The undergraduate art history program at UA teaches skills that can lead to a wide variety of careers.
Critical thinking, visual literacy, in-depth research, strong writing, public speaking and communication skills, attention to detail, are just a few examples. As a result, many of our undergrads have gone on to careers that you might not expect – for example, in non-profits, social media, owning their own business, law and medicine – as well as many different fields related to art history. Students who are seeking a major to prepare them for a world of transferable skills should check out what a few of our alumni are doing now – and find out about more of them on this page.
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Viola Moten Ratcliffe, courtesy of the Birmingham Times. Viola Moten Ratcliffe (BA 2008, art history) is the program manager for Bib & Tucker Sew-Op in Avondale in east Birmingham, Alabama, a nonprofit organization that teaches skills and provides economic opportunity for participants.
- Aaron Sanders Head (BA 2013, art history) has a studio on Main Street in Greensboro, Alabama, where he exhibits and sells his own hand-dyed, -embroidered, and -quilted textile art. In March 2021, he hosted printmaking student Sarah Dittmann’s MFA exhibition.
- Sharmaria Borden (BA, art history and studio art: digital media) serves as a user experience designer at Randall-Reilly Information Technology in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
- Gina Cashia (BA 2013, art history) is vice president of operations at Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries in New York, N.Y.
- After earning a BS in apparel design and textiles at UA in 2020, Kaitlyn Sarao (BA 2014, art history) is a freelance fashion designer and sells her own line of designs through her online shop Plastique.
- Rachael Sherrer (BA 2014, art history, minor in French and chemistry) is on the faculty of the department of urology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Sherrer earned her MD in urology at UAB School of Medicine in 2019.
Aaron Sanders Head - Zoe Elizabeth Stamatelos (BA 2014, chemistry and art history) works as a law clerk in Chicago specializing in intellectual property law, legal case management, legal writing and research, and cross-cultural lawyering. She earned her JD from American University.
- Casey Stephenson Waites (BA 2014, art history and English) teaches literature at the Jefferson County International Baccalaureate High School in Birmingham, Alabama. She earned an MA in literature from UA in 2017.
- Kelby Cox (MA 2017, art history; BA 2015, art history and studio art) works as a museum technician at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Cox previously worked as a collections assistant at the Cook Museum of Natural Science in Decatur, Alabama.
- Taylor Murray (BA 2017, art history) works as a fulfillment coordinator at the PETA Foundation. Murray still manages the popular art history social media site arthistoryfeed that he founded on Instagram (here’s his story).
- Michelle Moseley-Christian (MA 2000, BA 1997, art history) is associate professor and chair of art history in Medieval and Early Modern Studies and co-director of the MA in material culture and public humanities in the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech, where she has taught since 2007. She received her PhD with honors from the University of Kansas in 2008.
For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in art history and studio art, visit our Degree Programs page.