How issues of gender shape our visual and material landscape. Beyond introducing students to women artists traditionally excluded from art history, readings and lectures will analyze representations of women, men, trans, and non-binary peoples, and within the social and historical contexts of race, class, sexuality, and (dis)ability.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Graduate students will be expected to produce an extensive
research paper on specific works or issues related to the field
and the methodologies appropriate to the topic under
consideration in the course. This paper will be a detailed,
in-depth consideration of the student's chosen theme requiring
not only a demonstration of advanced research skills (including
the ability to read and use material presented in foreign
languages), but also an articulation of the student's ability to
understand and manipulate the critical apparatus of art history
in Gender Issues and Art History.
Athena Title
Gender Issues and Art History
Prerequisite
Two ARHI 3000-level courses and permission of major
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will consider how various artists and artworks shift our understanding of feminism and art.
Students will think deeply about and look closely at connections between aesthetic forms and ideology.
Students will reflect upon the cultural construction of gender and sexuality in a way that deepens awareness of the global politics of sex, gender, race, class, and environment.
Students will develop critical thinking and analytical skills regarding gender and other social categories of identity in research and knowledge sharing.
Topical Outline
I. Firing the Canon
II. A History of Feminist Art History
III. Theorizing the Nude
IV. Rethinking the Gaze
V. Mythology and/or Sexual Assault
VI. Biography
VII. Rubens and Fat Studies
VIII. Gender and Genre
IX. Color and Cosmetics
X. The Abject: Lactation
XI. Cherchez la femme
XII. Affect: Sense and Sensibility
XIII. Revolution and New Canons of Masculinity
XIV. Romanticism and Shine
XV. Questions of Visibility; The Lesbian Artist in the 19th century
