Art History 278 - Race and Gender in the History of Photography

This course introduces the history of photography, emphasizing the ways photographs represent, mediate, construct and communicate histories of race, gender, sex, sexuality, intimacy and desire. The class studies a variety of photographic images, from the daguerreotype to digital media, from fine arts photography to vernacular images. Students consider objects that have forged connections among loved ones, substantiated memories or served as evidence, considering critical questions about photography’s relationship to identity, affect, knowledge production and power. The course focuses on race and gender, and also attends closely to photography’s relationship to identity broadly speaking, including class, ability and religion. Enrollment limited to 35.