Courses

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.

• CAS AH 692: Twentieth-Century Art from 1940 to 1980
  Explores art of the mid-twentieth century, addressing the following topics in relation to postwar culture and Cold War politics: realism vs. abstraction, global pop art and conceptual art, new materials and technologies, international artists' networks, and performative art practices.
• CAS AH 693: 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.
• CAS AH 727: Colloquium in Chinese Art
  Graduate Corequisites: (GRSAH728) - (Students must also register for required co-req GRS AH 728.) 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. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration, Research and Information Literacy. Must attend MWF section with AH327.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Research and Information Literacy
• CAS AH 728: Colloquium in Chinese Art Discussion
  Graduate Corequisites: (GRSAH727) - Required discussion section for students registered in GRS AH 727. Students must also register for GRS AH 727.
• CAS AH 733: Colloquium in Greek Art and Architecture
  Graduate Corequisites: (CASAH 734) - (Students must also register for required co-requisite CASAH 734.) This graduate-level colloquium will critically examine issues of Greek Classical art and architecture covered in AH333 Arts of Classical Greece. It fulfills the art-historical methodologies requirement for MA students.
• CAS 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.
• CAS AH 791: Colloquium in Twentieth-Century Painting and Sculpture
  Topic for Fall 2023: "Contemporary Art and Globalization." Considers cultural globalization as the key critical paradigm for art produced since the late 1980s. Explores how international artists, curators, and scholars have negotiated the space between local tradition and global exchange.
• CAS AH 805: Professional Development and Placement Seminar
  Graduate Prerequisites: completion of PhD oral exam. - 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.
• CAS AH 812: Seminar: Portraiture
  Topic for Fall 2023: "Picturing Race in Early Modern Europe, 1400-1700." This seminar traces a history of visual constructions of race and ethnicity in Europe through paintings, sculpture, prints, maps, and other forms of visual depiction of racial difference. Please note that this course will be building a collaborative syllabus during the first few weeks of the class.
• CAS AH 820: Seminar: Asian Art
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. - Fall 2022 topic: "Japan on World Display." Course explores the manifold ways that Japan has been presented, performed, and received in the last 150 years through the nation's participation in major world's fairs, with attention to some domestic fairs, design exhibitions, and the Olympic
• CAS AH 822: Seminar: African Art
  Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor. - Fall 2022 Topic: Benin Bronzes in Context With a focus on collections-based learning, this seminar explores the historical and cultural context of art of the Benin Kingdom beginning with the material culture of Ile-Ife and concluding with contemporary conversations concerning repatriation, ethical stewardship, and institutional critique.
• CAS AH 853: Seminar: Renaissance Art and Architecture
  Topic for Fall 2020: Collecting and Exhibiting Italian Renaissance Art. Considers the collection and exhibition of Italian Renaissance art from the 15th century until the current day. Relevant topics will include: historic and contemporary practices of collecting and display; private and public space; and the architecture of seclusion
• CAS AH 863: Seminar: Baroque Art and Architecture
  Topic for Fall 2023: "A Golden Age? Global and Material Turns in the Study of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art." This seminar explores the so-called "Golden Age" of seventeenth-century Dutch art, with particular focus on the global and materiality studies approaches that have recently transformed the field. Classes conducted at the MFA's new Center for Netherlandish.
• CAS AH 867: Material Culture
  Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor. - 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. Explores contemporary scholarship from a range of disciplines. Also offered as GRS AM 867.
• CAS AH 887: Seminar: American Art
  May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Fall 2024, Section A1: American Art and the Atlantic. This seminar examines nineteenth century American art made on and about the Atlantic Ocean. We consider art including seascapes, representations of the middle passage, and Arctic photographs, while discussing critical approaches from environmental history to the blue humanities.
• CAS AH 891: Seminar: Photography
  Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor. - Historical, archival, and theoretical examinations of photography, with emphasis on its role both as document and as art. Topic for Fall 2024: The Photographic Book. Examines the photographic book from 1839 to present. Concentrates on the book as a unique form for the medium. Study image/text relationships, narrative structures, cultural constructions of message, serial quality of grouped images, and differences/similarities between literary and photographic languages.
• CAS AH 893: Seminar: Twentieth-Century Architecture
  Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor. - Fall 2022 topic: "Government Architecture." The state is a place. What can we learn from its architecture? What can we hope from it, and how can it fail us? Focus on the United States. A joint seminar of MIT (Political Science) and BU (Architectural History).
• CAS AH 895: Seminar: Twentieth-Century Art
  Topic for Fall 2024: Section A1: "Latin American Art and the Cold War." Studies 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 AM 501: Research Seminar in American Studies
  American Studies majors and minors complete their program of study by undertaking a one- or two-semester (AM501 and/or AM502) senior project based on original research or criticism. Topics vary by semester. Topic for Fall 2024: Food and Power in American History. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS AM 502: Research Seminar in American Studies
  American Studies majors and minors complete their program of study by undertaking a one- or two-semester (AM501 and/or AM502) senior project based on original research or criticism. Topics vary by semester. Topic for Spring 2025: Asian Americans and Colonial Racial Capitalism. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Writing-Intensive, Research and Information Literacy.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course