Course content and focus areas
The master's program in art history offers a wide range of opportunities for individual academic specialization. The courses available cover the entire history of European art and architecture. The Department of Art History at Goethe University is distinguished by its methodologically advanced research profile. Special focus areas include theory and media, as well as methodology and the history of the discipline. Both research and teaching benefit from the department's firmly established collaborations with internationally renowned Frankfurt museums.
This research-oriented master's program supports individual research interests that can lead to an academic career in universities and museums. Outstanding students are encouraged to pursue a doctorate. The program equips students with the ability to make critical judgments based on solid expertise. It also prepares them for a broad spectrum of demanding roles in journalism, exhibition practices, collection and archival work, monument conservation, education, and communication. Each of these areas requires intensive engagement with the subjects and theoretical concepts of other disciplines. Only through this interdisciplinary approach can the diverse interconnections between art and architecture and political, social, cultural, and philosophical discourses be fully understood. The program is specifically designed to meet this challenge: it provides specialized expertise while opening up interdisciplinary horizons.
The four-semester program is structured into four subject-specific modules, one excursion module, and three modules for transdisciplinary deepening of individual focus areas. These focus areas are chosen within the art history modules themselves. The methodological orientation of these modules ensures that key perspectives in art historical research are explored: concepts of image and space, mediality, as well as theories and contexts. The research-oriented focus is productively complemented by the transdisciplinary modules.