Art History

Guidelines for Tenure and Promotion

Some Suggested Guidelines for Evaluating Art Historians (Scholarship):

1) Publications

A candidate for tenure or promotion should normally have published in print journals or e-journals that practice some form of peer review.  In addition, essays in edited volumes that have been thoroughly reviewed (and often published by university presses) also serve as important scholarly contributions to the field.  Candidates are encouraged to publish a book and/or produce an edited collection of essays during the period between tenure and promotion to professor, but a book or collection should not be required for promotion.

Other important venues for scholarship are open to art historians.  A candidate may curate an exhibition and publish an accompanying catalogue, or submit an individual essay to an exhibition catalogue edited by another scholar.  The growing field of Digital Humanities should also be recognized as a publishing venue, as candidates will increasingly be invited to contribute new and cutting-edge scholarship to various types of online publications, as long as those publications participate in a rigorous review process.  Other forms of publication, such as commissioned dictionary and encyclopedia articles, book reviews, and incidental pieces are desirable and should be recognized, but do not normally take the place of peer-reviewed work.

2.) Papers presented at annual meetings of professional organizations and conferences

Candidates for tenure or promotion will normally have presented their work at the meetings of professional organizations to which they belong as members. The chief organization for art historians is the College Art Association of America (http://www.collegeart.org). Other national organizations, such as the American Studies Association (http://www.theasa.net), the Renaissance Society of America (http://www.rsa.org), etc. may also be appropriate venues. (In such organizations, the privilege of presenting a paper is accorded only to members.) The origination and management of a special session of papers on related topics may also be an important scholarly activity. Of equal importance are papers presented at other national and international conferences, as well as invited talks at museums, universities, and various professional institutions.

3) National Grants and Fellowships

Fellowships and awards demonstrate important examples of successful peer review. (Some of the more prestigious fellowships awarded to art historians include awards from the NEH, ACLS, the Guggenheim and Kress Foundations, the Getty Research Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, the American Philosophical Society, the Center for the Study of the Visual Arts (CASVA), the American Academy in Rome, or the Villa I Tatti.) Awards granted and held for a period of a year or more, in lieu of salaried teaching, are usually more prestigious than awards made for a briefer period of time.  Grants awarded for the publication of books and edited volumes should also be recognized as demonstrations of scholarly excellence.

[October 4, 2000/rev. 2018 jp]