Title Instructor Location Time All taxonomy terms Description Section Description Cross Listings Fulfills Registration Notes Syllabus Syllabus URL Course Syllabus URL
ARTH 0141-401 Museums, Monuments, and Social Justice Richard M Leventhal TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM Monuments, museums, and heritage are all critical parts of the world that we have created and are shaped by. These institutions and sites often claim to represent our past, who we imagine ourselves to be today, and how we might define our futures. We often rely on museums and monuments to frame history and history’s relationship to our current social and cultural systems. However, in recent years, social, racial, and economic justice movements have pushed us to rethink the function of monuments, museums, and heritage. In particular, these social movements have helped us understand how racism, sexism, and colonialism are responsible for the creation of monuments and museums. This course examines the echoes and continuities of colonial representations in museums and monuments. In addition, we will examine how new ways of commemorating and representing the past can result in a new vision for our future. By visiting a variety of local monuments and sites and by engaging in conversations about accountability and social justice, this course will challenge us to rethink the tangible and intangible ways that we weave the past into the present for the creation of the future. ANTH1410401
ARTH 0221-401 Material World in Archaeological Science Marie-Claude Boileau
Deborah I Olszewski
Vanessa Workman
TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM By focusing on the scientific analysis of inorganic archaeological materials, this course will explore processes of creation in the past. Class will take place in the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM) and will be team taught in three modules: analysis of lithics, analysis of ceramics and analysis of metals. Each module will combine laboratory and classroom exercises to give students hands-on experience with archaeological materials. We will examine how the transformation of materials into objects provides key information about past human behaviors and the socio-economic contexts of production, distribution, exchange and use. Discussion topics will include invention and adoption of new technologies, change and innovation, use of fire, and craft specialization. ANTH2221401, ANTH5221401, CLST3302401, NELC2960401, NELC6920401
ARTH 0500-300 First-Year Seminar R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM The primary goal of the first-year seminar program is to provide every first-year student the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small setting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. Specific topics are posted at the beginning of each academic year. Arts & Letters Sector (all classes)
ARTH 1010-001 World Art before 1400 Ann L Kuttner MW 12:00 PM-12:59 PM This course serves as a double introduction to art history. First, it surveys the visual arts in a global context from prehistory to the dawn of the modern era. Focusing on multiple premodern cultures and traditions, the course examines a wide variety of art forms, from public monuments and architecture to paintings, textiles, and illustrated books. We will consider this rich material in its historical context and ask how art was made, used, seen, and valued by people in the past. Special emphasis will be placed on cross-cultural connections, interactions, and analogies. Second, the course will introduce you to the practice of art history. You will develop the skills of visual analysis and critical reading and learn the basic methods that scholars employ to interpret works of art and architecture. In the process, you will gain a deeper understanding of the intersection of art, society, and human experience at large. Lectures and group discussions will be complemented by visits to museums and other collections on campus and beyond. Arts & Letters Sector (all classes) https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 1060-001 Architect and History Antonios Thodis CANCELED The built environment shapes our lives and this course tackles its underpinning design principles and qualities as well as social and cultural contexts. It is an interpretative look at the built environment or, more precisely, at the ways in which monuments and cities are designed, represented, perceived and construed over time. It introduces students to the interrelated fields of architecture, art history, and urbanism and explores great architectural monuments and cities from the modern to the ancient period, from the US across Europe and from the Mediterranean to Asia. We will assess the built environment as culturally meaningful form and examine a body of historical and cultural material relevant to its interpretation. In doing so, the course seeks to foster a critical understanding of the cultural and artistic processes that have influenced architectural and urban design. The focus will be on understanding these works as results of skilled workmanship as well as social and cultural products. We will tackle ancient and modern perceptions of these monuments and cities by analyzing form, design, structure and by addressing their perceptual qualities through 3D reconstructions and virtual environments, as well as sketchbook assignments. This course fulfills Sector IV, Humanities and Social Sciences. Hum & Soc Sci Sector (new curriculum only)
ARTH 1070-401 Television and New Media Rahul Mukherjee W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM How and when do media become digital? What does digitization afford and what is lost as television and cinema become digitized? As lots of things around us turn digital, have we started telling stories, sharing experiences, and replaying memories differently? What has happened to television and life after New Media ? How have television audiences been transformed by algorithmic cultures of Netflix and Hulu? How have (social) media transformed socialities as ephemeral snaps and swiped intimacies become part of the "new" digital/phone cultures? This is an introductory survey course and we discuss a wide variety of media technologies and phenomena that include: cloud computing, Internet of Things, trolls, distribution platforms, optical fiber cables, surveillance tactics, social media, and race in cyberspace. We also examine emerging mobile phone cultures in the Global South and the environmental impact of digitization. Course activities include Tumblr blog posts and Instagram curations. The final project could take the form of either a critical essay (of 2000 words) or a media project. CIMS1030401, COML1031401, ENGL1950401
ARTH 1070-402 Television and New Media How and when do media become digital? What does digitization afford and what is lost as television and cinema become digitized? As lots of things around us turn digital, have we started telling stories, sharing experiences, and replaying memories differently? What has happened to television and life after New Media ? How have television audiences been transformed by algorithmic cultures of Netflix and Hulu? How have (social) media transformed socialities as ephemeral snaps and swiped intimacies become part of the "new" digital/phone cultures? This is an introductory survey course and we discuss a wide variety of media technologies and phenomena that include: cloud computing, Internet of Things, trolls, distribution platforms, optical fiber cables, surveillance tactics, social media, and race in cyberspace. We also examine emerging mobile phone cultures in the Global South and the environmental impact of digitization. Course activities include Tumblr blog posts and Instagram curations. The final project could take the form of either a critical essay (of 2000 words) or a media project. CIMS1030402, COML1031402, ENGL1950402
ARTH 1080-401 World Film History to 1945 Chenshu Zhou MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course surveys the history of world film from cinema's precursors to 1945. We will develop methods for analyzing film while examining the growth of film as an art, an industry, a technology, and a political instrument. Topics include the emergence of film technology and early film audiences, the rise of narrative film and birth of Hollywood, national film industries and movements, African-American independent film, the emergence of the genre film (the western, film noir, and romantic comedies), ethnographic and documentary film, animated films, censorship, the MPPDA and Hays Code, and the introduction of sound. We will conclude with the transformation of several film industries into propaganda tools during World War II (including the Nazi, Soviet, and US film industries). In addition to contemporary theories that investigate the development of cinema and visual culture during the first half of the 20th century, we will read key texts that contributed to the emergence of film theory. There are no prerequisites. Students are required to attend screenings or watch films on their own. CIMS1010401, COML1011401, ENGL1900401 Arts & Letters Sector (all classes)
ARTH 1080-402 World Film History to 1945 Jenny S Wu TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course surveys the history of world film from cinema's precursors to 1945. We will develop methods for analyzing film while examining the growth of film as an art, an industry, a technology, and a political instrument. Topics include the emergence of film technology and early film audiences, the rise of narrative film and birth of Hollywood, national film industries and movements, African-American independent film, the emergence of the genre film (the western, film noir, and romantic comedies), ethnographic and documentary film, animated films, censorship, the MPPDA and Hays Code, and the introduction of sound. We will conclude with the transformation of several film industries into propaganda tools during World War II (including the Nazi, Soviet, and US film industries). In addition to contemporary theories that investigate the development of cinema and visual culture during the first half of the 20th century, we will read key texts that contributed to the emergence of film theory. There are no prerequisites. Students are required to attend screenings or watch films on their own. CIMS1010402, COML1011402, ENGL1900402 Arts & Letters Sector (all classes)
ARTH 1090-401 World Film History 1945-Present Meta Mazaj TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM Focusing on movies made after 1945, this course allows students to learn and to sharpen methods, terminologies, and tools needed for the critical analysis of film. Beginning with the cinematic revolution signaled by the Italian Neo-Realism (of Rossellini and De Sica), we will follow the evolution of postwar cinema through the French New Wave (of Godard, Resnais, and Varda), American movies of the 1950s and 1960s (including the New Hollywood cinema of Coppola and Scorsese), and the various other new wave movements of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s (such as the New German Cinema). We will then selectively examine some of the most important films of the last two decades, including those of U.S. independent film movement and movies from Iran, China, and elsewhere in an expanding global cinema culture. There will be precise attention paid to formal and stylistic techniques in editing, mise-en-scene, and sound, as well as to the narrative, non-narrative, and generic organizations of film. At the same time, those formal features will be closely linked to historical and cultural distinctions and changes, ranging from the Paramount Decision of 1948 to the digital convergences that are defining screen culture today. There are no perquisites. Requirements will include readings in film history and film analysis, an analytical essay, a research paper, a final exam, and active participation. CIMS1020401, COML1022401, ENGL1901401 Arts & Letters Sector (all classes)
ARTH 1090-601 World Film History 1945-Present Sasha D Krugman M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM Focusing on movies made after 1945, this course allows students to learn and to sharpen methods, terminologies, and tools needed for the critical analysis of film. Beginning with the cinematic revolution signaled by the Italian Neo-Realism (of Rossellini and De Sica), we will follow the evolution of postwar cinema through the French New Wave (of Godard, Resnais, and Varda), American movies of the 1950s and 1960s (including the New Hollywood cinema of Coppola and Scorsese), and the various other new wave movements of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s (such as the New German Cinema). We will then selectively examine some of the most important films of the last two decades, including those of U.S. independent film movement and movies from Iran, China, and elsewhere in an expanding global cinema culture. There will be precise attention paid to formal and stylistic techniques in editing, mise-en-scene, and sound, as well as to the narrative, non-narrative, and generic organizations of film. At the same time, those formal features will be closely linked to historical and cultural distinctions and changes, ranging from the Paramount Decision of 1948 to the digital convergences that are defining screen culture today. There are no perquisites. Requirements will include readings in film history and film analysis, an analytical essay, a research paper, a final exam, and active participation. CIMS1020601, COML1022601, ENGL1901601 Arts & Letters Sector (all classes)
ARTH 1100-001 What is Modern Art? Huey Gene Copeland TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM Modernism is not easily defined. For some, the word simply identifies Western art of the last two hundred-odd years. For others, modernism refers to forms of “advanced” visual art, whether the cubist distortions of Pablo Picasso or the allover abstractions of Jackson Pollock, that break with established representational conventions. For still others, the term singles out modes of artistic opposition to the ravages of capitalism, colonialism, industrialization, imperialism, and war that continue to define our world. Among its manifold practices, we find the rise of abstraction, paintings that pretend to show nothing but an instant, dreams and erotic desires set free for everyone to see, and everyday objects elevated to the status of sculpture. At key moments, "Art" itself was declared dead, then resurrected as the solution to the social problems of the era, forming a highly ambivalent relationship to the spheres of politics and history. We will cover the development of Modernism broadly, from the 1860s to the 1960s, introducing many of the best-known figures (like Monet, Van Gogh, Duchamp, and Picasso) and movements (like Impressionism, Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism). Europe and North America will be the focus, but we will frequently look to global developments as well and analyze art made in colonial and diasporic conditions. The standard narratives of Modernism will be questioned at every turn, and artists of color, diverse gender and sexual orientations, as well as national and economic backgrounds studied in depth as well. We will proceed more or less chronologically, doubling back or projecting forward when necessary to understand the determinative historical influences that have shaped the development of modernist idioms in particular times and places. In every instance, we will study works of art that have confronted our culture’s visual means—of life, death, consumption, and display—and attempted to work them over into critical form. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 2170-401 Chinese Painting Nancy R S Steinhardt MW 10:15 AM-11:14 AM Study of Chinese painting and practice from the earliest pictorial representation through the late twentieth century. Painting styles are analyzed, but themes such as landscape and narrative are considered with regard to larger social, cultural, and historical issues. The class will pay particular attention to the construction of the concepts of the "artist" and "art criticism" and their impact on the field into the present. Visits to study paintings at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art. EALC1127401, EALC5127401
ARTH 2250-401 Greek Art and Artifact Ann L Kuttner TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This lecture course surveys Greek art and artifacts from Sicily to the Black Sea from the 10th century BCE to the 2nd century BCE, including the age of Alexander and the Hellenistic Kingdoms. Public sculpture and painting on and around grand buildings and gardens, domestic luxury arts of jewelry, cups and vases, mosaic floors, and cult artefacts are discussed. Also considered are the ways in which heroic epic, religious and political themes are used to engaged viewers' emotions and served both domestic and the public aims. We discuss the relationships of images and things to space and structure, along with ideas of invention and progress, and the role of monuments, makers and patrons in Greek society. AAMW6250401, ARTH6250401, CLST3401401, CLST5401401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 2500-601 Michelangelo and the Art of the Italian Renaissance Kendra J Grimmett TR 5:15 PM-6:44 PM An introduction to the work of the Renaissance artist Michelangelo (1475-1564)-his sculptures, paintings, architecture, poetry, and artistic theory-in relation to his patrons, predecessors, and contemporaries, above all Leonardo and Raphael. Topics include artistic creativity and license, religious devotion, the revival of antiquity, observation of nature, art as problem-solving, the public reception and function of artworks, debates about style, artistic rivalry, and traveling artists. Rather than taking the form of a survey, this course selects works as paradigmatic case studies, and will analyze contemporary attitudes toward art of this period through study of primary sources. ITAL2550601
ARTH 2679-401 Latinx Literature and Culture Jennifer Lyn Sternad Ponce De Leon MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course offers a broad introduction to the study of Latinx culture. We will examine literature, theater, visual art, and popular cultural forms, including murals, poster art, graffiti, guerrilla urban interventions, novels, poetry, short stories, and film. In each instance, we will study this work within its historical context and with close attention to the ways it illuminates class formation, racialization, and ideologies of gender and sexuality as they shape Latinx experience in the U.S. Topics addressed in the course will include immigration and border policy, revolutionary nationalism and its critique, anti-imperialist thought, Latinx feminisms, queer latinidades, ideology, identity formation, and social movements. While we will address key texts, historical events, and intellectual currents from the late 19th century and early 20th century, the course will focus primarily on literature and art from the 1960s to the present. All texts will be in English. COML1260401, ENGL1260401, GSWS1260401, LALS1260401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 2680-401 Art and Empire in India, 1750-1900 Sonal Khullar WF 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course surveys transformations in visual culture between the Mughal and British empires in India from the mid-eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries. We shall consider changes in artistic production, patronage, publics, and viewing protocols in the contexts of the court and bazaar. We shall examine the emergence of new technologies and its impact on visual forms, media, and genres, focusing on the interplay of photography, print, and painting. We shall explore the role of institutions -the art school, the museum, and the archeological survey- and the professions and practices they engendered. We shall analyze how architecture and urban planning created new built environments and social relationships in colonial India. We shall view objects first-hand in the Penn Museum, Penn Libraries, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. This is a reading- and writing-intensive course. Students with a background in related disciplines such as literature, history, religion, anthropology, and South Asian Studies are welcome. ARTH6680401, SAST2680401, SAST6680401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 2780-401 American Art Michael Leja WF 12:00 PM-12:59 PM This lecture course surveys the most important and interesting art produced in the United States (or by American artists living abroad) up through the 1950s. This period encompasses the history of both early and modern art in the U.S., from its first appearances to its rise to prominence and institutionalization. While tracking this history, the course examines art's relation to historical processes of modernization (industrialization, the development of transportation and communications, the spread of corporate organization in business, urbanization, technological development, the rise of mass media and mass markets, etc.) and to the economic polarization, social fragmentation, political conflict, and the cultural changes these developments entailed. In these circumstances, art is drawn simultaneously toward truth and fraud, realism and artifice, science and spirituality, commodification and ephemerality, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, individualism and collectivity, the past and the future, professionalization and popularity, celebrating modern life and criticizing it. ARTH6780401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 2990-401 Radical Arts in the Americas Jennifer Lyn Sternad Ponce De Leon MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course explores the complex and fruitful relationship between literature and the visual arts, including painting, sculpture, installations, and performance art. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. CIMS1261401, COML1261401, ENGL1261401, LALS1261401, THAR1261401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 3071-401 What is an Image? Ian F Verstegen R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM The course explores various concepts of images. It considers natural images (as in optics), images as artifacts, virtual images, images as representations, and works of art as images. Themes to include: the image controversy in cognitive science, which asks whether some cognitive representations are irreducibly imagistic; the question of whether some images resemble what they represent; the development of the concept of the virtual image and of three-dimensional images; the notions of pictorial representation and non-representational images in art. Readings from C. S. Peirce, Nelson Goodman, Robert Hopkins, Dominic Lopes, W. J. T. Mitchell, John Kulvicki, and Mark Rollins, among others. VLST3050401, VLST5050401
ARTH 3100-401 Cinema and Socialism Julia Alekseyeva
Chenshu Zhou
T 12:00 PM-2:59 PM Films from socialist countries are often labeled and dismissed as "propaganda" in Western democratic societies. This course complicates this simplistic view, arguing for the value in understanding the ties between socialist governments, the cinematic arts, and everything in between. We will examine films from past and present socialist countries such as the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, and Cuba, as well as films made with socialist aspirations. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. CIMS3100401, EALC2314401, ENGL2934401, REES3770401
ARTH 3560-401 Freud's Objects Liliane Weissberg MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM How do we look at objects? And which stories can objects tell? These are questions that have been asked quite regularly by Art Historians or Museum Curators, but they take a central place within the context of psychoanalytic studies as well. The seminar "Freud's Objects" will offer an introduction to Sigmund Freud's life and times, as well as to psychoanalytic studies. We will focus on objects owned by Freud that he imbued with special significance, and on of Freud's writings that focus on specific objects. Finally, we will deal with a re-interpretation of the "object" in psychoanalytic theory, via a discussion of texts by British psychoanalysts such as Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott. CLST3509401, COML2052401, ENGL1425401, GRMN1015401
ARTH 3630-001 Early Modern Art Seminar: The Subject of Nature Shira N Brisman R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This seminar takes a thematic approach to the study of European art produced between 1400-1800. Topics, which change annually, include such offerings as "Art and Law;" "Spectacle, Punishment, and Surveillance;" "Prints and Politics" and "The Subject of Nature." In a given year, we will approach a corpus of objects, images, and performances through a study of three kinds of text: primary sources, secondary art-historical scholarship, and critical theory. Discussions will convene around local museum and library collections.
ARTH 3749-401 In/Visible: Asian American Cultural Critique W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This interdisciplinary seminar examines how popular cultural representations frame Asian Americans as either invisible or hypervisible—our explorations will move across race and national origin, language and class, gender and sexuality. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. ASAM2272401, ENGL2272401, GSWS2272401
ARTH 3874-401 History Children's TV Linda R Simensky M 3:30 PM-6:29 PM This course will survey the history of children’s television from the invention of television through the present, with an emphasis on series development and production, artistry, and the colorful personalities who built this industry. We’ll consider important figures including Fred Rogers, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, Joan Ganz Cooney, Jim Henson and Walt Disney. We will discuss the history of animated cartoons that were made specifically for television, Saturday morning production, the rise of Japanese cartoons from the 1960s through Pokemon, and the growth of children’s cable channels in the 90s, as well as other landmark moments. We’ll also assess the impact of streaming platforms on television and the future of children’s media. CIMS3204401, ENGL0594401, FNAR3185401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 3890-401 Cinema and Politics Rita Barnard MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course explores an aspect of film studies intensively. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. CIMS0590401, COML0590401, ENGL0590401 Arts & Letters Sector (all classes)
ARTH 3970-401 Spiegel-Wilks Seminar: Curating Contemporary Art Emily Zimmerman M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM Topic varies from semester to semester. While not having any specific pre-requisites, this seminar in contemporary art is designed for junior and senior majors in art history with some knowledge in the field. When appropriate, it may feature special guests from the art world, international travel, and/or curatorial opportunities. ENGL2663401
ARTH 5050-640 Building the Myth of Venice: Art, Architecture and Venezianità in the Renaissance Christopher Pastore W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This seminar satisfies a requirement in the Master of Liberal Arts Degree program through the College of Liberal and Professional Studies. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 5110-401 The Art of Everyday Life in South Asia Sonal Khullar W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This seminar engages topics in the history and theory of South Asian art from antiquity to the present emphasizing global connections and comparisons. Topics vary from year to year and might include the arts of the book in South Asia; Indian Ocean art worlds; and fragments, ruins, and traces in the art of South Asia. We shall explore objects in area collections and incorporate special excursions and programs when possible. A background in South Asian studies or languages is not required. Students from related disciplines such history, anthropology, literary studies, religious studies, feminist studies, cinema and media studies, and architecture are welcome. SAST5110401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 5860-301 Sexuality and Resistance in Eastern European Art Pavel Golubev M 3:30 PM-6:29 PM This seminar covers aspects of the arts, visual and material cultures of the twentieth century in Europe in a global context. Open to graduate and undergraduate students. Topics will vary from semester to semester.
ARTH 5871-401 Topics In Aesthetics Liliane Weissberg T 1:45 PM-3:44 PM Topic title for Spring 2018: Walter Benjamin. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is a philosopher whose writings on art, literature, and politics have had tremendous influence on many disciplines in the Humanities and Social Studies. He has been variously described as one of the leading German-Jewish thinkers, and a secular Marxist theorist. With the publication of a four-volume collection of this works in English, many more of his writings have been made accessible to a wider public. Our seminar will undertake a survey of his work that begins with his studies on language and allegory, and continues with his autobiographical work, his writings on art and literature, and on the imaginary urban spaces of the nineteenth-century. COML5800401, GRMN5800401, JWST5800401, PHIL5389401
ARTH 5933-401 Cinema and Media Studies Methods Shannon Mattern W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM This proseminar will introduce a range of methodological approaches (and some debates about them) informing the somewhat sprawling interdisciplinary field of Cinema and Media Studies. It aims to equip students with a diverse—though not comprehensive—toolbox with which to begin conducting research in this field; an historical framework for understanding current methods in context; and a space for reflecting on both how to develop rigorous methodologies for emerging questions and how methods interact with disciplines, ideologies, and theories. Students in this class will also engage scholars participating in the Cinema and Media Studies colloquium series in practical discussions about their methodological choices. The course’s assignments will provide students with opportunities to explore a particular methodology in some depth through a variety of lenses that might include pedagogy, the conference presentation, grant applications, the written essay, or an essay in an alternative format, such as the graphic or video essay. Throughout, we will be trying to develop practical skills for the academic profession. Although our readings engage a variety of cinema and media objects, this course will be textually based. No prior experience needed. The course is open to upper-level undergraduates with relevant coursework in the field by permission of instructor only. Course Requirements: Complete assigned readings and actively participate in class discussion: 20%; Reading responses: 10%; Annotated bibliography or course syllabus on a particular methodology: 20%; SCMS methodology-focused conference paper proposal according to SCMS format: 10%; Research paper, grant proposal, or essay in an alternative format using the methodology explored in the syllabus or bibliography: 40%. CIMS5933401, COML5940401, ENGL5933401, GSWS5933401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 5970-301 The Future of Arts Audiences Arthur Cohen R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM Demographic, political, social and generational changes in the U.S. have given rise to new and often unprecedented changes in the expectations audiences have for the role cultural organizations should play in society. Extending beyond traditional definitions of purpose rooted in the type of art or experience offered, cultural organizations are increasingly being held accountable to new or different standards of behavior, beliefs and engagement with the world in order to gain the support of the very audiences necessary for their survival. Adding to this complex combination of factors are the ongoing effects of recent health and social justice crises, including changes in technological usage and shifting patterns of social interaction. Using the latest audience research, and highlighted with first-person accounts from cultural leaders who will be guest speakers for this course, The Future of Arts Audiences will pose a series of challenging yet essential questions necessary for navigating the road ahead for arts participation.
ARTH 6250-401 Greek Art and Artifact Ann L Kuttner TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This lecture course surveys Greek art and artifacts from Sicily to the Black Sea from the 10th century BCE to the 2nd century BCE, including the age of Alexander and the Hellenistic Kingdoms. Public sculpture and painting on and around grand buildings and gardens, domestic luxury arts of jewelry, cups and vases, mosaic floors, and cult artefacts are discussed. Also considered are the ways in which heroic epic, religious and political themes are used to engaged viewers' emotions and served both domestic and the public aims. We discuss the relationships of images and things to space and structure, along with ideas of invention and progress, and the role of monuments, makers and patrons in Greek society. AAMW6250401, ARTH2250401, CLST3401401, CLST5401401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 6680-401 Art and Empire in India, 1750-1900 Sonal Khullar WF 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course surveys transformations in visual culture between the Mughal and British empires in India from the mid-eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries. We shall consider changes in artistic production, patronage, publics, and viewing protocols in the contexts of the court and bazaar. We shall examine the emergence of new technologies and its impact on visual forms, media, and genres, focusing on the interplay of photography, print, and painting. We shall explore the role of institutions -the art school, the museum, and the archeological survey- and the professions and practices they engendered. We shall analyze how architecture and urban planning created new built environments and social relationships in colonial India. We shall view objects first-hand in the Penn Museum, Penn Libraries, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. This is a reading- and writing-intensive course. Students with a background in related disciplines such as literature, history, religion, anthropology, and South Asian Studies are welcome. ARTH2680401, SAST2680401, SAST6680401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 6780-401 American Art Michael Leja WF 12:00 PM-12:59 PM This lecture course surveys the most important and interesting art produced in the United States (or by American artists living abroad) up through the 1950s. This period encompasses the history of both early and modern art in the U.S., from its first appearances to its rise to prominence and institutionalization. While tracking this history, the course examines art's relation to historical processes of modernization (industrialization, the development of transportation and communications, the spread of corporate organization in business, urbanization, technological development, the rise of mass media and mass markets, etc.) and to the economic polarization, social fragmentation, political conflict, and the cultural changes these developments entailed. In these circumstances, art is drawn simultaneously toward truth and fraud, realism and artifice, science and spirituality, commodification and ephemerality, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, individualism and collectivity, the past and the future, professionalization and popularity, celebrating modern life and criticizing it. ARTH2780401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do
ARTH 7010-301 Methods Seminar Julie N Davis R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This course is designed to build skills of analysis and argumentation essential to the conduct of creative and responsible work in History of Art. Its goals include presenting the history of the field in a manner attentive to the complexities of its institutional and professional formations, purposes, and effects; encouraging appreciation of historiography, specifically the time, place, and political and social circumstances in which a given text was composed; promoting awareness of the ethics of scholarship (inclusive and expansive in every sense); familiarizing students with the strengths and weaknesses of distinct methodological traditions that have shaped the field; considering the audiences served by art historical scholarship (the academy, the museum, local and global publics) and the forms scholarship might take to effectively reach those audiences. The course is required for first-year graduate students in History of Art and open to others with permission of the instructor.
ARTH 7600-301 Early Modern Art Seminar: Envisioning Abolition in Pre-Modern Art Shira N Brisman R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This seminar takes a thematic approach to the study of European art produced between 1400-1800. Topics, which change annually, include such offerings as "Art and Law;" "Spectacle, Punishment, and Surveillance;" "Prints and Politics" and "The Subject of Nature." In a given year, we will approach a corpus of objects, images, and performances through a study of three kinds of text: primary sources, secondary art-historical scholarship, and critical theory. Discussions will convene around local museum and library collections. Assignments will develop skills in writing abstracts, preparing conference papers, and developing strong and publishable written work.
ARTH 7770-401 The Long Nineteenth Century: Literature, Philosophy, Culture Vance Byrd MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM The present course will discuss German literature and thought from the period of the French Revolution to the turn of the twentieth century, and put it into a European context. In regard to German literature, this is the period that leads from the Storm and Stress and Romanticism to the political period of the Vormärz, Realism, and finally Expressionism; in philosophy, it moves from German Idealism to the philosophy of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and neo-Kantian thought. It is also the period that saw the rise of the novel, and new forms of dramatic works. Painting moved out of the studio into plein air; the invention of photography made an imprint on all arts, and the rise of the newspaper led to new literary genres such as the feuilleton. Economically, Germany experienced the industrial revolution; politically, it was striving for a unification that was finally achieved in 1871. The nineteenth century saw the establishment of the bourgeoisie, the emergence of the German working class, and the idea of the nation state; it also saw Jewish emancipation, and the call for women’s rights. Readings will focus on a variety of literary, political, and philosophical texts; and consider a selection of art works. COML5660401, GRMN5580401
ARTH 7881-301 19th Century American Art Seminar: Race and Place Gwendolyn D Shaw T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This seminar examines the history of art, artists, and artistic movements that emerged in the United States during the long nineteenth century. It may also engage with histories of visual culture, criticism, and the theory of art. Specific topics vary from semester to semester.