Survey of 20th Century
This course will provide a survey of twentieth-century practices and media in Western art within their social, political and philosophical contexts.

Registration and withdrawal deadline: May 6, 2012

Graphic Novels
This course will focus on the history of visual storytelling in various media, including illustration; comics (North America); manga (in Japan); BD (bande dessinée in France and Quebec); and contemporary "graphic novels" by exploring topics including heroes/heroines, autobiography, documentary versus political uses of comics and graphic novels, representations of gender, and the digital future.

Registration and withdrawal deadline:  May 06, 2012

Fashion, Art, Object
In The Fashioned Body (2000), Joanne Entwistle defined dress as "the interface between the individual and the social world, the meeting place of the private and public," suggesting that fashion is intimately tied to the body and to the historical and cultural context in which it is produced and worn. Viewing fashion as a lived-in object, this course will explore the relationship between fashion and identity in the period 1850 to the present. Fashion frequently has been regarded as a powerful expression of identity, suggesting one's social status, gender, occupation, age, cultural heritage, and religious or political beliefs. Focusing in particular on concepts of class, gender, and nation, this course will investigate the ways in which fashion is used to construct and articulate multiple and intersecting forms of identity. By considering issues of production (material, cut, maker) and consumption (how, when, and why clothing is worn), we will further examine fashion as a site through which culturally dominant constructions of identity can be questioned, reinforced, transgressed, or subtly negotiated. Topics considered will include the challenge to traditional notions of class and gender posed by aesthetic and dress reform styles of the nineteenth century, the development and popularization of street styles in the 1960s and 1970s, the use of traditional clothing in creating modern immigrant or global identities, the notion of Englishness in the work of Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, and the role of fashion in articulating shifting concepts of masculinity and femininity. We will also examine a selection of methods for the study of fashion, including visual culture and material culture approaches.

Registration and withdrawal deadline:  May 06, 2012

Asian Art
This course will provide an introductory survey to the visual cultures of Asia from ancient to contemporary times. The art and architectural traditions of each geographical region will be contextualized through an examination of social, cultural and political issues. Regions covered will include Central Asia, East Asia (China and Japan), the Himilayan Region (Bhutan; Nepal; Tibet), South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Registration and withdrawal deadline:  May 06, 2012

Academies of Art
Where did the idea of a systematic art education originate, and how has it evolved over time? This course travels from fifteenth-century Italy, to eighteenth-century France, to twenty-first century North America to trace the history of the art academy. Beyond exploring the history of the institutions themselves, topics will include: the concept of the 'Old Masters'; copying apprenticeship, and the anxiety of influence; anti-academic movements of the avant-garde; and the virtual classroom.

Registration and withdrawal deadline:  May 06, 2012

Sex and the Cinema

Registration and withdrawal deadline:  May 06, 2012

Consuming Canadian Culture
Consuming Culture in Canada explores how Canadians have participated in and consume culture. This course is designed to familiarize students with the practice of cultural history by considering how culture informs historic understandings of gender, race, ethnicity, space and the body. Each thematic section begins with a brief overview of key theoretical ideas that have informed this work. Students are presented with a diverse range of events, spaces and characters in order to engage with key theories and forms of historical evidence that shape this field.

Registration and withdrawal deadline: July 02, 2012