Departments

• As of fall 2023, approximately 368 departments were awarding degrees in art history at colleges and universities in the United States. These departments included large, freestanding departments in the discipline as well as programs within departments awarding degrees in multiple disciplines. In the latter case, the department chairs were asked to report information for art history only.
• Of the 368 departments awarding degrees in art history, 144 (39%) were awarding graduate degrees in the discipline, with 83 (23%) awarding PhDs.

Faculty

• Art history departments employed 3,150 full- and part-time faculty members in fall 2023, with an average of 9 faculty members per department (and a median of 7).
• Approximately 63% of art history faculty members either had tenure or were on the tenure track.
• Faculty members employed full-time with tenure or on the tenure track taught an average of 35 undergraduate students in fall 2023, while full-time faculty employed off the tenure track taught an average of 76 undergraduates. Faculty employed part-time taught an average of 51 undergraduates in that fall term.
• While 26% of art history departments had made at least one new hire for the 2023–24 academic year, amounting to 130 new permanent faculty, the departments collectively had lost an average of 250 faculty per annum over the previous two years. Among the faculty who left, 64% had retired.
• An estimated 18% of art history department chairs thought the number of tenure-line faculty in their departments had increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023, while 26% estimated that their tenure-line faculty count had decreased during that period. In addition, 26% of chairs in the discipline thought the number of nontenure-track faculty had increased over the same period, while 14% thought the number had fallen. (The remainder thought the most likely outcome would be no change or were not sure.)
• Looking ahead, 16% of art history chairs expected the number of tenure track faculty in their departments to increase over the next three academic years, while 28% thought the number would shrink. (The remainder thought the most likely outcome would be no change or were not sure.) In contrast, 9% thought their nontenure-track faculty count would increase, while 20% thought the number would shrink.
• About 37% of the departments had a faculty member come up for tenure during the previous two years. Averaging over these two years, 90 faculty were granted tenure per annum nationwide, none were denied tenure, and 10 left prior to a tenure decision.
• Because it is not appropriate for a person to assign a demographic identity to another person, the survey did not ask department chairs to report their faculty members’ races or genders. However, the survey did ask chairs to describe themselves. Women constituted 63% of the chairs in art history departments in fall 2023, and 85% identified their race/ethnicity as white.

Undergraduate Students

• In fall 2023, departments that awarded degrees in art history had undergraduate course enrollments of 141,910, with an average enrollment of 386 per department. (These are duplicated enrollment figures, with students taking multiple courses in the discipline counted in every course.) The average is skewed upward by large programs, typically at research universities, which had significantly larger-than-average enrollments, as indicated by a median enrollment of only 270.
• Approximately, 71% of art history department chairs thought undergraduate enrollments had held steady or increased from fall 2020 to fall 2023.
• On average, art history departments awarded 9 bachelor’s degrees per department in the 2022–23 academic year (with a median of 5 per department). These departments had an average of 18 juniors or seniors with a declared major in the discipline (and a median of 13).
• In the 2022–23 academic year, art history departments awarded an average of 12 minors in the discipline (with a median of 6 per department) and 12 certificates or other microcredentials per department (with a median of 6). While 54% of departments reported awarding minors, only 9% of the departments awarded certificates or other microcredentials, the same share as musicology—and smaller than than any other discipline included in the survey.

Graduate Students

• Degree-granting departments in art history had 7,080 enrollments in graduate courses in fall 2023, with an average of 49 (and a median of 32) enrollments per department with a graduate program.
• Approximately 4,560 students were working toward graduate degrees in art history. The average number of students pursuing an advanced degree in art history was 32 (with a median of 20) per department that granted such degrees.
• The 83 departments awarding PhDs admitted an average of almost 5 new doctoral students into their programs in fall 2023, for a total of 390 new doctoral students in the discipline.

Departmental Practices and Concerns

• Approximately 51% of department chairs were optimistic about the future of art history at their institution, while 16% were pessimistic—one of the smallest shares among the disciplines in the survey. (The remainder were either unsure or neither optimistic nor pessimistic.)
• The survey found that 19% of the department chairs in art history were concerned about the academic freedom of faculty members in their departments. Among those departments, the most common concern was threats to such freedom from academic administration (cited by 88% of chairs). The second most common concern was the threat posed by boards of trustees (cited by 53%).
• While 95% of art history departments provided research support for their full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members, and 71% offered such support for full-time nontenured faculty, only 32% offered such support for part-time faculty.
• Asked what their departments had done in recent years to attract additional majors, 70% of art history chairs reported offering events, classes, or other activities designed to aid students in thinking about future jobs or careers. The second most common strategy, reported by 61% of chairs, was outreach to students in other majors or undeclared.
• An estimated 70% of departments supported the career development of their undergraduates by offering (and for a small share of departments, by requiring) occupationally oriented lectures, while 94% offered or required internships, and 70% offered or required some occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.
• In departments awarding doctorates in the discipline, 75% offered occupationally oriented lectures for their doctoral students; 81% offered internships; and 82% offered occupationally oriented coursework or workshops.