xxx") offered by other departments may be counted toward the minimum requirements for the art history major.
  • Cross-listed courses, even though they may be taken under the department offering the course, must be counted in the 60-credit limit of ARTH courses if students major in either department.

Course Planning

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