SDSU School of Art, Design, and Art History

Graduate Studies and Emphases Overview

Degrees, Emphases, and Specializations Defined

The School of Art, Design, and Art History offers three graduate degrees: Master of Arts (Art History - 30 units), Master of Arts (Studio Arts - 30 units), and Master of Fine Arts (60 units). The MA in Art History clearly defines its emphasis as Art History, whereas candidates in the MFA or MA in Studio Arts need to select an emphasis area in order to know which specific courses they can take to fulfill their degree requirements. The "emphasis" is the course-option program that the student will follow while pursuing the degree. There are six major graduate emphases offered for the MFA and MA in Studio Arts, and two of these emphases have very developed specializations with specialized faculty and facilities, as follows:

Applied Design

• Ceramics (specialization)
• Fiber (specialization)
• Furniture/Woodworking (specialization)
• Jewelry/Metalsmithing (specialization)

Graphic Design

Interior Design

Multimedia

Painting and Printmaking

• Book Arts (sub-discipline)
• Photography (sub-discipline)
• Painting (sub-discipline)
• Printmaking (sub-discipline)

Sculpture

NOTE: While specializations are under umbrella emphases, they are highly specialized, and students applying to the Applied Design emphasis need to apply to a specific specialization within the Applied Design emphasis (i.e. a furniture student would apply to the Applied Design emphasis with a specialization in Furniture/Woodworking). The Painting and Printmaking "sub-disciplines," however, are general disciplines that are fluidly available to all students within the Painting and Printmaking emphasis. Students interested in studying these sub-disciplines need only apply to the general Painting and Printmaking emphasis.

Interdisciplinary Coursework

Although students must select an emphasis for studio-related degrees, the School of Art, Design, and Art History is strongly committed to encouraging students to structure their coursework in an interdisciplinary fashion. The faculty are supportive of the exploration of materials, techniques, media, and conceptual thinking new to students and encourage students working across disciplines to develop a required body of work.

Graduate Degree Requirements

For more information about specific areas of study available to graduate students, please select a link from the list of disciplines on the left. For more information on degree requirements for any of the three graduate degrees offered, please refer to the Graduate Admissions page.

This page was last updated at 3:02PM on May 2, 2011