Preservation Studies (PhD)

Maximum enrollment will generally be limited to approximately eight matriculated students, one or two accepted a year, dependent upon the amount of additional funding available to support students in this program, and by the availability of faculty members to serve as advisors within the demands of their individual workloads. Students will be admitted to the program based upon enrollment availability and their ability to meet the following recommended entrance requirements:

Applications must be made online via the University of Delaware's Graduate College and all relevant materials must be received by February 1. ​

Applicants are to contact the PSP Director (currently Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner, jhstoner@udel.edu) well in advance of the annual February 1 deadline, and preliminary discussions will be arranged by email in order to determine if there are potential faculty members available in the chosen concentration and what travel or analytical equipment funding may be necessary.

After receiving each applicant's curriculum vitae and description of the proposed dissertation topic, the PSP director will attempt to assemble a pre-admissions advisory committee of at least three interdisciplinary faculty members who can address the suggested topic to determine its suitability for available expertise at the University of Delaware. This committee will present its findings to a larger five-person interdisciplinary admissions/PSP advisory committee after all admissions materials listed above have been received.

Admission to the program is selective and competitive based on the number of well-qualified applicants and the limits of available faculty and facilities for each concentration and dissertation topic area. Applicants who meet stated minimum requirements are not guaranteed admission, nor are those who fail to meet all of those requirements necessarily precluded from admission if they offer other appropriate strengths. An on-campus interview with members of the pre-admissions advisory committee is strongly encouraged while the application is in progress. For additional information or arrangements to visit the UD campus and meet with faculty please contact Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner at jhstoner@udel.edu.
 

Application Package

Applications must include:

• All minimum University requirements
• A master’s degree in a discipline relevant to one of the program concentrations. All college and university transcripts should be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies; these must come directly from the institution
• A summary of intended dissertation research and the relation of this topic to existing UD expertise and resources should be incorporated into your personal essay in addition to a suggested list of courses taken from the online UD course listings. The research proposal should follow this outline: 
  • Proposed project title 
  • Project significance and goals 
  • Background, preliminary survey of existing literature 
  • Methodology, examples to be studied 
  • Your ability to complete this project successfully, ability to speak or read the necessary languages, etc. 
  • Faculty and coursework at the University of Delaware that you feel would be relevant to your study
  • Your personal essay should also discuss areas of interest, intellectual goals, and how this program would be seen to meet these goals. Applicants must demonstrate prior background work, especially in their Master's-level study, that will enable them to successfully complete graduate-level courses and conduct graduate-level research on the proposed dissertation topic
• A professional and academic curriculum vitae is required
• A writing sample to help the admissions committee assess the applicant's ability to design and conduct a research project and to communicate findings to the scholarly community
  • Published papers on a relevant topic would also be helpful
• Standardized test results (as applicable)
  • Applicants for whom English is not a native language should submit TOEFL scores in order to demonstrate satisfactory proficiency in the English language. A score of 79-100 or higher is required for internet-based TOEFL exams (IBT) and a minimum score of 550-600 for paper-based TOEFL exams. TOEFL exam scores are valid for two years. Please visit the Office of Graduate Studies International Applicants information page and click on “English Proficiency” for additional information on this topic.​
• Three letters of recommendation that speak to the applicant's ability to conduct research in the chosen area of concentration addressed to the PSP Director (currently Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner) by the recommender and submitted online
• Online submission of the official application form from the UD website to the Office of Graduate Studies by February 1
• The committee may request additional materials

The Coremans Endowment is in place and available for support for Ph.D. students in preservation studies especially in fields related to art and architectural conservation and technical art history. Students apply for these funds competitively as part of the admissions process. Students must remain in good standing each semester to retain their fellowship funding. Some teaching and research assistantships may also be available through collaborating units. Some students may be supported on external research grants depending on the chosen topic. Assistance will be awarded on a competitive basis to applicants best fitting the needs of the internal endowment, external granting agencies, and sponsoring faculty. Students receiving full stipends will be expected to maintain full-time status and may be expected to work up to 20 hours a week assisting faculty with research or teaching.

This will vary according to topic. The PSP students may be required to pay a fee to use analytical equipment at the Winterthur Museum Scientific Research and Analysis Laboratory. There may also be equipment use costs at some University of Delaware labs. All such costs will be anticipated, researched, and compiled by the student and advisor/committee chair, and potential funding sources identified, or alternative research avenues developed prior to the approval of a dissertation proposal. The PSP has a small fund to which students may apply for these funding needs and will work with students to identify external funding sources whenever possible; however, the responsibility to raise funding for travel, analytical equipment fees, and other research-related support rests with the student.

​Department of Art Conservation Emergency Grant Program for Graduate Students in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation or the Preservation Studies Program​

The Department of Art Conservation is committed to supporting the financial, educational, and emotional needs of our graduate students. Our Student Emergency Fund established August 15, 2021 supports graduate students who demonstrate exceptional financial need due to an unanticipated crisis or unforeseen educational barriers. ​

​Rowntree Research Award in Contemporary Art​

WUDPAC and PSP students are invited to apply for the Rowntree Research Award to attend conferences, or to travel to carry out research or collections-based study related to contemporary art. Applicants may ask for the application form by writing to jhstoner@udel.edu; you will be asked for a budget along with answers to questions about the project. The annual deadline for applications is April 1. More information about the Rowntree Award can be found elsewhere on our website​​. ​

Written Qualifying Examination

After 18 credits of course work have been graded, the student must pass a written qualifying examination in the areas of concentration, supervised by senior faculty from the appropriate departments. The scope and content of the examination will be determined by the presumptive dissertation committee chair and the PSP director in consultation with members of the committee and/or professors of courses the student has completed for the concentration requirement. The qualifying examination must be passed before the student proceeds to candidacy.

The qualifying exam is to be scheduled no sooner than the end of the semester following the completion of required coursework. Each section of the exam must be passed in order for the examination to be considered a “pass.” For instance, if there is a section on anthropology and a section on chemistry, each section must receive a grade of 80% or above.

Should the student fail the qualifying examination, the student will be given an opportunity to retake the exam. The second attempt to pass the examination must normally be made no earlier than the end of the following semester after the first attempt to pass the examination and no later than a year after the first attempt to pass the examination. If the student wishes to retake the examination sooner or later than the specified intervals, the program director can be petitioned accordingly. Failure to pass the examination on the second attempt will normally result in termination from the program effective at the end of that term. However, the student can petition for one final retake. The student may also elect to withdraw from the program. Since this is an interdisciplinary program, it is possible that some coursework credits could be transferred to another department if the student is accepted into a doctoral program in that department.

Advancement to Candidacy

A student can be admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. after completing all required course work, passing the written examination, fulfilling the residency requirement, and once their dissertation proposal has been accepted by the committee. Once advanced to candidacy, students must register for at least 9 credits of Ph.D. dissertation credit (969) usually while conducting dissertation research full time. Subsequently, candidates are required to register for Ph.D. sustaining credit (U999) each semester. This is not a full-time registration but only a registration to ensure that the student is active until degree requirements are met. 

Dissertation

The dissertation is expected to reflect the results of original and high-quality research of significance to preservation studies, written in a scholarly and literary manner worthy of publication. The dissertation is the focal point of this research-oriented degree, and thus the majority of a student's time will be spent on this component of the degree requirements. Three of the five or more chapters could be considered publishable separately, if appropriate. 

Committee

During the second year of the program each student in cooperation with his or her advisor will nominate, for approval by the program director, a dissertation committee consisting of at least four but not more than six members. The committee chairperson must have an established record of publication and/or scholarship in the area of concentration selected by the student, and must be a full-time University of Delaware faculty member. The majority of committee members must be full-time University of Delaware faculty; the majority of committee members must hold doctoral degrees. Students are required to select at least one external member, from outside the University, in order to broaden the perspectives of the committee. The external member(s) should have an established record of publication and/or scholarship in the area of concentration of the dissertation. A student can request a change in the committee in writing with justification to the Director of the PSP. Once the student has advanced to candidacy and the dissertation committee is approved by the Director for the PSP, it is forwarded to the Office of Graduate Studies for review and approval.  

Dissertation Proposal

​One semester after passing the qualifying examination, the student must submit a formal dissertation proposal (of about 10-15 pages with substantive bibliography) to his or her dissertation committee. The proposal should define the research question, demonstrate its significance to preservation studies and within the chosen area of concentration, provide a context for the project within the relevant published literature, outline the proposed research methods, and provide a timetable for conduct of the research and writing phases. After the proposal has been circulated to the dissertation committee, the committee will meet as a group with the student to discuss and refine the proposal. The student will normally make a formal illustrated presentation of the topic at this time. Students and faculties from related departments are invited to attend. Any dissertation proposals that involve human or animal subjects must follow the guidelines for approval of such proposals that exist in all Colleges and external institutions represented by the student’s doctoral committee. Dissertation committee members should sign the final copy of the approved proposal. A signed copy of the approved dissertation proposal should be forwarded to the PSP Director. Students who fail the dissertation proposal presentation will receive one additional opportunity to repeat the process and defend a new or modified dissertation proposal. ​

Dissertation Defense

The student will conduct an oral defense of the work to all members of the committee at once at least two weeks after delivery of the completed dissertation. After all questions have been fielded, the dissertation committee will meet to decide whether the dissertation is accepted, rejected, or accepted pending revisions. The success of the defense will be determined by a committee vote. In the case of dissenting votes, the majority opinion will rule, and a majority vote in favor is needed for a successful dissertation and defense (in the case of a tie, the vote will be in the favor of the student). 

Time Limit

There is a ceiling of five years for the completion of all requirements of the Ph.D. degree, including the dissertation and defense. Extensions may be granted on a year-to-year basis if the student can demonstrate continuing progress. The PSP Faculty meets annually to review the student’s class performance, progress toward degree, commitment to the field of study, and appropriate contribution to the university community. Failure to demonstrate progress may result in termination from the program; such terminations will be done in consultation between the dissertation committee chair, the PSP Director, and the Office of Graduate Studies. If, in the professional judgment of the program faculty, a student has failed to make satisfactory progress toward meeting the academic standards of the program, the faculty may vote to dismiss that student from the program. In the case of dismissal, the PSP Director is required to send a report to the Office of Graduate Studies that states the faculty vote on the decision causing dismissal and the justification for this action. The Office of Graduate Studies will notify the student in writing when the student is being dismissed for failure to make satisfactory progress in the program. In the case of academic dismissal, the student may appeal the termination in writing to the Office of Graduate Studies.

Complete requirements can be found in UD's Course Catalog. When viewing the course catalog please ensure you're viewing the correct year.

​PSP alumni dissertations can be found in the UD library system or through Proquest​.

​​A student must be in full-time residence for the first year of study: two contiguous semesters. The purpose of this requirement is to enable a student to participate fully in the scholarly community of the university for a sustained period of time. In addition to benefiting the student, such participation also benefits other preservation studies students, and students and faculty of collaborating departments who have the opportunity to interact more closely with a student in residence. A non-credit seminar for presentation of research in progress will also be required for three semesters; faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students in related departments will be encouraged to attend.

Program faculty is drawn from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Agriculture, Engineering, Human Services, Education and Public Policy, and Earth, Ocean and Environment, and may include the Departments of Anthropology, Art History, Art Conservation, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Entomology and Applied Ecology, Geography, Geology, History, Plant and Soil Sciences, Political Science and International Relations, the Center for Historic Architecture and Design; the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, the Disaster Research Center, the Museum Studies Program, the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, and interested faculty and professional staff in other academic units relevant to any of the six areas of concentration. PSP students have worked successfully with professors and students in anthropology, art conservation, art history, chemistry, geology, history, materials science, public policy, sociology, and urban affairs, and other departments and have served as teaching assistants within the Department of Art Conservation and CHAD (Center for Historic Architecture and Design).​

Interdisciplinary faculty members who have supervised Preservation Studies Doctoral Program students include: 

Jocelyn Alcantara-Garcia (ARTC)

David Ames (CHAD)

Wendy Bellion (ARTH)

Chris Bennett (ARTH)

Anne Bowler (SOC)

Martin Brueckner (ENG)

Vicki Cassman (ARTC)

Perry Chapman (ARTH)

Jon Cox (ART)

Jay Custer (ANTH)

Lu Ann De Cunzo (ANTH)

Alan Fox (PHIL)

Ritchie Garrison (HIST/WPAMC)

Katherine Grier (HIST)

Carla Guerrón Montero (ANTH)

Jessica Horton (ARTH)

Sandy Isenstadt (ARTH)

Paul Jackson (GEOG) 

Murray Johnston (CHEM)

James Jones (PSYCH)

Catherine Matsen (ARTC)

Julie McGee (BAMS)

Lyndsay Naylor (GEOG)

Robert Opila (MSEG) 

Chris Petersen (ARTC)

Bruno Pouliot (ARTC)

Chandra L. Reedy (CHAD)

Tom Rocek (ANTH)

Peter Roe (ANTH)

Karen Rosenberg (ANTH)

Vimalin Rujivacharakul (ARTH)

Joyce Hill Stoner (ARTC)

Neil Sturchio (GEOL)

Roberta Tarbell (ARTC/ARTH)

Andrew Teplyakov (CHEM)

Tricia Wachtendorf (SOC)

Robert Warren (UAPP)

Dissertation topic: Preservation of Outdoor Metal Sculpture. A student working in this area might do a dissertation involving one or more of the following research topics: testing coatings for corrosion protection, testing corrosion inhibitors, developing and testing new methods for monitoring corrosion susceptibility, identifying corrosion products and deterioration mechanisms, studying the relationship between atmospheric pollutants and corrosion mechanisms, testing the effects of cleaning regimes on sculpture surfaces and aesthetics, investigating the role of biocorrosion in deterioration of outdoor sculpture and sculpture coatings, or studying issues of original artist intent versus deterioration and conservation approaches.

Sample student background: A student following this curriculum plan would have one of the following backgrounds:

• Be a practicing conservator with experience in sculpture conservation, with a master's degree in art conservation or a related field and additional undergraduate or graduate courses in chemistry, materials science, or metallurgy/metallography
• Have a master's degree in materials science or chemistry, with additional courses and/or experience in sculpture techniques, art history, conservation science, or sculpture conservation

Special prerequisites: GRE required

Suggested coursework:

Required courses (6 credits)

• MSEG 606: Corrosion and Protection
• MSST 645: Technology of Cultural Materials: Metals
• PRES 801: A non-credit seminar for presentation of research in progress will also be required for three semesters; faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students in related departments will be encouraged to attend.

One of these two courses (3 credits)

• MSEG 602: Structure of Materials
• MSEG 603: Analytical Techniques in Materials Science


An additional 9 credits to be chosen from any of the following courses:

• MEEG 634: Air Pollution Processes
• GEOG 651: Microclimatology
• CHEM 622: Electroanalytical Chemistry
• CHEM 623: Chemometrics
• CHEM 624: Principles of Mass Spectrometry
• CHEM 626: Instrumental Methods in Mass Spectrometry
• CHEM 627: Practical Mass Spectrometry
• CHEM 680: Introduction to Polymer Science
• Any art history graduate seminar focusing on sculpture

Followed by the dissertation.

Suggested committee members: The committee could include a faculty member in Museum Studies who does research on corrosion and metal artifacts; a materials scientist with interest in corrosion and protection of metals; a chemist who can analyze atmospheric particulate matter or study deterioration of polymeric coatings; an artist with experience in fabrication techniques and materials of sculpture; external members could be a corrosion scientist and/or a local sculpture conservator or conservation scientist with expertise in metals.

Dissertation topic: Misconceptions in 19th-century revivalism of 16th-17th-century Old Master techniques: e.g. Delacroix copying Rubens and Washington Allston copying Titian. Contemporary letters, documents, treatises on painting methods would be examined, paintings sampled, and media and pigments compared. (Delacroix mistakenly copied paintings by his hero Rubens when they were covered with discolored varnish and consequently thought they were much darker than they actually were, affecting his painting technique accordingly, and Washington Allston, known as the "American Titian," interlayered varnish into his paint films in an attempt to imitate the natural translucency of aged oil paint making them quite dangerous to clean.)

Sample student background: A student following this curriculum plan would have one of the following backgrounds:

• Be a practicing paintings conservator with a master's degree in art conservation
• Be an art historian with a master's degree with additional undergraduate or graduate courses in chemistry, materials science or paint technology

Special prerequisites: Reading knowledge in French or Italian would be helpful. GRE scores, especially quantitative, are required.

Suggested coursework:

Required coursework (9 credits)

3 courses in current scientific methods, to be adjusted according to the expertise of the applicant, but possibly including:

• ARTC 672 and ARTC 673: Chemical and Physical Techniques Used in the Examination of Art Materials III and IV
• ARTC 666: Independent study on microscopy of paint cross-sections, fluorescent staining, and work with faculty from the Chemistry Department on Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry.
• PRES 801: A non-credit seminar for presentation of research in progress will also be required for three semesters; faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students in related departments will be encouraged to attend.

An additional 9 credits to be chosen from any of the following:

• ARTH 611: Studies in Italian Renaissance Art
• ARTH 617: Studies in Northern Baroque Art
• ARTH 621: Studies in 19th-century Art

• Other relevant courses in the Art Conservation, Art History, or History

Followed by the dissertation.

Suggested committee members: The committee could include one or two art historians with expertise in Renaissance/Baroque or 19th-century paintings, a paintings conservator from WUDPAC, one or two scientists with expertise in microscopy, Fourier-Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy, and GS-MS (from WUDPAC or chemistry department).

Dissertation topic: The history of urbanism and the preservation of historic urban environments.

Please note: Due to recent retirements of faculty members in this area, candidates are not being considered for dissertation work in Historic Preservation Planning until further notice​.

• Sample student background: A student following this curriculum plan would have a master's degree and one of the following backgrounds:
• Previous work with historic sites surveys and National Register nominations in her state
• Oversight of architectural inventories and the publication of those inventories in a series of descriptive technical reports
  
• Background in historic preservation publication
• Desire to advance in the field of historic preservation and broaden the interpretive framework for the public interpretation of historic architecture, landscapes, and sites.

Goals of research are likely to be professional advancement with an eye toward steering preservation practice toward humanistic as well as planning goals. Special prerequisites: Prior experience in field-based architectural history and preservation planning. MA or certification in architectural history, urban history, historic preservation, or museum studies expected.

Suggested coursework:

Required courses (9 credits)

• UAPP 629: Seminar in Historic Preservation
• MSST 608: Public History: Resources, Research, and Practice
• HIST 605: Theories in Material Culture
• PRES 801: A non-credit seminar for presentation of research in progress will also be required for three semesters; faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students in related departments will be encouraged to attend.

An additional 9 credits to be chosen from any of the following courses

• ARTH 667: The Town House in England and America
• GEOG 638: World Cities in Comparative Perspective
• UAPP 628: Issues in Land Use and Environmental Planning
• UAPP 635: Evolution of the American Urban Landscape
• ARTH 654: Vernacular Architecture
• HIST 657: Historical Archaeology and the Public
• Other courses in Urban Affairs and Public Policy, Museum Studies, History

Followed by the dissertation.

Suggested committee members: The committee could include faculty with a particular interest in urban form and preservation from Geography (urban historical geography); Center for Historic Architecture and Design (urban geography, land use planning, and public policy); Art History (urban architecture, town planning, and historic preservation); History (architectural history, industrial history, and museum studies).

New graduate courses designated with “experimental” 67 numbers are offered every semester. The faculty advisor(s) would work with the student in identifying and taking advantage of these offerings.​