Courses

• CAS AH 444: Seminar: Medieval Art
  In-depth examination of varying topics in the study of Medieval Art. Topic for Fall 2014: TBA.
• CAS AH 462: Seminar: Baroque Art
  Topic for Spring 2014: The Alliance of Art and Power in the Baroque. Explores the relationship between visual culture and political authority in seventeenth century Europe. Focus on painting, architecture, and sculpture by major artists of the period, including Rubens, Van Dyck, Velázquez, Rembrandt, and Bernini.
• CAS AH 482: Seminar: Nineteenth-Century Art
  Topic for Fall 2013: Romanticism. An exploration of the art of Goya, Blake, Friedrich, Géricault, Delacroix, and others, who created enduring works of the imagination in an era of revolution, nationalism, and religious revival. Includes discussion of weekly readings, an oral report, and a final paper.
• CAS AH 494: Seminar: Photography
  Topic for Spring 2014: The Photographic Book. This seminar examines the photographic book from 1839 to the present. Focus on the book as a unique form for the medium, and study of image/text relationships, narrative structures, and cultural constructions of the book's message.
• CAS AH 495: Seminar: Twentieth Century Art
  Examines major artists and artistic currents of the twentieth century. Topics vary each year. Some background in the history of modern art is recommended. Topic for Fall 2014: Picasso. This seminar explores more than eight decades of incessant art making by Pablo Picasso. How his friends, his lovers, and his preoccupation with eroticism and death affected his imagery.
• CAS AH 497: Seminar: Contemporary Art
  Topic for Fall 2014: Contemporary Art and Globalization. Considers globalization as the key paradigm for art produced since 1989. Explores how international artists and curators have negotiated the space between local tradition and global exchange while participating in large-scale, international exhibitions.
• CAS AH 501: Practicum in Museum Studies
  Centered on an internship, which must comprise a supervised project approved in advance by the Director of Museum Studies. Stamped approval prior to the internship is necessary for registration in the course. Internships in Boston-area museums, galleries, historical agencies, and houses arranged for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, 10-12 hours per week (150 hours per semester) at the host institution, with written report.
• CAS AH 503: Art Historical Methods
  The history and methods of art history through the writings of Vasari, Winckelmann, Kant, Wölfflin, Riegl, Panofsky, Gombrich, among others. The course plots approaches to art historical questions and frames the considered writings within broader cultural and historical contexts.
• CAS AH 504: Topics in Religion and the Visual Arts
  In-depth discussion of special issues in the study of religion and art. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Also offered as CAS RN 504.
• CAS AH 520: The Museum and Historical Agency
  History, present realities, and future possibilities of museums and historical agencies, using Boston's excellent examples. Issues and debates confronting museums today examined in the light of historical development and changing communities. Emphasis on collecting, display and interpretation.
• CAS AH 521: Curatorship
  Topic for Spring 2014: Exhibition Development. Addresses the history of exhibitions and issues in contemporary curating. Topics discussed range from the historiography and pragmatics of exhibition making, to the issues central to curatorial thinking through readings of texts by curators, historians, and artists.
• CAS AH 527: Topics in Art and Society
  May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Fall 2014: Archaeology to World Heritage. Investigates how architecture and landscape architecture become World Heritage sites. Considers sites' prior development as "theaters" of change, and their performances; architects, artists and others as agents in globalization, cosmopolitanism and, perhaps, displacement.
• CAS AH 529: Seminar: Twentieth-Century Chinese Art
  Critical examinations of twentieth-century Chinese art, including the fate of traditional art, art under a totalitarian regime, the problematic status of the artist in a socialist state, and avant-garde art in the international context.
• CAS AH 530: Chinese and Japanese Calligraphy: History, Theory, and Practice
  Introduction to the history, theory, and practice of the art of Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. The related art of seal carving is also introduced. No knowledge of Chinese or Japanese required.
• CAS AH 531: Modern Asian Art in a Global Context
  Seminar on print culture of Japan from the nineteenth century to the present. Formats to be studied include woodblock prints, photographic prints, book art, print advertisements, postcards, and manga. A central exploration of this course is how works in these formats function as both artistic expression and instruments of mass communication.
• CAS AH 532: Japanese Print Culture
  Seminar on print culture of Japan from the eighteenth century to the present. Study of woodblock prints, photographic prints, book art, print advertisements, postcards, and manga. Focus on their function as both artistic expression and instruments of mass communication.
• CAS AH 533: Seminar: Greek Art and Architecture
  Topic for Fall 2014: Greek Painting. Painting was the most esteemed genre of ancient Greek art, famed for its beauty and ability to delight -- or even fool -- the eye. A discussion of different artists, including the famous panel and wall painters and the colorists who collaborated with sculptors.
• 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 2014: Art and Politics in Imperial Rome. A study of the art and architecture of imperial Rome focusing on the ways that emperors and private citizens alike used sculptures, paintings, buildings, and other art forms as tools to advertise achievements and mold public opinion.
• 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.

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