Courses

• CAS AH 534: Seminar in Roman Art
  In-depth examination of varying topics in the study of Roman art and architecture. Topics vary annually. Topic for Spring 2011: Pompeii. Also offered as CAS AR 534.
• CAS AH 539: Muslim Societies: An Interdisciplinary History
  Examines the states, empires, faiths, and ideologies of the Muslim world over a 1500-year period, including states from North and West Africa, through the Middle East, to Turkey, Iran, and then to Central and Southeast Asia. Also offered as CAS AN 548, HI 596, and RN 563.
• CAS AH 540: Europe and the Islamic World: Medieval and Early-Modern Cultural Exchange
  Cultural exchange between Europe and the Islamic world, and its impact on visual culture during the late medieval and early modern periods; the transmission of aesthetic concepts and visual traditions via specific patrons, artists, and works of art and architecture.
• CAS AH 541: Courtly Commissions: Ottoman Art and Architecture
  Explores the artistic patronage of the Ottoman court, fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. Questions of self-fashioning, artistic agency, courtly behavior, decorum, and the formation of an imperial style frame the discussion of specific works of art and architecture.
• CAS AH 557: High Renaissance and Mannerist Art in Italy
  A study of High Renaissance and Mannerist art and architecture in Italy with special focus on the work of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Parmigianino, Rosso Fiorentino, and Pontormo. Attention to the role of literature and decorative arts in defining these period-styles.
• CAS AH 571: African American Art
  Studies African American art and craft production from the early nineteenth century to the present against the background of the diaspora, reconstruction, and the modernist movements of the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Also offered as CAS AA 571.
• CAS AH 580: Architectural Technology and Materials
  An introduction to the history of architectural construction, technologies, and materials, and their consequences in the built environment. Students receive a practical understanding of the building process and of its social and cultural contexts.
• CAS AH 583: English Country House and America's Cottages
  Explores architecture, interiors, furnishings, landscape design settings, and "preservation." Includes its influence on America's historic houses and cottages, and America's influence on the English Country House. Important examples from collections in the MFA.
• CAS AH 584: Greater Boston: Architecture and Planning
  Examines the buildings, development patterns, and open space planning of greater Boston, with particular emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Weekly visits to neighborhoods and buildings throughout the city are combined with independent research projects for each member of the seminar.
• CAS AH 585: Twentieth Century Architecture and Urbanism
  Two topics are offered Fall 2010. Students may take one or both for credit. Topic for Section A1: Green Design. Explores the historical context for sustainability and Green Architecture. The engagement of architecture with nature is charted through questions of landscape theory, public park making, suburbanization, adaptive re-use, and new green materials and methods of construction, among other topics. Topic for Section B1: Transnationalism and Architecture.
• CAS AH 596: Seminar: Contemporary Art
  Rotating topics in art, criticism and theory since 1960. Examines major themes such as formalism, minimalism, conceptual art, the neo-avant-garde, art and politics, postmodernism and globalization in their social and political contexts. Topic for Fall 2010: Contemporary Art and Globalization.
• CAS AH 597: The Baroque
  Examines seventeenth-century architecture, painting, music, poetry, and drama. The syllabus is organized both topically and topographically: issues of space, light, ornamentation, and theatricality are explored in relation to the cultural capitals of Rome, Paris, and London.
• CAS AM 200: Introduction to American Studies
  An exploration of the multi-faceted themes of American society and culture in selected historical periods using a variety of approaches to interpret such topics as American art, literature, politics, material culture, and the mass media. Required of concentrators.
• CAS AM 250: American Arts and Society
  Investigates key issues and themes in American arts and letters. Topic for Spring 2011: Policing the Boundaries of American Identity: Anti-Immigration Movements in U.S. History to 1930. Examines how the trope of America as a ?Nation of Immigrants? has challenged and affected political and social policy, with a specific focus on the period of Second Wave immigration (1880?1925).
• CAS AM 301: Perspectives on the American Experience
  American history and society as viewed by those who made it. Topic for Fall 2011: American Spectacle: Melodramatic Theatre and Early Silent Film. Examines the intersections between theatre and early silent film covering the period between 1865 and 1920 and how these two forms overlapped with and frequently stole features from each other.
• CAS AM 363: Surfing and American Culture
  The history of the sport of surfing, tracing the cultural, technological, and economic aspects of its transformation from a Polynesian folkway to a global multi-billion dollar economic force. Thematic emphasis on questions of American diversity and identity.
• CAS AM 367: Material Culture
  Introduction to the theory and practice of the interdisciplinary study of material culture, which includes everything we make and use, from food and clothing to art and buildings. Also offered as CAS AH 367.
• CAS AM 401: Senior Independent Work
  
• CAS AM 402: Senior Independent Work
  
• CAS AM 491: Directed Study
  

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