Art History

This course introduces students to the rich museum culture of London. Through lectures, seminars, and visits to museums such as the British Museum, National Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Museum of London students explore how museums create histories of art, society, and national identity. The course draws on the approaches of several disciplines – art, social, and cultural history, anthropology, social geography, and critical theory – to interrogate the ways that museums reflect and shape what we know and how we see. Exploring a selection of sites dating from the eighteenth century to the present day, the course considers the historical context in which these museums came about, the nature of their collections, and debates on current presentation, considering issues of museology, curatorial practice, and the construction of knowledge.

Film, literature, and the arts have always played a central role in reflecting the attitudes towards the twin ideologies of Nazism and Communism in Central and Eastern Europe. They were central to propagandizing these ideologies and building their strength after World War I. However, they also provided the most vibrant forum for those challenging the totalitarian regimes established by Nazis and Communists. In the period since their fall, politics and academia have frequently failed to enable an accessible debate on their legacy. Thus, film and literature remain the site of a debate. This course explores the theme in a multi-disciplinary manner, drawing on history, political science, literature, film studies, and psychology. A thematical, rather than chronological, approach was selected to emphasize the occurrence of the examined issues across regions and times, using different methods of exploration. As Prague is one of the few capitals that experienced liberal democracy, Nazism, Communism, and a return to liberal democracy over the scope of slightly more than 50 years, first-hand experience through field trips and guest speakers is incorporated into the course to enhance understanding of the topic.

This course provides a study of the history of contemporary artistic movements, from the Enlightenment through the present day. 

Paris has long been recognized as a center for both revolutionary activism and innovative artistic production. This course explores the coming together of these two domains through diverse visual manifestations of social justice and advocacy produced and/or displayed in Paris from the Revolution to the present, including painting, sculpture, architecture, performance, installations, photography, video, posters, graffiti, and street art. Students explore the ways in which the urban landscape bears the scars of revolutionary destruction and serves as a showcase for politically engaged production, housed in its museums or visible to all on the streets. The instructional format consists of both lectures and group site visits throughout the city, to venues including public and private museums, which are studied both for their content, architecture, and their politics of display; galleries, artist collectives, and Parisian neighborhoods with outdoor art displays.