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

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  • CAS AH 545: Seminar: Black Feminist Art and Performance
    Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120). - This course explores the work of eleven Black femme artists, coupled with theoretical and critical texts written primarily by Black femme thinkers. It is structured as a semester long reading group. Each week, students give presentations on a single artwork and facilitate discussion of the assigned readings. Over the semester, students debate what Black feminism is, and what makes a work of art or set of ideas Black feminist. Is it an identity, a method, an interpretive frame?
  • 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
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - 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.
  • CAS AH 554: Boston Architectural and Community History Workshop
    Focusing on a single neighborhood in Greater Boston, this course explores ways to assess and narrate architectural and urban development. Emphasis is on primary sources—land deeds and plans, building permits, historic maps, etc. —coupled with fieldtrips and classroom discussion.
  • CAS AH 557: High Renaissance and Mannerist Art in Italy
    This course examines High Renaissance and Mannerist art and architecture (1490-1550). Specific topic varies each semester. Effective Fall 2026, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AH 571: Problems of African Diaspora Art History
    This course examines the visual life of the African Diaspora. It challenges students to explore diaspora, Black studies and postcolonial studies’ bearing on aesthetic concerns, and introduces key debates shaping the sub-field of African Diaspora Art History.
  • CAS AH 574: Topics in African Art
    Repeatable for credit as topics change. Topic for Spring 2027, Section A1: Rethinking African Art. This course examines debates reshaping African art history today. Topics include restitution, fieldwork and its legacies, the boundaries of the field, African modernisms, and contemporary art. We consider how African art history has defined its objects, methods, geographies, and canons, looking at how scholars and artists are rethinking them.
  • CAS AH 582: Historic Houses
    Studies the preservation of historic homes as museums in Boston and beyond. This year, the course focuses on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Considers its place in debates about Romantic nationalism, and the house museum as an expression of its owner's vision past and present. Topics include: invented traditions, group memory; curation, authenticity, conservation, and the problems of caring for a static collection. At least 4 sessions held in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with its curatorial team. Students have the opportunity to curate their own digital exhibition based on the collection.
  • CAS AH 589: Topics in Nineteenth Century Art
    Prerequisites: junior or senior standing (or graduate student). - Topic for Fall 2025: The Age of Impressionism. European art, 1848-1900, is examined in light of contemporary developments in politics, literature, and the history of ideas. Class discussion of readings, both recent and classic, is followed by an oral report and a final paper on a research topic.
  • CAS AH 591: Seminar in Photographic History
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing, or consent of instructor. - Topic for Spring 2026: Documentary Photography. A study of changing uses, definitions, and archives of documentary photography from 1839 to the present. Topics include urban photography, war imagery, topographical and survey landscapes, architectural records, social reform photography, New Deal imagery, and digital documents.
  • CAS AH 596: Seminar: Contemporary Art
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing, or consent of instructor. - 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 2025: Contemporary Exhibition Practices. This seminar explores how, over the past forty years, artists, curators, critics, and architects have played various roles in the expansion of large-scale exhibitions and the emergence of new museums of contemporary art around the world.
  • 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 majors and minors. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Critical Thinking, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS AM 202: What's Boston?
    What's Boston? explores Boston's complex urban and natural world. University faculty share cutting-edge research, focusing on Boston as a PLACE and a guiding IDEA, introducing the perspectives of disparate scholarly disciplines. Discover where you stand and where you might go! Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills one unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS AM 220: Native American and Indigenous Studies
    Examines diverse cultural expressions of Native peoples, from oral traditions to modern fiction, and their historic and political contexts. Employs interdisciplinary perspectives from Native American and Indigenous Studies to ask critical questions about the arts, identity, community, and creativity. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, The Individual in Community, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • The Individual in Community
  • CAS AM 250: American Arts and Society
    Investigates key issues and themes in American arts and letters. May be taken for credit as topics vary by semester.
  • CAS AM 301: Perspectives on the American Experience
    American history and culture as viewed by those who made it. Topics vary from semester to semester and may be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Fall 2026: The Memory of the American Revolution through Film & TV. Effective Summer I, 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS AM 313: Internships in Public History
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Students undertake supervised work in Boston-area institutions dedicated to the public presentation of America's past. Students meet with the instructor to discuss themes in public history theory and practice that, together with the internship experience and related readings, inform a final research project and class presentation. Also offered as CAS HI 313.
  • CAS AM 336: Bob Dylan: Music and Words
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - This course examines Bob Dylan's music and lyrics from 1962 to 1975 in the context of his life, artistic influences, and milieu. We will explore the wealth of criticism and reaction his songs have inspired, paying special attention to questions concerning the nature of his art--for example, his dependence on musical tradition or the relationship between song lyrics and poetry--and past and current critical discussion about his legacy. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • 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. Topic for Fall 2027: Materializing Indigenous History. Effective Fall 2026, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU Hub areas: Critical Thinking, Historical Consciousness.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS AM 369: American Folk Art
    Explores the objects that collectors and museums identify as "American Folk Art." Examines how this label developed throughout the twentieth century; familiarizes students with major collections and genres including painting, sculpture, textiles, and other media. Also offered as CAS AH 369. Effective Spring 2026, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness

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