Hidden Curriculum

Graduate students in the art history program who are from underrepresented groups, including being of the first generation in their families to have obtained an undergraduate degree or the first to pursue a doctorate, can often feel mystified by what is called the "hidden curriculum," that is, the unstated norms, expectations, and values of a graduate program. That mystification can result in a sense of exclusion, embarrassment, and a ultimately a lack of achievement. It is a form of inequity. 

A core goal for the department, with respect to its DEI efforts, is to be as transparent as possible and provide resources for anyone who feels like an outsider to academic or departmental culture.  

Important Things to Remember

1.  YOU ARE NOT AN IMPOSTOR. By admitting you to the graduate program in art history, the department faculty not only affirmed that you have the skills, knowledge, and experience to succeed, but also committed significant financial resources as well as their time and energy as teachers, advisers, and administrators to ensure that you meet your educational goals. 

2. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. A majority of the faculty have themselves experienced the sense of isolation produced by the hidden curriculum in their own graduate school experience.  Anna Seastrand, Dan Greenberg, and Jane Blocker were recipients of Pell Grants (Federal grants that support low-income undergraduates) and know first hand what it means not to have the resources, advantages, and insider knowledge that money often affords, Jane, Dan, Anna, Jennifer Marshall, Laura Kalba, Sinem Casale, and Rob Silberman were all first generation graduate students. Laura and Sinem  were both international students (which presents its own significant challenges), and Sinem was also a first generation undergraduate student. 

3. WE WANT YOU TO SUCCEED. All of the faculty, no matter their background or experience, are dedicated to your success and are happy to help you acclimate to this new world and navigate through it.

4. YOU BELONG HERE. Therefore, you have a right to ask questions about anything you do not understand. The faculty are committed to clarifying the obscurities of the graduate student experience.

Departmental Efforts 

Although we want to empower you to ask questions and seek help, it is important to state firmly that the work of exposing tacit expectations should not fall solely to the student. Instead, the department has undertaken the following efforts to combat this inequity:

DEPARTMENT INTRANET
One means of preventing students' isolation is to provide easily accessible, comprehensive information about the graduate program, including degree requirements, timelines, available resources, and support. Of particular note with respect to this issue are the Doctoral Program Overview, the Doctoral Program Timeline, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Well Being tabs.

This website, and our ongoing efforts to expand and update it, comprise a serious effort to expose the hidden curriculum. If, after using this resource, you find that it fails to offer important information, please let us know. You can meet with or email the Graduate Program Coordinator, the Director of Graduate Studies, or Department Chair, or you can submit an anonymous response to our Google comment form. 

PEAKING BEHIND THE CURTAIN
A variety of factors contribute to the obscurity around departmental practices, especially how decisions are made with respect to graduate students. 

• Because we are a relatively small department in which up to a third of the faculty might be on leave in any semester, there is a constant flux in faculty occupying administrative roles. Each person stepping into such an office will establish their own priorities, modes of communication, and styles of working. This can sometimes make for inconsistencies and a sense of confusion. 

• Where graduate students are concerned, we need to maintain a fair amount of confidentiality, which means that we cannot always provide an explanation for departmental decisions.

• Lots of things, including degree requirements, funding, travel policies, admissions targets, ratios of teaching assistants to students enrolled in a class, are all determined--in whole or in part--by outside entities such as the College of Liberal Arts, the Graduate School, the Higher Learning Commission, or the federal government. 

To create as much transparency as possible about our internal decision making, we have prepared this guide: WHERE AND HOW DECISIONS AFFECTING GRADUATE STUDENTS ARE MADE

ANNUAL REVIEW PROCESS
Every year, students are required to report to the faculty on their degree progress and activities by submitting this form, which reminds students not only of degree requirements, but of additional expectations including presenting research at scholarly conferences, publishing, applying for grants and fellowships, and participating in the life of the department. 

DRY RUN PRESENTATIONS
Graduate students who receive departmental travel funding to participate in professional conferences are required to present their work to department faculty and other graduate students. These dry run presentations not only offer the student an opportunity to practice delivering a scholarly paper, they also provide informal training in the practicalities and practices of scholarly colloquy. 

FACULTY ADVISING
Our department has long made a commitment to providing intensive one-on-one advising for our graduate students, through which we support student-driven research and each individual's educational and career goals. Many of our faculty have won university awards for teaching and advising, and many of them are proud first generation college or graduate students themselves. 

PROFESSIONALIZATION WORKSHOPS
The art history department at the University of Minnesota has a distinguished record of professional training for its graduate students.  This includes the annual professionalization workshop series, which has been offered since 2004 and includes presentations on such things as book and journal publishing, pedagogy, grant writing, the academic job market and preparedness, and alternate careers in museums, development, and arts writing and publishing.

ANNUAL SCHOLARLY LECTURE SERIES
Each year the department organizes a series of lectures by prominent scholars in diverse subfields of the discipline. Through these talks, graduate students not only gain knowledge on art historical topics, but are also exposed to exemplary professional research and presentation practices. 

University Support

The University of Minnesota has launched its First Generation project, which is designed to support and celebrate first gen students. Here's a link to their page for graduate students, which features key links to a wide range of financial, academic, instructional, and health resources. 

As part of the FirstGen project, the University is making this book available for free: Decoding the Academy: A Roadmap for First-generation College Students Through Graduate Education