Both the MA and PhD programs emphasize the research, writing, and teaching necessary to pursue a career in academia, curatorial work, art consultation, heritage programs, cultural journalism, or secondary school teaching. The faculty supervise students in the fields of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque, Asian, African, Architecture, and Modern and Contemporary Art.
Students in the graduate program may also benefit from the department's affiliations with the Centre for Medieval Studies, the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, the program in Book History and Print Culture, and the Mediterranean Archaeology Collaborative Specialization. Resources and affiliated faculty at the Royal Ontario Museum, the University Art Centre, the Gardiner Museum, and the Art Gallery of Ontario also provide access to Toronto's vibrant arts scene. The University hosts a number of specialist libraries for art historical research, including the Department of Art History's library with over 40,000 exhibition catalogues, the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library, and Robarts Research Library, a resource unrivalled in Canada and among the leading university libraries in North America. The PhD program is designed to prepare students for college and university teaching, museum work, and other research positions
Graduate study in Ancient Art at the University of Toronto concerns the material, artistic, and visual cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, Western Europe, and Southwest Asia. Our faculty and students work on topics ranging from the archaeology of Minoan Crete, Greek vase painting and sculpture, as well as architecture, to the art(s) of the Roman Empire and including geographical interests in the Near East and Gandhara. We employ a great diversity and heterogeneity of approaches and methods. Some are intrinsic to the discipline and have historically evolved in an engagement with the objects they seek to explain, others are shared with or appropriated from related fields in the humanities and social sciences. Digital archaeology and the application of advanced imaging methods are a complementary area of faculty expertise. In the ancient art graduate program, students thus engage with a variety of methodological approaches, from cutting-edge scientific methods in archaeology to critical theories in visual and cultural studies. Meanwhile, we also encourage cross-disciplinary training in related fields such as Classical studies, anthropological archaeology, religious studies, critical theory, women's studies, and digital humanities.
