Thomas Cummins

Tuesdays, 12:00 pm - 2:45 pm

Topics to be determined in consideration of interests of students.

Eugene Wang

Thursdays, 3:00 pm - 5:45 pm

The cluster of embellished caves at Dunhuang, China, is among the largest decorated Buddhist cave complexes in the world, spanning the fourth to the fourteenth century. With 492 caves decorated with murals and sculptures, Dunhuang is the largest art gallery in situ in the world. The course explores the visual programs of Dunhuang caves. The disparate textual sources on which the murals are based do not explain their convergence in the same cave. A deep logic of world-making binds them together. Using...

Sarah Lewis

Mondays, 9:45 am - 11:45 am

How are artists, and how are disciplines in the arts and humanities, responding to the hyper-visuality of racial injustices on American ground? This course explores how visual artists including Mark Bradford, Theaster Gates, Amy Sherald, Xaviera Simmons, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kehinde Wiley, and new landmarks—such as the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial to Peace and Justice and the creation of Black Lives Matter Plaza—have initiated a new set of “groundwork” tactics in the Stand Your Ground Era in the United...

Evridiki Georganteli

Wednesdays, 9:00 am - 11:45 am

Crusading expeditions in the Holy Land, Spain and Eastern Europe from 1096 until the end of the Middle Ages shaped the political, socio-economic and cultural map of Europe and the Middle East. This course explores the multifaceted encounters between crusaders, Byzantines, Jews, Armenians and Muslims through the material traces they left behind: architecture, Byzantine objects dispersed across Western Europe, coins, sculptures, frescoes, and manuscripts from the East and the West.

Suzanne Blier

Mondays, 3:00 pm - 5:45 pm

The course explores art in global context, among those traditions in Africa, Oceania, and Native America, fields shared by both art history and anthropology. How does each discipline address local perspectives on art? Readings will be drawn from historical and more recent study. Issues addressed will be: approaches to field analysis, comparative perspectives, the role of history, artists, art markets, museums. Students will gain an understanding of the global art forms under consideration, and different disciplinary...

Maria Gough

Wednesdays, 3:00 pm - 5:45 pm

Recent events have reminded us of the phenomenal power of the real-time convergence of people in public space.  What is the role and responsibility of the artist in such moments of far-reaching political, social, and cultural upheaval and transformation?  Should artists uphold the the (modernist) principle of the autonomy of the work of art?  Or should they commit to the social turn that has characterized much artistic production of the last decade or so?  To help us debate this fundamental question, this...

Suzanne Blier

Mondays, 12:00 pm - 2:45 pm

Harvard Square has a rich history; under its earlier name of Newtowne (founded in 1630), it was once the site of the Massachusetts capital. Much has changed. This class looks back on the many changes Harvard Square has undergone, recent challenges it has faced, and asks class members to think forward about how it might be re-envisioned. This class will combine work in local archives on issues related to history and policy, meetings with local Cambridge officials, and an array of local design and drawing assignments. Learn...