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.

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  • CAS AH 392: Twentieth Century Art from 1940 to 1980
    Explores major currents in European and American art made between 1940 and 1980. Examines the following movements and media in relation to postwar culture and politics: abstract expressionism, pop art, minimalism, conceptual art, earthworks, performance, and video. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS AH 393: Contemporary Art: 1980 to Now
    Explores the terms of debate, key figures, and primary sites for the production and reception of contemporary art on a global scale since 1980. Painting, installation art, new media, performance, art criticism, and curatorial practice are discussed. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS AH 395: History of Photography
    An introduction to the study of photographs. The history of the medium in Europe and America from its invention in 1839 to the present. After lectures on photographic theory and methodology, photographs are studied both as art objects and as historical artifacts. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS AH 398: Twentieth-Century Architecture
    This course provides an introduction to the major developments in architecture and urban planning from ca. 1900 to the present. It traces the proliferation of modernist thought through key projects but also to everyday buildings and landscapes. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS AH 399: History and Theory of Landscape Architecture
    Explores man's relationship with nature by a study of selected built environments from antiquity to the present. Focus on both the private garden and the public park--here considered as works of art--and their changing forms, meaning, and interpretations. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing- Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • 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 2022: Museum Exhibitions Seminar. Examines developments in contemporary exhibition practices from the 1980s to the present. Taking a global perspective, the course considers how curators, artists, and scholars have sought to expand and decentralize the art world through transnational and multicultural approaches to exhibition-making, including large- scale exhibitions and biennials.
  • CAS AH 486: Architecture Capstone
    This course guides senior and eligible junior architectural studies majors through a capstone experience, which may be an internship or a research project. Open only by application. Interested students contact Professor Abramson by Nov. 1, 2022. 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 500: Topics in History of Art & Architecture
    May be repeated for credit as topic varies. Two topics are offered Fall 2022. Section A1: TBD. Section B1: TBD.
  • 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
    This seminar explores a wide range of theories and methodologies (including semiotics, Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, feminism, post-structuralism, postcolonial studies, and critical race theory) employed by art historians and critics to assess art produced in a global context since 1900.
  • 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 The 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 2022: Examines the evolving roles and responsibilities of curators and the production of knowledge in arts institutions through practices of collecting, exhibitions, and display. Emphasis on understanding the relationship between theory and practice, both the why and the how of curatorship.
  • CAS AH 527: Topics in Art and Society
    May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Fall 2022: Medievalism and the Mount Auburn Cemetery. The Mount Auburn Cemetery (founded 1832) is a treasure trove for the study of medieval styles. After foundational class discussions on the art and architecture of the Middle Ages, the cemetery and its key "medieval" monuments are investigated.
  • 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 2021: Greek Painting. Painting was the most esteemed genre of ancient Greek art, famed for its beauty and ability to fool the eye. We study panel and wall painters, colorists who collaborated with sculptors and architects, and craftsmen who decorated pottery 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 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.
  • CAS AH 546: Places of Memory: Historic Preservation Theory and Practice
    Covers key aspects of the history, theory, and practice of historic preservation. Preservation is discussed in the context of cultural history and the changing relationship between existing buildings and landscapes and attitudes toward history, memory, invented tradition, and place. Also offered as CAS AM 546 and CAS HI 546.
  • CAS AH 548: Global Heritage Conservation
    Examining global approaches towards heritage conservation through a study of concepts, charters and case studies, using themes such as world heritage, cultural tourism, historic towns, new design, intangible heritage, authenticity, integrity, recent past, historic landscapes, conflict, disasters, revitalization and reconstruction.

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