Study and Research

Eight fields of research structure the INHA’s academic programmes: history of ancient art; history of archaeology; history of mediaeval art; history of taste; history of architecture; art beyond the fine and decorative arts design, material culture; history of contemporary art of the 20th – 21st centuries; practices in the history of art; and the arts in globalisation. Programmes are piloted by the Department of Studies and Research, which welcomes current and future scholars for limited periods, under the guidance of academic advisors: resident scholars (young doctors or curators), research assistants (doctoral candidates), student monitors (masters candidates) and foreign scholarship students. These teams are trained in the development and dissemmation of scholarship, in the handling of the documentary dimension of research and in the digital humanities.

The research programmes are led in partnership with French or foreign institutions, either academic institutions or museums, thus bringing together art historians with mixed horizons and making possible a number of ambitious initiatives. These programmes lead to the production of documentary resources, available online for the academic community and the general public via the platform AGORHA (agorha.inha.fr), as well as to the organisation of a multitude of events – symposiums, exhibitions, seminars, conferences – open to all in the spaces of the Galerie Colbert and the publication of books, either copublished or available online (inha.revues.org).

The Department of Studies and Research includes approximately fifty permanent researchers and welcomes each year, for periods of one month to two years, some forty other French and foreign scholars. Other than those who are invited during a stay in Paris, eight traveling scholar programmes organised by the INHA provide financing for trips to Paris or abroad for art historians of all nationalities.

The Department of Studies and Research in figures

  • 140 scholars have participated in the INHA's research programmes
  • 390 guest scholars have been invited
  • 30 research programmes comprise 8 major fields of study