| Course ID: | HIST 3165. 3 hours. |
| Course Title: | History of Art and Activism in the United States |
Course
Description: | An examination of the history of how art has been used to enact cultural, social, and political change in the United States. Topics covered include the imagery and history of abolition, WWI, WWII, the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, Vietnam anti-war protests, and the HIV/AIDS crisis. |
| Oasis Title: | Art and Activism in the U.S. |
| Pre or Corequisite: | Any HIST or ARHI or ARTS or COMM or POLS or AFAM or CMLT or SOCI course |
| Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
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| Course Objectives: | 1) Students will understand how imagery is used to persuade viewers to support a certain cause or to justify a certain action.
2) Students will critically engage with primary and secondary sources to analyze and understand the meaning behind activist imagery at different points in U.S. history.
3) Students will understand the importance of the relationship of art to social and political change. |
| Topical Outline: | 1. Imagery of the horror of slave ships and activism against the transatlantic slave trade
2. Photographs of the horrors of slavery and abolition discourse
3. Bobalition broadsides and pro-slavery discourse
4. Uncle Sam and Army Recruitment
5. U.S. Interventions in Cuba and Haiti and the Political Cartoons That Justified Them
6. WWII and the Double V Campaign
7. McCarthy Era and the Suppression of Art
8. The Cold War, Anti-Communism, and Political Cartoons
9. Media and the Civil Rights Movement
10. Media during and Imagery of the Black Power Movement
11. The Black Arts Movement
12. Hawks v. Doves: Imagery of the Vietnam War Era
13. Anti-Apartheid Movement in the United States and its Imagery
14. Art During the HIV-AIDS Crisis and the Activism of ACTUP
15. Art and the Homelessness Crisis
16. Art as Community Building
17. Social Practice Art
18. Mexican Muralists’ Impact on Public Art and Murals in the United States
19. Art and the Power of Self Expression
20. Everyday People and Art Education
21. The Power of Art From the Women’s March and Beyond |