Lower-Division

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of the basic structures (gender, art within political sphere, and spiritual aspects of visual culture) and cultural institutions (initiations, closed associations, kingship, title association, etc.) around which the study of African visual culture revolves.

An introduction to the art and architecture of East Asia, including China, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan. In order to achieve a fuller understanding of the arts of these countries a historical, cultural, and religious context is provided.

Introduction to the study of religious currents and practices in China and their visual expression. In addition to religious art, topics include such pivotal matters as body concepts and practices, representations of the natural world, and logics of the built environment.

Introduces the visual cultures of Southeast Asia. Topics include indigenous megalithic art, textiles, and jewelry, as well as Hindu and Buddhist art and architecture. Also considers shadow play and dance performance as alternative lenses to looking at ritual and visual narratives rendered on stone temples.

Examination of the ways social, religious, and political patronage have affected the production and reception of art in the Indian subcontinent. The course is designed as a series of case studies from different periods of Indian history.

Explores the theme of memory, haunting, ghosts and the politics of erasure and remembrance in films made by Asian filmmakers and contemporary artists in Asia. Examines the intersecting themes of haunting, memory, and ghosts and how selected filmmakers and visual artists in Asia go about framing and unframing this topic in their work. The goal of the course is to see, through a comparative lens, how these selected filmmakers and artists treat the topic of specter and the politics of memory and erasure in their respective films from a national and transnational perspective.

General survey of European art and architecture with a focus on the southern, Mediterranean ancient cultures. Course consists of a number of case studies of works from various periods from ancient to modern.

Survey of the visual and material products of European contact with Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas between 1500 and 1900 focused both on object-specific case studies and thematic discussions of contact, colonialism, appropriation, and the visual construction of race.

Interdisciplinary investigation of the construction of race in the United States, tracing the impact of European art on American artistic production, exploring its influence on African-American art and culture, including the Harlem Renaissance, black internationalism, and the vibrant Negritude movement. Explores how a definable black aesthetic crystallized during the late 1950s-70s African anti-colonial, Civil Rights and Black Power eras, and continued to flourish through the 1990s—all of which gave rise to new artistic forms such as black queer, feminist, and conceptual art. Also studies the phenomenon of post-black art, popular visual culture, as well as discourses on African modernity and globalization.

Explores the history of collecting and displaying art (museums, galleries, fairs) since the mid-19th century and the effect of institutional changes on aesthetic conventions. Follows the history from the origins of museums and collections to contemporary critiques of institutional exclusion and misrepresentation.

Examines the social, economic, and political significance of European and U.S. modernist art and architecture, moving from French realism to American minimalism. Provides the historical background and theoretical frameworks needed to make sense of modernist art and culture.

Examines the origins and development of modern architecture, from the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution to the 20th Century and beyond. Buildings, urban plans, and works of art and design are discussed in relation to political, social, and cultural currents.

Introduces the complex interplay between design--including architecture, art, engineering, and city planning--and conceptions of environment during the 20th Century in the American West.

Explores recent methods and approaches in photography. Surveys significant aesthetic, conceptual, and theoretical shifts occurring in the photographic medium and related discourses. Special attention given to the current landscape of contemporary photography (1980-present).

Overview of U.S. art and visual culture from the late 18th Century to the present. Examines art as evidence for understanding evolving beliefs and values of Americans. Explores the social and political meanings of art, and pays particular attention to how artists, patrons, and audiences have constructed nationalism, race, class, sexuality, and gender.

Introduces students to major debates and practices in contemporary art from 1960 to the present. Not a strict chronological survey or exhaustive catalogue, the course attends to movements and theoretical frameworks that still fuel contemporary practice and criticism.

As climate change grows more severe, artists and activists are creating strategies of consciousness-raising, mass mobilization, and sustainable living. This course investigates the convergence of climate justice and cultural politics, exploring imperatives for a just transition to a post-carbon future.

Introduction to digital visual culture including critical and historical approaches to memes; social media and politics; and the many intersections of data, images, and society. Sample topics include: digital art, digital activism, and surveillance.

The role that ancient art and visual culture play in constructing social identities, sustaining political agendas, and representing various cultural, ritual, and mythological practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, including the sociology of ancient cultures, mythology, religious studies, gender studies and history.

The central role of visual communication in ancient Greek civilization: examines the construction of cultural, social, political, religious, and gender identities through material objects and rituals. Includes discussions of images of the public and private sphere, athletic and theatrical performances, mythology, pilgrimage, and magic.

The human body without clothing in European and European-American art and visual culture from ancient Greece to the present day. Among the themes to be addressed: gender, youth and age, sexuality and sexual preference, fecundity and potency, erotic art and pornography, primitivism and the naked body of the non-European. (Formerly HAVC 31, The Nude in the Western Tradition.)

Examines some of the most representative creations of Islamic visual culture from the 7th Century to the present in order to appreciate the richness of this tradition and its extensive influence on other cultures. Focuses on the social, political, and religious role of a variety of materials, from mosques, palaces, and gardens to visual narratives, ceremonies, dance, and contemporary films.

Selected aspects of art and architecture of the first peoples of the Americas, north, central, and south, from ca. 2000 B.C.E. to present. Societies to be considered may include Anasazi, Aztec, Inca, Northwest Coast, Maya, Navajo, Plains, and others.

Through case studies of contemporary and historical practices, course examines the rich visual cultures of the United States and Canada. Students learn about the role artists play in resisting colonization and sustaining community knowledge.

Introduces students to the work of Native American artists that either reflects environmental knowledge or which reacts against threats to natural resources. By studying current issues such as fossil fuel extraction, invasive species, and wildfires, students learn how artists contend with threats to their ancestral homelands and how art functions as a powerful medium for raising awareness of these challenges.

Interdisciplinary course examines visual cultures of Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia from the archaeological past through contemporary periods.

Focuses on critical oceanic studies as an artistic paradigm for creating digital technologies. Pacific Islander artists create digital art to preserve and revitalize cultural practices. Oceanic digital arts are a form of cultural reclamation and represent a growing artistic movement to archive knowledge for future generations in the face of climate disaster and cultural erasure. Students analyze Indigenous virtual art to understand the benefits and shortcomings of prioritizing technology for Native knowledge production/preservation within our ever-increasingly techno-mediated world.

The arts and visual cultures of selected cultures that developed outside the spheres of influence of major European and Asian civilizations, with an emphasis on the history and influence of colonialism in creating current ethnic and racial categories.

Introduces the study of architecture and the built environment from a global perspective, focusing on architecture's relation to themes, such as ritual, power, the city, technology, and climate.

Supervised study for undergraduates. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.