Visual Studies
The Interdisciplinary Visual Studies Minor invites students both to investigate their place in a global system of images and to make media of all kinds, from images and films to objects and performances. Additionally, the program trains students in interdisciplinary rigor and shows them how to examine the relationship between the visual and various structures of power.
Located in the Visual Culture, Arts and Media building (VCAM), Visual Studies links elements of the curriculum, campus, and broader community, highlighting the intersections between courses, faculty, students, departments, and programs engaging the visual.
Learning Goals
- To teach students visual literacy
Students of Visual Studies will investigate their place in the global system of images. Through a Visual Studies framework students have the ability to describe, analyze, and negotiate an increasingly complex world of information technologies; the impact of these technologies on art, culture, science, commerce, policy, society, and the environment; and the interrelationship of these technologies with historical and material forms. - To engage students in critical making
Visual Studies creates curricular opportunities for students to make images, objects, and digital artifacts with critical awareness of their powers and limitations. Critical making, or thinking with process, encourages students to develop production skills which, when coupled with theoretical training and analytical rigor, will broaden their ability to improvise and problem-solve in a variety of disciplinary contexts. - To train students in interdisciplinary rigor
Visual Studies encourages conversation between scholars working on the relationship between text and the visual, the nature of perception, cognition and attention, and the historical construction of looking. Visual Studies can help students perceive when disciplines are essential to understanding a subject, and when they can be combined for a more expansive or more precise critical engagement. - To guide students in an ethics of the visual
Visual Studies invites a return to the liberal arts as processes of creativity, critique, and reflection. It links creative expression to cultural analysis and social engagement, training a generation of theoretically informed makers, artists, innovators, teachers, and civic leaders. We invite students to examine the relationship between the visual and structures of power, to analyze the role of images in making and swaying consumers, and to attend to the role that images play in constructing “others” through race, gender, or disability.
Haverford’s Institutional Learning Goals are available on the President’s website, at http://hav.to/learninggoals.
Curriculum
The Visual Studies curriculum is organized to help students develop critical and creative engagement with visual experience across media, time, and cultures.
All students are required to take an introductory gateway course and a senior-level capstone course. The introductory course covers a variety of disciplinary approaches to the field of Visual Studies, and will often include guest lectures, field trips, and an introduction to some form of making. The capstone course consolidates the student experience of the interdisciplinary minor that integrates visual scholarship, making, and public engagement. Students will select their four elective courses from three of the Learning Goals: Visual Literacy, Critical Making, and Ethics of the Visual.
Students interested in the Interdisciplinary Visual Studies Minor should plan their course schedule in consultation with the Director of Visual Studies and with their major advisor. Please note: currently no more than one of the six minor credits may count towards the student’s major
Courses
- Africana Studies Courses
- Anthropology Courses
- Fine Arts Courses
- Theater - Arts Program Courses
- Astronomy Courses
- Comparative Literature Courses
- Classical Studies Courses
- East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses
- English Courses
- French and French Studies Courses
- Gender and Sexuality Studies Courses
- History of Art Courses
- History Courses
- Health Studies Courses
- Independent College Programs Courses
- Mathematics Courses
- Middle Eastern Studies Courses
- Music Courses
- Philosophy Courses
- Religion Courses
- Sociology Courses
- Spanish Courses
- Visual Studies Courses
- Writing Program Courses
NB: In addition to the following list, all courses in cognate departments (Fine Arts at Haverford, History of Art, Museum Studies, and Film Studies at Bryn Mawr) will count as electives in the Visual Studies Minor.
Minor Requirements
The minor will include six courses:
- VIST H142 Introduction to Visual Studies, the gateway course offered each fall
- Four elective courses that meet the following three learning goals (please find here a list of current courses approved for the minor):
- Visual Literacy
Courses that teach students how to describe and analyze the visual and the impact of digital and/or analogue technologies on art, culture, science, commerce, policy, society, and the environment. - Critical Making
Labs/Studio Courses that create curricular opportunities for students to make media of all kinds, from images and films to objects and performances, and to develop a critical awareness of the relationship between process, product, and reception. - Ethics of the Visual
Courses that invite students to examine the relationship between the visual and structures of power, analyzing the role of images in making and swaying consumers and attending to the role that images play in constructing “others” through such categories as race, gender, or disability.
- Visual Literacy
- A Senior Capstone Seminar (VIST H399 Capstone for Visual Studies Minors) where students will work in small groups to research and propose projects that engage the larger campus community.
Both the Introduction and the Capstone courses must be taken at Haverford College. Additionally, at least two of the four elective courses must be taken at Haverford, Bryn Mawr, or Swarthmore in order to be counted for the Visual Studies Minor.
VIST H105 Introduction to Theater & Performance Studies (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to foundational concepts and embodied practices relevant to the study of theater and performance. We will focus on the intersection between dramatic texts and performance and approach textual analysis and performance through parallel methodologies: as scholars, we will read, reflect on, and write critically about texts and performances; as performers, we will explore a variety of techniques to create “applied interpretations,” interpretations that take form in performance. Lottery Preference: First Year Students and VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H105A Introduction to Theater & Performance Studies (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to foundational concepts and embodied practices relevant to the study of theater and performance. We will focus on the intersection between dramatic texts and performance and approach textual analysis and performance through parallel methodologies: as scholars, we will read, reflect on, and write critically about texts and performances; as performers, we will explore a variety of techniques to create “applied interpretations,” interpretations that take form in performance. Lottery Preference: First Year Students and VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H105B Introduction to Theater & Performance Studies (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to foundational concepts and embodied practices relevant to the study of theater and performance. We will focus on the intersection between dramatic texts and performance and approach textual analysis and performance through parallel methodologies: as scholars, we will read, reflect on, and write critically about texts and performances; as performers, we will explore a variety of techniques to create “applied interpretations,” interpretations that take form in performance. Lottery Preference: First Year Students and VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H107 New Media Performance Project (1 Unit)
New Media Performance Project (NMPP) incorporates processes of devised and experimental theatre with the creative use of digital media technologies for the realization of an evening-length performance. In response to topical cultural issues, students will engage with a variety of audio-visual media and interactive systems through sessions of improvisation, theatre games, and other creative research. Acting experience is not required, but students should be comfortable with public speaking at a minimum. Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H107B New Media Performance Project (1 Unit)
New Media Performance Project (NMPP) incorporates processes of devised and experimental theatre with the creative use of digital media technologies for the realization of an evening-length performance. In response to topical cultural issues, students will engage with a variety of audio-visual media and interactive systems through sessions of improvisation, theatre games, and other creative research. Acting experience is not required, but students should be comfortable with public speaking at a minimum. Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H108 Real Work & Dream Jobs: Visual Representations and Theories of Work (1 Unit)
An entry into theories of work, thinking critically and historically about the role of work in society, the promise of art as an ideal form of work, and the structural persistence of gendered, classed, and racial divisions of labor. Open only to first-year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing. Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H108A Real Work & Dream Jobs: Visual Representations and Theories of Work (1 Unit)
An entry into theories of work, thinking critically and historically about the role of work in society, the promise of art as an ideal form of work, and the structural persistence of gendered, classed, and racial divisions of labor. Open only to first-year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing. Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H108B Real Work & Dream Jobs: Visual Representations and Theories of Work (1 Unit)
An entry into theories of work, thinking critically and historically about the role of work in society, the promise of art as an ideal form of work, and the structural persistence of gendered, classed, and racial divisions of labor. Open only to first-year students as assigned by the Director of College Writing. Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H109 Visual Approaches to Autoethnography (1 Unit)
A visual project-based seminar that introduces students to the concept of autoethnography. A visual approach to autoethnography blends autobiography (cultural memoir), ethnography, and visual expression to interpret human experience. Through discussion-driven presentations, a short selection of readings, and “visual voice” media-making exercises, this course explores how personal reflections, epiphanies, and articulations of an individual’s perspective can serve as a basis for critical, cultural inquiry. Students will create visual vignettes as well as a final project. Crosslisted: ANTH. Pre-requisite(s): None Lottery Preference: Visual studies minors, anthropology majors Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H109B Visual Approaches to Autoethnography (1 Unit)
A visual project-based seminar that introduces students to the concept of autoethnography. A visual approach to autoethnography blends autobiography (cultural memoir), ethnography, and visual expression to interpret human experience. Through discussion-driven presentations, a short selection of readings, and “visual voice” media-making exercises, this course explores how personal reflections, epiphanies, and articulations of an individual’s perspective can serve as a basis for critical, cultural inquiry. Students will create visual vignettes as well as a final project. Crosslisted: ANTH. Pre-requisite(s): None Lottery Preference: Visual studies minors, anthropology majors Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H110 Foundations in Film Production (1 Unit)
The fundamentals of digital film production. Students will learn the grammar of key film genres and basic filmmaking craft, including cameras, lighting, sound techniques, and nonlinear editing, creating four short films in the genres of animation, experimental, documentary, and fiction. Enrollment Limit: 12 Lottery Preference(s): In the fall, 4 seats held for first year students. Then 1. Visual Studies minors, 2. First Years (spring), 3. Sophomores.
VIST H110A Foundations in Film Production (1 Unit)
The fundamentals of digital film production. Students will learn the grammar of key film genres and basic filmmaking craft, including cameras, lighting, sound techniques, and nonlinear editing, creating four short films in the genres of animation, experimental, documentary, and fiction. Enrollment Limit: 12 Lottery Preference(s): In the fall, 4 seats held for first year students. Then 1. Visual Studies minors, 2. First Years (spring), 3. Sophomores.
VIST H110B Foundations in Film Production (1 Unit)
The fundamentals of digital film production. Students will learn the grammar of key film genres and basic filmmaking craft, including cameras, lighting, sound techniques, and nonlinear editing, creating four short films in the genres of animation, experimental, documentary, and fiction. Enrollment Limit: 12 Lottery Preference(s): In the fall, 4 seats held for first year students. Then 1. Visual Studies minors, 2. First Years (spring), 3. Sophomores.
VIST H112 Race & Racisms in Visual Landscapes: Introduction to African-American Visual Cultures (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to theories and topics which bridge the fields of Visual Studies and Black Studies. We will study visual cultures, performance, and digital media in relation to Blackness, anti-Blackness, and Black communities in the United States. This course pays particular attention to gendered and sexualized understandings of race and racisms within visual planes. Crosslisted: AFST. Pre-requisite(s): None
VIST H112A Race & Racisms in Visual Landscapes: Introduction to African-American Visual Cultures (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to theories and topics which bridge the fields of Visual Studies and Black Studies. We will study visual cultures, performance, and digital media in relation to Blackness, anti-Blackness, and Black communities in the United States. This course pays particular attention to gendered and sexualized understandings of race and racisms within visual planes. Crosslisted: AFST. Pre-requisite(s): None
VIST H113 black visual culture: an inadequate survey of the late 19th to 20th centuries (1 Unit)
This course seeks to ask the question: How do we see blackness? How have we learned to see the thing we’re always surrounded by and have so many questions of? How do we know blackness through the visual and/as the racial? What if blackness uses the racial-visual to be known but refuses to be seen and represented so easily? What do we do then? Lottery Preference: 5 slots for first year students; preferences for VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H113A black visual culture: an inadequate survey of the late 19th to 20th centuries (1 Unit)
This course seeks to ask the question: How do we see blackness? How have we learned to see the thing we’re always surrounded by and have so many questions of? How do we know blackness through the visual and/as the racial? What if blackness uses the racial-visual to be known but refuses to be seen and represented so easily? What do we do then? Lottery Preference: 5 slots for first year students; preferences for VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H115 Now/Then: Art and Abolition 1966-2022 (1 Unit)
How have artists developed and sustained abolitionist practices over time? What critical and creative frameworks inform abolitionism as a way of life? In this introductory course, students learn about the significance of art in abolitionist movements from the founding of the Black Panther Party in 1966 to the watershed reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The course highlights key artists and thinkers, and offers creative workshops for collectively re-imagining relationships, communities, and our world. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H115A Now/Then: Art and Abolition 1966-2022 (1 Unit)
How have artists developed and sustained abolitionist practices over time? What critical and creative frameworks inform abolitionism as a way of life? In this introductory course, students learn about the significance of art in abolitionist movements from the founding of the Black Panther Party in 1966 to the watershed reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The course highlights key artists and thinkers, and offers creative workshops for collectively re-imagining relationships, communities, and our world. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H116 Speculative Filmmaking (1 Unit)
Students will learn the craft of digital video production and post-production through the creation of short video projects focused on the genres of speculation, especially about the future of humans and human societies, as a creative framework. Students will learn the basics of HD cameras, digital sound recording and lighting techniques, as well as non-linear video editing, sound editing and exporting video using Adobe Premiere. Pre-requisite(s): Enrollment limit of 12 students. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H116A Speculative Filmmaking (1 Unit)
Students will learn the craft of digital video production and post-production through the creation of short video projects focused on the genres of speculation, especially about the future of humans and human societies, as a creative framework. Students will learn the basics of HD cameras, digital sound recording and lighting techniques, as well as non-linear video editing, sound editing and exporting video using Adobe Premiere. Pre-requisite(s): Enrollment limit of 12 students. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H130 Introduction to Performance Studies (1 Unit)
Through readings of theoretical texts, art works, dance, and experimental performance, we will explore performance as an interpretive framework for social behaviors, institutions, and presentations of self. Readings engage philosophy, psychoanalysis, anthropology, race studies, disability studies, and sexuality studies. Enrollment Limit: 25
VIST H130A Introduction to Performance Studies (1 Unit)
Through readings of theoretical texts, art works, dance, and experimental performance, we will explore performance as an interpretive framework for social behaviors, institutions, and presentations of self. Readings engage philosophy, psychoanalysis, anthropology, race studies, disability studies, and sexuality studies. Enrollment Limit: 25
VIST H131 The Lure of Images: Religion and Visual Media (1 Unit)
This course examines representations from figural forms to abstractions, found objects and beautiful writing to understand the power of sacred imagery. We will examine formats from medieval manuscripts and painted walls to films, panoramas and comic books to observe the dynamics that emerge among viewers and images in spatial contexts ranging from altar pieces, sculpture, stained glass and painting in neo-Gothic churches, calligraphy in mosque and shrine interiors, deity icons in Hindu temples and potent fabrics in Buddhist monastic complexes. Crosslisted: VIST. Enrollment Limit: 35.00
VIST H131A The Lure of Images: Religion and Visual Media (1 Unit)
This course examines representations from figural forms to abstractions, found objects and beautiful writing to understand the power of sacred imagery. We will examine formats from medieval manuscripts and painted walls to films, panoramas and comic books to observe the dynamics that emerge among viewers and images in spatial contexts ranging from altar pieces, sculpture, stained glass and painting in neo-Gothic churches, calligraphy in mosque and shrine interiors, deity icons in Hindu temples and potent fabrics in Buddhist monastic complexes. Crosslisted: VIST. Enrollment Limit: 35.00
VIST H141 Digital Media Pre-Production (0.5 Unit)
This course will teach students the fundamentals of putting together a pre-production package for a digital media production project. This includes: screenwriting; storyboarding; budgets; shot lists; prop lists; and all necessary components for planning a major video project. Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H141D Digital Media Pre-Production (0.5 Unit)
This course will teach students the fundamentals of putting together a pre-production package for a digital media production project. This includes: screenwriting; storyboarding; budgets; shot lists; prop lists; and all necessary components for planning a major video project. Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H141H Digital Media Pre-Production (0.5 Unit)
This course will teach students the fundamentals of putting together a pre-production package for a digital media production project. This includes: screenwriting; storyboarding; budgets; shot lists; prop lists; and all necessary components for planning a major video project. Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H142 Introduction to Visual Studies (1 Unit)
An introduction to the trans-disciplinary field of Visual Studies, its methods of analysis and topical concerns. Traditional media and artifacts of art history and film theory, and also an examination of the ubiquity of images of all kinds, their systems of transmission, their points of consumption, and the very limits of visuality itself. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Fine Arts, Comparative Literature Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): 1.) Senior Visual Studies minors 2.) Other declared Visual Studies minors 5 spaces reserved for incoming first years
VIST H142A Introduction to Visual Studies (1 Unit)
An introduction to the trans-disciplinary field of Visual Studies, its methods of analysis and topical concerns. Traditional media and artifacts of art history and film theory, and also an examination of the ubiquity of images of all kinds, their systems of transmission, their points of consumption, and the very limits of visuality itself. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Fine Arts, Comparative Literature Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): 1.) Senior Visual Studies minors 2.) Other declared Visual Studies minors 5 spaces reserved for incoming first years
VIST H143 Introduction to Documentary Film Production (1 Unit)
The craft and theory of documentary film production. The basics, including use of HD digital cameras, lighting and sound techniques, and nonlinear editing, culminating in the completion of short documentaries during the semester. Attendance at occasional documentary screenings is required. Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H143A Introduction to Documentary Film Production (1 Unit)
The craft and theory of documentary film production. The basics, including use of HD digital cameras, lighting and sound techniques, and nonlinear editing, culminating in the completion of short documentaries during the semester. Attendance at occasional documentary screenings is required. Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H143B Introduction to Documentary Film Production (1 Unit)
The craft and theory of documentary film production. The basics, including use of HD digital cameras, lighting and sound techniques, and nonlinear editing, culminating in the completion of short documentaries during the semester. Attendance at occasional documentary screenings is required. Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H145 Some Assembly Required: Designing Objects of Play (0.5 Unit)
Emphasizing digital design and remote digital fabrication, this course invites students to think critically about objects of play. What materials are used in toy design? What are the environmental implications of mass production? How can thinking about communities of play help us imagine solutions to problems of isolation? Crosslisted: Independent College Programs, Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 8
VIST H145E Some Assembly Required: Designing Objects of Play (0.5 Unit)
Emphasizing digital design and remote digital fabrication, this course invites students to think critically about objects of play. What materials are used in toy design? What are the environmental implications of mass production? How can thinking about communities of play help us imagine solutions to problems of isolation? Crosslisted: Independent College Programs, Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 8
VIST H145H Some Assembly Required: Designing Objects of Play (0.5 Unit)
Emphasizing digital design and remote digital fabrication, this course invites students to think critically about objects of play. What materials are used in toy design? What are the environmental implications of mass production? How can thinking about communities of play help us imagine solutions to problems of isolation? Crosslisted: Independent College Programs, Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 8
VIST H150 Exhibiting Blackness (1 Unit)
This class surveys the representation of the Black body in visual aesthetics since colonialism and slavery. It addresses modes of domination that historically tethered African lives to corporeal and social death, how art challenges/colludes with that deathly positioning of Africans. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Africana Studies Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H150A Exhibiting Blackness (1 Unit)
This class surveys the representation of the Black body in visual aesthetics since colonialism and slavery. It addresses modes of domination that historically tethered African lives to corporeal and social death, how art challenges/colludes with that deathly positioning of Africans. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Africana Studies Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H160 Visual Storytelling: an Acting and Filmmaking Workshop (1 Unit)
This course offers a unique collaborative approach to visual storytelling in narrative and fiction film, combining the technical and creative aspects of both acting and filmmaking. Co-taught by a filmmaker and an actor-director, students will gain foundational skills in acting and film production, focusing on the specific demands of narrative storytelling. Through hands-on projects, students will work on both sides of the camera, learning to act, direct, and contribute to the technical production process. Crosslisted: VIST, ARTT. Lottery Preference: VIST and ARTT students (when offered in Fall, 4 spaces reserved for first years) Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H160B Visual Storytelling: an Acting and Filmmaking Workshop (1 Unit)
This course offers a unique collaborative approach to visual storytelling in narrative and fiction film, combining the technical and creative aspects of both acting and filmmaking. Co-taught by a filmmaker and an actor-director, students will gain foundational skills in acting and film production, focusing on the specific demands of narrative storytelling. Through hands-on projects, students will work on both sides of the camera, learning to act, direct, and contribute to the technical production process. Crosslisted: VIST, ARTT. Lottery Preference: VIST and ARTT students (when offered in Fall, 4 spaces reserved for first years) Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H202 Reframed: Enactment and Reenactment in Popular Culture, Digital Media, and Contemporary Art (1 Unit)
This course examines how culture, social media and art engage with themes of reenactment. Through re-creation – Civil War reenactments, Comedy Central’s Drunk History, “re”-performance art, avatars, and working together on a scavenger hunt art project—we explore identity and history. Cross-Listed Fine Arts Enrollment Limit: 25
VIST H202A Reframed: Enactment and Reenactment in Popular Culture, Digital Media, and Contemporary Art (1 Unit)
This course examines how culture, social media and art engage with themes of reenactment. Through re-creation – Civil War reenactments, Comedy Central’s Drunk History, “re”-performance art, avatars, and working together on a scavenger hunt art project—we explore identity and history. Cross-Listed Fine Arts Enrollment Limit: 25
VIST H203 Ukiyo-e: The Art of Japanese Prints (1 Unit)
This course explores the evolution of Japanese woodblock prints, artists, collectors, and exhibition practices from the 17th century through the present day. Crosslisted: East Asian Languages & Cultures, Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference:: Major and minors in Eastern Languages & Cultures then Minors in Visual Studies.
VIST H203B Ukiyo-e: The Art of Japanese Prints (1 Unit)
This course explores the evolution of Japanese woodblock prints, artists, collectors, and exhibition practices from the 17th century through the present day. Crosslisted: East Asian Languages & Cultures, Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference:: Major and minors in Eastern Languages & Cultures then Minors in Visual Studies.
VIST H204 Body Media: Wearable Technology and Digital Bodies (1 Unit)
This course examines the convergence of bodies, media, and technology in the context of critical media arts practice and digital culture. It introduces students to critical design and media art production practices. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H204A Body Media: Wearable Technology and Digital Bodies (1 Unit)
This course examines the convergence of bodies, media, and technology in the context of critical media arts practice and digital culture. It introduces students to critical design and media art production practices. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H205 Physical Computing for Art & Design (1 Unit)
An examination of the design and construction of interactive systems that respond to stimulus from the real world. Includes understanding basic electronic components in order to construct complex systems and tools to perform specific tasks. Prerequisite(s): An understanding of basic math and algebra, though no previous electronics or programming experience is necessary. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies Minors
VIST H205A Physical Computing for Art & Design (1 Unit)
An examination of the design and construction of interactive systems that respond to stimulus from the real world. Includes understanding basic electronic components in order to construct complex systems and tools to perform specific tasks. Prerequisite(s): An understanding of basic math and algebra, though no previous electronics or programming experience is necessary. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies Minors
VIST H205B Physical Computing for Art & Design (1 Unit)
An examination of the design and construction of interactive systems that respond to stimulus from the real world. Includes understanding basic electronic components in order to construct complex systems and tools to perform specific tasks. Prerequisite(s): An understanding of basic math and algebra, though no previous electronics or programming experience is necessary. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies Minors
VIST H206 Hybrid Cinema: Fiction/Non-fiction and the Exploration of Reality (1 Unit)
This course traces the evolution of “hybrid” cinema – film and media informed by documentary and fiction traditions - from the inception of the moving image to the present. Throughout cinema history, filmmakers have been grappling with the representation of reality: For many trailblazing directors, the interplay between non-fiction and fiction filmmaking has inspired new ways of expressing the complexities of identity and society. Enrollment Limit: 20 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H206B Hybrid Cinema: Fiction/Non-fiction and the Exploration of Reality (1 Unit)
This course traces the evolution of “hybrid” cinema – film and media informed by documentary and fiction traditions - from the inception of the moving image to the present. Throughout cinema history, filmmakers have been grappling with the representation of reality: For many trailblazing directors, the interplay between non-fiction and fiction filmmaking has inspired new ways of expressing the complexities of identity and society. Enrollment Limit: 20 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H207 Modeling the Spectator (1 Unit)
This course will examine the figure of the spectator as a historical subject of changing media environments. From an industrial to an informational image economy, it will survey theories and practices of spectatorship as they respond to the emergence of modern technologies of representation. Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H207A Modeling the Spectator (1 Unit)
This course will examine the figure of the spectator as a historical subject of changing media environments. From an industrial to an informational image economy, it will survey theories and practices of spectatorship as they respond to the emergence of modern technologies of representation. Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H209 Film on Photography: Theory and Practice (1 Unit)
An introduction to media production. Students will study the relationship between film and photography by viewing, reading about, and making films that feature photographs as either evidence, icons, memento mori, or as the atom of cinematic form, that is to say, the single film frame, stilled. Crosslisted: Independent College Programs, Film Studies Limited Enrollment 12
VIST H209A Film on Photography: Theory and Practice (1 Unit)
An introduction to media production. Students will study the relationship between film and photography by viewing, reading about, and making films that feature photographs as either evidence, icons, memento mori, or as the atom of cinematic form, that is to say, the single film frame, stilled. Crosslisted: Independent College Programs, Film Studies Limited Enrollment 12
VIST H209B Film on Photography: Theory and Practice (1 Unit)
An introduction to media production. Students will study the relationship between film and photography by viewing, reading about, and making films that feature photographs as either evidence, icons, memento mori, or as the atom of cinematic form, that is to say, the single film frame, stilled. Crosslisted: Independent College Programs, Film Studies Limited Enrollment 12
VIST H210 Moving Image Media and Art Exhibition (1 Unit)
An introduction to the formal aspects of curating moving image media in relationship to other mediums in contemporary art. Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies Minors
VIST H210B Moving Image Media and Art Exhibition (1 Unit)
An introduction to the formal aspects of curating moving image media in relationship to other mediums in contemporary art. Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies Minors
VIST H211 A History of the User (1 Unit)
What is a “user”? A speculative history of the user as the human subject of a cybernetic view of the world up to the current moment of post-Internet identity extraction through data surveillance, algorithmic bias, and digital activism. Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H211B A History of the User (1 Unit)
What is a “user”? A speculative history of the user as the human subject of a cybernetic view of the world up to the current moment of post-Internet identity extraction through data surveillance, algorithmic bias, and digital activism. Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H212 Cinematic Games (1 Unit)
An alternative history of the cinema from its origin in hand-held toys and games of illusion to puzzle films, VR, and multiplayer video games. From spectator to player, how does the cinema frame our seeing as interactive, networked, and embodied. Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H212B Cinematic Games (1 Unit)
An alternative history of the cinema from its origin in hand-held toys and games of illusion to puzzle films, VR, and multiplayer video games. From spectator to player, how does the cinema frame our seeing as interactive, networked, and embodied. Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H213 Race as Medium (1 Unit)
Approaching race as both a media and technology of social visibility and invisibility, we will explore the work of practitioners who utilize the marked-ness of the racial body as a mediated object to create resistant practices of image-making and looking. Enrollment Limit: 25
VIST H213B Race as Medium (1 Unit)
Approaching race as both a media and technology of social visibility and invisibility, we will explore the work of practitioners who utilize the marked-ness of the racial body as a mediated object to create resistant practices of image-making and looking. Enrollment Limit: 25
VIST H214 Modern Art - Africa and Europe (1 Unit)
This course focuses on encounters between the cultures of Africa and Europe, from the 17th through the mid-20th centuries, and on the resulting visual practices that emerged on both continents. Prerequisite(s): sat least one Visual Studies course at the 100 or 200 level or permission from instructor Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H214A Modern Art - Africa and Europe (1 Unit)
This course focuses on encounters between the cultures of Africa and Europe, from the 17th through the mid-20th centuries, and on the resulting visual practices that emerged on both continents. Prerequisite(s): sat least one Visual Studies course at the 100 or 200 level or permission from instructor Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H215 Realism, Race, and Photography (1 Unit)
This course examines American literary realism and turn-of-the-century photography as complementary and sometimes competing practices, with a focus on their complex role in the imaging and imagining of racial identity. Fulfills AFST concentration requirement. Crosslisted: English, Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 25 Priority to students majoring in English or pursuing Africana studies concentration.
VIST H215A Realism, Race, and Photography (1 Unit)
This course examines American literary realism and turn-of-the-century photography as complementary and sometimes competing practices, with a focus on their complex role in the imaging and imagining of racial identity. Fulfills AFST concentration requirement. Crosslisted: English, Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 25 Priority to students majoring in English or pursuing Africana studies concentration.
VIST H216 Black Speculative Futures (1 Unit)
The course will explore how black artists, theorists, and activists imagine different futures to critique power asymmetries and create radical transformation. We will investigate how the speculative works differently across genres and we will craft our own embodied speculative art. Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors and Africana Studies concentrators
VIST H216A Black Speculative Futures (1 Unit)
The course will explore how black artists, theorists, and activists imagine different futures to critique power asymmetries and create radical transformation. We will investigate how the speculative works differently across genres and we will craft our own embodied speculative art. Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors and Africana Studies concentrators
VIST H216B Black Speculative Futures (1 Unit)
The course will explore how black artists, theorists, and activists imagine different futures to critique power asymmetries and create radical transformation. We will investigate how the speculative works differently across genres and we will craft our own embodied speculative art. Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors and Africana Studies concentrators
VIST H217 Myth and Meaning in Contemporary Media Narratives (1 Unit)
This course explores contemporary myths presented through film, television, and gaming narratives that follow frameworks and story models of classic and post-millennial mythic journeys. These frameworks and models are used in the construction of myth and meaning as well as in the analysis and interpretation of contemporary stories with the power to entertain, educate and inspire audiences. Pre-requisite(s): N/A
VIST H217A Myth and Meaning in Contemporary Media Narratives (1 Unit)
This course explores contemporary myths presented through film, television, and gaming narratives that follow frameworks and story models of classic and post-millennial mythic journeys. These frameworks and models are used in the construction of myth and meaning as well as in the analysis and interpretation of contemporary stories with the power to entertain, educate and inspire audiences. Pre-requisite(s): N/A
VIST H218 Realtime Interfaces for Creative Expression (1 Unit)
Realtime Interfaces for Creative Expression is a 200-level course for artists, performers, and computer science students with an interest in developing novel interactive software applications for the creation of digital art, responsive environments, and new media performance. Students will use the graphical programming environment Max to dynamically control, process, and generate digital audio and video content. Assignments will touch upon a number of related disciplines including interactive computer music, algorithmic and generative art, and video synthesis. Prior experience with coding and/or digital art-making is recommended. Pre-requisite(s): None Lottery Preference: VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H218A Realtime Interfaces for Creative Expression (1 Unit)
Realtime Interfaces for Creative Expression is a 200-level course for artists, performers, and computer science students with an interest in developing novel interactive software applications for the creation of digital art, responsive environments, and new media performance. Students will use the graphical programming environment Max to dynamically control, process, and generate digital audio and video content. Assignments will touch upon a number of related disciplines including interactive computer music, algorithmic and generative art, and video synthesis. Prior experience with coding and/or digital art-making is recommended. Pre-requisite(s): None Lottery Preference: VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H218B Realtime Interfaces for Creative Expression (1 Unit)
Realtime Interfaces for Creative Expression is a 200-level course for artists, performers, and computer science students with an interest in developing novel interactive software applications for the creation of digital art, responsive environments, and new media performance. Students will use the graphical programming environment Max to dynamically control, process, and generate digital audio and video content. Assignments will touch upon a number of related disciplines including interactive computer music, algorithmic and generative art, and video synthesis. Prior experience with coding and/or digital art-making is recommended. Pre-requisite(s): None Lottery Preference: VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H219 East Asian Art and Visual Culture (1 Unit)
This course examines the development of modern and contemporary art and visual culture in China, Japan and Korea from the early twentieth century to the present day, with a focus on photography, sculpture, painting, film, propaganda, and performance art. Enrollment limit 25
VIST H219B East Asian Art and Visual Culture (1 Unit)
This course examines the development of modern and contemporary art and visual culture in China, Japan and Korea from the early twentieth century to the present day, with a focus on photography, sculpture, painting, film, propaganda, and performance art. Enrollment limit 25
VIST H220 Introduction to Digital Media Production: Moving Image and Time-based Media (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to the foundations of digital video production and time-based media as an art form. We will examine the history, theory, and practices of film, video, and the moving image in a visual arts context. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H220A Introduction to Digital Media Production: Moving Image and Time-based Media (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to the foundations of digital video production and time-based media as an art form. We will examine the history, theory, and practices of film, video, and the moving image in a visual arts context. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H221 Black Otherwise Worlds: The Art of Contemporary Blackness (1 Unit)
This course considers the relationship between recent black art and art writing and what scholar of religion Ashon Crawley calls an “aesthetic of possibility.” Specifically, we will examine work that imagines “otherwise” through a number of strategies: rethinking the relationship between the present and the past, crafting alternative worlds, critically examining life at the end of the Anthropocene, rethinking the Enlightenment subject, and exploring black sacred practices. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H221A Black Otherwise Worlds: The Art of Contemporary Blackness (1 Unit)
This course considers the relationship between recent black art and art writing and what scholar of religion Ashon Crawley calls an “aesthetic of possibility.” Specifically, we will examine work that imagines “otherwise” through a number of strategies: rethinking the relationship between the present and the past, crafting alternative worlds, critically examining life at the end of the Anthropocene, rethinking the Enlightenment subject, and exploring black sacred practices. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H221B Black Otherwise Worlds: The Art of Contemporary Blackness (1 Unit)
This course considers the relationship between recent black art and art writing and what scholar of religion Ashon Crawley calls an “aesthetic of possibility.” Specifically, we will examine work that imagines “otherwise” through a number of strategies: rethinking the relationship between the present and the past, crafting alternative worlds, critically examining life at the end of the Anthropocene, rethinking the Enlightenment subject, and exploring black sacred practices. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H222 The (Black) Artist as Historian (1 Unit)
This course seeks to investigate what has been called a historical or archival turn in contemporary art production through the lens of black visual art. We will explore the varied ways that black artists have continuously probed the meaning and production of history throughout the twentieth century, but also how these explorations have changed over time and in relationship to particular subject material (e.g., the history of slavery or more local or personal histories). Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H222B The (Black) Artist as Historian (1 Unit)
This course seeks to investigate what has been called a historical or archival turn in contemporary art production through the lens of black visual art. We will explore the varied ways that black artists have continuously probed the meaning and production of history throughout the twentieth century, but also how these explorations have changed over time and in relationship to particular subject material (e.g., the history of slavery or more local or personal histories). Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H223 Performative Body (1 Unit)
Performative Body provides an in-depth exploration of creative practice. Drawing on performance art, visual praxis, and dance, Professor Truax leads students in exercises that connect them with their own creative resources and energies. Part laboratory, part playground, part archeological dig; the course is intended to help students experiment, connect, and honor difference as they cultivate habits that will support creativity throughout their lives. Texts include artist's writing, poetry, and theory on embodiment, disability, and performativity. Crosslisted: GSST. Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H223B Performative Body (1 Unit)
Performative Body provides an in-depth exploration of creative practice. Drawing on performance art, visual praxis, and dance, Professor Truax leads students in exercises that connect them with their own creative resources and energies. Part laboratory, part playground, part archeological dig; the course is intended to help students experiment, connect, and honor difference as they cultivate habits that will support creativity throughout their lives. Texts include artist's writing, poetry, and theory on embodiment, disability, and performativity. Crosslisted: GSST. Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H224 Germany/Berlin from a Transnational Perspective (1 Unit)
This course focuses primarily on the ways in which Germany/Berlin has influenced the visual imagination of American and other foreign artists, as well as a German immigrant artists, and Germans in the diaspora. While Germany without doubt has profoundly affected other countries worldwide, Germany and in particular the city of Berlin have also been shaped significantly by foreign influences, most recently during the recent refugee crisis in Europe. This course explores a variety of different visual media from film to the creation of museums. Taught in English with an extra session in German. Crosslisted: German, Comparative Literature, Visual Studies
VIST H224A Germany/Berlin from a Transnational Perspective (1 Unit)
This course focuses primarily on the ways in which Germany/Berlin has influenced the visual imagination of American and other foreign artists, as well as a German immigrant artists, and Germans in the diaspora. While Germany without doubt has profoundly affected other countries worldwide, Germany and in particular the city of Berlin have also been shaped significantly by foreign influences, most recently during the recent refugee crisis in Europe. This course explores a variety of different visual media from film to the creation of museums. Taught in English with an extra session in German. Crosslisted: German, Comparative Literature, Visual Studies
VIST H225 Modular Sound: Audio Synthesis and Ways of Listening (1 Unit)
The field of sound studies offers a rich variety of approaches for deepening an understanding of listening, its relationship to technology, and creative expression. In Modular Sound, students will learn the basics of modular synthesis and gain inspiration from some of the foremost thinkers on the subject of the auditory. No prior experience with music-making is necessary, but students should be prepared to perform and show work on a regular basis. Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H225B Modular Sound: Audio Synthesis and Ways of Listening (1 Unit)
The field of sound studies offers a rich variety of approaches for deepening an understanding of listening, its relationship to technology, and creative expression. In Modular Sound, students will learn the basics of modular synthesis and gain inspiration from some of the foremost thinkers on the subject of the auditory. No prior experience with music-making is necessary, but students should be prepared to perform and show work on a regular basis. Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H226 Imaging Public Sex Utopias: A Production Workshop (1 Unit)
This praxis course examines the tension between art and that which is considered obscene: queer porn, public shamelessness, and deviant sexualities such as kink and sex work. We will develop projects that explore the powerful potential of the utopian imagination using techniques of GIF animation, self portraiture, and video. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies Minors Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H226B Imaging Public Sex Utopias: A Production Workshop (1 Unit)
This praxis course examines the tension between art and that which is considered obscene: queer porn, public shamelessness, and deviant sexualities such as kink and sex work. We will develop projects that explore the powerful potential of the utopian imagination using techniques of GIF animation, self portraiture, and video. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies Minors Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H227 Game Design for Education & Research (1 Unit)
This course provides students with the tools needed to understand, analyze and build games. During the semester we will take a close look at games and how our understanding of human psychology influences the design of games for education and research. We will consider ways that games teach, and how we learn using games. We will also consider how the current and future technologies that support gaming can improve and maximize learning and performance. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies Minors have preference; reserve 4 slots for first year students. Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H227A Game Design for Education & Research (1 Unit)
This course provides students with the tools needed to understand, analyze and build games. During the semester we will take a close look at games and how our understanding of human psychology influences the design of games for education and research. We will consider ways that games teach, and how we learn using games. We will also consider how the current and future technologies that support gaming can improve and maximize learning and performance. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies Minors have preference; reserve 4 slots for first year students. Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H228 experiments with 60s performance: a Fluxus Arts Workshop (1 Unit)
In this workshop course, we will reenact event scores from performance artists of the 1960s, including primary sources from Yoko Ono, Adrian Piper, Alison Knowles, and George Brecht. Akin to a theatrical script or a musical score, an event score, a poetic script for performance, questions whether the performance is its documentation, the textual-visual component, or its restaging and activation with the body. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H228A experiments with 60s performance: a Fluxus Arts Workshop (1 Unit)
In this workshop course, we will reenact event scores from performance artists of the 1960s, including primary sources from Yoko Ono, Adrian Piper, Alison Knowles, and George Brecht. Akin to a theatrical script or a musical score, an event score, a poetic script for performance, questions whether the performance is its documentation, the textual-visual component, or its restaging and activation with the body. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H229 Topics in Visual Studies: Roland Barthes and the Image (1 Unit)
An exploration of the rhetoric of visual culture through an examination of 20th century French critic Roland Barthes’ many writings on photography, film, and what he calls the “civilized code of perfect illusions.” We will spend the semester reading his texts, charting the trajectory of a career that begins with the euphoria of an ever-expanding semiotic and ends with a meditation on the limits of this very project. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Fine Arts, Comparative Literature Enrollment Limit: 30
VIST H229B Topics in Visual Studies: Roland Barthes and the Image (1 Unit)
An exploration of the rhetoric of visual culture through an examination of 20th century French critic Roland Barthes’ many writings on photography, film, and what he calls the “civilized code of perfect illusions.” We will spend the semester reading his texts, charting the trajectory of a career that begins with the euphoria of an ever-expanding semiotic and ends with a meditation on the limits of this very project. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Fine Arts, Comparative Literature Enrollment Limit: 30
VIST H230 Postwar Japanese Cinema (1 Unit)
This course provides an introduction to Japanese cinema from the immediate Postwar period of 1945 to the present day. Focusing on films by influential directors including Ozu Yasujiro, Kurosawa Akira, and Mizoguchi Kenji among others we will consider how Japanese filmmakers use cinema to investigate issues of truth, beauty, identity, and nationhood in an attempt to answer fundamental questions regarding life and death in Japan’s Postwar period. Crosslisted: East Asian Languages & Cultures, Visual Studies, Environmental Studies Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H230A Postwar Japanese Cinema (1 Unit)
This course provides an introduction to Japanese cinema from the immediate Postwar period of 1945 to the present day. Focusing on films by influential directors including Ozu Yasujiro, Kurosawa Akira, and Mizoguchi Kenji among others we will consider how Japanese filmmakers use cinema to investigate issues of truth, beauty, identity, and nationhood in an attempt to answer fundamental questions regarding life and death in Japan’s Postwar period. Crosslisted: East Asian Languages & Cultures, Visual Studies, Environmental Studies Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H230B Postwar Japanese Cinema (1 Unit)
This course provides an introduction to Japanese cinema from the immediate Postwar period of 1945 to the present day. Focusing on films by influential directors including Ozu Yasujiro, Kurosawa Akira, and Mizoguchi Kenji among others we will consider how Japanese filmmakers use cinema to investigate issues of truth, beauty, identity, and nationhood in an attempt to answer fundamental questions regarding life and death in Japan’s Postwar period. Crosslisted: East Asian Languages & Cultures, Visual Studies, Environmental Studies Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H231 Queer Road-Trip Films, Ancient and Modern (1 Unit)
The queer road-trip film has been gaining popularity as an outlet for exploring non-normative sexuality further marginalized on the road. We will examine the phenomenon of the queer road-trip narrative, approaching it from an unlikely starting point: the Ancient Mediterranean novels Satyrica and Leucippe and Clitophon. Both of these ancient novels dramatize road trips and travel narratives involving different combinations of queer characters; we'll pair them with a curated selection of contemporary queer road-trip films. Crosslisted: GSST,VIST. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H231B Queer Road-Trip Films, Ancient and Modern (1 Unit)
The queer road-trip film has been gaining popularity as an outlet for exploring non-normative sexuality further marginalized on the road. We will examine the phenomenon of the queer road-trip narrative, approaching it from an unlikely starting point: the Ancient Mediterranean novels Satyrica and Leucippe and Clitophon. Both of these ancient novels dramatize road trips and travel narratives involving different combinations of queer characters; we'll pair them with a curated selection of contemporary queer road-trip films. Crosslisted: GSST,VIST. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H232 blaqueer eye: the look and feel of real (1 Unit)
Beginning with behind-the-scenes documentary of a female illusionist pageant The Queen (1968) and ending with the cancellation of HBO’s ballroom reality television competition show Legendary (2021), this course finds interest in the textured lives of gender and sexually creative African descendants in the U.S. and how their lives have been translated into the terms black, queer, and trans in public imagination. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors, then Film Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H232A blaqueer eye: the look and feel of real (1 Unit)
Beginning with behind-the-scenes documentary of a female illusionist pageant The Queen (1968) and ending with the cancellation of HBO’s ballroom reality television competition show Legendary (2021), this course finds interest in the textured lives of gender and sexually creative African descendants in the U.S. and how their lives have been translated into the terms black, queer, and trans in public imagination. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors, then Film Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H232B blaqueer eye: the look and feel of real (1 Unit)
Beginning with behind-the-scenes documentary of a female illusionist pageant The Queen (1968) and ending with the cancellation of HBO’s ballroom reality television competition show Legendary (2021), this course finds interest in the textured lives of gender and sexually creative African descendants in the U.S. and how their lives have been translated into the terms black, queer, and trans in public imagination. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors, then Film Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H233 Decolonizing Visual Anthropology: Fimmaking Workshop (1 Unit)
This is a hybrid video production and theory course which grapples with the entanglements between ethnographic film/documentary and colonial structures of power. We will bring a decolonizing lens to explore—through texts, screenings, and making films—major modalities in the field including sensory ethnography, indigenous media, and feminist experimental film. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Anthropology Prerequisite(s): at least one course in Anthropology or Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 8 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors and Anthropology majors/minors
VIST H233A Decolonizing Visual Anthropology: Fimmaking Workshop (1 Unit)
This is a hybrid video production and theory course which grapples with the entanglements between ethnographic film/documentary and colonial structures of power. We will bring a decolonizing lens to explore—through texts, screenings, and making films—major modalities in the field including sensory ethnography, indigenous media, and feminist experimental film. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Anthropology Prerequisite(s): at least one course in Anthropology or Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 8 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors and Anthropology majors/minors
VIST H233B Decolonizing Visual Anthropology: Fimmaking Workshop (1 Unit)
This is a hybrid video production and theory course which grapples with the entanglements between ethnographic film/documentary and colonial structures of power. We will bring a decolonizing lens to explore—through texts, screenings, and making films—major modalities in the field including sensory ethnography, indigenous media, and feminist experimental film. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Anthropology Prerequisite(s): at least one course in Anthropology or Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 8 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors and Anthropology majors/minors
VIST H234 documenting performance, performing documents (1 Unit)
Performance documentation, performing documents, and documentary performance is the name of our game. How does one document live performance and maintain its active presence or is it something else entirely? How do we perform toward documentation? How do we make performances of documents—historical, cultural, theoretical, personal? In attempting to answer these questions, we will focus on film/cinema studies and a strain of performance studies pertaining to performance’s capacity for reproduction. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H234B documenting performance, performing documents (1 Unit)
Performance documentation, performing documents, and documentary performance is the name of our game. How does one document live performance and maintain its active presence or is it something else entirely? How do we perform toward documentation? How do we make performances of documents—historical, cultural, theoretical, personal? In attempting to answer these questions, we will focus on film/cinema studies and a strain of performance studies pertaining to performance’s capacity for reproduction. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H235 Narrative Digital Production - From Screenplay to Finished Video (1 Unit)
In this course will learn the technical fundamentals of planning and creating narrative videos, from concept to finished product. We will focus on creating screenplays and storyboards; planning around bringing the pre-production materials to life, and editing footage into a finished video to share. We will be utilizing screenplay applications and editing software found in VCAM while discussing how to streamline video production logistics surrounding fictional or narrative work. Lottery Preference: VIST minors first, second year students second. Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H235A Narrative Digital Production - From Screenplay to Finished Video (1 Unit)
In this course will learn the technical fundamentals of planning and creating narrative videos, from concept to finished product. We will focus on creating screenplays and storyboards; planning around bringing the pre-production materials to life, and editing footage into a finished video to share. We will be utilizing screenplay applications and editing software found in VCAM while discussing how to streamline video production logistics surrounding fictional or narrative work. Lottery Preference: VIST minors first, second year students second. Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H236 Prison Memory and Carceral Identity: A Film Production Workshop (1 Unit)
This oral history, interviewing, and filmmaking course focuses on carceral narratives and prison memory, particularly those of the Graterford Diaspora. The course will develop students' film production literacy when engaging carceral narratives and prison memory on film. Additionally, students will learn how to collect oral history interviews from members of the Graterford Diaspora, preserving and amplifying their stories while fostering collaborative, constructive feedback. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H236B Prison Memory and Carceral Identity: A Film Production Workshop (1 Unit)
This oral history, interviewing, and filmmaking course focuses on carceral narratives and prison memory, particularly those of the Graterford Diaspora. The course will develop students' film production literacy when engaging carceral narratives and prison memory on film. Additionally, students will learn how to collect oral history interviews from members of the Graterford Diaspora, preserving and amplifying their stories while fostering collaborative, constructive feedback. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 12.00
VIST H237 Virtual Theaters: From Closet Drama to Pandemic Theater (1 Unit)
This course probes the nature and limits of theater by exploring a range of theatrical texts from various centuries whose relation to performance is either partially or fully virtual, including philosophical dialogues, closet dramas, radio drama, novel chapters in dramatic form, artists’ books that mix page and stage, drama about internet and social media, and remote online theater on platforms like Zoom. Lottery Preference: VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H237A Virtual Theaters: From Closet Drama to Pandemic Theater (1 Unit)
This course probes the nature and limits of theater by exploring a range of theatrical texts from various centuries whose relation to performance is either partially or fully virtual, including philosophical dialogues, closet dramas, radio drama, novel chapters in dramatic form, artists’ books that mix page and stage, drama about internet and social media, and remote online theater on platforms like Zoom. Lottery Preference: VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H237B Virtual Theaters: From Closet Drama to Pandemic Theater (1 Unit)
This course probes the nature and limits of theater by exploring a range of theatrical texts from various centuries whose relation to performance is either partially or fully virtual, including philosophical dialogues, closet dramas, radio drama, novel chapters in dramatic form, artists’ books that mix page and stage, drama about internet and social media, and remote online theater on platforms like Zoom. Lottery Preference: VIST Minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H239 Visions of Justice: Intersectionality and Legal Consciousness in Asian Cinema (1 Unit)
This course aims to deepen understandings of Asian struggles for justice and representation through independent films by Asian (including diaspora) directors. We will analyze films that offer a window into legal and social movement struggles for gender justice, self-determination, and environmental justice. Crosslisted: Visual Studies; Anthropology; East Asian Languages & Cultures; Peace, Justice and Human Rights Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Equal preference to Visual Studies minors, Anthropology majors/minors, Peace, Justice and Human Rights concentrators, and East Asian Languages & Cultures majors/minors
VIST H239B Visions of Justice: Intersectionality and Legal Consciousness in Asian Cinema (1 Unit)
This course aims to deepen understandings of Asian struggles for justice and representation through independent films by Asian (including diaspora) directors. We will analyze films that offer a window into legal and social movement struggles for gender justice, self-determination, and environmental justice. Crosslisted: Visual Studies; Anthropology; East Asian Languages & Cultures; Peace, Justice and Human Rights Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Equal preference to Visual Studies minors, Anthropology majors/minors, Peace, Justice and Human Rights concentrators, and East Asian Languages & Cultures majors/minors
VIST H241 Film and Digital Media Editing (0.5 Unit)
In this course students will learn the technical fundamentals of film and video editing, as well as theoretical modes of montage. This course will train students in Adobe Premiere Pro which is the primary editing software and platform for video and digital media production in VCAM. Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H241E Film and Digital Media Editing (0.5 Unit)
In this course students will learn the technical fundamentals of film and video editing, as well as theoretical modes of montage. This course will train students in Adobe Premiere Pro which is the primary editing software and platform for video and digital media production in VCAM. Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H241G Film and Digital Media Editing (0.5 Unit)
In this course students will learn the technical fundamentals of film and video editing, as well as theoretical modes of montage. This course will train students in Adobe Premiere Pro which is the primary editing software and platform for video and digital media production in VCAM. Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H247 Planetary Lines in World Literature and Film (1 Unit)
Mainly Anglophone eco-fiction, non-fiction, and films from North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania address a human-impacted ecology; course work such as midterm “translation” and hybrid final paper projects encourages students to collaborate across linguistic and disciplinary interests. The question of “world” as universal and “planet” as material are considered, with an emphasis on lines of difference generating worlds in World and material predicaments re-mapping the planet. Cross-listed for English and Visual Arts.
VIST H247B Planetary Lines in World Literature and Film (1 Unit)
Mainly Anglophone eco-fiction, non-fiction, and films from North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania address a human-impacted ecology; course work such as midterm “translation” and hybrid final paper projects encourages students to collaborate across linguistic and disciplinary interests. The question of “world” as universal and “planet” as material are considered, with an emphasis on lines of difference generating worlds in World and material predicaments re-mapping the planet. Cross-listed for English and Visual Arts.
VIST H250 Theory and Practice of Exhibition: Objects, Images, Texts, Events (1 Unit)
An introduction to the theory and practice of exhibition and display. This course will supply students with the analytic tools necessary to understand how exhibitions work and give them practical experience making arguments with objects, images, texts, and events.
VIST H250B Theory and Practice of Exhibition: Objects, Images, Texts, Events (1 Unit)
An introduction to the theory and practice of exhibition and display. This course will supply students with the analytic tools necessary to understand how exhibitions work and give them practical experience making arguments with objects, images, texts, and events.
VIST H251 Strange Music: Monsters, Ghosts, and Aliens on Stage and Screen (1 Unit)
Scholars of film often speak of the camera as an “all-seeing eye.” But what role does the ear play in cinematic experience? This course will explore the history, character, and function of music (and sound) in the first half of the twentieth century (and beyond): how they worked with (and against) the camera’s gaze to complicate narratives, to articulate time, and more generally to represent feeling and identity. This term will put special focus on the non-human: monsters, ghosts, aliens, and more generally the idea of the magical or supernatural. What does such radical Otherness sound like? How has it been represented musically? And how have composers and sound designers put such conventions to work in films of the last 100 years, from Metropolis and Nosferatu to Dune and Arrival? To answer these questions we’ll explore the silents, the early sound film and (especially) the long arc of composers (from Eric Korngold to Bernard Herrmann and from John Williams to Hans Zimmer. We’ll consider the legacy of Romanticism, the possibilities of Modernism, and even the Avant Garde, and learn about orchestration, harmony and thematic process as they contribute to cinematic narrative. We will also consider various theories of sound, music, and film staked out by film and operatic composers themselves, as well as critical and scholarly essays by leading writers on the monstrous, the alien, and the supernatural. Crosslisted: VIST Prerequisite(s): No formal prerequisite, but some previous study of either music or visual media would be helpful
VIST H251A Strange Music: Monsters, Ghosts, and Aliens on Stage and Screen (1 Unit)
Scholars of film often speak of the camera as an “all-seeing eye.” But what role does the ear play in cinematic experience? This course will explore the history, character, and function of music (and sound) in the first half of the twentieth century (and beyond): how they worked with (and against) the camera’s gaze to complicate narratives, to articulate time, and more generally to represent feeling and identity. This term will put special focus on the non-human: monsters, ghosts, aliens, and more generally the idea of the magical or supernatural. What does such radical Otherness sound like? How has it been represented musically? And how have composers and sound designers put such conventions to work in films of the last 100 years, from Metropolis and Nosferatu to Dune and Arrival? To answer these questions we’ll explore the silents, the early sound film and (especially) the long arc of composers (from Eric Korngold to Bernard Herrmann and from John Williams to Hans Zimmer. We’ll consider the legacy of Romanticism, the possibilities of Modernism, and even the Avant Garde, and learn about orchestration, harmony and thematic process as they contribute to cinematic narrative. We will also consider various theories of sound, music, and film staked out by film and operatic composers themselves, as well as critical and scholarly essays by leading writers on the monstrous, the alien, and the supernatural. Crosslisted: VIST Prerequisite(s): No formal prerequisite, but some previous study of either music or visual media would be helpful
VIST H251B Strange Music: Monsters, Ghosts, and Aliens on Stage and Screen (1 Unit)
Scholars of film often speak of the camera as an “all-seeing eye.” But what role does the ear play in cinematic experience? This course will explore the history, character, and function of music (and sound) in the first half of the twentieth century (and beyond): how they worked with (and against) the camera’s gaze to complicate narratives, to articulate time, and more generally to represent feeling and identity. This term will put special focus on the non-human: monsters, ghosts, aliens, and more generally the idea of the magical or supernatural. What does such radical Otherness sound like? How has it been represented musically? And how have composers and sound designers put such conventions to work in films of the last 100 years, from Metropolis and Nosferatu to Dune and Arrival? To answer these questions we’ll explore the silents, the early sound film and (especially) the long arc of composers (from Eric Korngold to Bernard Herrmann and from John Williams to Hans Zimmer. We’ll consider the legacy of Romanticism, the possibilities of Modernism, and even the Avant Garde, and learn about orchestration, harmony and thematic process as they contribute to cinematic narrative. We will also consider various theories of sound, music, and film staked out by film and operatic composers themselves, as well as critical and scholarly essays by leading writers on the monstrous, the alien, and the supernatural. Crosslisted: VIST Prerequisite(s): No formal prerequisite, but some previous study of either music or visual media would be helpful
VIST H253 The Theory and Practice of Conceptual Art (1 Unit)
In this course, the specific mid-20th C movement called Conceptual Art will be explored, as will its progenitors and its progeny. Students will study the founding manifestos, the canonical works and their critical appraisals, as well as develop tightly structured studio practica to embody the former research. The course invites artists, writers, activists, & cultural thinkers, those who want to know what it is to make things, spaces, situations, communities, allies, & trouble--without necessarily knowing how to draw, paint, sculpt, photograph, videotape, or film. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H253B The Theory and Practice of Conceptual Art (1 Unit)
In this course, the specific mid-20th C movement called Conceptual Art will be explored, as will its progenitors and its progeny. Students will study the founding manifestos, the canonical works and their critical appraisals, as well as develop tightly structured studio practica to embody the former research. The course invites artists, writers, activists, & cultural thinkers, those who want to know what it is to make things, spaces, situations, communities, allies, & trouble--without necessarily knowing how to draw, paint, sculpt, photograph, videotape, or film. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors
VIST H258 American Queen: Drag in Contemporary Art and Performance (1 Unit)
An interdisciplinary visual studies examination of queer subcultural performance and its influence on contemporary American culture. Readings include live performance, visual art and film as well as historical and theoretical secondary sources. Prerequisite(s): an intro course in Gen/Sex Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Gen/Sex Concentrators
VIST H258A American Queen: Drag in Contemporary Art and Performance (1 Unit)
An interdisciplinary visual studies examination of queer subcultural performance and its influence on contemporary American culture. Readings include live performance, visual art and film as well as historical and theoretical secondary sources. Prerequisite(s): an intro course in Gen/Sex Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Gen/Sex Concentrators
VIST H258B American Queen: Drag in Contemporary Art and Performance (1 Unit)
An interdisciplinary visual studies examination of queer subcultural performance and its influence on contemporary American culture. Readings include live performance, visual art and film as well as historical and theoretical secondary sources. Prerequisite(s): an intro course in Gen/Sex Enrollment Limit: 25 Lottery Preference(s): Gen/Sex Concentrators
VIST H264 The Oppositional Gaze: Art Traversing the Binary (1 Unit)
Through a survey of visual, literary, and performance arts primarily by Black and Latina women (e.g., Lorraine O’Grady, Adrian Piper, Christina Sharpe, Ana Victoria Jiménez) this course seeks to theorize the many dimensions of the oppositional gaze, with a focus on the ways these thinker-artists challenge, critique and disrupt various binaries that they identify with the history of western philosophy. Crosslisted: AFST,VIST. Enrollment Limit: 150.00
VIST H264A The Oppositional Gaze: Art Traversing the Binary (1 Unit)
Through a survey of visual, literary, and performance arts primarily by Black and Latina women (e.g., Lorraine O’Grady, Adrian Piper, Christina Sharpe, Ana Victoria Jiménez) this course seeks to theorize the many dimensions of the oppositional gaze, with a focus on the ways these thinker-artists challenge, critique and disrupt various binaries that they identify with the history of western philosophy. Crosslisted: AFST,VIST. Enrollment Limit: 150.00
VIST H264B The Oppositional Gaze: Art Traversing the Binary (1 Unit)
Through a survey of visual, literary, and performance arts primarily by Black and Latina women (e.g., Lorraine O’Grady, Adrian Piper, Christina Sharpe, Ana Victoria Jiménez) this course seeks to theorize the many dimensions of the oppositional gaze, with a focus on the ways these thinker-artists challenge, critique and disrupt various binaries that they identify with the history of western philosophy. Crosslisted: AFST,VIST. Enrollment Limit: 150.00
VIST H266 Sensory Ethnographic Methods (1 Unit)
Through this course, students will develop ethnographic research and writing skills using sensory detail (taste, touch, sight, sound, smell and feeling) to evoke people, places, and things. Assignments are primarily writing-intensive with additional fieldwork and multimodal (e.g. photography, film) exercises. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Visual Studies Prerequisite(s): Any Anthropology course Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Equal priority to Anthropology and Visual Studies students
VIST H266A Sensory Ethnographic Methods (1 Unit)
Through this course, students will develop ethnographic research and writing skills using sensory detail (taste, touch, sight, sound, smell and feeling) to evoke people, places, and things. Assignments are primarily writing-intensive with additional fieldwork and multimodal (e.g. photography, film) exercises. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Visual Studies Prerequisite(s): Any Anthropology course Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Equal priority to Anthropology and Visual Studies students
VIST H266B Sensory Ethnographic Methods (1 Unit)
Through this course, students will develop ethnographic research and writing skills using sensory detail (taste, touch, sight, sound, smell and feeling) to evoke people, places, and things. Assignments are primarily writing-intensive with additional fieldwork and multimodal (e.g. photography, film) exercises. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Visual Studies Prerequisite(s): Any Anthropology course Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Equal priority to Anthropology and Visual Studies students
VIST H267 Beauty Problems: Rhetoric, Aesthetics, Philosophy (1 Unit)
This course will examine a series of problems that beauty and other sensuous pleasures make for philosophy, film, and contemporary art. Works will include those of Plato, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Isaac Julien, Elaine Scarry, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Fred Moten and others.
VIST H267A Beauty Problems: Rhetoric, Aesthetics, Philosophy (1 Unit)
This course will examine a series of problems that beauty and other sensuous pleasures make for philosophy, film, and contemporary art. Works will include those of Plato, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Isaac Julien, Elaine Scarry, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Fred Moten and others.
VIST H267B Beauty Problems: Rhetoric, Aesthetics, Philosophy (1 Unit)
This course will examine a series of problems that beauty and other sensuous pleasures make for philosophy, film, and contemporary art. Works will include those of Plato, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Isaac Julien, Elaine Scarry, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Fred Moten and others.
VIST H270 The Art of Sports: Ancient and Modern (1 Unit)
This course explores the visual and poetic life of sports, ancient and modern. It brings together cultural criticism, visual analysis, and historical study to theorize the beauty of athletics. Concepts of the body, gender, race and performance, and tropes such as "for the love of the game," "feel for the game" and "poetry in motion" will organize our work on the sensory and aesthetic dimensions of sports. No prior expertise in classics, art or sports necessary. Crosslisted: COML,VIST. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H270A The Art of Sports: Ancient and Modern (1 Unit)
This course explores the visual and poetic life of sports, ancient and modern. It brings together cultural criticism, visual analysis, and historical study to theorize the beauty of athletics. Concepts of the body, gender, race and performance, and tropes such as "for the love of the game," "feel for the game" and "poetry in motion" will organize our work on the sensory and aesthetic dimensions of sports. No prior expertise in classics, art or sports necessary. Crosslisted: COML,VIST. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H275 Race and Representation in Documentary Filmmaking (1 Unit)
This is an introductory cross-listed (Visual Studies/Anthropology) production course on the theory and practice of documentary filmmaking through an exploration of race onscreen. The objective of the course is to enable students to build a critical awareness of the ways in which film and media in general perpetuate racist discourses and representations and explore how students can challenge such representations through their own filmmaking practices. As inspiration, we will watch and study a wide variety of innovative documentary films that bring alternative voices and histories to screen and read/watch filmmaker interviews. Classes will combine elements of a studio (sharing and critiquing filmmaking work in progress) and seminar (discussing weekly themes). Crosslisted: VIST. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors, then Anthropology majors/minors, then Film Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 10.00
VIST H275A Race and Representation in Documentary Filmmaking (1 Unit)
This is an introductory cross-listed (Visual Studies/Anthropology) production course on the theory and practice of documentary filmmaking through an exploration of race onscreen. The objective of the course is to enable students to build a critical awareness of the ways in which film and media in general perpetuate racist discourses and representations and explore how students can challenge such representations through their own filmmaking practices. As inspiration, we will watch and study a wide variety of innovative documentary films that bring alternative voices and histories to screen and read/watch filmmaker interviews. Classes will combine elements of a studio (sharing and critiquing filmmaking work in progress) and seminar (discussing weekly themes). Crosslisted: VIST. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors, then Anthropology majors/minors, then Film Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 10.00
VIST H276 Media, Culture, and Society (1 Unit)
This course takes an anthropological approach to examine social and cultural practices of media production, circulation, and consumption. Drawing on ethnographic studies from around the world, it provides an overview of the increasing theoretical attention given to media by anthropologists. It examines cross-culturally how media as representation and as cultural practice have been fundamental to the formation and transformation of subjectivities, collectivities and social relations in the contemporary world. Crosslisted: ANTH, VIST Pre-requisite(s): 100-level course in social sciences, or humanities. Lottery Preference: Senior anthropology students have a priority to take the class. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H276A Media, Culture, and Society (1 Unit)
This course takes an anthropological approach to examine social and cultural practices of media production, circulation, and consumption. Drawing on ethnographic studies from around the world, it provides an overview of the increasing theoretical attention given to media by anthropologists. It examines cross-culturally how media as representation and as cultural practice have been fundamental to the formation and transformation of subjectivities, collectivities and social relations in the contemporary world. Crosslisted: ANTH, VIST Pre-requisite(s): 100-level course in social sciences, or humanities. Lottery Preference: Senior anthropology students have a priority to take the class. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H277 Media and the Middle East (1 Unit)
What can we learn about the Middle East by examining media? What can we about media by studying institutions of production and practices of consumption in the Middle East region? In this course, we will read ethnographies of media from the Middle East and look at and listen to media. We will explore cases from different countries, from Egypt to Syria, Turkey to Afghanistan, from Lebanon to Palestine/Israel. Crosslisted: VIST. Pre-requisite(s): 100-level course in social sciences, or humanities. Lottery Preference: Senior anthropology students have a priority to take the class. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H277B Media and the Middle East (1 Unit)
What can we learn about the Middle East by examining media? What can we about media by studying institutions of production and practices of consumption in the Middle East region? In this course, we will read ethnographies of media from the Middle East and look at and listen to media. We will explore cases from different countries, from Egypt to Syria, Turkey to Afghanistan, from Lebanon to Palestine/Israel. Crosslisted: VIST. Pre-requisite(s): 100-level course in social sciences, or humanities. Lottery Preference: Senior anthropology students have a priority to take the class. Enrollment Limit: 25.00
VIST H278 Documentary Film and Approaches to Truth (1.5 Unit)
This course explores the challenge of truth-telling in documentary film and video, through both practice and theory. What ideas and practices have documentarians engaged with to acknowledge, deny, undermine, complicate, and perhaps solve the problem of truth? Readings, film viewings, discussions, writing, and exercises in video production and editing lead to the creation of final videos by students.
VIST H278B Documentary Film and Approaches to Truth (1.5 Unit)
This course explores the challenge of truth-telling in documentary film and video, through both practice and theory. What ideas and practices have documentarians engaged with to acknowledge, deny, undermine, complicate, and perhaps solve the problem of truth? Readings, film viewings, discussions, writing, and exercises in video production and editing lead to the creation of final videos by students.
VIST H299 Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature and Film (1 Unit)
This course explores important works within modern and contemporary Japanese literature as well as their filmic adaptations, from 1945 to the present. Topics include literary and cinematic representation of Japan’s war experience and postwar reconstruction, negotiation between traditional and modern Japanese aesthetics, confrontation with the state, and changing ideas regarding gender and sexuality. We explore these and other topics by analyzing texts of various genres, including film and film scripts, novels, short stories, manga, and academic essays.
VIST H299B Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature and Film (1 Unit)
This course explores important works within modern and contemporary Japanese literature as well as their filmic adaptations, from 1945 to the present. Topics include literary and cinematic representation of Japan’s war experience and postwar reconstruction, negotiation between traditional and modern Japanese aesthetics, confrontation with the state, and changing ideas regarding gender and sexuality. We explore these and other topics by analyzing texts of various genres, including film and film scripts, novels, short stories, manga, and academic essays.
VIST H301 Immersive Media (1 Unit)
Immersive Media is a production studio course that introduces students to new forms of immersive media including 360 video, virtual reality, and immersive web. Prerequisite(s): Familiarity with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere or Adobe After Effects. Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H301B Immersive Media (1 Unit)
Immersive Media is a production studio course that introduces students to new forms of immersive media including 360 video, virtual reality, and immersive web. Prerequisite(s): Familiarity with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere or Adobe After Effects. Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H302 Digital Activisms: Critical Cartographies and DIY Data Justice (1 Unit)
This course examines how artists, researchers, and community organizers have sought to address issues of visibility, dataveillance, and data justice. Students will design, develop, and execute critical data projects using data visualization techniques, digital mapping and web-development tools. Prerequisite(s): VIST142 Intro to Visual Studies or VIST H207 Modeling the Spectator, or consent of the instructor Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H302B Digital Activisms: Critical Cartographies and DIY Data Justice (1 Unit)
This course examines how artists, researchers, and community organizers have sought to address issues of visibility, dataveillance, and data justice. Students will design, develop, and execute critical data projects using data visualization techniques, digital mapping and web-development tools. Prerequisite(s): VIST142 Intro to Visual Studies or VIST H207 Modeling the Spectator, or consent of the instructor Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H303 Advanced Digital Media Production: Digital Aesthetics (1 Unit)
Advanced digital media production studio course focusing on the theory and practice of digital aesthetics. Students create digital media projects addressing the theme of the course with various production techniques, including 2D animation and interactive, web-based video. Prerequisite(s): VIST H220 Intro to Digital Media Production or instructor consent Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H303B Advanced Digital Media Production: Digital Aesthetics (1 Unit)
Advanced digital media production studio course focusing on the theory and practice of digital aesthetics. Students create digital media projects addressing the theme of the course with various production techniques, including 2D animation and interactive, web-based video. Prerequisite(s): VIST H220 Intro to Digital Media Production or instructor consent Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H304 Feminist Aesthetics: Melodrama (1 Unit)
This course reintegrates the visual emphasis of “feminist aesthetics” into the multi-sensory field of experience known as “affect.” Our task is to evaluate what affect theory might add to visual studies, feminist politics, and our understanding of the world.
VIST H304B Feminist Aesthetics: Melodrama (1 Unit)
This course reintegrates the visual emphasis of “feminist aesthetics” into the multi-sensory field of experience known as “affect.” Our task is to evaluate what affect theory might add to visual studies, feminist politics, and our understanding of the world.
VIST H305 Art and the Environment in East Asia (1 Unit)
This course examines the relationship between environment and the arts in China and Japan. In particular, how artists engage with and respond to nature through varied modes of artistic production and exhibition. Crosslisted: East Asian Languages & Cultures, Environmental Studies, Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 15 Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher
VIST H305A Art and the Environment in East Asia (1 Unit)
This course examines the relationship between environment and the arts in China and Japan. In particular, how artists engage with and respond to nature through varied modes of artistic production and exhibition. Crosslisted: East Asian Languages & Cultures, Environmental Studies, Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 15 Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher
VIST H305B Art and the Environment in East Asia (1 Unit)
This course examines the relationship between environment and the arts in China and Japan. In particular, how artists engage with and respond to nature through varied modes of artistic production and exhibition. Crosslisted: East Asian Languages & Cultures, Environmental Studies, Visual Studies Enrollment Limit: 15 Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher
VIST H306 Harlem World: Global Blackness in the 20th Century (1 Unit)
This course traces the lasting global impact of the Harlem Renaissance. Drawing upon poetry, music, visual art, and political philosophy, we will examine the movement’s complex treatment of Africa and consider the precedent it set in imagining black identity throughout the diaspora. Enrollment Limit: 25
VIST H306A Harlem World: Global Blackness in the 20th Century (1 Unit)
This course traces the lasting global impact of the Harlem Renaissance. Drawing upon poetry, music, visual art, and political philosophy, we will examine the movement’s complex treatment of Africa and consider the precedent it set in imagining black identity throughout the diaspora. Enrollment Limit: 25
VIST H307 Untimely Art and Performance (1 Unit)
In this course we will examine artworks and performances that generate a sense of being untimely. Disjointed, de-instrumentalized, and ahistorical, we will consider what transformative undertakings untimely art makes possible and the ethical, social, and political resonances of untimeliness. Prerequisite(s): Any course in Visual Studies, Fine Arts, History of Arts, and/or philosophy or with permission from the instructor Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H307B Untimely Art and Performance (1 Unit)
In this course we will examine artworks and performances that generate a sense of being untimely. Disjointed, de-instrumentalized, and ahistorical, we will consider what transformative undertakings untimely art makes possible and the ethical, social, and political resonances of untimeliness. Prerequisite(s): Any course in Visual Studies, Fine Arts, History of Arts, and/or philosophy or with permission from the instructor Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H308 how to read black femme avatars (1 Unit)
This course is an in-depth and engaged study of Uri McMillian’s book Embodied Avatars: Genealogies of Black Feminist Art and Performance (NYU Press, 2015). In it, McMillian presents a history of visual and performance artists like Ellen Craft, Lorraine O’Grady, Adrian Piper, Nicki Minaj, whose oeuvres can be understood through the lens of black feminist study and theory. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H308B how to read black femme avatars (1 Unit)
This course is an in-depth and engaged study of Uri McMillian’s book Embodied Avatars: Genealogies of Black Feminist Art and Performance (NYU Press, 2015). In it, McMillian presents a history of visual and performance artists like Ellen Craft, Lorraine O’Grady, Adrian Piper, Nicki Minaj, whose oeuvres can be understood through the lens of black feminist study and theory. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H309 The Real Housewives of Ardmore (1 Unit)
Through close looking, performance experiments, and scholarship on reality television in general and the Housewives franchise in particular, this course will investigate the way that the production of reality in these shows—the very visual quality of film, filter, and light dependent on revenue dictated by viewership—changes along lines of identity causing us to wonder if the Housewives not only change our culture, but also our (view of our) lives. We will tinker around with performance and production work inside and outside the classroom to question the fabric of our own realities and how we can share in its weaving. Lottery Preference: VIST minors, GSST concentrators, AFST concentrators Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H309B The Real Housewives of Ardmore (1 Unit)
Through close looking, performance experiments, and scholarship on reality television in general and the Housewives franchise in particular, this course will investigate the way that the production of reality in these shows—the very visual quality of film, filter, and light dependent on revenue dictated by viewership—changes along lines of identity causing us to wonder if the Housewives not only change our culture, but also our (view of our) lives. We will tinker around with performance and production work inside and outside the classroom to question the fabric of our own realities and how we can share in its weaving. Lottery Preference: VIST minors, GSST concentrators, AFST concentrators Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H310 Illness and Disability in Art and Performance (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to important concepts and practices relevant to the study of illness and disability in art and performance. We will approach illness and disability through parallel methodologies: as scholars, we will read, reflect on, and write critically about how art and performance help us understand illness and disability as embodied experiences, and as makers, we will try a variety of hands-on activities to explore illness/disability as forms of resourcefulness and experimental thinking. Lottery Preference: VIST minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H310A Illness and Disability in Art and Performance (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to important concepts and practices relevant to the study of illness and disability in art and performance. We will approach illness and disability through parallel methodologies: as scholars, we will read, reflect on, and write critically about how art and performance help us understand illness and disability as embodied experiences, and as makers, we will try a variety of hands-on activities to explore illness/disability as forms of resourcefulness and experimental thinking. Lottery Preference: VIST minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H310B Illness and Disability in Art and Performance (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to important concepts and practices relevant to the study of illness and disability in art and performance. We will approach illness and disability through parallel methodologies: as scholars, we will read, reflect on, and write critically about how art and performance help us understand illness and disability as embodied experiences, and as makers, we will try a variety of hands-on activities to explore illness/disability as forms of resourcefulness and experimental thinking. Lottery Preference: VIST minors Enrollment Limit: 15.00
VIST H314 Feminist Filmmaking Studio (1 Unit)
Through engagement with intersectional and decolonial feminist theory, students will work to deconstruct and challenge dominant gazes in film. Students will translate theoretical and autoethnographic insights to filmmaking practice by producing a short film.. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Anthropology Prerequisite(s): any course in anthropology, visual studies, or gender and sexuality studies or instructor consent Enrollment Limit: 8 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors, Anthropology major/minors, Gender and Sexuality Studies concentrators
VIST H314B Feminist Filmmaking Studio (1 Unit)
Through engagement with intersectional and decolonial feminist theory, students will work to deconstruct and challenge dominant gazes in film. Students will translate theoretical and autoethnographic insights to filmmaking practice by producing a short film.. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Anthropology Prerequisite(s): any course in anthropology, visual studies, or gender and sexuality studies or instructor consent Enrollment Limit: 8 Lottery Preference(s): Visual Studies minors, Anthropology major/minors, Gender and Sexuality Studies concentrators
VIST H315 Black Performance Theory (1 Unit)
An interdisciplinary visual studies examination of how black performance reflects and shapes subject formation in America as well as the diaspora. Readings include live and recorded performances as well as historical and theoretical secondary sources. Prerequisite(s): 100 or 200-level course in either Africana Studies or Gender and Sexuality Studies or permission from the instructor. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Africana Studies and Gen/Sex concentrators, then Seniors, then Juniors
VIST H315B Black Performance Theory (1 Unit)
An interdisciplinary visual studies examination of how black performance reflects and shapes subject formation in America as well as the diaspora. Readings include live and recorded performances as well as historical and theoretical secondary sources. Prerequisite(s): 100 or 200-level course in either Africana Studies or Gender and Sexuality Studies or permission from the instructor. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Africana Studies and Gen/Sex concentrators, then Seniors, then Juniors
VIST H318 Black Feminist Borderlands (1 Unit)
This course explores how Black people throughout the African diaspora create transnational geographies of belonging, traverse imposed borders, and imagine the world in new ways. Students will have the opportunity to apply the course themes through writing and creative assignments. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Visual Studies Prerequisite(s):One course in either Africana Studies or Visual Studies or Gender and Sexuality Studies or Anthropology. Enrollment Limit: 8 Lottery preference(s): Anthropology majors/minors and Visual Studies minors
VIST H318B Black Feminist Borderlands (1 Unit)
This course explores how Black people throughout the African diaspora create transnational geographies of belonging, traverse imposed borders, and imagine the world in new ways. Students will have the opportunity to apply the course themes through writing and creative assignments. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Visual Studies Prerequisite(s):One course in either Africana Studies or Visual Studies or Gender and Sexuality Studies or Anthropology. Enrollment Limit: 8 Lottery preference(s): Anthropology majors/minors and Visual Studies minors
VIST H343 Advanced Film Production: Documentary Expressions (1 Unit)
The craft and theory of documentary filmmaking beyond the basics. Students produce fully-developed short documentaries, hone their camera and editing skills, and learn basic producer's skills, including proposal writing, legal frameworks, and distribution trends. Required attendance at weekly screenings, Weds 7:00-9:30pm. Prerequisite(s): One introductory film production class or equivalent experience. (Students should enter the class having basic competency with video cameras and Adobe Premiere Pro editing software.) Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H343B Advanced Film Production: Documentary Expressions (1 Unit)
The craft and theory of documentary filmmaking beyond the basics. Students produce fully-developed short documentaries, hone their camera and editing skills, and learn basic producer's skills, including proposal writing, legal frameworks, and distribution trends. Required attendance at weekly screenings, Weds 7:00-9:30pm. Prerequisite(s): One introductory film production class or equivalent experience. (Students should enter the class having basic competency with video cameras and Adobe Premiere Pro editing software.) Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H346 New(s) Media, Print Culture (1 Unit)
This course explores a century of polemic and performance in relation to more recent political, formal and legal debates about digital technologies. In particular we will focus on modernity’s shifting visual representations of materiality and circulation; ownership, authority and license; citation, plagiarism and piracy. What structures control systems of knowledge production and dissemination in the eighteenth century and today? Our most ambitious text will be Laurence Sterne’s strange novel Tristram Shandy—a brilliant meditation on experimental fiction, mortality, history, and digression for eighteenth-century and contemporary readers. Interdisciplinary students welcome. Crosslisted: English, Visual Studies Prerequisite(s): One 200-level English course or instructor consent Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Juniors and Seniors
VIST H346A New(s) Media, Print Culture (1 Unit)
This course explores a century of polemic and performance in relation to more recent political, formal and legal debates about digital technologies. In particular we will focus on modernity’s shifting visual representations of materiality and circulation; ownership, authority and license; citation, plagiarism and piracy. What structures control systems of knowledge production and dissemination in the eighteenth century and today? Our most ambitious text will be Laurence Sterne’s strange novel Tristram Shandy—a brilliant meditation on experimental fiction, mortality, history, and digression for eighteenth-century and contemporary readers. Interdisciplinary students welcome. Crosslisted: English, Visual Studies Prerequisite(s): One 200-level English course or instructor consent Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Juniors and Seniors
VIST H346B New(s) Media, Print Culture (1 Unit)
This course explores a century of polemic and performance in relation to more recent political, formal and legal debates about digital technologies. In particular we will focus on modernity’s shifting visual representations of materiality and circulation; ownership, authority and license; citation, plagiarism and piracy. What structures control systems of knowledge production and dissemination in the eighteenth century and today? Our most ambitious text will be Laurence Sterne’s strange novel Tristram Shandy—a brilliant meditation on experimental fiction, mortality, history, and digression for eighteenth-century and contemporary readers. Interdisciplinary students welcome. Crosslisted: English, Visual Studies Prerequisite(s): One 200-level English course or instructor consent Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Juniors and Seniors
VIST H353 Advanced Film Production: The Documentary Body (1 Unit)
The theory and craft of documentary film through an exploration of representations of the body. Students produce short documentaries, hone camera and editing skills, and learn basic producing skills. Students may also explore new media forms. Required weekly screenings, Thurs 7:00-9:30pm. Prerequisite(s): One introductory video production class or equivalent experience or instructor consent. Students should enter the class having basic competency with video cameras and Adobe Premiere Pro editing software. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Seniors and Juniors, then Sophomores
VIST H353B Advanced Film Production: The Documentary Body (1 Unit)
The theory and craft of documentary film through an exploration of representations of the body. Students produce short documentaries, hone camera and editing skills, and learn basic producing skills. Students may also explore new media forms. Required weekly screenings, Thurs 7:00-9:30pm. Prerequisite(s): One introductory video production class or equivalent experience or instructor consent. Students should enter the class having basic competency with video cameras and Adobe Premiere Pro editing software. Enrollment Limit: 15 Lottery Preference(s): Seniors and Juniors, then Sophomores
VIST H381 Visual Politics of Bondage (1 Unit)
This course examines the visual politics of literatures of bondage, focusing on colonial Brazil/Amazon, the cross-temporal Indian Ocean World, and our contemporary moment of globalization. Our central course inquiry across the course will address the visual politics both nascent and full-fleshed in textual and imagistic representations of those extremely uneven power relations definitive of bondage, and is attentive across genres to the novel, painting, photography, and film. Cross-listed for English and Visual Arts. Prerequisite(s): Two 200-level courses in English or instructor consent Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H381B Visual Politics of Bondage (1 Unit)
This course examines the visual politics of literatures of bondage, focusing on colonial Brazil/Amazon, the cross-temporal Indian Ocean World, and our contemporary moment of globalization. Our central course inquiry across the course will address the visual politics both nascent and full-fleshed in textual and imagistic representations of those extremely uneven power relations definitive of bondage, and is attentive across genres to the novel, painting, photography, and film. Cross-listed for English and Visual Arts. Prerequisite(s): Two 200-level courses in English or instructor consent Enrollment Limit: 15
VIST H399 Capstone for Visual Studies Minors (1 Unit)
Examines art, writing and exhibition practices centering in particular cultural contexts. Explores artists and curators who link art, identity, and politics, and the environment in their practice. Focuses on developing practical skills related to archival research, analysis of visual material and critical making. To be taken in fall semester of senior year. Prerequisite(s): Visual Studies minor Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H399A Capstone for Visual Studies Minors (1 Unit)
Examines art, writing and exhibition practices centering in particular cultural contexts. Explores artists and curators who link art, identity, and politics, and the environment in their practice. Focuses on developing practical skills related to archival research, analysis of visual material and critical making. To be taken in fall semester of senior year. Prerequisite(s): Visual Studies minor Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H399B Capstone for Visual Studies Minors (1 Unit)
Examines art, writing and exhibition practices centering in particular cultural contexts. Explores artists and curators who link art, identity, and politics, and the environment in their practice. Focuses on developing practical skills related to archival research, analysis of visual material and critical making. To be taken in fall semester of senior year. Prerequisite(s): Visual Studies minor Enrollment Limit: 12
VIST H400A Senior Thesis (1 Unit)
VIST H480 Independent Study (0.5 Unit)
VIST H480A Independent Study (1 Unit)
Independent Study