Animals in Contemporary Culture
Instructor: Lane Hall
Course: 722 Special Topics in Contemporary Culture: Animals in Contemporary Culture
Th 6:00 p.m. - 8:40 PM, Curtin 939
We will explore how animals are represented within contemporary Western culture through the analysis of theoretical texts, movies, literature and visual art. Reflecting more broadly upon the role of nature within culture, we will also look at institutions dedicated to animals, such as pet shops, zoos and natural history museums, and seek to gain a better understanding of our complex relationship with the animal, and ultimately, what it means to be human.
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History 700: Introduction to Public History
Instructor: Jasmine Alinder
M 4-6:30 PM
3 credtis
Instead of history that is written by and for academics, public history focuses on popular understandings of the past. From museums and monuments to textbooks and documentary film, forms of public history reveal as well as conceal the tensions involved in codifying historical events on local, national, and global levels. This course will introduce students to different debates and practices in the field of public history. Class discussion will often address the following questions: Why is the presentation of history for the public often such a controversial enterprise? How do people use history for their own ends? What role does visual culture play in the portrayal of the past?
Contact Information (for further information)
USP: 414-229-4751 NWQ 5498 (Bldg B, take red elevators to 5th floor)
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URB STD-971: Seminar on the History of American Urban Problems (3 units)
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This course examines how historians understand urban problems and how historians produce scholarship. By reading and discussing several examples of historical scholarship, students will prepare to write research papers and present their findings to others in the class. Scaffolded assignments build toward the production of a 15-20 page, archivally based research paper. Students enrolling in this course should be aware that assignments require significant time in the UWM Archives, whose business hours are limited. Urban Studies students enrolled in this course should plan to present their papers at the USP Student Forum in the Spring of 2014. |
| GER | | Units | Section | Class# | Hours | Days | Dates | Instructor | Room | Syllabus |
| | 3 | SEM 001 | 39771 | 4:00 PM-6:40 PM | T | 09/03-12/12 | Seligman, Amanda | HLT 341 | PDF |
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For More information contact Amanda I Seligman at seligman@uwm.edu or Urban Studies Programs, 229-4751.
History of American Vernacular Architecture and Landscapes
Instructor; Anna Andrzejewski
MWF 11:00-11:50 | L150 Elvehjem Building, UW-Madison
This upper-level undergraduate/graduate course examines an array of American vernacular buildings and landscapes from the colonial period to the present to consider what they can tell us about the past (and potentially the present). As a course on "vernacular," it encompasses the ordinary or everyday spaces and places that people encounter daily (houses, workspaces, institutional buildings) but rarely think about critically. Because these environments often were (and are) ordinary (that is, not high-style, not designed by architects, landscape architects, professional designers, etc.), traditional art historical frameworks that focus on stylistic categories or maker's biographies prove rather ineffective in interpreting them. Thus, this course will look at recent work by scholars from the fields of anthropology, history, American studies, cultural geography, landscape architecture and history, folklore, and material culture to construct frameworks that help us understand the significance that vernacular environments have had for their makers and users. In so doing, we will also consider question the need for the category of “vernacular,” as the approaches we discuss may be brought to bear upon any aspect of the built environment.
Attendance at lectures and discussions is expected, and the reading load for this course is heavy. There will be several short writing assignments and quizzes. A all-day field trip to the rural landscapes of southwestern Wisconsin and field projects in Madison are required as part of the course, as are visits by noted scholars of Wisconsin vernacular architecture and landscapes.
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Art History 701, Practicum in Art History: Bibliography, Historiography
Instructor: Anna Andrzejewski
W 1:30-3:30 in L170, Elvehjem Building
The Art History Department offers Art History 701, Practicum in Art History: Bibliography, Historiography, Methods every fall. This course is intended as a course for those interested in methods of art historical research. Although required of incoming graduate students in the Department of Art History, the course is open to students in related departments who may utilize art historical methods, particularly qualitative ones, in their research. It is particularly appropriate for students in fields such as Design Studies, Material Culture, Anthropology, History, Geography, and Landscape Architecture (students in these programs have taken it in the past).
For more information on the course and a sample syllabus, please contact Anna Andrzejewski, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, at avandrzejews@wisc.edu.(Andrzejewski | W 1:30-3:30 | L170 Elvehjem Building)
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ART HISTORY 600, History of Islamic Art and Architecture.
Instructor, Jennifer Pruitt, Assistant Professor
Mondays/Wednesdays, 2:30-3:45
This course surveys the architecture, landscape, book arts, and luxury objects produced in Islamic contexts from Spain to India from the 7th through the 21st centuries. Attention will be focused upon the relationships between Islamic visual idioms and localized religious, political, and socioeconomic circumstances. In particular, lectures and readings will examine the vital roles played by theology, royal patronage, ceremonies, gift exchange, trade, and workshop practices in the formulation of visual traditions.
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ART HISTORY 430, Topics in Visual Culture: Calligraphy to Graffiti: Art and Popular Culture in the Islamic World
Instructor, Amanda Rodgers, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities
Tu-Th, 2:30-3:45
This course is an introduction to Islamic arts and popular culture in contemporary context(s), as well as to diverse experiences and practices of Muslims around the world. It teaches students to assess their current assumptions about Islam and to think critically about representations of Islam and Muslims in the media, particularly in a post-Arab Spring world. This course allows students to engage critical and relevant questions, such as: What is Islam’s relationship with visual culture and the art world? Is Islam hostile to images? Can we speak of a single “Islamic” art. By the end of this course, each student will be able to:
Demonstrate basic knowledge of the beliefs and practices of Islam
Demonstrate knowledge of the historical context in which Islam developed in various regions
Demonstrate knowledge of the multiple meanings of Islamic art among diverse groups and cultures outside the Arab world
Demonstrate knowledge of the multiple meanings of Islamic art and practice for Muslim women
Write and speak thoughtfully and critically about issues and concerns relevant to Muslims and the art world
Demonstrate knowledge of historical and contemporary religious debates relevant to a wide variety of artistic practice
Think critically and freely about portrayals of Islam and Muslims in the media
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Course Number; ARTHIST 370
Instructor: Professor Jennifer Johung
Classroom: MIT 195, Tues/Thurs: 12:30 PM-1:45 PM
Credits: 3
Description: This course examines current trends in architectural practice, focusing on the materiality and temporality of organic, animate, portable, interactive, sustainable and bio-mimetic structures within performative, digital, and virtual architectures. Today, buildings are no longer only conceived as objects, but are designed and constructed according to what they do on site or how they perform in response to their users’ needs. Through a selection of contemporary case studies, we will explore a building’s flexible relationship to its physical or digital environment while analyzing its bodily-like movement and responsiveness to both real and virtual users.
Contact Info: johung@uwm.edu
