An introduction to the use of digital media in the context of contemporary art practice. Students explore content development and design principles through a series of projects involving text, still image and moving image. This class involves critical discussions of studio projects in relation to contemporary art and theory. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 14. Instructor permission required.

This colloquium investigates the space between animal studies and art history. Examining case studies from the early modern period to the present, the class considers questions such as: What constitutes the animal, and how do images shape responses to this question? How and why have artists deployed animals as visual signs? How did the collection of animal specimens in the West both depend on and sustain networks of imperialism?

Mounting the throne in 1643 and dying in 1715, Louis XIV is the longest-ruling monarch in European history. This course examines how the visual arts served to fashion an extraordinary image of rulership, one already much imitated during that monarch's lifetime. In this period, France rose to both political and cultural prominence throughout Europe, and the institutional structure of many intellectual and artistic endeavors formed an important part of the centralized bureaucracy that came to define the state.

Urban and architectural history of the Eternal City, comprising seven famous hills whose summits and slopes (and the valleys in between) are a cradle of Western civilization. Extensive readings in primary sources and the analysis of works of art of all types help students understand why Rome has constituted such an indispensable and inexhaustible point of emulative reference from the traditional date of its founding (21 April 753 BCE) to the fascist era and beyond. Considered as well is the relationship between city and country as expressed in the design of villas and gardens through the ages.

This course examines global artistic tendencies since 1945 in their art-historical and socio-historical contexts. The class considers such developments as American abstraction and the rise of New York, neo-dada, pop, minimalism, conceptual art, earthworks, the influence of feminism, postmodernism, the politics of identity, conceptions of the site and the institution, global publics and the global culture of art, and the theoretical issues and debates that help to frame these topics.

In what spaces are collections—of art and artifacts, plants and animals, papers and memories—held? What physical spaces have been created to house, preserve, sequester, and display such things? Upon what conceptual and infrastructural practices does collecting depend? To consider these questions, this class focuses on case studies from 1500-present, drawn from across the world: museums of ethnography and racial justice, private houses and public gardens, seed banks and aquaria.

The meanings ascribed to art and architecture from any culture or period turn upon the interpreter’s preoccupations and methods. This course examines contemporary debates within the discipline, locating them within the field’s own history. The class asks: what kinds of knowledge do historians of art and architecture produce and legitimize? What kinds of questions do they ask, and what means do they use to answer them?

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.

In this course students achieve an advanced level of proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic, with exposure to one Arabic colloquial variety, using the four-skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening) approach. Students read within a normal range of speed, listen to, discuss and respond in writing to authentic texts by writers from across the Arab world. Text types address a range of political, social, religious, and literary themes, and represent a range of genres, styles, and periods.

This is a communication-oriented course in Arabic at the intermediate level, incorporating both Modern Standard and colloquial Arabic and providing students with an opportunity to hone their skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing. Students expand their ability to create with the language while reenforcing fundamentals and expanding their knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and culture. In addition to in-class teamwork, students produce a variety of essays, presentations and skits throughout the semester. Prerequisite: ARA 101 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18.