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. (Formerly course 80G.)

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.

An introduction to the European tradition in visual culture, from antiquity to the present, but not in chronological order. All media, including the fine arts, architecture, film, video, and installation and performance work are incorporated. Presents the major visual regimes of representation while it probes the meanings and limits of Europe and the European tradition in the context of the visual.

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. (Formerly Modern Art in Context.)

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. (Formerly Design and Environment 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. (Formerly A Short History of the Digital.)

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 course 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.

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

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. (Formerly course 47.)

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