History of Art & Architecture

• CAS AH 500: Topics in History of Art & Architecture
  May be repeated for credit as topics change. Two topics are offered Fall 2025. Section A1: Methods and Inquiry in Architectural Studies. This seminar explores diverse research methods in architecture studies and history, covering archival, photographic, ethnographic, and more. Students engage with readings and exercises to understand various intellectual debates and methodologies, fulfilling the methods requirement. Section B1: Asian Art Seminar.
• CAS AH 502: Practicum in Museum Studies
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of the Director of Museum Studies, and stamped approval; prior museum/gallery experience an asset. - Graduate Prerequisites: consent of Director of Museum Studies, and stamped approval; prior mus eum/gallery experience an asset. Graduate internships must be taken in a non-profit institution in order to count for credit. - 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 507: Digital Curation: Towards National Parks: Art and Nature, Nature and Nation
  Prerequisite: CASAH 112, or at least one course on art or literature in Europe/US 1300-1750 or 1750-present. - 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.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Digital/Multimedia Expression
• 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
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. Introduces students to curatorial strategies and the pragmatics of exhibition-making.
• CAS AH 525: American Cultural Landscape Studies
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing or consent of instructor. - This seminar provides an introduction to analyzing and interpreting American cultural landscapes and acquaints students with the historiography of interdisciplinary study of the built environment. Also offered as CAS AM 525.
• CAS AH 527: Topics in Art and Society
  Topic for Fall 2025, Section A1: The Mount Auburn Cemetery. An exploration of remembrance, and the invention, appropriation, and development of imagery and landscape for commemorative monuments. Much of this seminar takes place on site in the Mount Auburn Cemetery and in regional early Burying Grounds. Walking shoes required.
• CAS AH 528: Landscapes: Art and Environment in China
  Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or 120). - Examines art and ecology, power and cartography, and microcosms within the Chinese visual culture of landscapes. Topics include mountain cults, Daoist grotto-heavens, ink painting, gardens, multimedia panoramic views, and contemporary art projects that engage with environmental concerns. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course.
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  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS AH 530: American Art and the City
  Topic for Fall 2025: Visual Culture of the American City. This course examines the art forms, popular pictorial media, visual entertainments, and structures of looking that developed in American cities in the years between 1790 and 1917.
• CAS AH 531: Modern Asian Art in a Global Context
  Topic for Fall 2025: Japan on World Display. Thematic study of the presentation and performance of Japan at international events, starting with 19th-century world’s fairs, with attention to domestic regional fairs, colonial expositions, and the Olympics hosted in Japan. Focus on architectural, artistic, and visual expressions of nation.
• CAS AH 533: Seminar: Greek Art and Architecture
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - Topic for Fall 2025: Greek Art in Boston Area Museums. We investigate Greek art in the Boston area to understand and critique its display; compare local collections to others in the United States, Europe, west Asia, and Egypt; and learn about collections management using BU’s Gabel Museum of Archaeology. 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.
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  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• 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
  The seminar considers Italian Renaissance art theory and its role in shaping and responding to the interests and concerns of artists. Texts take a variety of literary forms such as commentaries, dialogues, poems, and courtly handbooks.
• CAS AH 563: Global Baroque: Art and Power in the Seventeenth Century
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing or consent of instructor. - Investigates the interaction between art and structures of power in seventeenth-century Europe, with particular attention to its global dimensions. Focus on Rubens, Rembrandt, Velazquez, and Bernini but also other forms of cultural production that circulated through global trade.
• CAS AH 571: Problems in African Diaspora Art History
  This course examines the African Diaspora in art history, addressing debates on its definition and study. It challenges students to explore diaspora’s impact on artistic and scholarly practice, introducing 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 Fall 2025, Section A1: This course examines the collection and display of the arts of Africa and the Diaspora from the colonial period to the present. The course also considers seminal exhibitions of modern and contemporary African art, asking how these practices have shifted perceptions of African art in the twenty-first century.
• 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 2024: ¿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.