This is a preliminary course list for History of Art and Visual Culture Academic Year 2009-2010. All courses listed are subject to change.

Fall 2009

10D. Visual Cultures of Asia.
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. (General Education Code(s): IH, A.) The Staff

80H. Video Games as Visual Culture  

Through the aesthetic and theoretical introduction to electronic games, students are introduced to the histories, ideas and debates that inform game studies. Topics of study include narratology/ludology debates, interactivity, serious games and alternative games. (T5, A) Soraya Murray

80M. Indigenous American Visual Culture.
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. (General Education Code(s): T5-Humanities and Arts or Social Sciences, A, E.) C. Dean

100A. Methods in History of Art and Visual Culture.
Introduction to major issues of method and critique in study of art and visual culture. Focuses on understanding disciplinary and critical modes of scholarly inquiry in the visual arts, including role of historical research. Emphasizes intensive reading, discussion, and writing. Prerequisite(s): satisfaction of Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements. Enrollment restricted to sophomore, junior, and senior history of art and visual culture majors. Enrollment limited to 44. (General Education Code(s): W,A.) C. Soussloff

104A. Byzantine Visual Culture: Politics and Religion in New Rome, 300-1453 A.D..
Examines the power of the visual in the empire of Constantinople (330-1453 A.D.; the transition from ancient Rome to medieval Byzantium; politics and religion in courts and church ceremonial; visual expressions of Christian faith; and cultural interations with Western Europe, Islam, and the Slavic world.  Recommended: course on ancient Greek/Roman or medieval art and visual culture. (General Education Code(s): A.) The Staff

106A. Religious Traditions in Indian Art.
Examines ways in which religious traditions are embedded in (or embodied within) art of the Indian sub-continent. Topics include Hindu temples; Jain art; Buddhist sacred narratives and cosmology; royal elite and popular patronage; and functions of icons. Enrollment restricted to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Enrollment limited to 80. (General Education Code(s): A, E.) B. Ly

107B. Topics in African Visual Culture: West Africa.
Explores visual cultures of West Africa through time.  Topics may include relationships between people and impacts of European/Arab presence on visual cultures. (General Education Code(s): A.) The Staff

115. Italian Renaissance: Representation and Institutions.
Lives of Italian Renaissance people from birth to death, examining the nature and roles of the institutions which defined human existence in this period. Uses visual arts both illustratively and to study how institutions fashioned their images through art and architecture. (General Education Code(s): A.) The Staff

185C. African Architecture. CANCELED
Study of the built environment in Africa. Focusing in depth on 10 major architectural forms or sites, this course explores the diversity of architectural types and how gender, politics, religion, and culture shape and are shaped by architectural spaces. Enrollment limited to 35. (General Education Code(s): A, E.) The Staff

189V. Art of the Venetian Renaissance. CANCELED
Considers Venetian art in the 15th and 16th centuries. Topics include major artists (the Bellini, Carpaccio, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Palladio) and the relationship of the city to outside forces (Byzantine Empire, Turkish Empires) and other Italian cities. Enrollment limited to 35. (General Education Code(s): A.) The Staff

191O. African Art & Visual Culture
This advance seminar course requires intensive research and writing on changing topics related to a specific area of art and/or visual culture of Africa chosen to demonstrate critical mastery of that subject. Enrollment restricted to juniors and seniors. Enrollment limited to 18. (General Education Code(s): A, E.) The Staff

191P. Art and Identity in the Pacific: Creating and Challenging Ethnic and National Identities.
Theoretical discussions and Pacific Basin case studies on 1) definitions of cultural, ethnic, and national identities; 2) relationship between art, museums, and construction of historical and cultural narratives; 3) ways "tradition" defined in art practices and used by groups to assert an identity in their present. Participants first develop a theoretical framework and vocabulary for analyzing artistic production in a variety of cultures. Through specific case studies, will explore how art, architecture, and museums actively contribute to define and challenge ethnic and national identities. Enrollment restricted to juniors, and seniors. Enrollment limited to 18. (General Education Code(s): A, E.) S. Kamehiro

Winter 2010

10C. Southeast Asia Visual Culture.
This course introduces students to visual cultures of Southeast Asia.  Materials that may be covered include indigenous megalithic art, textiles, jewelry, as well as Hindu and Buddhist art and architecture. (General Education Code(s): IH, A.) B. Ly

10E. Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
A comparative study of the arts of selected cultures which developed outside the spheres of influence of the major European and Asian civilizations. Emphasis is on the function of the arts in these disparate geographic regions. Students cannot receive credit for this course and course 100E. (General Education Code(s): IH, A, E.) S. Kamehiro

80A. Introduction to Architecture.
Introduction to elements, technology, concepts, and semiotics of architecture in its buildings, functions, environments, societies, and history. (General Education Code(s): T5-Humanities and Arts or Social Sciences, A.) D. Sandler

100A. Methods in History of Art and Visual Culture.
Introduction to major issues of method and critique in study of art and visual culture. Focuses on understanding disciplinary and critical modes of scholarly inquiry in the visual arts, including role of historical research. Emphasizes intensive reading, discussion, and writing. Prerequisite(s): satisfaction of Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements. Enrollment restricted to sophomore, junior, and senior history of art and visual culture majors. Enrollment limited to 44. (General Education Code(s): W,A.) J. González

110A. Topics in Pre-Hispanic Visual Culture: Mexico.
A rt and architecture of selected pre-Hispanic cultures from the gulf coast, central, western, and southern Mexico including the Olmec, Zapotec, Toltec, Mixtec, Mexica (Aztec), and others. Offered in alternate academic years. (General Education Code(s): A.) C. Dean

114. Buddhist Visual Worlds.
Introduction to the study of Buddhist visual traditions, from their beginnings to the present day. Case studies examined with careful attention to historical, social and cultural contexts; particular emphasis on the relation of visual traditions to Buddhist practices. Enrollment restricted to sophomore, junior, and senior students. (General Education Code(s): A.) R. Birnbaum

168. High Renaissance.
An investigation of the High Renaissance as a period and stylistic concept, using the major artists and monuments of the period 1480–1525 to discuss issues of theory, history, and art. Artists considered include Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Enrollment restricted to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Enrollment limited to 35. (General Education Code(s): A.) C. Soussloff

177. French Painting, 1780–1855.
The art of David, Gros, Ingres, Gericault, Delacroix, the Barbizon School, and Courbet studied in relation to the changing status of the art and the political events from 1789 to 1848. Second in a series of three courses on French art and its historical context. See courses 176 and 137. Enrollment limited to 35. (General Education Code(s): A.) D. Hunter

178A. Victorian America.
Examines how American writers and artists negotiated complexities of U.S. society during the 19th century. Emphasis on issues ranging from women's rights to laissez-faire capitalism, and from Reconstruction to manifest destiny. Considers how the era's cultural products provided artists, patrons, and audiences with metaphorical coping strategies to counteract what Victorians perceived to be the period's overwhelming social and political changes. Enrollment limited to 35. (General Education Code(s): A.) M. Berger

189Y. Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora.
Considers contemporary art by African artists operating in metropolitan centers, as well as Afro-British, Afro-Caribbean, and African-American production. Topics are organized thematically and address constructing and deconstructing the idea of Africa; cultural authenticity; diaspora; Creolité and creolization; hybridity; cosmopolitanism; post-black; and globalism in the arts. Recommended: background in art history. Enrollment restricted to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Enrollment limited to 35. (General Education Code(s): A.) S. Murray

190P. Death and Patriotism: The Case of the French Revolution.
What are the relations between the mortal body and politics in times of crisis? What purposes can death, or the threat of death, serve? Examines representations of executions, assassinations, and funerals during the French Revolution, with an emphasis on the Terror. Enrollment limited to 18. (General Education Code(s): A.) D. Hunter

190Y. Image and Gender.
Examines what visual representations (feminine and masculine) reveal of gender in 19th- and 20th-century European and American culture; how images reflect norms of gender; and how we are conditioned to read images in gendered terms. Explores how femininity and masculinity were conceived during historical periods and how gender ideals changed in response to social, political, and economic pressures. Students encouraged to consider the fluid nature of 21st-century notions of ideal femininity and and masculinity and possible alternatives. Enrollment restricted to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Enrollment limited to 18. (General Education Code(s): A.) M. Berger

291. Embodiment: Visuality, Performance, Affect.
This faculty-graduate seminar engages participants in an exploration of "embodiment."  This key concept in recent challenges to representational and non-experiential approaches opens up the possibility of the body in the present and in history as a non-discursive site/sight.  Enrollment restricted to graduate students. C. Soussloff

Spring 2010

10F. The Nude in the Western Tradition.
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. (General Education Code(s): IH, A.) D. Hunter

80G. Religion and Visual Culture in China.
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. (General Education Code(s): T5-Humanities and Arts or Social Sciences, A, E.) R. Birnbaum

80V. Modern Art in Context.
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. (General Education Code(s): T5-Humanities and Arts or Social Sciences, A.) M. Berger

142. Activist Art Since 1960.
An examination of art and technologies produced for social change in the U.S. since 1960. A representative list of topics includes the Vietnam war, Chicano civil rights, the women's movement, environmental protection, AIDS activism, anti-captialist and international human rights movements. (General Education Code(s): A, E.) S. Murray

163B. Arts and Politics in Theravada Traditions.
Consideration of the arts and architecture in Theravada Buddhist traditions in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Topics and themes include ritual, relics, visual narrative, mural painting, contemporary art, mass-meditation movement, and political protest. Prerequisite: courses 10C or D, or 106A.  Enrollment limited to 35. (General Education Code(s): A.) B. Ly

190D. The World of the Lotus Sutra.
Close study of the principal text of East Asian Buddhism as a self-enclosed vision of reality, with careful consideration of the forms and functions of the world of visual and aural representation that it has inspired. Prerequisite(s): course 114 or permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to 18. (General Education Code(s): A.) R. Birnbaum