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Department of
History of Art and Architecture

Students standing in the rain on immersion trip in Maine

Career Outcomes

Your Success Story Is Waiting… Students who major in history of art and architecture in the built environment pursue a wide range of career paths, from entering competitive art and architecture graduate programs; going to professional schools such as law, medicine, business, social work, and public policy; and working in the field, such as in galleries and museums.

Career Options

Our curriculum teaches students how to think critically and write clearly. Students learn analytical skills, both visual and textual; sophisticated research methodology; and how to effectively present information with visual images. These skills position our graduates for a wide variety of post-graduate studies and careers.

Recent alumni have gone on to success as:

  • Curator
  • Art gallery manager
  • Instructor
  • Marketing and communications professional
  • Author
  • Archivist
  • Museum conservator
  • Art consultant
  • Art therapist

Alumni Stories

Jalen Chang, BA’16

I graduated from the department in 2016, after four years of stimulating and enjoyable coursework with wonderful teachers such as Elizabeth Moodey, Kevin Murphy, Tracy Miller, and the late, great, and beloved Christopher Johns. These professors not only opened tantalizing art historical doors from Todai-ji to the Palais Garnier, but also inspired a general historical and humanistic awareness in a previously uninspiring student. The academic highlight of my time at Vanderbilt, a thesis supervised by Johns on Caspar David Friedrich and accompanying department-funded travel to Hamburg, Berlin, and Dresden (my first time out of the U.S.), was born entirely of the brilliance and encouragement of the department’s outstanding faculty.

Nearly a decade later, the discipline has become a rather resilient fixture in my life—I am working on a Ph.D. in Art History at the University of Pennsylvania after a master’s from Williams College. The nineteenth century is still on my mind, as my dissertation focuses on the radical aesthetic practices of shoemakers, building-painters, and artificial florists during the time of the Paris Commune. My research for the project has taken me from France to Australia to New Caledonia, but Cohen Hall will always hold a special and foundational place in my trajectory within art history.

Allison Mast, BA’15

During my time in the department, I had the opportunity to write a seminar paper on the political implications of Marquette’s basketball jerseys and an Honor’s Thesis on the architecture of baseball parks. These allowed me to explore the intersection of art and sports, which I covered closely at Vanderbilt as the Sports Editor of the Hustler.

Upon graduating in 2015, I attended the University of San Francisco’s Sport Management program, where I continued my thesis research on the urban redevelopment impact of contextualized ballparks for my master’s project. I worked in the public relations departments of the Pac-12 Networks and Golden State Warriors, where I was fortunate enough to earn two championship rings. My greatest passion has always been baseball, so I was thrilled to also work for both sides of the Bay Bridge Series rivalry, the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics. My duties mostly consisted of creating statistical game notes for the writers and broadcasters to use to embellish their stories.

In 2019, I transitioned to a career in luxury hospitality. For the past four and a half years, I have worked in a member success role for Inspirato, a travel club. While working in the travel industry during a pandemic has had its challenges, it has also given me an opportunity to connect with people and explore more places. Not able to stay away from baseball, I just completed my first season as a part-time Social and Editorial Producer for the MLB, covering top prospects and the Minor Leagues.