INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE

AFROAMER/ARTHIST 242

Historical survey of African American art. Beginning with the African heritage and concluding with creativity of the 1970's, examine the evolution of African American art. Attention to the aesthetic sensibilities of diverse styles as well as the social significance of Black art within the art arena.

AFRICAN 605

Introduces foundational texts in the study of modern Africa and the social, political, and economic contexts of the continent's cultural production and productivity. Conceptual explorations of interesting issues such as the African encounter with Europe, anticolonialism, race, racialism, and subjectivity, African and European languages and epistemology, transformations in gendered structures, and the environment, and the circulation and consumption of cultural forms and practices. Examines the long histories and theories of cultural production and practices in Africa, the local/global provenance of forms and styles, and the contexts of their local, national, and global circulation and consumption. Promotes critical thinking by putting like and unlike texts together and considering rhetoric and implied meanings, all in the context of Africa's interactive history with the world in the modern era.

ARTHIST 412

Cultural and historical forces that have shaped the arts of either a specific people or a specific site in Africa or the African Americas.

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.

AFRICAN 303

An introduction to literature and visual culture of Africa in various periods and places; specific topics will vary.