(Offered as ARHA 417, ARCH 417, and ASLC 417) Founded in 1526 by a Muslim prince from Central Asia, the Mughal dynasty dominated the political landscape of South Asia (including present-day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh) until the middle of the nineteenth century. The influence of the Mughal Empire also extended well beyond South Asia, making it one of the most important players in the premodern global arena.

In this studio course, we will explore different skills and approaches towards creating solo performance. We will examine examples of historical and contemporary solo performances in theater, dance, video, music, radio plays, street, stand up and in political/social arenas to inform and ask what makes these effective (or not). We will use what we learn from these examples to inspire our own solo material. We will also develop additional techniques (through improvisational trial and error) that enliven and engage our different voices, stories, imaginations and emotions.

(Offered as ARHA 333 and ARCH 333) This studio course will explore our evolving relationship with land and climate through wide-ranging approaches to drawing. We will examine how our connection to landscape as an artistic genre is being reshaped by urgent environmental changes, positioning drawing as a tool to reflect, trace, and map these shifts. Through studio assignments, site visits, readings, and discussions, we will explore themes of representation, ownership, ecology, and environmental crises that reckon with loss but also generate sites of hope and imagination toward the future.

(Offered as ARHA 282 and SWAG 282) What does European art history look like when seen from models’ perspectives? Starting in the Renaissance, the ability to convincingly depict the human form became regarded as the height of artistic achievement, and life models became central to artistic learning and practice. Although models were fundamental to art making, their identities, stories, and artistry have often been omitted from the study of art history. More often than not, models were from marginalized groups, leading to their exploitation for art’s sake.

(Offered as ARHA 232 and ARCH 232) This course traces the history of modern cartography from the integration of indigenous map-making techniques into colonial Latin American land surveys in the sixteenth century to the use of GIS software by militaries and corporations to create detailed images of foreign and domestic territories in the twenty-first century. Along the way, we will study the political and economic impetus that drove governments, militaries, municipalities, and private entities to create renderings of the land on which we live.

(Offered as ARHA 199 and ARCH 199) Expressionist art developed during moments of profound transformation and crisis, against a back drop of devastating wars and fears of an apocalypse, yet filled with utopian promise and radical dreams of a better existence -- a world in many ways not unlike our own. A literary, cinematic, architectural, photographic and visual art, Expressionism mined the tensions between alienation and empathy, matter and spirit, representation and abstraction, politics and community, the city and the natural world.

(Offered as ARHA 191 and MUSI 191) This course explores sound as a medium of art-making with a rich history and radical potential within contemporary culture. Techniques covered will include listening exercises and non-musical scores, creative manipulation of analog media, and building lo-fi electronics. Accompanying readings draw from acoustic ecology, critical sound studies, afro-futurism, and media theory to contextualize collective exploration. Students will be expected to create studio-based art for critique. No musical experience is required.

Spring 2025. Professor House.

(Offered as ARHA 157, ARCH 157, and BLST 193) This course engages the buildings, cities, and landscapes of the former colonies of Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean. Beginning with the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, the non-European territories, which once comprised the lucrative possessions of modern European empires, quickly became independent states charged with developing infrastructure, erecting national monuments, and handling the influx of laborers drawn to the metropolises formed as sleepy colonial towns grew into bustling postcolonial cities.

(Offered as ARHA 157, ARCH 157, and BLST 193) This course engages the buildings, cities, and landscapes of the former colonies of Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean. Beginning with the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, the non-European territories, which once comprised the lucrative possessions of modern European empires, quickly became independent states charged with developing infrastructure, erecting national monuments, and handling the influx of laborers drawn to the metropolises formed as sleepy colonial towns grew into bustling postcolonial cities.

In this introductory course we will explore over four hundred years of British art and design. Global interest in British art and design endures, as seen in the phenomena of period dramas like Bridgerton and the spread of Arts & Crafts patterns for interior decor. But what were the historical contexts that gave rise to these styles, and how do we understand, or perhaps misunderstand, these histories in the present?