Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• GRS AA 716: African Diaspora Arts in the Americas
  Study of the transmission of African artistry in the Caribbean, South America, and the United States from the period of slavery to the present. Topics include Kongo and Yoruba arts and their influence on the arts of Santeria, Vodun, and carnival. Also offered as GRS AH 716.
• GRS AA 740: Science, Technology, Media: Race and Contemporary Criticism
  This course focuses on racial engagements with science, technology and media. Topics range from genomics to artificial intelligence, medicine and popular culture. Though rooted in literary and cultural criticism, these interdisciplinary texts will also provide an introduction to various methodologies.
• GRS AA 808: Seminar: Ethnic, Race, and Minority Relations
  Formation and position of ethnic minorities in the United States, including cross-group comparisons from England, Africa, and other parts of the world. Readings and field experience. Also offered as GRS SO 808.
• GRS AA 871: African American History
  Surveys the history of African Americans from their African origins to the present, investigating their critical role in shaping the meaning of race, rights, freedom, and democracy during slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the civil rights era. Also offered as GRS HI 698.
• GRS AA 882: History of Religion in Pre-Colonial Africa
  Study of the development of religious traditions in Africa during the period prior to European colonialism. An emphasis both on indigenous religions and on the African roots and the growth and spread of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the continent as a whole. Also offered as GRS HI 749 and GRS RN 682.
• GRS AA 885: Atlantic History
  Examines the various interactions that shaped the Atlantic World, connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas between 1400 and 1800. Begins by defining the political interaction, then emphasizes cultural exchange, religious conversion, and the revolutionary era. Also offered as GRS HI 750.
• GRS AA 901: Directed Study in African American Studies
  
• GRS AA 902: Directed Study in African American Studies
  
• GRS AH 716: African Diaspora Arts in the Americas
  Study of the transmission of African artistry in the Caribbean, South America, and the United States from the period of slavery to the present. Topics include Kongo and Yoruba arts and their influence on the arts of Santeria, Vodun, and carnival. Also offered as GRS AA 716.
• GRS AH 726: Colloquium in Japanese Art
  Offered in conjunction with CAS AH 326, Arts of Japan. An exploration of artistic media and architectural types from Neolithic periods to the twentieth century. Focuses on narrower themes and issues arising from the general topics introduced in the lectures.
• GRS AH 727: Colloquium in Chinese Art
  This graduate-level colloquium will critically examine issues of Chinese art covered in AH327 Arts of China. Special attention will be given to recent scholarship that engages with Chinese art in a greater socio-cultural context.
• GRS AH 742: Colloquium in Latin American Art
  Case studies designed to explore the main aesthetic, social, and historical discourses surrounding image production in Latin America while familiarizing students with main scholars in the field and their methodologies.
• GRS AH 757: Colloquium in Renaissance Art
  The colloquium considers the theoretical writings on the visual arts produced in Renaissance Italy and their important role in shaping and responding to the interests and concerns of artists, patrons, and viewers.
• GRS AH 802: Seminar: Art Historical Writings
  This seminar considers the history and methods of art history through the writings of Vasari, Bellori, Winkelmann, Kant, Hegel, Wolfflin, Riegl, Warburg, Panofsky, and Gombrich, among others.
• GRS AH 805: Professional Development and Placement Seminar
  Offers advanced PhD students the opportunity to present and discuss works-in-progress and structured guidance for the tasks involved in academic and curatorial job applications.
• GRS AH 812: Seminar: Portraiture
  Topic for Spring 2018: Portraiture from 1300-1600. Topics include the influence of ancient art and literature, tropes of animation (especially the "speaking portrait"), the visualization of identity, and the relationship between biography and art history.
• GRS AH 822: Seminar: African Art
  Topic for fall 2019: Post-Colonial Theory and Visual Culture in Africa. Underscores the continuing importance of post-colonial theory to understanding the history of African art. Topics include construction of ethnicity in North Africa, emergence of Senegalese Sufi arts in response to colonialism, art and political struggle in the Congo.
• GRS AH 846: Seminar: Romanesque and Gothic Art
  Topic for Fall 2017: Medieval Art & Beyond. The first half of the class surveys the art of the Middle Ages. The second half focuses on big topics raised by this material including: Pathos, the Body, Self-Denial and Spirituality, and Death and Representation.
• GRS AH 853: Seminar: Renaissance Art and Architecture
  Topic for Spring 2019: Eco-Criticism and Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture. Focuses on the recent interest in eco-criticism and its relevance for Italian Renaissance art and architecture. Topics will include: ecology and the greening of urban spaces, landscape art and architecture, land art, pastoral art, and the color green.
• GRS AH 863: Seminar: Baroque Art and Architecture
  Topic for Fall 2019: Johannes Vermeer. Explores Vermeer's art and career through various perspectives and methods of art history, and situates his astonishingly small production of about 35 paintings within the cultural and social worlds for which they were created.

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