The Department of Art and Art History was founded at Oakland University in 1960 when Dean George Matthews hired John Galloway as chairperson. Galloway had both a PhD in art history (Columbia University) and an MFA in studio art, and he continued to be a productive scholar-painter until his death in 1970. Carl Barnes, a distinguished scholar in Medieval Art and also a Columbia PhD, was hired in 1971 to succeed Galloway. In the past three decades, the department has been led by Professors John Cameron, Charlotte Stokes, Janice Schimmelman, Susan Wood, and the current chair, Andrea Eis. With separate majors in both art history and studio art the department has been a strong component of the liberal arts curriculum at Oakland University.
