Apr 27, 2024  
Course Catalog 2020-2021 
    
Catalog Navigation
  Catalog Home
  The Liberal Arts at Wheaton
  Compass Curriculum
  Connections Curriculum
  Programs of Study
  Programs by Department
  Course Descriptions
  Admission
  Academic Resources
  Academic Policies
  Financial Aid
  College Calendar
  Directory
HELP
Course Catalog 2020-2021 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions

Students planning a program of study or concentration are urged to review program requirements and course descriptions before meeting with their advisors. Not all courses listed here are taught every year, and students should consult the Course Schedule on the Wheaton website for information about offerings in a particular semester. Courses are numbered to indicate levels of advancement as follows: 100–199, elementary or introductory; 200–299, intermediate; 300 and above, advanced. Departments often design new courses, either to be offered on a one-time basis or an experimental basis, before deciding whether to make them a regular part of the curriculum.  These courses are numbered 098, 198, 298 or 398.

Information is available online through WINDOW about prerequisites that must be completed before enrolling in a course, as well as the curriculum and general education requirements that a course fulfills. Most courses are offered for one course credit; a course credit at Wheaton is the equivalent of four semester hours.
 

African, African American, Diaspora Studies
  

  • AFDS 099 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Credits .5
  

  • AFDS 103 - Introduction to African, African American, Diaspora Studies

    An introduction to the study of Africa and its diaspora, primarily in the Americas, but also Europe. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach to a range of historical, literary, artistic, economic and political questions crucial to the understanding of the experiences of people of African descent.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Sciences

    Division
    Social Sciences

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • AFDS 199 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Credits 1
  

  • AFDS 201 - Witnessing Contemporary African Society

    “Witnessing Contemporary African Society” is an intensive, interdisciplinary course designed to give students exposure to and an overview of one or more African countries normally South Africa and Botswana. Course activities and assignments include visits to political, economic, historical and cultural centers (e.g. townships, neighborhoods, museums and courts), meetings with local leaders and activists, lectures/seminars by local academics, and interactions with university students.

    Credits 1



    Foundation
    Beyond the West
  

  • AFDS 215 - Black Feminist Theory

    The class will examine critical and theoretical issues in Black feminism from the 1960s to the present, focusing on the influential contemporary Black feminist intellectual tradition that emerged in the 1970s.  From this perspective, students will explore certain themes and topics, such as work, family, politics and community, through reading the writings of Black feminists. We will also study the ways in which women and men have worked together, toward the eradication of race and gender inequality, among other systems of oppression, which have historically subjugated Black women. Although emphasis will be placed on Black feminist traditions in the United States, at the end of the semester we will consider Black feminism in global perspective. This course is cross listed with WGS 215 .

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross listed with WGS 215  

     

    Area
    Social Sciences

    Connection
    23007

    Compass Attributes
    Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars, Global Honors
  

  • AFDS 299 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Credits 1
  

  • AFDS 347 - Blackness, Futurism, and Supernatural Fiction

    This class will explore Black literary and cultural aesthetics that operate in speculative and science fiction. Students will read across media, including short stories, manifestos, journalism, critical theory, novels, music and film to engage and answer questions about the links between the African diaspora, cultural politics, technological development, communication systems, distant pasts and possible futures. 

    Prerequisites
    ENG 290 .  Minors by Permission of Instructor

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with ENG 347  
  

  • AFDS 399 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Prerequisites
    Permission of instructor

    Credits 1

Anthropology
  

  • ANTH 099 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Credits 0.5



    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 101 - Human Evolution

    Discoveries related to human and cultural evolution are constantly changing our view of where we came from and how we got to be the way we are. This course considers the latest findings and controversies concerning evolutionary theory, our relationship to apes, our sexuality, bipedalism and capacity for language, the relevance of “race,” our links to Neanderthals, the development of what we call civilization and other topics.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Sciences

    Division
    Social Sciences

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 102 - Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

    This course explores cultural diversity in the contemporary world and introduces the ana­lytical and methodological tools that anthropologists use to understand cultural similarities and differences in a global context. This course will acquaint students with the extraordi­nary range of human possibility that anthropologists have come to know, provide a means of better understanding the culturally unfamiliar and offer a new perspective through which to examine the cultures that they call their own.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    A lab section must be selected with the lecture

    Area
    Social Sciences

    Connection
    20023

    Division
    Social Sciences

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ANTH 199 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Credits 1
  

  • ANTH 210 - Feast or Famine: The Ecology and Politics of Food

    This course concerns how food is produced, distributed and consumed. Topics covered include: how culture shapes taste, cuisine, nutrition and food production systems, as well as the ecological, economic and political factors that cause famine and food shortage. Films, case studies, guest speakers, action/service fieldwork and modeling exercises provide opportunities to think creatively about policy and action to increase food security for the most vulnerable at home and abroad. Students are expected to meet the challenge of bringing these issues into a forum for discussion on the Wheaton campus.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science 

    Connection
    23002

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ANTH 215 - Tanzania: Education and Development

    The course explores the considerable challenges facing countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Tanzania, one of the poorest countries on the continent, has a long history of trying to engineer development through educational change. Students are introduced to this rich history from the pre-colonial period to the present which includes: a look at traditional education systems in several of the 120 different cultures of Tanzania; the introduction of mission and colonial schools; ujamaa socialist education models in the 1960s-80s; and current attempts to make secondary school a universal right for all children. The program begins in the Northern International city of Arusha with its many museums, international war crimes tribunal court, and thriving markets to Kilimanjaro regional capital city Moshi town for a week of lectures and site visits to schools, coffee cooperatives, local industries, hospitals, and development projects. We then head for our base on Mount Kilimanjaro, a cultural heritage site and the only snow-capped mountain that straddles the equator. Our home for two weeks is Rongai, a town located in national forest conservation territory. The course is run like an intensive ethnographic field school.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Faculty led oversease trip.

    Permission of Program Coodinator

    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ANTH 225 - Peoples and Cultures of Africa

    This course takes a topical/historical approach to the study of sub-Saharan African societies. The diversity of unique African cultural features (in kinship, economy, politics and ritual) will be considered against the backdrop of historical interactions with Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia from the precolonial period to the present. Topics covered include: lineages and stateless societies, chiefdoms and long-distance trade, slavery, colonialism and underdevelopment, social movements and resistance, cosmology, warfare and stratification by ethnicity and gender.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

     

     

    Connection
    23001

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ANTH 226 - Anthropology of Art

    This course considers art as diverse as Maori canoe prows, Warhol’ Pop, aboriginal sand drawings, gang graffiti, Tibetan tangkas, children’ finger painting and Mapplethorpe’ photographs from an anthropological perspective, asking: Why do humans make art? How and why does art affect us and those of other cultures? What are the relationships between art, artists and society? Artists are encouraged to participate.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Open to Seniors, Juniors and Sophomores or Permission of Instructor.

    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 230 - Language and Culture

    Linguistic anthropology is concerned with the many ways that language and communication make us what we are as human beings and affect our daily social and cultural lives. Topics covered include: evolution of language; how language and culture affect the way we know the world; language acquisition; and language and communicative behaviors associated with social classes, races and genders.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 235 - Peoples and Cultures of Latin America

    The course looks at the issues faced by peoples and cultures of Latin America primarily through the careful reading of ethnographies. The ethnographies, as well as the associated articles and films used in the course, highlight the social realities and history of Latin American region. In this course we focus on understanding the interconnectedness of the Americas, the relationship between gender and state development, multiple forms of violence (structural, gendered, political, symbolic and everyday), religious change, and the impact of migrations, as well as the legacies of historical constructions of race, gender and ethnicity.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

    Connection
    23003

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ANTH 240 - Urban Anthropology

    The 20th century has been characterized by massive urban growth throughout the world. Ethnographic studies serve as a basis for studying the causes, processes and consequenc­es of urban migration and urbanization, as well as cross-cultural similarities and variations in urban ways of life. This course examines how people negotiate urban life as a particular sociocultural world. We develop an anthropological view of cities by surveying rural-urban influences, neighborhoods, ethnicities, subcultures, social networks and stratification to understand how social relations are constructed and how cultural knowledge is distributed in cities, including the metropolitan area.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 245 - Indigenous Movements of Latin America

    This course takes a topical approach to contemporary challenges facing indigenous peoples in Latin America. The course uses recent ethnographic accounts to give us an in-depth understanding of the struggles, achievements and meaning-making practices of indigenous peoples in Latin America. We focus on identity-making practices of indigenous ethnic groups in their struggles within the states of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala and Mexico.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

    Connection
    23003

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 250 - Political Anthropology

    What is power and what are the many forms in which we can see it being exercised? This course starts by exploring the evolution of political structures from stateless societies to advanced civilizations. We will analyze some classic anthropological studies of local political systems in different parts of the world and then shift our focus to how changes in the global economy affect citizens in such areas as employment, immigration, health and human rights.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 255 - Women in Africa

    What contributions have women made to the societies of Africa prior to colonialism? How and why did colonialism affect men and women differently? What are the implications of gender inequality for economic development in Africa today? These questions are consid­ered from ethnographic, autobiographical and fictional accounts. Gender, class and cultural identity will be focal points.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with WGS 255 Women in Africa      

    Area
    Social Science

    Connection
    23001

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ANTH 260 - Women and Development

    This course focuses some of the central development problems in the Global South (poverty, hunger, infectious disease, illiteracy) and how our thinking about these issues changed once women were entered into the development equation. The backdrop to the issues we will tackle is the re-organization of the global political economy and the way that different actors in the business of development (international bodies such as the UN and its subsidiaries, national governments, multinational corporations and trade bodies, NGOs and Aid agencies, and the local recipients of aid) understand the fundamental problems causing underdevelopment and the solutions that they affirm. While we will consider the big picture of development from the top down, our key focus will remain on how women and men in the Global South understand and cope with the key development challenges they face in a rapidly changing world.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with WGS 262 Women and Development  

    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ANTH 265 - Medical Anthropology

    Medical Anthropology explores how socio-cultural and biological factors influence practices of health and well being. Students in the course will learn about (1) diverse experiences and cultural influences on the distribution of illness, (2) cultural breadth in prevention and treatment of sickness and healing processes, (3) ways to document and understand the social relations of therapy management, and (4) the potential social benefits of pluralistic medical systems.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

    Connection
    20085

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ANTH 266 - Global Health: Power, Sex, and Gender

    Inequality shapes the ways that world health issues are experienced by individuals and communities across cultures. This course focuses on (1) how unequal access to power shapes reproductive health, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and other forms of gender-based health disparities; and (2) how power imbalances shapes the knowledge produced in the growing field of global health. The course will provide students with an understanding of the ways gender shapes global health issues. In addition, the course introduces students to the culture that underpins biomedical and public health practice.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Sciences

    Division
    Social Sciences

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ANTH 270 - Psychological Anthropology

    Shamanic cures, ecstatic trance, spirit possession, dream interpretation, identity negoti­ation and other psychological phenomena that pose challenges for anthropological expla­nation are examined in order to better understand the relationship between sociocultural context and individual experience and thought. Case studies from diverse cultural settings are bases for exploring contemporary issues and topics in this field.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 275 - Peoples and Cultures of the Himalaya

    The Himalayan region provides extraordinary opportunities for pursuing fascinating issues that interest anthropologists everywhere, including the relationship between ecology and culture, the politics of gender, negotiating ethnic identity, religious diversity and interaction, and globalization. This region is also home to some of the most widely known fantasies about the ideal society, usually called Shangrila. This course uses intimate, detailed portraits of cultures and societies that the best of anthropology provides in order to examine these issues (and fantasies) in Himalayan contexts, while at the same time providing a broad overview of the enormous diversity to be found in the region and the challenges that those who live there share.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science
  

  • ANTH 280 - Archaeology of the Southwest

    This course will investigate the prehistory of native people in the American Southwest. Students will discover how, through archaeological theory and method, material culture is used to reconstruct the chronology and way of life in the ancient Southwest, from the arrival of the first humans onto the North American continent to the coming of the Spanish. The course will focus on the three major culture groups and regions of the Southwest - the Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi), Mogollon, and Hohokam, and will explore how these ancient people managed to adapt to and flourish in some of the harshest environments in North America, and created impressive settlements with unique and complicated social dynamics.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 295 - Peoples and Cultures of South Asia

    Religious and ethnic diversity and conflict, ritual performance and festivity, caste, colonial­ism, cultural heritage, nationalism and modern struggles over sovereignty and development schemes are all features of South Asia that anthropologists find particularly interesting. This course explores the extraordinary cultural diversity of this region, which extends from the Himalayas to Sri Lanka and Pakistan to Bhutan in order to better understand the differenc­es and commonalities that divide and unite its peoples.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Social Science

    Connection
    20032

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science
  

  • ANTH 298 - Imagining a Just World through Action

    The work of social justice has been afoot for centuries and yet today the idea of a just world for the majority is still elusive. Where do we begin to change our world? Is making change within ourselves a must? What can we do right now to address injustice? What should we not do? And, at any rate, who even gets to decide what social justice is?

    You are invited to learn about different approaches to making social justice change. Together we will interrogate contemporary problems of social justice and learn practical techniques for unassuming engagements with one another. We will study global and local efforts for justice in political representation, gender, judicial processes, and knowledge creation. We will also learn through experience in the practical components of social justice practice. This course will welcome you into a community of learners where you will be expected to work on your outlook and the world in concrete ways!

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Limited to Sophomores or Juniors or by Permission of Instructor.

    Compass Attributes
    Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ANTH 298 - Power, Sex, Gender

    This course explores cultural diversity in the contemporary world and introduces the analytical and methodological tools that anthropologists use to understand cultural similarities and differences in a global context. This course will acquaint students with the extraordinary range of human possibility that anthropologists have come to know, provide a means of better understanding the culturally unfamiliar and offer a new perspective through which to examine the cultures that they call their own.

    Credits 1
  

  • ANTH 299 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.
  

  • ANTH 301 - Seminar in Anthropological Theory

    This seminar provides a selective survey of the past one hundred years of anthropological theory, with a particular focus on the contributions of American, British and French theorists in the development of anthropological paradigms that are now most important in the discipline. These include evolutionary, functionalist, historical particularistic, culture and personality, structuralist, symbolic/interpretive, ecological materialist, Marxist world systems, feminist, poststructuralist, practice and postmodernist theory, which will all receive major attention. Readings may include primary theoretical texts, classic and contemporary ethnographies and biographical materials on a number of influential anthropologists.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Open to Sophmore, Junior and Senior Anthroplogy Majors or Permission of Instructor

     

    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 302 - Research Methods

    In this seminar, students learn how to develop a testable hypothesis, conduct a review of research literature, define an appropriate sample and employ a range of ethnographic methodologies in one or more research sites. The course culminates in the design of a pilot project and proposal.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Open to Sophomore and Junior Anthropology Majors or Permission of Instructor

    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 311 - Violence Against Women

    This seminar explores the nature of violence against women, focusing on current research on woman battering, rape, child sexual abuse and pornography. Students will compare theoretical approaches and will critically examine empirical research. The impact of race, ethnicity and class on the abuse experience are considered. A major part of the seminar involves original research by students on an issue of their choice. The semester will culminate in a symposium on violence against women organized by seminar members.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with SOC 311  and WGS 311  

    Permission of Instructor

    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ANTH 333 - Economic Anthropology

    The seminar explores capitalism and alternative forms of economic organization, chal­lenging students to reconceptualize “economy” as a cultural system. Students compare nonmonetized economic relations in different societies and interactions between economic cores and peripheries. This reconceptualization informs a critical understanding of the implications for participation in the global economic system and its impact on the rest of the world.

    Prerequisites
    ANTH 102  

     

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Open to Sophomore, Junior and Seniors or Permission of Instructor

    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond of the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ANTH 340 - Seminar on Religion in Anthropological Perspective

    In various places throughout the world, people are killing themselves and others in the name of Religion or “religious beliefs.” Attempts to make sense of these and other phenomena (such as trance, fundamentalism and ecstatic worship) that we call religious often reveal deep-seated prejudices and unfounded assumptions. This seminar examines how anthropologists have sought to understand such phenomena from the perspectives of practitioners in order to develop conceptual frameworks that facilitate cross-cultural understanding.

    Prerequisites
    ANTH 102 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology  

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with REL 340  

    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 350 - The Social Life of Gender

    Societies differ considerably (over time and through space) in the way that gender is linked to sexuality and how these categories are assigned value, meaning, and power.  This course offers a cultural and historical perspective on how gender is linked to sex and is inscribed in hierarchy and inequality.  We begin by considering how cultural constructions of gender are deeply embedded, enacted, and contested in family/kinship systems with many variations.  Through readings focused on specific historical and ethnographic cases, films, and two short fieldwork assignments we will interrogate assumptions about the evolution of gender inequality, compare cultures that incorporate non-binary sex/gender systems, and examine how the social life of gender implicates sex role identity and performance in public (education, medicine, workplace, political sphere) as well as private (families, networks, community organizations) institutions.  Following Foucault, cases of particular interest will be those undergoing rapid, economic, political and technological change.

    Prerequisites
    ANTH 102  or WGS 101  

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with WGS 350  

    Area
    Social Science

    Connection
    23006

    Division
    Social Science

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Social Science, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ANTH 357 - Indigenous Religions

    An exploration of the rituals, myths and symbols of indigenous religions and the interconnection between these religious forms and native ways of life. Focuses on Native North American religious traditions, but indigenous religions in Africa, Australia and Latin America will also be considered.

    Prerequisites
    One 200-level Religion course or Permission of Instructor

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with REL 357  

    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Humanities
  

  • ANTH 399 - Independent Study

    Independent study supervised by a member of the Anthropology Department.
  

  • ANTH 401 - Senior Seminar

    A semester of directed research in which students explore topics of their own choice through their own original research. Students meet regularly in a seminar setting, which provides a framework in which to discuss the many stages of the research process and offer collaborative support for fellow students pursuing their individual projects. Students will be expected to produce a completed thesis in February as their capstone to the major.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Open to Senior Majors or Permission of Instructor

    Area
    Social Science

    Division
    Social Science

    Compass Attributes
    Social Science
  

  • ANTH 499 - Independent Research

    Open to majors at the invitation of the department.
  

  • ANTH 500 - Individual Research

    Open to majors at the invitation of the department

    Credits 1



    Compass Attributes
    Social Science

Arabic
  

  • ARBC 099 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Credits .5
  

  • ARBC 101 - Elementary I

    This course provides the first-time learner with basic knowledge and skills in Ara­bic.

    Credits 1



    Foundation
    Foreign Language

    Compass Attributes
    Foreign Language
  

  • ARBC 102 - Elementary II

    A continuation of 101.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    An additional hour of conversation per week will be required and will be scheduled with the professor.

    Foundation
    Foreign Language

    Compass Attributes
    Foreign Language
  

  • ARBC 199 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Credits 1
  

  • ARBC 201 - Intermediate I

    During this course,students will review chapters 1-10 that are in Book I . Get tested on it before going to Book II, Al-Kitaab. Emphasis will be on learning new vocabulary, writing, reading and speaking will be applied in every class. Instructor will teach materials from the textbooks, CDs, DVDs, cultural events and articles, movies and the instructor personal experience as a native speaker. Speaking Arabic will be encouraged at each class.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    An additional hour of conversation per week will be required and will be scheduled with the professor.

    Foundation
    Foreign Language

    Compass Attributes
    Foreign Language
  

  • ARBC 202 - Intermediate II

    A continuation of 201.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    An additional hour of conversation per week will be required and will be scheduled with the professor.

    Foundation
    Foreign Language

    Compass Attributes
    Foreign Language
  

  • ARBC 299 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Prerequisites
    Permission of Instructor

    Credits 1
  

  • ARBC 301 - Advanced Arabic

    Students at this level have a broader range of vocabulary, more fluency in speaking, and more advanced skills in Arabic than students at the regular Intermediate Arabic level. The main objective of this course is to move students in a short period of time across the threshold of the high intermediate level of proficiency and provide opportunities and learning strategies towards the advanced level of proficiency. This level is characterized by extensive readings and discussions on a multitude of political, social, cultural, and literary topics. Listening activities focus on authentic materials of considerable length and content. At this level, students learn colloquial dialects mostly Levantine. The objective is to equip students with the necessary conversational skills that would enable them to engage in meaningful discourse with educated Arabs in a medium that is not considered artificial or unfamiliar in the Arab World.

    Prerequisites
    ARBC 101, ARBC 102, ARBC 201 and ARBC 202 or Permission of Instructor

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Course taught at Stonehill College.  Students are responsible for their own transportation

    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Foundation
    Foreign Language

    Compass Attributes
    Foreign Language, Humanities
  

  • ARBC 302 - Advanced Arabic

    Students at this level have a broader range of vocabulary, more fluency in speaking, and more advanced skills in Arabic than students at the regular Intermediate Arabic level. The main objective of this course is to move students in a short period of time across the threshold of the high intermediate level of proficiency and provide opportunities and learning strategies towards the advanced level of proficiency. This level is characterized by extensive readings and discussions on a multitude of political, social, cultural, and literary topics. Listening activities focus on authentic materials of considerable length and content. At this level, students learn colloquial dialects mostly Levantine. The objective is to equip students with the necessary conversational skills that would enable them to engage in meaningful discourse with educated Arabs in a medium that is not considered artificial or unfamiliar in the Arab World.

    Prerequisites
    ARBC 101, 102, 201 and 202 or Permission of Instructor.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    This course is taught at Stonehill College.  Students are responsible for their own transportation.

    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Foundation
    Foreign Language

    Compass Attributes
    Foreign Language, Humanities
  

  • ARBC 399 - Independent Study

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Prerequisites
    Permission of Instructor

    Credits 1

History of Art
  

  • ARTH 099 - Selected Topics

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Credits .5
  

  • ARTH 110 - Introduction to Italian Renaissance Art

    This introductory course is meant to give students a survey of the arts in the Italian pen­insula from the 13th century to the 18th century. The class will present a variety of works in diverse media made during what is commonly called the Renaissance. We will explore architecture, paintings, and sculptures by analyzing the historical, social, and cultural contexts in which they were produced. At the end of the course, students will be able to discuss early modern Italian art and to understand the particular concepts that drove artistic productions. Students will also learn the foundations of art historical methods and vocabulary; they will deploy these tools to analyze the works examined in class. Though the course is structured around lectures, students are strongly encouraged to bring their own comments and questions to class. No previous knowledge of history of art is required.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities
  

  • ARTH 120 - Introduction to American Art and Design

    An introduction to American art and design from the colonial period through the midtwentieth century, this course examines the role visual culture has played in the formation of national identity. Students will consider a wide range of media, seeking to understand how artists, architects, and designers negotiated the rise of urban culture, industrial prosperity, sectional conflict, and the changing politics of race and gender.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ARTH 121 - Introduction to Modern Architecture and Design

    In this introductory survey, we will study the evolution of Western architecture from the period of the Enlightenment to the twenty-first century. Examining the technological, political, and social contexts of key works throughout this period, we will consider the ways individual structures and the built environment have reflected modern Westerners’ greatest aspirations as well as their deepest anxieties.

    Credits 1



    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities
  

  • ARTH 122 - Introduction to Modern Art

    This course provides a survey of modern art, from its origins during the French Revolution to WWII. We look in-depth at key artists and ideas that shaped the development of modern art in the West. Our approach will prioritize the political context and ideological impact of a select group of paintings and sculptures. Although our focus will be on Europe, we also consider how artists found inspiration in other cultures and events beyond their immediate borders.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ARTH 132 - Introduction to Contemporary Art and Design

    This course is an introduction to the theories and practices of living artists. Our goal is not a general survey of the contemporary art world, but a careful consideration of the political, material, and intellectual questions engaging artists and designers today. We study critical and creative relationships across periods, cultures, and media (painting and sculpture, photography, performance, installation, film and video). Close analysis of individual works, landmark contemporary exhibitions, as well as recent writings by artists, art historians, curators and critics form the basis of the course. Students will engage directly with contemporary collections and exhibitions, via gallery visits in either Boston, Providence, or both.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities
  

  • ARTH 142 - Introduction to Photography

    This course is an introduction to photography as an artistic and social practice beginning with its 19th-century origins. We focus on major artists and movements in the history of photography, but also examine the factors that transformed perceptions of the media, helping to establish it as a modernist art form in the 20th century. We will consider debates surrounding the status of photography as fine art vs. documentation. We will see how photographers balanced the aesthetic possibilities of the camera with its political power to create ideological messages.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities
  

  • ARTH 198 - Circulating Knowledge: The Printing Press to Wikipedia

    Today, Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites in the world and a primary source of information for people across the globe. An unlikely forerunner, the printing press, developed in 15th-century Europe, resulted in an explosion of prints and illustrated books that similarly revolutionized European knowledge and circulated information more prolifically than ever possible before. This course will survey the history of print and printed images and their role in circulating knowledge from early woodblock printing in Asia, to the invention of the printing press and movable type in Renaissance Europe, to modern lithography, and the current impact of digital culture on print. Throughout, we will foreground discussions of access to knowledge, the democratization of knowledge, and the circulation of information. Despite Wikipedia’s popularity, the vast majority of its articles are written and edited by men who are largely from European and American contexts. Likewise, historically, the production of knowledge in print has been dominated by elite men. We will ask how gender, class, and race intersect with the production, circulation, and consumption of knowledge in printed form in the past and now. This class will include several opportunities to study prints and printed books in person at various local and nearby collections.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-referenced with WGS 198.

    Foundation
    Beyond the West
  

  • ARTH 198 - Introduction to Modern Art

    This course provides a survey of modern art, from its origins during the French Revolution to WWII. We look in depth at key artists and ideas that shaped the development of modern art in the West. Our approach will prioritize the political context and ideological impact of a select group of paintings and sculpture. Although our focus will be on Europe, we also consider how artists found inspiration in other cultures and events beyond their immediate borders.

    Credits 1
  

  • ARTH 198 - Introduction to Photography

    This course is an introduction to photography as an artistic and social practice beginning with its 19th-century origins. We focus on major artists and movements in the history of photography, but also examine the factors that transformed perceptions of the media, helping to establish it as a modernist art form in the 20th century. We will consider debates surrounding the status of photography as fine art vs. documentation. We will see how photographers balanced the aesthetic possibilities of the camera with its political power to create ideological messages.

    Credits 1
  

  • ARTH 199 - Selected Topics

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Credits 1
  

  • ARTH 212 - African Art and Design

    This course provides an introduction to the rich, diverse and inspiring world of African art. We will examine the varied ways that African art has shaped and been shaped by the histories and cultural values of different African peoples, both in the past and during the present day. This course will strengthen the student’ ability to critically assess the role of art in Africa for the people who produce and use it, and will provide an understanding of the role of African art in the West for the people who collect, exhibit, view and study it. Topics of study will include social, political, religious, philosophical, gendered and aesthetic practices.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Connection
    23001

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ARTH 230 - Introduction to Museum Studies

    This course introduces students to museum history and practice and to theoretical issues in museum studies. Students will explore the ways in which museums and like institutions represent people and cultures and will consider their missions, organizational structure and architecture, their role in the community and the contemporary challenges faced by museum practitioners.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ARTH 240 - Art of the Avant-Gardes, 1900-1945: France, Germany, Italy and Russia

    This course examines the artistic avant-gardes in France, Germany, Italy and Russia, during the first half of the 20th century. We study individual artists and their associated movements (Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, Dada, Surrealism, for example) through select themes: appropriations from and critical responses to mass culture and emerging new media, to visual traditions outside of Europe; representations of sexual, racial, and class identity; and the relationships between modernism, nationalism, war, and revolution. Critical analysis of individual works of art, as well as primary texts, especially those by artists and critics articulating ideological theories of art-making and its social and political roles, forms the basis of the course.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ARTH 241 - Renaissance Art of the North

    The effects of secular patronage on late Gothic painting in France and Flanders (Pucelle, the Limbourg brothers), followed by a thorough analysis of the realistic and mystical cur­rents in northern culture and painting from Jan van Eyck to Hieronymus Bosch; a study of the spread of the Flemish style to Germany and France and the impact of humanism (Dürer, Grünewald, Brueghel).

    Credits 1



    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Humanities
  

  • ARTH 242 - Patronage and the Artist in Early-Modern Italy

    This course explores the relationship between various patrons and artists in Italy from circa 1400 until circa 1650. We examine the influence held by patrons such as churches, monasteries, and court rulers on art production and, in turn, how artists affected patrons’ taste. In addition, the class addresses issues of gender and politics to understand the process of art production and art reception in early-modern Italy. From fresco cycles, to museum collections, sacred decorations, and self-portraits, this course pays close attention to individual styles while contextualizing the works within their political, social, religious and economic settings.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ARTH 243 - Early Modern Spaces

    This course examines various spaces in Italy and France from circa 1400 until circa 1700. The students look at private residences such as palazzi and castles in terms of architecture, patronage, and domestic productions. The class determines the parameters of an estab­lished gendered space and the components of a socially constructed space. In addition, the course addresses the impact of urban public structures on politics and culture, as well as the drive behind the establishment of villas outside of city centers. From the gardens of Bomarzo to studioli and to the Château de Chenonceau, this class pays close attention to aesthetic decisions contextualized within political, religious, economic and social settings.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Connection
    20098

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities
  

  • ARTH 244 - Baroque Art

    This course surveys a selection of the arts in Italy from the middle of the sixteenth century to circa 1750. The works of major artists such as Caravaggio, Bernini, Gentileschi, Borromi­ni, and the Carracci brothers are examined and contextualized within their political, social, religious and economic settings. A special emphasis is put on Rome, though Florence and Venice are discussed in relation to courtly productions and to the Grand Tour. Close atten­tion to individual styles is emphasized in lectures, readings and class discussion. The class also looks at the intersections of art and science, and the ways in which the interest in the marvelous and the curious took visual forms during a time when questioning the supremacy of divine creation was prevalent.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ARTH 245 - Postwar and Contemporary Art: 1945-2000

    This course surveys the diversity of art making since 1945 through a thematic approach. We study postwar modernism Abstract Expressionism, Art Informel, Neo-Dada, Pop, Minimalism, Conceptual art in conjunction with more recent work, from a more global context, that challenges its discourses. By focusing on select concepts body, gender and identity, consumerism, natural environment, cultural hybridity, historical memory, e.g we consider critical and creative relationships across periods, cultures, and media (painting and sculpture, photography, performance, installation, film and video). Analysis of individual works, museum visits, web resources, and writings by artists, art historians, and critics form the basis of the course. (Previously ARTH 340).

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities
  

  • ARTH 250 - Modernism and Mass Culture in France, 1848-1914

    This course studies the early movements of European modern art (Realism, Impression­ism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism) with a focus on their interactions with mass culture. Beginning in the mid-19th century with Courbet and the impact of popular printmaking on his art, we study how other non-elite forms (lithographic posters, commercial photography, newspapers) shaped the subsequent development of modernist art, chiefly in France. In the second half of the course, we consider how new forms of leisure and commercial enter­tainment in Paris (cafe-concert, music hall, etc) impacted artists including Manet, Degas, and Seurat. We end in the early 20th century, with a consideration of cubist collage by Picasso and Braque and their adoption of the ephemera of mass culture: newspapers, song sheets, and department store advertisements. Why, if modernism can be traced through its appropriations from the commodity culture of capitalism, has it also been described as a critical alternative to it?

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Connection
    20088

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities
  

  • ARTH 253 - Castles and Cathedrals

    This course is a study of Gothic architecture and art from the 12th to the 14th century throughout Europe, but primarily in Medieval France, where the movement was “born.” Special attention at the outset of the class will be given to the art of the Romanesque period (11th-12th) for comparative analysis. Thus, we will move from Romanesque monastic pilgrimage sites (their architecture and sculpture), to the great cathedrals of Gothic France (their architecture, sculpture, and stained glass), to the castles of northern Europe (their construction, design, and life in a medieval castle), and to the Gothic art of the 14th century when two natural disasters occurred: The Little Ice Age and The Black Death. Social, political, and economic factors involved in the production of these works of art and architecture will be essential to our understanding of this art. Issues of materials, techniques of production, function, patronage, spectator/audience, historical context, and imbedded meanings for the art (its iconography) will be among the most important areas of inquiry.

    Credits 1



    Connection
    20029, 20086

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities
  

  • ARTH 255 - Art and Ritual of the Ancient Americas

    A historical and cultural examination of the architecture, sculpture and allied arts of the ancient Andes and Mesoamerica. Spanning the first millennium B.C.E. to the time of the Spanish Conquest, this course considers the role of the arts in the establishment and maintenance of pre-Columbian political/religious authority.

    Credits 1



    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ARTH 257 - Photography and Knowledge (1830-1930)

    This course is a social history of photography which examines how the medium shaped categories of subjectivity in the 19th century (class, gender, race, nationality, for example). We study how photographic representations were a means to archive and classify fields of knowledge. The development of photography in this period intersected with the burgeoning sciences of ethnography and anthropology, and it was used in both topographical and expe­ditionary surveys. Faith in photography as a document made it a powerful witness to war, urban development, colonial expansion and social inequalities. While we study the work of photography’ more well-known practitioners from Europe and North America, our approach will not emphasize the aesthetic innovations of self-consciously artistic photography. Rather, we examine both professional and domestic photography as a means to produce knowledge about the world.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with FNMS 252

    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ARTH 261 - Anatomies 1400-1600: Sexual, Forbidden and Monstrous

    This course looks at the ways in which the body was understood and visualized in the early modern period. Focusing mostly on France and Italy, the class addresses topics such as: the perceived imperfections of the female body; the mystery held by reproductive organs and their function; the theological and physical challenges posed by human dissections; the production of illustrated anatomical treatises; the implication of artists and anatomists in exploring monstrous bodies; and the intellectual and physical fascination with hermaphro­dites. 

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ARTH 263 - African American Art and Design

    This course explores the contribution of African American artists to the visual culture of the United States, from the work of 18th- and 19th-century enslaved and free blacks to the production of contemporary African American artists. Students examine the various strat­egies that African American artists have used to establish an independent artistic identity and to provide a political voice for their audiences.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Connection
    23010

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ARTH 270 - The Art of the Print

    The development of woodcut, engraving, etching, lithography, etc., from the 15th century to the present. Special attention to the work of Dürer, Rembrandt, Daumier, Whistler and Cassatt. Religious, social and/or political aspects of their work also considered. Print col­lections at Wheaton and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, will be highlighted. 

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Connection
    20020

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities
  

  • ARTH 274 - Visualizing Ancient Rome

    The Roman world may seem distant to many of you today. After all, its empire was formed over 2000 years ago, and choosing a career as a gladiator is certainly far from your mind. And yet, if you stop for a moment and examine the buildings you enter, the literature you read, the language you speak, and the art you admire, you will recognize much that the Romans left behind. Their legacy is found in the Wheaton Campus buildings (check out the fa̤ade of the library), in the laws that govern our land (“a man should have the right to face his accusers”), in the stadiums that house our favorite sports team (Romans cheered for the Whites, the Greens, the Reds or the Blues) and even in the American obsession for cleanliness (at one point there were nearly 1000 baths in the city of Rome, and the central building of the Baths of Caracalla covered 6 acres, the same size as the U.S. Capitol). After a brief introduction to the art of the Etruscans as a foundation for Roman art and a fascinating culture on its own, this course will examine the historical, political, and social structure of the Roman world in relation to the art of its three main periods: the Republic, the “Golden Age” of the Roman Empire, and the declining years of the Late Empire in the third and fourth centuries A.D.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Connection
    20075

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ARTH 298 - Animated Bodies, Lively Things

    Material objects act on all of us. Dramatic images can be emotionally persuasive, the pose of a statue can alter how we hold our own bodies, and architecture dictates how we negotiate space. In all these ways (and many others), objects act on us as lively things. This course will examine the blurred lines between humans and objects in order to broaden our understanding of the interactions between people and material culture during the period from 1450-1700, in Europe and the Americas. We will examine works of art that seemingly were alive, statues that spoke, reliquaries that healed, and automata that moved. Many of these objects presented enlivened female bodies in marble, wood, and paint, some of which miraculously seemed to bleed, cry, or even lactate. We will ask how these objects acted upon viewers, motivating, persuading, and moving them. Our ultimate goal will be to better understand the power of objects to address beholders.

     

     

     

    Notes
    Cross-listed with WGS 298 .

    Foundation
    Beyond the West
  

  • ARTH 298 - Curating Immigration Histories: City and Campus

    Using Providence, Rhode Island and Wheaton College as case studies, this course will explore how the built environments of city and campus have responded to demographic changes and evolving notions of national identity.  Students’ research will serve as an incubator for a future exhibition, also featuring work by students in ARTH 298 . This course is designed to develop professional skills, through a practical hands-on introduction to curatorial research. Using visual objects and documents from Wheaton’s Permanent Collection, Gebbie Archives, and other resources in Providence, RI, we will sharpen our interpretative skills with primary historical sources. In the process, students will see how an exhibition or public program is generated by humanities research. Our goal will be to reactivate historical materials with new questions, to create a relevant multi-dimensional visual presentation that speaks to a diverse 21st-century public.

    Credits 1
  

  • ARTH 298 - Curating Immigration Histories: Objects and Archives

    The course explores the material histories of immigrant communities in Providence, alongside the history of Wheaton College. Via historical objects, photography and other evidence, we’ll try to understand how our college and region have responded to demographic changes and to shifting ideas about national identity. Students’ research will serve as an incubator for a future exhibition, also featuring work by students in ARTH 298 .  This course is designed to develop professional skills, through a practical hands-on introduction to curatorial research. Using visual objects and documents from Wheaton’s Permanent Collection, Gebbie Archives, and other resources in Providence, RI, we will sharpen our interpretative skills with primary historical sources. In the process, students will see how an exhibition or public program is generated by humanities research. Our goal will be to reactivate historical materials with new questions, to create a relevant multi-dimensional visual presentation that speaks to a diverse 21st-century public. 

    Credits 1
  

  • ARTH 298 - Impossible Monsters: Goya as Painter and Printemaker

    Impossible Monsters: Goya as Painter and Printmaker is an in-depth study of the life and work of a single artist, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, who ranks among the most influential painters/printmakers in the history of art.  In a rich series of astonishing works (Wheaton owns four of his prints), this brilliant Spanish artist plumbed the depths of human misery in images so real and yet so bizarre that the term “Social Fantastic” was coined for them.  Goya’s penchant for portraying a universe of isolation, brutality and anxiety effected an intense change on aspects of modern art. We will scrutinize his impact on Picasso, for example, and identify how Goya’s work evolved as a painstaking criticism of outdated Spanish institutions as well as his critique of Spain’s invasion by Napoleon.  From his technical innovations, which revolutionized the production of etchings and lithography (a “young” art form at the time) to his astounding portraits and historical/allegorical paintings, Goya’s art and insight were phenomenal – eerily modern and relevant even today. 

    Credits 1
  

  • ARTH 298 - Museums in the Digital Age

    From audio guides to crowdsourced exhibitions to award-winning social media accounts, museums have always experimented with the latest forms of technology, at times driven to do so by artists who incorporate new media into their work. Today, museums receive exponentially greater numbers of visitors to their websites than their physical sites, and the pace of technological change has staff scrambling to gather the human and financial resources needed to function in the digital age. This course explores how museums – highly respected, yet often controversial cultural institutions – use digital media and technologies to better care for their collections, engage their audiences, and navigate relationships with source communities.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with FNMS 298 Museums in the Digital Age .
  

  • ARTH 298 - Representing the Enchanted World

    This course will examine European-made representations of witches, angels, demons, monsters and other enchanted and so-called marvelous beings made between 1500-1800—the era of the famous witch hunts and a period of dramatic confrontation between belief and disbelief about these figures. Harrowing tales of witches’ sabbaths, moving accounts of angelic visitations, dramatic paintings of hellish demons, and travel accounts of mermaids contributed to ongoing debates about the existence of enchanted beings, how to contact them, and alternately how to banish them. We will study primary texts and visual representations in painting, sculpture, and print to ask what people believed about these otherworldly creatures. Through close analysis of several case studies you will be introduced to a range of approaches to examining early modern art objects that circulated as part of religious, social, and political culture. Themes to be addressed include the circulation of knowledge, institutions of power, “high” and “low” culture, and gender and sexuality.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with WGS 298  
  

  • ARTH 298 - The Early Modern City: “Theater of the World”

    An examination of the idea of the city—as material fabric of civic identity, artistic center, and hub of international exchange—in the early modern era (1400-1750) with a focus on five urban centers: Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, Constantinople (Istanbul), and Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). As today’s global cities like New York, Singapore, Dubai, and, indeed, Mexico City continue to explode in population and their importance on the global stage, this course will allow students to look back at the historical place of cities in the global early modern era. Students will study topics such as city planning and urban projects; planned and ideal cities; civic festivals; public spaces and urban monuments; maps, atlases, and city views; and pilgrimage and travel to cities. Ultimately, we will ask how the urban fabric of early modern cities shaped human activity.

    Credits 1
  

  • ARTH 299 - Selected Topics

    An opportunity to do independent work in a particular area not included in the regular courses.

    Credits 1
  

  • ARTH 300 - French Art and Its Others (1830-1930)

    This seminar examines how a fascination with cultures outside of Europe motivated several artists and designers working in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century France. Modern art in France was profoundly shaped by a series of direct visual appropriations from African, Middle Eastern, and Asian artistic traditions, as well as a system of beliefs projected onto those “Other” cultures in question.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ARTH 312 - Contemporary African Arts

    This course will explore contemporary African art and the discourses that frame its pro­duction, reception and history. Issues considered include authenticity, tradition, modernity, nationality and African diasporic art. We will also examine the complex relationship of African art to colonialism, European art and its discourses, and the influence of global­ization and popular culture. We will focus on several artists or artistic traditions as case studies, including the art scene in Dakar (Senegal); artistic production in post-Apartheid South Africa; and the revival of “traditional” forms through studio art markets. We will also explore the collection and display of contemporary African art. Readings include debates over the nature of representation in the postcolonial world, critiques of the place of African art in the symbolic and monetary economies of the Western metropolis, African feminism as expressed in the arts, and studies of the new contexts of so-called ethnographic objects.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Connection
    23001

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ARTH 320 - Matisse and Methods

    This seminar will focus on Henri Matisse (1869-1954) using his work as a lens to explore the methods of art history. The vast literature on Matisse provides us with a range of writers asking different questions of the artist’ work. After a critical consideration of methodologies that have been used to interpret Matisse’ work (formalist, structuralist, psychoanalytic, feminist, postcolonial, for example) we will focus in on one art historical question in par­ticular, surrounding sources and their possible influences on Matisse. How have scholars and curators interpreted Matisse’ studio sources, and his appropriations from other media (photography, for example) and other cultural traditions (African and Islamic for example)? Have these approaches adequately addressed the complex relationships between Matisse’ paintings and sculpture, and the critical concepts about representation which inform them?.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ARTH 330 - Picturing New York: Art and Design

    In this course we will explore artists’ attempts to capture the essence of New York City, from its origins in the 17th century to the 9/11 period and beyond. Considering archi­tecture, prints, photography, painting, sculpture, and film, we will examine the conditions under which New York gave rise to a uniquely American form of urban imagery, attempting to understand the roles that geography, politics, capitalism, race, and gender have played in New York’ development. In addition, we will investigate how these images and designs broke from traditional practices/forms, seeking to understand what “Modernism” means in its New York context.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Humanities
  

  • ARTH 334 - Exhibiting Africa: Past & Present

    This course explores the ways in which Africa and its animals, peoples and material culture have been represented by museums. We will study how economic, political and social change influence the collection and display of Africa and Africans and how debates over cultural heritage and repatriation apply to the African continent.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Foundation
    Beyond the West

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ARTH 335 - Exhibition Design

    This course introduces students to the history, practice and theory of exhibition design. In this course, we will engage in all aspects of the exhibition design process through reading, in-class discussions, site visits, and guest lectures as well as the design and installation of an exhibition. We will consider the visitor experience and how objects and ideas are inter­preted by and for different audiences, as well as how museums use technology to engage the public. Students will gain an understanding of the history of exhibition design as well as the challenges museums/like institutions face in making their collections accessible to the communities they serve. Students will be required to participate fully in the practical component of the course, which involves the research for and the design and installation of an exhibition for Wheaton’ Beard and Weil Galleries.

    Prerequisites
    Permission of Instructor

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Registration for the pre-application section of this course is required.  Eligibility to enroll in this course will be determined at the first day of class.  Cross-listed with FNMS 335

    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Humanities
  

  • ARTH 350 - Ruling Families of the Renaissance

    The need to assert power, the struggle to maintain it through different political rules, and the results of visualizing it in effective ways will be the central themes of this course. The students will examine: the establishment of rulership in several Italian city states and duchies; the rise of families and their contiguous visual assertions; the links between commanding European families such as the Valois and the Medici; the creation of absolutist authority through legible media; and the exuberance of rococo as a political and social statement.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ARTH 352 - Early Medieval Art and Culture

    This course covers the art of the early medieval world ending with the first millennium. It takes as its point of departure the legacy of the late antique world and then explores the development of medieval secular and religious art as it is touched by diverse influences and as it evolves in response to the changing needs of two newly formed Christian cultures – one from the East (the Byzantines) and one from the West. Further enrichment of the period from the 7th century to the year 1000 will be achieved by exploring the early years of Islamic art, in particular, its existence in medieval Spain. All media will be represented with special attention paid to questions of materials, techniques of production, function, patronage and context.

    Credits 1



    Area
    Humanities

    Connection
    20086

    Compass Attributes
    Global Honors
  

  • ARTH 360 - American Art and Architecture: 1865-1945

    Between the Civil War and World War II, American art and architecture demonstrated an unprecedented sense of confidence. Examining the roles of empire building, commerce and the rise of urban culture, this course will chart the development of American art from the American Renaissance to the triumph of the midcentury New York School.

    Credits 1
  

  • ARTH 370 - Women at Work: Art History and Feminism

    This course considers the ways feminist scholarship has transformed the discipline of art history, examining the rediscovery of exceptional women artists from the 1970s onward, as well as recent feminist critics’ efforts to redefine the structure of the field. Students exam­ine two overlapping categories of work; the production of women artists and patrons, and the textual contributions of feminist scholars and critics. The rationale for this new course is to strengthen the department’ ties to women’ studies and to broaden the theoretical focus of the history of art major.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with WGS 371  

    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars
  

  • ARTH 371 - Masculinity and American Art

    In this seminar we will explore the intersection between the United States’ visual culture and its historical constructions of masculinity, seeking to understand the ways gender, race, sexuality, and class have shaped both. Throughout the semester we will seek to understand how artists and critics have presented masculinity and American character — however an age may have defined them — as synonymous, and to examine the ways in which challenge others have challenged this assumption.

    Prerequisites
    One 200-level History of Art course or higher or Permission of Instructor.  

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with WGS 372

    Area
    Humanities

    Division
    Arts and Humanities

    Compass Attributes
    Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality
  

  • ARTH 398 - Animated Bodies, Lively Things

    Material objects act on all of us. Dramatic images can be emotionally persuasive, the pose of a statue can alter how we hold our own bodies, and architecture dictates how we negotiate space. In all these ways (and many others), objects act on us as lively things. This course will examine the blurred lines between humans and objects in order to broaden our understanding of the interactions between people and material culture during the period from 1450-1700, in Europe and the Americas. We will examine works of art that seemingly were alive, statues that spoke, reliquaries that healed, and automata that moved. Many of these objects presented enlivened female bodies in marble, wood, and paint, some of which miraculously seemed to bleed, cry, or even lactate. We will ask how these objects acted upon viewers, motivating, persuading, and moving them. Our ultimate goal will be to better understand the power of objects to address beholders.

    Credits 1



    Notes
    Cross-listed with WGS 398 .

    Foundation
    Beyond the West
 

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 … Forward 10 -> 14