Art History 291 - COLQ: VICTORIAN ERA TO TODAY

Students may take up to two semesters of ARH 291, “Topics in Art History,” as long as the topics are different.: Focusing on a largely unprocessed collection of Victorian-era Valentine’s day cards held at the American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, Mass.) and a variety of online digital artifacts, from e-cards to emojis, the following upper-level colloquium explores the connections between 19th-century print ephemera and the ephemerality of images in the digital era. Special attention is devoted to the affective, gendered and commercial histories of these everyday images. Funded by the Five College Blended Learning Steering Committee, the course involves a combination of independent and team-based learning, culminating in the creation of an online exhibition hosted on the American Antiquarian Society’s website. Prerequisite: one 200-level ARH course; not open to first-year students. Group B 

Topic: Be My Valentine: Ephemera, Ephemerality and the Victorian Era to Today.