General Examination
The General Examination will be taken no later than the sixth semester in residence, typically in May, or earlier in the G-3 year. The exams should take place during reading period of the spring semester, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on consecutive weekdays (no weekends or holidays). The General Examination should be concluded not later than May 30 of the spring semester in the G-3 year. Requests for exceptions to this scheduling will be considered by the DGS, in close consultation with the thesis supervisor, and must be approved by the faculty during a Departmental meeting. Exceptions will only be granted under extraordinary circumstances. The petition to take the general examination is due the semester before they are taken on November 25.
- Committee members who are not in residence in Cambridge will need to use Zoom or Skype or can travel to Cambridge at their own expense (the Department cannot fund travel or other expenses for committee members who are not on campus). The General Examination will not be delayed for faculty on sabbatical.
- The petition to take the General Examination must be filed in the department by November 25 of the 5th semester of residence.
- One semester of intensive study should be sufficient preparation for the General Examination.
- The proposed thesis supervisor (primary reader) in consultation with the other committee members will make sure that the bibliographies for the general and specific fields are appropriate, but not over-burdened.
- Copies of the final bibliographies will be submitted to the DGS and maintained as part of the student’s academic record.
- The General Examination is given only during the academic year and not during holidays or over the summer months.
- The General Examination is designed to test the student’s mastery of their scholarly fields and their ability to proceed to writing a dissertation. Students are allowed access to the library and to other resources while answering questions in the general and specific fields. The written examinations are open book; the student should arrange a space to write the essays that is conducive to their work.
- The General Examination comprises written and oral components, both of which test the student’s knowledge of their general and specific fields. Following completion of the Qualifying Paper in the G2 year, the student should begin to give thought to their specific field, in particular. The student meets with their General Examination committee members in early November to reach a common understanding of the parameters of the general and specific fields, the range of materials for which they will be responsible, the number of questions that they will answer for both general and specific field written examinations (one or two), and the extent to which the oral examination will be based on objects in collections on campus. These discussions are finalized in the Petition for Taking the General Examination.
The general field ordinarily consists of two of the following areas. The balance of art and architecture to be covered will depend on the field and will be determined in consultation with the committee members:
- West Africa
- East, Central, and Southern Africa
- Pre-Columbian
- Egyptian
- Ancient Near Eastern
- Aegean
- Greek
- Roman
- Late Antiquity
- Early Christian
- Byzantine
- Early Middle Ages (7-11th c)
- High and Late Middle Ages (12-15th c)
- Southern Renaissance
- Southern Baroque (includes French)
- Northern Renaissance, 1400-1600 (includes French)
- Northern Baroque
- European 18th c
- European 19th c
- Early Islamic (up to 1250)
- Islamic 1250-1650
- Islamic 1650 to present
- Pre-imperial China (pre-historic to Qin, 221 B.C.)
- Early imperial (Qin to Tang dynasty, 221 B.C.-907 A.D.)
- Middle imperial (Five dynasties to Yuan, 907-1368)
- Late imperial and modern (Ming to present ,1368--)
- Early Japanese to 1200
- Medieval Japanese, 1200-1600
- Later Japanese, 1600 to present
- Early Indian to 300 A..D.
- Middle Indian, 300-1300
- Later Indian, 1300 to present
- Modern Africa
- African American
- American
- Modern Architecture
- Latin American
- 20th Century/ Contemporary
The specific field is a narrower area of study chosen by the student in discussion with the members of the General Examination committee and then subject to faculty review and approval. In principle, the specific field should comprise a coherent and clearly defined area of scholarly inquiry. Ordinarily this specific field will cover no less than fifty years and will be confined to one or two geographical regions. This is also the area in which the student’s dissertation topic will most likely be concentrated.
Format of the Examination
Day 1: Written essay(s) on the general field, 8 hours total—9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Interpretation, Methods, and Historiography. The student answers one or two out of several questions designed to test their grasp of broad art-historical issues.
Day 2: Written essay(s) on the specific field, 8 hours total—9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Interpretation, Methods, and Historiography. The student answers one or two questions designed to bring out their knowledge of sources, both primary and secondary, of historiography, and of methodological issues.
Students are allowed access to campus libraries and to other resources (e.g. personal notes) while taking the written portion of the examination. On each day the students will be given a choice of essay questions, normally answering 1 of 3, or 2 of 5, to be determined in advance consultation with the committee members. Students will have their questions sent by email at 9am—by the Graduate Coordinator—and submit their essay via email to the committee and Graduate Coordinator by 5pm. If a student requires medical accommodations, please contact the Accessible Education Office as well as the exam committee chair and Graduate Coordiator.
Day 3: Oral examination, 2-3 hours. Analysis of visual material. General Field. The student will have one to two hours prior to the convening of the full committee to examine eleven or twelve works of art, slides, or photographs, in preparation for an oral discussion of all but one of them with the examination committee. The discussions may involve such issues as connoisseurship, contexts, iconography, formal analysis, patronage, technique, medium, materiality, and condition. Following the conclusion of the oral examination, the committee members meet in camera to evaluate and review the student’s performance in both the oral and written elements of the general examination. The result will be communicated to the student in the conversation with the Committee that will follow.
No research may be done once the preparation stage of the oral examination has begun. The exam is conducted on an honors code basis.
Students whose performance on the examination is not satisfactory will be given one opportunity to repeat all or a portion of it.
The Examination Committee
The examination committee will ordinarily consist of three faculty members from the Department of History of Art and Architecture. In special circumstances a student may petition the DGS for a specific person outside of the discipline in another department. The student should consult with committee members in early November and present to the department the completed Petition to Take the General Examinations by November 25. The form is available in the Department office and should be submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies. The Director of Graduate Studies will then notify the student of faculty approval of the proposed committee as well as extending a formal invitation to any outside members of the committee.
During preparation for the General Examination, students should meet at least once with the full committee. With its help, the student will formulate general and specific fields, their bibliographies, and establish the format of the written and oral portions of the examination. Discussion will include clarification of the committee's expectations with respect to objects and the oral portion of the examination. Following the group meeting, the student will formalize their understanding of the format for the written part of the exam, as well as the procedure of the oral portion of the exam and provide a copy of this document for each member of the committee. It is also understood that students will meet with individual committee members in the course of their studies and preparation. (Under extenuating circumstances, when members of the committee include individuals not on the faculty, or when faculty members are not in residence, it may be necessary for the Chair of the committee to coordinate consultation without a meeting before the examination.)
The Chair of the committee is often, but need not be, the dissertation adviser. If the Chair of the committee anticipates being on leave in the semester during which the exam is scheduled, it is the student's obligation to secure permission from the faculty member in advance for the exam to be scheduled.
Candidate's Bibliographies and Summary of Expectations
Two bibliographies should be produced by the student resulting from consultation with individual members and the committee as a whole, one for the general field, the other for the specific field. The aim of the bibliographies is to serve as preparation for studying for the general examination and also as an indication of the student's control of the literature of the general and specific fields. Expectations regarding the bibliographies should be understood and agreed upon by the committee and the individual student.
After meeting with the principal adviser, the candidate will formalize their understanding of what was agreed upon, either by following the points of this list, or by writing up a separate summary. The document will then be presented to each member of the committee, and further revisions can be made at that point. A final version should be given to all members of the committee and to the Graduate Coordinator or Department Administrator. The candidate is largely responsible for ensuring that the procedure runs smoothly. The Chair of the committee informs non-department members of the procedure in the various stages of the exam.
Considerations for the General Exam
It should be noted that not all issues raised by this list will be applicable in all sub-fields, nor will all committees wish to be explicit in establishing or limiting options.
Student Procedure for Taking the Examination
- In November of the fifth semester in residence, assemble the General Examination committee and following that submit the Petition for Taking the General Examination with the preliminary thesis proposal by November 25.
- At a following meeting with the committee members, set dates, prepare and submit bibliographies, and a summary of expectations (these include the parameters of your fields of study, the oral examination, the days on which you will write the general and specific field essays and take the oral examination, the number of essays you will write on each day of the writtens).
- Throughout the course of your preparations, schedule meetings with your committee members to discuss topics you have been reading about and to resolve any questions you may have; updates can also address issues of access or time with respect to sources listed on your bibliographies.
- Three weeks before the scheduled general examination, submit a list of themes that have been of particular interest to you; these themes may inform the questions drafted by committee members for the written portions of the examination.
- Reserve a room in the Harvard Art Museums’ Art Study Center, or at another venue as appropriate, for the oral examination and inform the committee members and the Graduate Coordinator.
- Confirm the days and times of the written and oral portions of the general examination with your committee members and the Graduate Coordinator.
Bibliographies
- What is the scope and intent of the bibliographies?
- How do the bibliographies for the general and specific fields differ?
- Will it be a comprehensive survey of the existing literature in the discipline of history of art and architecture, or is there a focus on, for example, recent scholarship?
- Are the bibliographies primarily intended to cover literature previously unknown to the student? Or are they to be seen as primarily a review of scholarship that the student is already acquainted with?, or both?
- What is the workable length for each of the two bibliographies? Will the student be expected to know every source on the bibliographies, and if so, in what detail?
- What is the last date before the exam after which no new materials will be added to the list (generally no less than two weeks)?
Written Examination
- In what way will the questions for the general and specific portions differ?
- How many questions will appear in each portion of the written examination? And how many will be answered? (as a general guideline, for 1 essay [written in a full day] 3 questions are offered; for 2 essays [divided between morning and afternoon] 5 questions are offered).
- How will the written examinations be sent to the examinee and subsequently to the examiners?
- Will there be written feedback on this part of the exam? Or will feedback be offered as part of the discussion following the oral examination?
- N.B. Each committee will have different concerns and expectations as to the manner in which the questions will be approached and answered. Be prepared to discuss these expectations (methodological issues, relative importance of specific examples, bibliography, etc.) with your committee members.
Oral Examination
- How many works will be given [N.B. to faculty: traditionally 12; N.B. to students: ensure that your committee is aware that you have the option of not discussing one of the works.]
- Will there be slides, photographs, or objects? or a combination?
- If there are objects, what is the range of the objects?
- When and where will the images be available for viewing before the committee convenes?
- Clarify the overall purpose of the objects for the examination. In discussing the objects, what issues are to be treated, and what is their relative priority? For example, how important are attribution, connoisseurship, contextualization, condition/conservation, comparison, etc.
General Examination Process for the Harvard Art Museums
Reservations for the art study rooms for the oral examination of the General Examination should be submitted by the student no later than one month in advance of the exam date, though it is highly recommended that requests are made well in advance of this time. The reservation should be submitted via the on-line form located on the Museum website.
Oral examinations of the General Examination involving artworks will be held typically in any of the following spaces based on availability:
- 4400 Seminar Room on Level 4
- 4700 Seminar Room on Level 4
- Level 3 art study rooms in the Somerville Research Facility
The oral portion of the General Examination can be held on Mondays-Fridays between the hours of 10:00am – 5:00pm. The assigned room will be reserved for the entire day for each exam.
Object lists for the General Examination should be submitted by your committee no later than one month prior to the exam date. This will allow Harvard Art Museums’ staff to confirm the location and availability of the requested artworks and also to make the necessary transit arrangements so that requested artworks can be assembled in one location. The committee will receive confirmation of the object list and the room from the Harvard Art Museums staff. The object list should be submitted via this on-line form.
Artworks belonging to Faculty may be brought to the Harvard Art Museums or to the Somerville Research Facility on the day of the oral examination. All Faculty-owned artwork will leave those facilities with the Faculty member at the conclusion of the examination.
All visible artist identification on the examination objects will be covered provided it is safe to do so. All works on paper will be framed for the purposes of the examination.
Museum staff will facilitate the student preview period (1-2 hours) before the arrival of the General Examination committee members.