Art History

Guidelines for Tenure and Promotion

Some Suggested Guidelines for Evaluating Art Historians (Scholarship):

1) Publications

A candidate for tenure should normally have published in a journal that practices some form of peer review. For promotion, similarly, a candidate should have published in peer- reviewed journals. Candidates are also encouraged to publish a book during the period between tenure and promotion to professor, but a book should not be required for promotion.

Publication of articles in collections of thematically related essays or in festschrifts are also desirable and may meet the standard of peer review expected in the publication of individual articles. Other forms of publication, such as commissioned dictionary and encyclopedia articles, book reviews, and other 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.georgetown.edu/crossroads/asainfo.html), the Renaissance Society of America (http://www.r-s-a.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 conferences devoted to special themes and occasions.

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 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.

[October 4, 2000]