BFA Visual and Critical Studies Curriculum

First-Year Requirements

AHD-1030 Visuality and Modern Art I

AHD-1035 Visuality and Modern Art II

HLD-1827 Modern Writing and Narrative Technique I

HMD-1050 Modern Philosophy and Critical Theory: 18th and 19th Centuries

VCD-1030 Theories and Practices of the Image

VHD-1025 Writing and Literature

VSD-1007 Lens Arts

VSD-1080 Introduction to Digital Imaging

VSD-1120 Space, Shapes and Techniques

VSD-1130 Drawing 

VSD-1155 The VCS Studio 

Second-Year Requirements

Requirement A

AHD-2010 The Origins of Art

VSD-2310 Looking Into Music

VSD-2376 Printmaking: Etching and Woodcut

VSD-2010 Life Drawing

FID-1430  Sculpture

VCD-2236 Theories of Vision and Color

VHD-2060 Visuality in Poetry

Requirement B

VSD-2102 The Artist’s Journal

or FID-3542 Performance Art

Students may take more than the minimum required courses from Requirement B to fulfill second-year elective choices in Requirement C.

Requirement C

In addition to requirements A and B, students must take 3 elective credits in studio and 3 elective credits in art history or humanities.

Courses can be chosen from among the undergraduate offerings, including courses not already taken from requirements A and B. Please see the Visual and Critical Studies General Course Listing for suggested elective options. Credit type (art history, humanities and sciences, studio) is listed with each course description. For courses only open to a specified major, please consult with your advisor.

Third-Year Requirements

Requirement A

VCD-3020 Theories of Power, Society and Experience 

VCD-3040 Aesthetic Theory

VSD-3010 Junior Seminar

Requirement B

VCD-3052 Art in Theory

or AHD-3137 Irony and Beauty

VCD-2564 Professional Practices and the Art Industry

or VCD-3087 The Diasporas Emerge: Filling in the Gaps

Requirement C

VSD-3402 Advanced Projects in Mixed Media

or VSD-3807 Fiber Arts

 Requirement D

In addition to requirements A and B, students must take 12 elective credits in studio and 3 elective credits in art history or humanities.

Courses can be chosen from among the undergraduate offerings, including courses not already taken from requirements A and B. Please see the Visual and Critical Studies General Course Listing for suggested elective options. Credit type (art history, humanities and sciences, studio) is listed with each course description. For courses only open to a specified major, please consult with your advisor.

Fourth-Year Requirements

Requirement A

AHD-4140 Senior Seminar

VHD-4010 Essay Workshop

VSD-4010 Thesis Studio I

VSD-4015 Thesis Studio II

VSD-4050 Thesis Workshop

Requirement B

In addition to requirement A, students must take 6 elective credits in studio and 9 elective credits in art history or humanities.

Courses can be chosen from among the undergraduate offerings, including courses not already taken from requirements A and B. Please see the Visual and Critical Studies General Course Listing for suggested elective options. Credit type (art history, humanities and sciences, studio) is listed with each course description. For courses only open to a specified major, please consult with your advisor.

General Course Listing

The following course listing reflects the 2025-2026 curriculum. For further details on individual courses, such as meeting days and times, please refer to the Undergraduate Course Listing.

AHD-1030 / AHD-1035

Visuality and Modern Art I and II

3 art history credits per semester

These courses will examine the interconnections among modern art, modernity and visuality. Topics will include the historical development of “modern” vision, the impact of photography and film on visualization, and the decline of realism and the emergence of abstraction. The goal of the courses is to bring together historical, philosophical, scientific and technological studies of visuality and relate them directly to “modern” artistic practice.

HLD-1827

Modern Writing and Narrative Technique I

1.5 humanities and sciences credits

What is modernity and what is modernism in the arts? What happened in literature while the visual arts, music and dance made their fundamental break from traditional forms? How do we account for the complex and puzzling literary techniques of the modern age? This course will examine the parallel problems of expression and composition that literature shared with the other arts, to empower students in the many ways they will be writing. It analyzes turning points in modern writing and narrative technique (e.g., realism, point of view, subjectivism, abstraction, time-compression, stream of consciousness, montage, absurdism) and how these have mattered for the visual arts.

HMD-1050

Modern Philosophy and Critical Theory: 18th and 19th Centuries

1.5 humanities and sciences credits

This course will introduce some of the key Western philosophical ideas, from the period of the European Enlightenment to the dawn of the 21st century. Through readings by Hume, Kant, Rousseau, Marx and Nietzsche we will examine central terms within the variety of philosophical trends and disputes of each period, including empiricism, political philosophy and aesthetic theory.

VCD-1030

Theories and Practices of the Image

3 art history credits

Serving as an introduction to the role of the image in art, society and the individual, this course will examine the relation of the art image to the image in biology, religion, politics, philosophy and psychology. Following a cross-disciplinary approach that seeks to unearth the connections between art, history and theory, this course will offer students a comparative study and critical introduction to the image in a variety of mediums and academic traditions, from classical aesthetics to modern psychoanalytic theory. The conscious and unconscious mental image, the commercial image, the sexual and gendered image, as well as the self-image and the world as image will also be explored.

VHD-1025

Writing and Literature

3 humanities and sciences credits

This required course emphasizes writing and critical thinking through the study of literature. The first goal is for students to express themselves clearly, critically and thoughtfully, using language. The second goal is for students to explore writing as a personal process and as an artist’s tool. Texts may include premodern works from the Western canon, along with more contemporary, experimental and non-Western literature.

VSD-1007

Lens Arts

3 studio credits

From the invention of photography to the growing potential of interactive and online photographic work, the lens-based arts have played a central role in defining our culture. This multidisciplinary course will examine the dramatic changes in lens-based technologies and their evolving nature, and explore a variety of imaging devices in studio projects.

VSD-1080

Introduction to Digital Imaging

3 studio credits

Gaining a fundamental understanding of Adobe Photoshop, Bridge and Lightroom applications will be the focus of this course. Topics covered include image size and resolution, flatbed and film scanning, color modes, file formats, painting and editing tools, file management, image adjustments, working with layers and layer masks, and output options. By the end of the semester, students will have a basic understanding of how to work with photographs in a digital environment. 

VSD-1120

Space, Shapes and Techniques

3 studio credits

The fundamental principles and structures of the material world will be the focus of this course. Students will work with a variety of materials and develop an understanding of their essence and relevance for individual results. Training of the eye (observation), brain (inquiry) and hand (tactile) will result in comprehension and sensitivity of all things 3D. Practical work will give a framework for context, connections and meaning. Project-based assignments will reinforce these fundamental principles. The goal of the course is to gain the ability to analyze and articulate attitudes, materials and relationships.

VSD-1130

Drawing

3 studio credits

Focusing on the perceptual skills involved in image-making, this course will examine drawing as an act of producing independent works of art and as a preparatory process in organizing a finished work. Assigned projects will explore the formal elements of art, such as line, space, scale and texture. Materials will include pencil, charcoal, pen-and-ink and wash, among others. Projects range from the figure and still life, for example, to mapping and storyboarding.

VSD-1155

The VCS Studio

3 studio credits

This studio workshop will encourage students to develop their painting and drawing practice through self-initiated as well as assigned projects. Various approaches will be explored, such as using systems, working from observation, developing an archive of images, referencing art history, icon painting and printmaking. Students will keep a sketchbook and review current exhibitions.

FID-1430

Sculpture

3 studio credits

As an introduction to the material world, this course explores diverse media and their potentialities to create volume, line and mass. Ranging from the ethereal to the fabricated, materials such as clay, plaster, cardboard, wood, resin and wire will be investigated by exercises in casting, mold-making, installation and site-specific work. Discussion will include concepts of space, gravity and light, among others, as they pertain to three-dimensional form.

AHD-2010

The Origins of Art

3 art history credits

The Arts serve as a record of the history of ideas and society. This course will explore the development of what we call art, by examining its emergence and development in the context of specific Western and non-Western societies and civilizations. To do so, the class traces the changing nature of representation in painting, sculpture and architecture from the Paleolithic to the early 19th century. Topics include art and ritual, iconoclasm and theories of God, the separation of art and craft, the social history of art and the rise of the individual, idealism and aesthetics. Discussion, slide presentations and museum visits are a part of the course. 

VSD-2010

Life Drawing

no credit

With a focus on the live model, this course will address the figure in space using a variety of techniques. From short to long poses, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the human form while examining various concepts relevant to the history of drawing: line and gesture, positive and negative space, composition and the picture plane, tone, form and proportion, and perspective, among others. The class will discuss contemporary forms of life drawing and its relevance to the art market.

VHD-2060

Visuality in Poetry

3 humanities and sciences credits

How are words made into images? What is the science of figurative language? What are opportunities for music, image and language to complement as opposed to contrast with one another? This course will address these fundamental questions by engaging with poetic works drawn from diverse periods. In this effort to understand poetry’s relationship with the visual world, we will read closely and critically. We will study the mechanics of poetry and work on writing, listen to writers and attend readings to arrive at a practical understanding of writing and prepare for tackling the larger questions of ekphrasis in poetry.

VSD-2102

The Artist’s Journal

3 studio credits

The goal of this painting course is to create a visual journal through a series of paintings and works on paper that record the artist’s interests and concerns. Experimentation with various materials and techniques, as well as investigating ideas of personal iconography, symbolism and narrative will be emphasized. Using painting, drawing, basic printmaking and collage, students will develop journal paintings and a collaborative publication. Keeping a sketchbook, reviewing exhibitions and taking photos for reference and documentation will be required.

VCD-2173

Gender Trouble

3 art history credits

A radical collective inquiry into the ‘aesthetics of resistance’ that occur when the gendered non-conforming body speaks in the visual. In this course we’ll explore using the arts to engage in the queering of fixed social boundaries, a most ancient form of anti-authoritarian power and sensuous (spiritual) pleasure for use by bodies situated at the borderlands of gender, race, class, pleasure and power. Presentations of slide and video work by key contemporary and historical feminist figures will help students situate their creative practice in relationship to contemporary discourses around intersectional feminism—race, class, gender and sexuality. How do we make sense of feminist art of the past and present—its contradictions, slogans and symbols? What content is lost in translation during art’s shift from private practice to public locus? Students will complete weekly reading assignments by a range of provocative critical theorists as well as bring in work in any medium for critique. This course features guest lectures and a special focus on underground, pan-sexual, transnational networks we can define loosely as punk, queer, hip hop, radical, sex-positive feminist culture.

AHD-2227

Monument/Memorial: Sculpture in the American Landscape

3 art history credits

This course examines the influence of people and nature on national memory, with attention paid to digressions from the dominant historical thread. Geological time and the sweeping path of wildfire are monumental events for our consideration, alongside Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty,” Gutzon Borglum’s “Mount Rushmore” and the ongoing removal of Confederate statues nationwide. Readings include: Lucy Lippard, Rebecca Solnit and Terry Tempest Williams with lectures from historians, anthropologists and artists. This course aims to question American historical preservation practices and encourages students to responsibly consider the future as they erect it.

VCD-2236

Theories of Vision and Color

3 art history credits

In this course students will be asked to consider theories of vision and color through a variety of lenses: critical, cultural, scientific, (art) historical, philosophical, experiential and literary, to name a few. Such consideration will be facilitated by a corresponding diversity of methods, encompassing reading, discussion, screening, observation, experimentation and site visits. We will attempt to arrive at an understanding of both vision and color as multivalent and ever-evolving phenomena. Throughout, students will be encouraged to consider the role of vision and color in both historical and contemporary art practices and in relation to their own artistic development.

VCD-2241

The Artist as Coder

3 art history credits

In the post-studio interdisciplinary art world, technology plays a critical role in an artist’s practice. The ubiquity of the Internet, displays and computers demands a new kind of literacy today. By examining contemporary artists working on the periphery of traditional media, we’ll explore the implications for art and artists. Readings and lectures will be supplemented by in-class exercises that introduce fundamental programming principles with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. To emulate the interdisciplinary art world mentioned, this course is a hybrid art history course with studio practice.

VSD-2310

Looking into Music: A Thematic Approach to Visual and Auditory Art

3 studio credits

Many artists approach their own work by using ideas and properties that are primarily associated with another form of expression. Music, which by nature is abstract and non-material, has often served as a means of exploring the visual arts. This studio course will consider the interrelationship of the visual arts and music by first examining historical examples, then applying those principles to student projects and presentations. Beginning with the ancient belief in universal connectedness (such as the Harmony of the Spheres), weekly themes will include: structural comparisons of visual and aural creativity; the nature of abstraction; similarities and paradoxes of visual and aural perception; the nature of improvisation; sociological and political activism; artistic and legal implications of appropriation in art and music; the interdependency of visual and sound elements in multidisciplinary art forms such as theater, film, animation, music video and web-based art.

AHD-2321

Sound/Mind/Material

3 art history credits

Sound is at once ephemeral in air, concrete in material and conceptualized in the mind. This unique transformation property makes sound ideal for examining the relationship of our internal experience to physicality; our body in relationship to a world increasingly more abstracted through digital media. In this course students will recon-sider sound as material, develop their own physical-based audio work and discover theories that aim to understand these relations. Studio projects exploring unexpected and novel material for music and audio—flexible embedded circuitry, building audio speakers and sound sculpture—will be supplemented by listening and viewing of related arts and artists. Students will also respond to readings in theories of sound, new media, perception and phenomenology. This course will offer a hybrid experience—studio practice along with readings and discussion about the many possibilities for considering our relationship to the body, physical material and sound embodied in the physical world.

VSD-2376 

Printmaking: Etching and Woodcut

3 studio credits

This course offers a thorough introduction to different image-making possibilities available in two major areas of printmaking. Etching will be explored through the introduction of line etching, soft ground, aquatint and photoetching. The second half of the semester will focus on monoprint, linoleum and woodcut. Starting from a direct application of color in monoprint, students will then explore the use of color separations and overlays to create color linoleum and woodcut prints.

VCD-2564

Professional Practices and the Art Industry

3 art history credits

This course aims to give participants an understanding of the art world and its history, as well as how to navigate professional pitfalls. From the practical to the esoteric, we will address the complex—sometimes overlapping, other times conflicting—components and institutions of the art world. Professionals such as gilders, faux-finishers, gallerists, grant writers, photographers, art handlers and museum educators (to name a few) will be invited to lead discussions on their areas of expertise. Some sessions will be hands-on studio work, others will concentrate on strategies to support the artist and their studio practice. Students will review exhibitions throughout the semester. Finished artwork will be shared during the final class session. This course is recommended for upper-level students interested in a career as a “studio” artist.

AHD-2593

In and Out of Print: Modern and Contemporary Art Publications and Practices in the Expanded Field

3 art history credits

In this course we will enthusiastically explore 20th- and 21st-century art and artist publications and related practices in the expanded field: art and artist books, chapbooks, posters, flyers, broadsheets, editions, multiples, and other printed ephemera. Historical contexts, artistic advancements and prevailing styles will be examined in-depth, across all mediums and print platforms. We will begin at the end of the 19th century with print and photography portfolios, and continue through Dada, surrealism, concrete poetry, up to Fluxus, minimalism and conceptual art, pop, pictures generation artists, underground publications (from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, including punk), and up through to contemporary artists’ engagements with published materials. Multiples and methods of reproduction will be thoroughly covered, while visiting artists, publishers, collectors and archivists will give presentations on their practical applications of—and engagements with—this subject matter.

AHD-2810

Freak(y) Theory

3 art history credits

Queer. Crazy. Crip. Freak. Bodies that, by virtue of existing, call into question the very notion of normality and functionality. Freak(y) theory expands on the scope of traditional queer-artistic practice to propose full-scale economic, political, epistemological and cultural experiments that seek to produce difference and equality at the same time. Taking on the conceptual concerns of queer theory, crip theory and mad studies, this course will examine the historical and performative manifestations of the “freak.” We will engage with critical literature, a wide variety of performance artifacts and our own performance practices to discover how “freaky” embodiment and aesthetics can disrupt normative social practices to generate, what Foucault once called, the “utopian body.” From freak shows to transhumanist net art, we will explore the survival strategies of those individuals deemed too sick, sexual and out of control by the dominant powers.

AHD-2812

Feminist Approaches to Media

3 art history credits

This course will combine the art history and art practice of the 20th and 21st centuries in order to familiarize students with different feminist media strategies: collage (beginning in the early 20th-century), performance and video (1970s-’80s), zines (1990s), as well as net art and social media (’90s-2000s). Accompanied by relevant readings (including Linda Nochlin, bell hooks and Lisa Nakamura), we will examine this era of feminist practice while adapting these mediums for students to explore in their own creative work.

AHD-2842

Understanding Kitsch

3 art history credits

Although the etymology of the term is debatable, “kitsch” is generally understood to refer to the questionable aesthetic of mass-produced items created to appeal to crass, unrefined tastes. Since its emergence in the mid-1800s, artists have borrowed from and been inspired by this aesthetic; by the twentieth century, kitsch and high culture seemed at times to be so intertwined as to be indistinguishable. Championed by some as the “democratization” of taste and decried by others as catering to the lowest common denominator, kitsch embraces notions eschewed by arbiters of high culture, such as sentimentality, melodrama and cuteness. This course will discuss the culture and environment that gave birth to kitsch and its continued development. We will use kitsch as a vehicle for examining concepts that may shed light on how we view fine art objects, including an introduction to political, historical and psychoanalytical models of interpreting art; the origins of suburbia; and the difference between kitsch and propaganda. All of these topics are considered as we try to get to the root of the question: What makes fine art “art” and kitsch “kitsch”?

VSD-3010

Junior Seminar

no credit

This seminar will focus on developing studio work in preparation for thesis projects. Emphasis will be placed on coherently conceptualizing each student’s independent project, as well as how to contextualize the work through documentation and building a portfolio.

VCD-3020

Theories of Power, Society and Experience 

3 art history credits

In an unstable world, what are the threads that tie the 21st century together? To begin thinking about such a question, we will explore the dominant social, political and philosophical developments that have come to shape life in the 21st century. We will explore ideas ranging from employment and globalization, community and climate change to policing, algorithms and the Internet. This course blends historical analysis with a focus on current events, supported by weekly newspaper readings. Ultimately, we will work to gain a better understanding of the context in which we live our lives and the forces that shape our experience.

VCD-3040

Aesthetic Theory

3 art history credits

Lacking in the long history of aesthetics and the philosophy of art is the case study approach of applying a theory directly to an artwork to see how effective it is. Does it define what art is or is not? Does it help us decide the sensory value of an artwork? Are there judgments of taste and sensory discriminations? Is there an aesthetic pleasure, a feeling of the ‘sublime,’ or is it all in the eye of the beholder? Is beauty a property of things or something we attribute to them? Ultimately, can theories of art provide a framework for critically responding to our art, our culture and nature? We intend to answer these questions by lining up some of the greatest theoreticians of the Western canon: Kant, Hegel, Croce, Adorno, Danto, Derrida, Goodman, Greenberg and Arnheim, with some of the most provocative art of our times.

VCD-3052

Art in Theory

3 art history credits

Important critical essays written between 1850 and 2000 will be examined in this course, as we explore the differences between modernism and postmodernism. Lectures will connect the artworks produced during this period to these texts and offer a comprehensive understanding of both images and ideas.

AHD-3055

Art and the Intimate

3 art history credits

We engage the intimate through family relationships, gender and sexuality, and even the natural and architectural spaces we inhabit. Artists have played an important role in imagining intimacy as personal, sociopolitical and ecological practice. How do we express love and belonging? What can we learn through the intimate gaze? How does our intimacy reflect our identities? When does viewership become voyeurism, and what are the ethical considerations in relation to surveillance? From documentary photographic practices to experiential performative works, art invites us to consider intimacy as a rich ground for interrelating and investigating the human condition. We will explore the intimate in visual and performance art, as it intersects with human narratives, ethics, technology and politics. In community, we will investigate intimacy as both a personal journey into one’s private and interior world, and a research practice grounded in friendship, solidarity and collaboration.

VCD-3087

The Diasporas Emerge: Filling in the Gaps

3 art history credits

In this course we will comb through the Western European canon of art and history to trace the roots of important black, Latino and indigenous thinkers, artists, poets and musicians who have shaped the politics, culture and representations of modern and contemporary art. We will delve into an array of historical, decolonial and philosophical texts and source materials to expand our knowledge and understanding of the canon by unearthing the contradictions inherent in the legacy of Western European Enlightenment and imperialism. Students will be presented with two case studies. The first will be surrealism, its relationship to the Négritude movement and the influence of the Blues. We will read and unpack thinkers such as Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Sylvia Wynter and Franklin Rosemont. For the second, we will look at New York City in the late 1970s and ‘80s to unpack the cross-pollination of the arts in the city, through the lens of Martha Rosler, Jeff Chang and the poetry of Pedro Pietri to expand our knowledge of the canon to include those influential poets, musicians and artists from Chinatown, Loisaida and the South Bronx that were left behind.

AHD-3089

The Interdisciplinary Black Arts

3 art history credits

This course will introduce students to the art and ideas of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). During the 1960s, BAM artists created aesthetic counterparts to Black self-determination and community solidarity, from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York. Creating new relations to Black publics on a local, grassroots level and to diasporic politics and the African continent on a transnational level, artists broke with the limitations of painting and sculpture by blending mediums and fostering awareness of the physical and social environment. Starting from art history as our home discipline, the course will ask how BAM artists extended visual art in poetic, performative and musical directions. What were the expressions of freedom and celebration of Black social life that emerged out of this moment and how do they correlate to the present? How were they conveyed through different aesthetic strategies that can inform artists today?

AHD-3092

Intersectionality and Art

3 art history credits

How is Western art history related to power in terms of gender, sexuality, race, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, or ability? When Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” she addressed the inability of law to acknowledge discrimination that occurs across both race and gender. Since then, intersectionality has become a useful theoretical tool for discussing complex questions related to identity formation, social ordering, representation, equity and social justice. In this course we look at art-making through the lens of intersectionality through lectures, discussions, writing assignments, art projects and museum visits. This critical inquiry will enhance our understanding of our own role as makers and creators in the 21st century.

AHD-3096

Beyond the Veil: Orientalism and Visual Culture

3 art history credits

This course takes as its target the thorny subject of Orientalism and its relationship to the history of visual expression. What is Orientalism, and what does it have to do with art, image-making, or even film? How does Orientalism differ from cultural appropriation, “primitivism,” “Chinoiserie,” or “Japonism”? Is Orientalism just another name for “othering” and deeming the unfamiliar as inferior to one’s own? Does Orientalism itself have a history, and if so, what does that history look like? More importantly, is Orientalism dead? In this course we study these questions through image-making, museum visits and persuasive writing. We will examine the development of Orientalism in art, tracking its emergence in history and tracing its path as a field of ethnographic study to its use as a literary and visual discourse, as introduced by Edward Said in the 1978 and as developed and critiqued by later authors. This course will expand our understanding of the complex relationships between the East and the West and reveal to what extent our understanding of these relationships, which form the background of art-making, have changed and still call for change in our own work as makers and creators working in the 21st century.

AHD-3137

Irony and Beauty

3 art history credits

Irony is a puzzling concept, far deeper than the dictionary definition: “Irony is the act of using words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.” If this were the case, all sarcasm would be irony and the truly ironic act would be nothing more than cheap theatrics. Thankfully, real irony is hard to come by. It is rooted in something more than cleverness, just as beauty is more than simply being pretty. The idea of beauty is, at its core, a moment of transcendence, an experience of something greater than the tangible world has to offer. When done well, irony is a concentrated disaffection with what has been presented as truth; it is a mode of rebellion. Can beauty and irony co-exist or are they mutually exclusive? Is there any irony in the paintings of Barnett Newman or is it all deadly serious? Has irony become too easy? And has beauty ceased to answer any real questions? These are the issues we will address as we try to reconcile these seeming opposites.

VSD-3402

Advanced Projects in Mixed Media

3 studio credits

Advanced Projects in Mixed Media is a studio course with an emphasis on materiality and experimentation. Materials are suggested for assignments but ultimately can take any form—photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. The course embraces the wide-reaching methods of contemporary art, which also includes the potential use of performance and video as well as considerations of context and technology. Students are expected to achieve a greater understanding of themselves as artists and begin to construct their own artistic voice. The course is divided into three sections—The Four Elements, The Five Senses, The Four Temperaments—with focuses on physical matter, experience/interpretation and emotion. Weekly projects will be discussed in a group critique; reading assignments, screenings and field trips are included.

HPD-3516

Power, Politics and Society

3 humanities and sciences credits

The history and prospects of American democracy will be examined in this course. To shed light on our own social and political context, we’ll read works by social theorists as well as contemporary social scientists. We’ll ask key questions: Where did democracy come from? What are the fundamental principles of democracy? What role does money play in influencing social policy? What has happened to public infrastructure? What are political parties? Why do so few Americans vote? Why is information about public affairs so poor? How does American foreign policy take shape? Why does inequality persist in the face of majority rule? How does major social change occur? Is democracy at risk today? The aim of the course is to empower students as citizens, by developing a critical understanding of the nature of political power in the society and formulating paths to action. 

FID-3542

Performance Art

3 studio credits

Performance art is a way of extending and expanding your studio practice. It’s a way of working out ideas using your body as a time-based material. This course is designed for anyone interested in the inherent practices and narratives of performance art, and anyone who wants to push the disciplinary limits of their work. Each week students will make their own experimental performances while exploring the history and evolution of performance art. Group exercises will hone physical and vocal skills as well as build confidence. We will look at and engage with a wide range of performance forms, including Dada, happenings, Fluxus, conceptual performance, punk, drag, social practice and mixed-media spectacles. 

VSD-3807

Fiber Arts

3 studio credits

This course will introduce students to the basics of working within several classic American fiber arts traditions, including spinning, weaving, dyeing, appliqué, quilt-making, embroidery, and basic fabric design. While traditional ways of working and basic techniques will be demonstrated and stressed in the first half of the semester, students will use their skills to create individualized artistic projects during the second half of the course. In the end, this course is a hybrid of new and old techniques, combining craft and fine art.

AHD-3824

Video Art as Avant-Garde Practice

3 art history credits

Early pioneers of independent film—such as Maya Deren and John Cassavetes—were deeply critical of the big-budget Hollywood films of their day. They responded by making low-budget films that thoughtfully used film media in new and unique ways, and by distancing them from cinematographic standards. Students will be encouraged to deconstruct conventional forms of narrative. We will approach video in ways that look beyond the technical, highlighting hidden mechanisms and methodologies. New technologies ultimately affect our reality and contemporary culture; that proximity enables us to have a basic understanding and use of the moving image beginning as early stages of childhood. We will analyze different format references, including video installation, web projects and film, among other media, exploring cinema in its expanded form. The course will draw on a rich body of readings.

VHD-4010

Essay Workshop

3 humanities and sciences credits

The essay is a literary form perfect for grappling with complex ideas in a direct and personal manner. Less rigid than the scholarly treatise, its openness allows a writer tremendous flexibility in considering a chosen topic from numerous angles. In this course we will examine the uses and particular strengths of the essay by reading and discussing a wide range of examples, as well as writing short essays in a variety of styles. Our reading will range from the invention of the modern essay in the 16th century by Montaigne to opinion pieces in current magazines. Writing assignments will explore uses of the essay for diverse purposes, including satire, humor, advocacy, art criticism and the investigation of contemporary issues. The goal throughout will be to help students identify different means of writing available to them as they begin to conceive of and develop the written component of their thesis projects.

VSD-4010 / VSD-4015

Thesis Studio I and II

3 studio credits per semester

Consisting of weekly critiques by faculty and visiting artists, these courses will provide the anchor by which the final thesis project is undertaken.

VSD-4050

Thesis Workshop

3 studio credits

Intended to hone the skills necessary for the undertaking of the thesis project, this course will examine the material and intellectual contexts in which the thesis is pursued.

AHD-4140

Senior Seminar

3 art history credits

This course examines in depth a specific theme or conflict relevant to contemporary art practice. Through focused readings and rigorous class discussions, students will gain knowledge and understanding of current issues relevant to their senior thesis work.

AHD-4140

Senior Seminar: Printmaking

3 art history credits

This seminar will look at how new technologies affected what artists made and how artists adopted those new ways of printing to create prints, multiples and books throughout history. Various methods of printmaking have developed over hundreds of years and are constantly being updated, incorporating photography and digital methods of production. We will see how print editions are financed, produced and distributed and how artists and publishers deal with questions of materials, scale and cost of production in developing print editions. We will also explore ideas concerning “the original” and “the copy” and how the advent of digital reproduction and photography blur those lines. There will be weekly readings by artists, critics and curators concerning art in multiple as well as several visual projects and written assignments.