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Art History Research at Yale: Dissertations & Theses

WHAT EXPERT RESEARCHERS KNOW

A thesis is typically the culminating project for a master's degree, while a dissertation completes a doctoral degree and represents a scholar's main area of expertise. However, some undergraduate students write theses that are published online, so it is important to note which degree requirements the thesis meets. While these are not published works like peer-reviewed journal articles, they are typically subjected to a rigorous committee review process before they are considered complete. Additionally, they often provide a large number of citations that can point you to relevant sources. 

Find Dissertations & Theses at Yale

Dissertations & Theses @ Yale University
A searchable databases with dissertations and theses in all disciplines written by students at Yale from 1861 to the present.

Yale University Master of Fine Arts Theses in Graphic Design​
Finding aid for Arts Library Special Collections holdings of over 600 individual theses from 1951 to the present. The theses are most often in book format, though some have more experimental formats. Individual records for the theses are also available in the library catalog.

Yale University Master of Fine Arts Theses in Photography
Finding aid for Arts Library Special Collections holdings of over 300 individual Master of Fine Arts theses from 1971 to the present. The theses are most often in the format of a portfolio of photographic prints, though some theses are also in book form. Individual records for the MFA theses are also available in the library catalog.

Find Dissertations & Theses Online

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQD&T) is the single, central, authoritative resource for information about doctoral dissertations and master's theses. Contains more than 2 million entries, including dissertations published from 1980 forward include 350-word abstracts written by the author. Master's theses published from 1988 forward include 150-word abstracts.

Theses Canada Portal
Search AMICUS, Canada's national online catalogue, for bibliographic records of all theses in Library and Archives Canada's theses collection, which was established in 1965.

Center for Research Libraries (CRL): Foreign Doctoral Dissertations
CRL has more than 750,000 uncataloged foreign doctoral dissertations, of which approximately 20,000 are included in this database.  
This site provides access to a database of voluntarily-registered, author-identified doctoral dissertations in progress around the world.

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic analogues to traditional paper-based theses and dissertations.

Wanfang Dissertations of China
This database holds full-text, or abstracts and other descriptive information of Masters, Doctoral, and Post-doctoral dissertations from key Chinese research institutions from 1986 onward.

SUDOC
An online catalog to holdings at French academic libraries, SUDOC covers theses completed in France since 1972 (for Humanities and Social Sciences). Search by author, title, and abstract. Limit your search to theses by clicking on "Options" on the right hand corner of the page and limiting your search to "Thèses;" click on "Appliquer" to save your selection and proceed with the search.

Österreichische Dissertationsdatenbank
A catalog of German-language dissertations.