Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• CAS AH 742: Colloquium in Latin American Art
  Case studies designed to explore the main aesthetic, social, and historical discourses surrounding image production in Latin America while familiarizing students with main scholars in the field and their methodologies.
• CAS AH 791: Colloquium in Twentieth-Century Painting and Sculpture
  Topic for Fall 2023: "Contemporary Art and Globalization." Considers cultural globalization as the key critical paradigm for art produced since the late 1980s. Explores how international artists, curators, and scholars have negotiated the space between local tradition and global exchange.
• CAS AH 805: Professional Development and Placement Seminar
  Graduate Prerequisites: completion of PhD oral exam. - Offers advanced PhD students the opportunity to present and discuss works-in-progress and structured guidance for the tasks involved in academic and curatorial job applications.
• CAS AH 812: Seminar: Portraiture
  Topic for Fall 2023: "Picturing Race in Early Modern Europe, 1400-1700." This seminar traces a history of visual constructions of race and ethnicity in Europe through paintings, sculpture, prints, maps, and other forms of visual depiction of racial difference. Please note that this course will be building a collaborative syllabus during the first few weeks of the class.
• CAS AH 820: Seminar: Asian Art
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. - Fall 2022 topic: "Japan on World Display." Course explores the manifold ways that Japan has been presented, performed, and received in the last 150 years through the nation's participation in major world's fairs, with attention to some domestic fairs, design exhibitions, and the Olympic
• CAS AH 822: Seminar: African Art
  Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor. - Fall 2022 Topic: Benin Bronzes in Context With a focus on collections-based learning, this seminar explores the historical and cultural context of art of the Benin Kingdom beginning with the material culture of Ile-Ife and concluding with contemporary conversations concerning repatriation, ethical stewardship, and institutional critique.
• CAS AH 853: Seminar: Renaissance Art and Architecture
  Topic for Fall 2020: Collecting and Exhibiting Italian Renaissance Art. Considers the collection and exhibition of Italian Renaissance art from the 15th century until the current day. Relevant topics will include: historic and contemporary practices of collecting and display; private and public space; and the architecture of seclusion
• CAS AH 863: Seminar: Baroque Art and Architecture
  Topic for Fall 2023: "A Golden Age? Global and Material Turns in the Study of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art." This seminar explores the so-called "Golden Age" of seventeenth-century Dutch art, with particular focus on the global and materiality studies approaches that have recently transformed the field. Classes conducted at the MFA's new Center for Netherlandish.
• CAS AH 867: Material Culture
  Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor. - Introduction to the theory and practice of the interdisciplinary study of material culture, which includes everything we make and use, from food and clothing to art and buildings. Explores contemporary scholarship from a range of disciplines. Also offered as GRS AM 867.
• CAS AH 887: Seminar: American Art
  May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Fall 2024, Section A1: American Art and the Atlantic. This seminar examines nineteenth century American art made on and about the Atlantic Ocean. We consider art including seascapes, representations of the middle passage, and Arctic photographs, while discussing critical approaches from environmental history to the blue humanities.
• CAS AH 891: Seminar: Photography
  Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor. - Historical, archival, and theoretical examinations of photography, with emphasis on its role both as document and as art. Topic for Fall 2024: The Photographic Book. Examines the photographic book from 1839 to present. Concentrates on the book as a unique form for the medium. Study image/text relationships, narrative structures, cultural constructions of message, serial quality of grouped images, and differences/similarities between literary and photographic languages.
• CAS AH 893: Seminar: Twentieth-Century Architecture
  Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor. - Fall 2022 topic: "Government Architecture." The state is a place. What can we learn from its architecture? What can we hope from it, and how can it fail us? Focus on the United States. A joint seminar of MIT (Political Science) and BU (Architectural History).
• CAS AH 895: Seminar: Twentieth-Century Art
  Topic for Fall 2024: Section A1: "Latin American Art and the Cold War." Studies Latin American artistic practices in relation to Cold War political frameworks, such as development and dependency discourses, the impact of the Cuban Revolution, U.S. and Soviet cultural policies, and the rise of numerous political dictatorships.
• CAS AM 200: Introduction to American Studies
  An exploration of the multi-faceted themes of American society and culture in selected historical periods using a variety of approaches to interpret such topics as American art, literature, politics, material culture, and the mass media. Required of majors and minors. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Critical Thinking, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Research and Information Literacy
• CAS AM 202: What's Boston?
  What's Boston? explores Boston's complex urban and natural world. University faculty share cutting-edge research, focusing on Boston as a PLACE and a guiding IDEA, introducing the perspectives of disparate scholarly disciplines. Discover where you stand and where you might go! Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills one unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS AM 220: Native American and Indigenous Studies
  Examines diverse cultural expressions of Native peoples, from oral traditions to modern fiction, and their historic and political contexts. Employs interdisciplinary perspectives from Native American and Indigenous Studies to ask critical questions about the arts, identity, community, and creativity. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, The Individual in Community, Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Creativity/Innovation
• CAS AM 250: American Arts and Society
  Investigates key issues and themes in American arts and letters. Topic for Fall 2024: Documenting the Seventies: American Documentary Photography in the 1970s. This class seeks to explore the 1970s as an alternate flashpoint of photographic experimentation.
• CAS AM 301: Perspectives on the American Experience
  American history and culture as viewed by those who made it. Topics vary from semester to semester. Topic for Topic for Spring 2025: The History of Climate Resilience. By studying the history of climate challenges, this course offers an innovative and momentous understanding of cities. Effective Summer I, 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Historical Consciousness
  • Research and Information Literacy
• CAS AM 313: Internships in Public History
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Students undertake supervised work in Boston-area institutions dedicated to the public presentation of America's past. Students meet with the instructor to discuss themes in public history theory and practice that, together with the internship experience and related readings, inform a final research project and class presentation. Also offered as CAS HI 313.
• CAS AM 336: Bob Dylan: Music and Words
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - This course examines Bob Dylan's music and lyrics from 1962 to 1975 in the context of his life, artistic influences, and milieu. We will explore the wealth of criticism and reaction his songs have inspired, paying special attention to questions concerning the nature of his art--for example, his dependence on musical tradition or the relationship between song lyrics and poetry--and past and current critical discussion about his legacy. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing- Intensive Course, Aesthetic Exploration.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Writing-Intensive Course