History of Art & Architecture

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  • CAS AH 404: Seminar: Topics in Museum Exhibits
    Topics seminar. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Considers and uses the methods and tools of curators and other museum professionals in gallery arrangement and exhibition- making. Taught around specific projects, with visits to museums and meetings with practitioners as can be arranged. Topic for Fall 2018: Digital Humanities and the Museum: Transatlantic Origins of National Parks.
  • CAS AH 444: Seminar: Medieval Art
    In-depth examination of varying topics in the study of Medieval Art. Topic for Fall 2015: The Rebirth of Sculpture in Europe 1000-1250. Monumental architectural sculpture ceased to be produced after the Fall of Rome. This seminar examines prohibitions against carved imagery and the rebirth of sculpture around the year 1000. Focus on the invention and development of the grand church entrance.
  • CAS AH 486: Architecture Capstone
    This course guides junior and senior architectural studies majors through a capstone experience as an internship or research project. It focuses on integrating competencies gained through the major and BU Hub, and on developing post-graduate directions. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Ethical Reasoning.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Ethical Reasoning
  • 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 2020: Picasso. 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. Students master fundamental currents of European Modernism. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Aesthetic Exploration, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS AH 497: Seminar: Contemporary Art
    Topic for Fall 2019: Contemporary Art, Politics, and Activism. Addresses a wide range of global contemporary art practices that link protest, performance, and activism in order to explore art's role in fostering social and political change since the 1980s.
  • CAS AH 500: Topics in History of Art & Architecture
    May be repeated for credit as topic varies. Two topics are offered Fall 2020. Section A1: The Silk Road and Dunhuang Caves. Explores visual and material culture of the Silk Road through the Dunhuang caves. Analyzes the modern invention of the "Silk Road", politics and patronage, Buddhist art and architecture, medieval manuscripts, ritual practices, and the impact of China's current "Belt-Road" policy. Section B1: Istanbul: From Imperial Capital to Global City. Architectural and urban history of Istanbul 18th Century to the present: major buildings, urban fabrics and public spaces discussed in national, regional and global context; role of spatial practices in the making, transformation and re-negotiation of cultural and national identities.
  • 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 502: 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
    Explores a wide range of theories and methodologies (including semiotics, Marxism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, feminism, and post-structuralism) employed by art historians and critics to assess art produced in Europe and the United States since 1900.
  • 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. Topic for Fall 2019: Sacred Precincts of East Asia. Introduction to East Asian art and architecture through studies of sacred precincts across China, Japan, and Korea. Each class focuses on an important religious site and its connection with other disciplines such as religious studies, literature, social history, and anthropology.
  • CAS AH 507: Digital Curation: Towards National Parks: Art and Nature, Nature and Nation
    Before national parks, wild locations attracted artists, photographers and poets. Their works made these areas known to tourist-viewers. Prepare a digital exhibition and map artist- advocates as they explored mountains, forests and waterfalls. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Creativity/Innovation
  • 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 2020: Museums, Politics, and Representation. Examines the politics of cultural representation in art museums, galleries, and cultural spaces. Through different case studies, this course engages with the ways in which museums, exhibitions, and curators articulate and exercise their relationship to different communities, identities, and "Others."
  • CAS AH 527: Topics in Art and Society
    May be repeated for credit as topics change. Two topics are offered Fall 2020. Section B1: Picturing Property: Real Estate in American Visual Culture. Explores the roles that visual representations have played in American real estate markets and examines the creative ways that artists and writers have interpreted the objects, figures, practices of the land business during the past two centuries. Section C1: Cathedrals and Castles: the Art and Architecture of Medieval Europe. Castles and cathedrals with their splendid treasures from gold and gem- studded objects to vast stained-glass windows, precious textiles, and illuminated manuscripts are explored as the backdrop for the social political, religious, and cultural conditions of the period.
  • CAS AH 531: Modern Asian Art in a Global Context
    Topic for Fall 2018: Japan on Display. This seminar explores the various ways that Japan--as a national entity, cultural entity, and/or artistic entity--has been presented, performed, and received in the last 150 years. Focus primarily on Japan's participation in major world's fairs, design exhibitions, and the Olympics.
  • 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 Spring 2019: Greek Architecture. Greek stone architecture from its origins, including the emergence and development of the Doric and Ionic orders, to the role of architecture in sanctuaries, forms of houses, invention of special buildings, accessibility, use of models, construction techniques, and gigantism. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AH 534: Seminar in Roman Art
    In-depth examination of varying topics in the study of Roman art and architecture. Topic for Spring 2020: The Pax Romana. Roman art and architecture at the height of the Roman Empire under the Five Good Emperors (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius) with introductory sessions on Augustus, the Julio-Claudians, and the Flavians.
  • 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 543: Latin American Art and the Cold War
    Study of Latin American artistic practices in relation to Cold War political frameworks, such as development and dependency discourses, the impact of the Cuban Revolution, U.S. and Soviet cultural policies, and the rise of numerous political dictatorships.

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