24 courses with the subject ARH, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ARH 0160THE NEW WOMAN BEHIND THE CAMERA3
THE NEW WOMAN BEHIND THE CAMERA (Not to be published in the History of Art catalogue; this is a “one- time” course. The following is based on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Exhibition page listing) ARH-0460: “ ‘New Woman’ behind the Camera” This course will investigate the global phenomenon of the “new woman” of the 1920s and how powerfully she expressed modernity, embodying an ideal of female empowerment. Featuring more than 120 photographers from over 20 countries, the Metropolitan’s exhibition, “The New Woman behind the Camera,” the first to take an international approach to the subject and which this course will thoroughly examine, explores the work of the diverse "new" women--from the 1920’s through the 1950’s—who embraced photography as modes of professional and artistic expression and who stood at the forefront of social transformation.
We will examine the various roles of animals in art and society across time, from the caves of the Paleolithic era through our present relationship with domestic, disposable, and working animals. Art is continually haunted by the animal; they are good to kill and eat, ride, hunt, train for battle, keep as companions, paint, and ritualize. What would Thanksgiving be without our national turkey, Easter without our rabbits and chicks? Proceeding chronologically, students will investigate and analyze key issues and themes in man’s attitudes and relationships to animals—often paradoxical--and the role of animals in art and society as manifest in visual culture and social studies, for example: the symbolism of animals; social constructions of animals and the human/animal boundary; animals in commerce, scientific research, pet-keeping, and therapy; the animal soul; abuse of animals and the animal protection movement; animal emotions, intelligence, and reflexivity; the human-animal bond.
IRELAND'S PAINTED VOICES: MURALS OF THE TROUBLES This course will focus on the murals of Northern Ireland, some of the most famous political murals in the world, which have altered and determined the environment of Northern Ireland. Almost 2,000 murals have been documented in Northern Ireland (County Derry) since the 1970’s. These murals have become symbols of Northern Ireland, depicting the region’s past and present political and religious divisions and strife, with subject matter like: Republican or Loyalist politics, the Catholic Church of the Republic vs. the Protestant faiths of the North, freedom of speech and religion, the great Irish famine (1845-49), Irish history, Irish mythology, women’s rights, peace and tolerance, political struggle and death in Ireland. Join us in this exciting study of art, power, and politics. This course may have a travel/study component in Ireland.
ARH 0231PAINTED LADIES: WOMEN OF THE ANCIENT WORLD3
An interdisciplinary exploration of images of women in Mediterranean painting from the Bronze Age through the Roman period. Topics covered include gender roles, women’s participation in religion, the aesthetics of female beauty, and modes of female dress and ornamentation. A studio art project will be a main component of this course. This course satisfies the ancient requirement and the studio art requirement for the major/minor. No prerequisite. Offered upon rotation with other courses in Ancient Art.
A study of painting, sculpture, architecture, and minor arts from the second through the thirteenth centuries, including Early Christian, Byzantine, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, and Gothic cultures. ARH-0175 or ARH-0230 are preparatory but not required courses. Offered regularly upon rotation with other courses in medieval art.
An investigation of Italian painting, sculpture, and architecture from circa 1280 to 1520. Masters of Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture are treated in detail. Significant work at Philadelphia’s or New York’s museums of art will be integral to the course.
ARH 0279BODY ART: TATTOOING, PIERCING, AND THEIR RITUAL MEANINGS
BODY ART: TATTOOING, PIERCING, AND THEIR RITUAL MEANING This course responds to the recent tattoo renaissance across Europe and the U.S. in which bodily inscription, piercing, scarification, cicatrization, and other bodily decorations have migrated from the margins of Western culture to the center of popular, commercial, bourgeois culture. We will excavate the meaning—art historical, cultural, historical, and psychological—of the tattoo from its beginning in the Ice Age through its development in tribal ritual, through its facile, modern translation. Some themes for discussion are the typology of tattoos—penal, religious, patriotic, etc.; gender relationships within tattoo art; the migration of the tattoo as symbols of working-class male rebellion to middle-class, female expressions of status, self-expression, and transgression; the body as canvas. Offered upon rotation. 528
A survey of the art and architecture of Islamic countries and India from the Neolithic to the nineteenth century. A course in Asian history or Oriental religions is good preparation but not required. Area museum work/research is integral to this course. No prerequisite. Offered occasionally.
African American art forms an important and integral but overlooked piece of our cultural heritage. This interdisciplinary course traces and investigates the role of African American women in art, as both the objects and makers of representation, from their roots in slavery to the present-day. We will examine painting, sculpture, pottery, woodcarving, architecture, photography, and filmmaking from the colonial era through the nineteenth century, the Harlem movement of the early twentieth century, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, and the contemporary art scene. Themes for discussion are the objectification of the black female body, the gendered portrayal of African American women in art, the devaluation of the African American woman’s artistic contribution, and the role of this art in political struggles. Prerequisite: one history of art course or POI. Offered upon rotation.
This course will examine the representation of the non-Western body in Western art and culture from roughly the eighteenth century to the present. It will encompass a wide range of visual imagery, including nineteenth century depictions of Africa and the Orient, scientific illustrations, “primitivism” in the works of Picasso and Gauguin, bringing in as well examples from contemporary popular culture. The course is framed around the following questions: How are race and identity constructed in visual imagery? How do race and gender intersect? And more broadly, how does power operate in representation? No prerequisites. Offered upon rotation with other modern art history and women studies courses.
POP ART I: ANDY WARHOL, MARILYN MONROE, AND THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF BEAUTY This interdisciplinary course examines New York’s Pop Art of the 1960’s, with its bold graphic design and language, its giant scale and carnival color, and its positive embrace of contemporary commodity culture. Pop Art’s bitter “pink pill” was the beauty myth as swallowed by women. Themes to be examined: Marilyn, the limpid blonde; Elvis, the gyrating body; the packaging and pursuit of beauty in Hollywood; commodity, cartoon, and comic painting; the impersonal handling of love. Research and presentations at area museums will be integral to this study. AHR-0175 or ARH–0176 are preparatory but not required. Recommended for Graphic Design students. 529
ARH 0331WOMEN, VIOLENCE, AND HOLLYWOOD HORROR FILMS3
Exploring art historical and contemporary feminist film theory, students in this interdisciplinary history of art and women’s studies course will discover the roles of women in the horror film genre and its role in popular visual culture. Themes to be examined: women and violence; horror versus sadism; recreational terror and its broader cultural implications. Offered upon rotation with other film and women studies courses.
one history of art/women’s studies course or with permission of instructor.
ARH 0332BLOOD SUCKERS: VAMPIRES, FILM, AND ART3
BLOOD SUCKERS: VAMPIRES IN FILM AND ART This course deals with the evolution of the vampire in art and film, after vampire folklore was spawned in the mid- 1700’s in the Serbian countryside. The Vampire is at the center of many crucial mythologies and gender constructions. This undead creature exists on the vital essence of other living creatures. The vampire has become a flexible symbol for: colonialism and/or nationalism; for gender relations/sexuality; for sexual repression; for perversion or dissidence; for class relations; for the embodiment of aristocracy; for the embodiment of the bloodsucking process of capitalism; for exploitative human relationships. And, since the advent of the first silents (Nosferatu, 1922), the vampire has been a mainstay of film monsters. This course will puzzle out this topos--the rich and tangled role of the vampire, male and female, in the history of film and how the vampire derives from and builds on cultural norms of gender in popular culture. The vampire provides an excellent lens through which to examine cultural fears and anxieties about gender roles. No prerequisites. Offered upon rotation with other History of Art courses.
DISORDERLY DAMES/GOOD LITTLE GIRLS: WOMEN IN FILM The issues raised by the successive waves of feminism have created new contexts through which to understand the changing roles of men, women, pan gendered or third-gendered in society. And, since the 1990’s, women—young and old--have assumed new visibility in western culture. Through the examination of selected films, we will examine current issues in narrative structure and the female subject and object in film. Some themes for discussion will be the female gaze; post-feminism and the third wave; #Me too; girls of color. No prerequisites. Offered upon rotation with other film courses.
Area of study to be selected by student and instructor relative to a student’s special interests and needs. Must be arranged in advance with the discipline coordinator and requires approval of the Academic Dean. Offered as needed.
