The meanings we ascribe to art works of any culture or time period are a direct result of our own preoccupations and methods. This colloquium gives a broad overview of contemporary debates in the history of art and locates these methods within art history’s own intellectual history. Among the topics we consider: technologies of vision; histories of interpreting art across cultural boundaries; colonialism and the history of art and globalism. The course consists of wide-ranging weekly readings and discussion, giving special attention to the intersection of art history and other disciplines.

This course looks at the famed third-century BCE library at Alexandria, Egypt, precedents like the library of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal at Nineveh (with epics and omen texts on clay tablets) and later extant examples like the Library of Celsus at Ephesus to discuss the development of the library as a public building type.

This class addresses the history and theory of performance art since the 1960s, introducing artists whose work has shaped the field and the issues which have become important in the reception of performance art.

The Haitian revolution, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, the rise of photography: the nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of new ways of seeing, knowing, and being in the world. We will consider the ways art objects and the built environment revealed, constructed, and mediated nineteenth-century life. We will study key case studies, from painting and sculpture to advertising ephemera, to understand significant cultural nodes.

A study of painting, sculpture, architecture, urban and landscape design, printmaking and the luxury arts in France, from the last years of Louis XIV's reign to the French Revolution. Recurring themes include artists' training and careers; academies, aesthetics, and art theory; art criticism and the viewing public; collecting and display; patronage; and the relationship of art to politics, literature and science.

This course explores how art and architecture have profoundly shaped visual experiences and shifting understandings of the past and present. Featuring different case studies, each section includes work with original objects, site visits and writings about art.

This course explores how art and architecture have profoundly shaped visual experiences and shifting understandings of the past and present. Featuring different case studies, each section includes work with original objects, site visits and writings about art.