A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 20 BUILDINGS

ARTHIST/ASIAN 179

Historical overview of India and South Asia's global architectural histories from the ancient to the modern periods. While focusing predominantly on architectural sites in India, examine architecture at multiple sites across the globe which share connected histories with South Asia. We live in a world of nation states and are shaped by national histories. However, in the arc of human history, nation states are of recent vintage. Examine India's global architectural histories not only through comparison but, in the words of historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "by seeking out the at times fragile threads that connected" India to "the globe." Capturing the mobility of populations, traders, conquerors, missionaries, pilgrims, tourists, colonists, architects, artists, scholars, religion, merchandise, art, architecture, and ideas, we show that South Asia's global architectural histories are themselves the complex products of varied histories of cultural encounters.

ARTHIST 103

Offers an introduction to world art by taking a thematic approach. Topics will center around art and architecture produced in a variety of media, from a wide time span, and a range of cultural and geographic points of origin.

ARTHIST 779

Topics in Architecture and Urbanism of Asia.

ARTHIST 201

Examines the arts and cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean basin before the Renaissance. Explores canonical works such as the pyramids at Giza, the Parthenon in Athens, the Venus di Milo, Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the Book of Kells, the Great Mosque at Córdoba, Chartres cathedral, and Giotto's Arena Chapel. Define art broadly, to encompass the material culture of everyday life, including jewelry, ceramics, and textiles. Considers the social and historical contexts of art and artistic production - art and imperialism, ethnicity, technology, religious ritual and belief, and myth and storytelling, and its relationships to basic human concerns: death and the afterlife, desire and the body, self-definition and portraiture, power and propaganda, monstrosity and the supernatural, the divine and the sacred. Develops crucial skill sets: critical visual analysis, contextual interpretation, research methods and resources, historiography, and oral, written and digital communication.

ARTHIST 440

Considers the use of art and architecture as an expression of power in the Arab world, from the seventh century to the present. Beginning with the establishment of the caliphate and ending with the arts of revolution following the Arab Spring, investigates the shifting role of art and architecture in the quest for political dominance. With a particular focus on the arts of Cairo, Baghdad, Cordoba, Mecca, Jerusalem, Damascus, and the modern Arabian Gulf, explore competing visions of power and sources of legitimacy, through the lens of artistic production.