Het onderwijs van Thijs richt zich op praktijk en theorie van de vroegmoderne kunst; geschiedenis van de kunstgeschiedenis; en digitale kunstgeschiedenis. Eerder heeft hij ook gedoceerd op het gebied van erfgoedstudies. MA en RMA scripties die hij begeleidde in Utrecht zijn hier te vinden

Promovendi: 

Trude Dijkstra, The Chinese Imprint: Printing and Publishing the Middle Kingdom in the Dutch Republic, 1595-1700

Willemijn van Noord, Materialising China: Material culture and perceptions of China in the Dutch Republic, 1665-1721

Rieke van Leeuwen, Masters of Mobility: Patterns in the International Mobility of Artists from the Low Countries  in the Early Modern Period

Elsa Dikkes, The Van Dort Family: Travel, Migration and Settlement Patterns of an Early Seventeenth-Century Artist Family 

Ain Taha, Making Sense: Material and Knowledge Encounters in 17th century Netherlandish Art Objects

Margaux Shraiman, Curious Creatures and Strange Specimens: Picturing Global Ecologies in Netherlandish Art

Nico Ganbold, Global Encounters: Production, Reception, and Circulation of the Image of People from Beyond Europe by Travelling Netherlandish Artists

V.E. Mandrij (co-promotor, University of Konstanz), “One could ornament a painting with the wings of a butterfly”: a technical examination of “Schmetterlingsabdruck” in sottobosco paintings by Otto Marseus van Schrieck (1620/21-1678) and his followers

Henrike Scholten (co-promotor with Marjolijn Bol), From Fluidity to Firmness – Painting, Permanence and Knowledge Practices, 1600-1750