Our MA curriculum prioritizes traditional research methods, while also focusing on new media skills and hands-on learning via internships, curating coursework, and museum studies.
Masha Stoyanova has come a long way in her studies and in her professional journey. A native of Russia, she arrived at Mason as an undergraduate. After completing her BA in art history, Masha began work on her master's degree in art history.
Her professors describe her as "a highly disciplined perfectionist" and praise "her stunning academic work, her intense ambition and intellectualism, and her collegiality." For her masters degree work, Masha is studying areas of art history where a gap in scholarship had existed: the influence of the rediscovery of Pompeii on Russian art, Russians taking the European Grand Tour, and Soviet art sales to American collectors in the twentieth century. She is uniquely situated to study these challenging areas, describing her native Russian language as "the most helpful tool in my research." The art history department is enthusiastic about this line of research and about Masha herself.