Art and visual culture from around the world with an emphasis on thematic and historical context and cross-cultural connections specific to the instructor's area of specialization.

Because images, buildings, and environments shape our ways of understanding our world and ourselves, learning how to look closely and analyze what you see is a fundamental life skill. Within a global frame, this course provides an introduction to art through a series of case studies from the ancient world to the present day, exploring concepts of gender and race, cultural appropriation, political propaganda, materials and media, cultural ownership and repatriation, and other issues relevant to our world. We will engage with the rich art and architectural resources of Wellesley's campus and beyond.

This first-year seminar examines the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (1474-1564). Although he is best known as a sculptor and painter, Michelangelo was also a poet, architect, civil engineer, and diplomat driven by complex artistic, religious, political, and economic motivations. His long career provides a framework for understanding the Italian Renaissance, and the mythology surrounding that career provides insight into changing perceptions of the artist and the individual during that time. We will focus on works of art and contemporary texts, as well as real or virtual visits to Wellesley’s Special Collections, Papermaking Studio, and Book Arts Lab, as well as Harvard's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

This course explores modern architecture from the turn of the 20th-century to the present. What makes architecture “modern”? We will consider fluid definitions of modernism and modernity when studying the built environment across cultures and geographic boundaries. Rather than following a linear narrative, we will approach modern architecture thematically by looking at topics that include urban planning, tall buildings, domesticity, race, gender, environmentalism and sustainability. A diverse range of architects, designers, and practitioners will be explored in the context of these themes.

Exploring the relationship between art and the environment, this course will focus on the land of the United States as it has been shaped into forms ranging from landscape paintings to suburban lawns, national parks, and our own Wellesley College campus. Among the questions we will consider are: What is “nature”? What do we value in a landscape and why? How are artists, architects, and landscape designers responding to environmentalist concerns?

Ancient Nubia, located on the Middle Nile, is the source of more than 8,000 years of art and material culture: colossal statuary of kings, monumental architecture, exquisite gold jewelry, and some of the most innovative ceramics ever produced. Yet seldom does it receive the attention it deserves, especially compared to its northern neighbor, Egypt. This course will examine Nubia's art and material culture, identifying what makes it unique and what it adopted, adapted, and rejected from its neighbors to the north and south especially. Students will select a topic of research, present aspects of it throughout the semester and deliver it both orally and in paper (or electronic) form as a final project at the end. Pending approval from the Sudan Antiquities Department, students will also have the opportunity to contribute to the Virtual Database of the now-destroyed Sudan National Museum. Guest lecturers and field trips will round out what is presented in class.