Liberal Arts

12 Artists of Post-1950's China

Course No. ACD357.1  Credits: 3
Faculty Diana Y. Chou

In 2007, one of Yue MinjunÕs (b. 1962--) paintings, Execution, was sold for US$ 5.9 million dollars at SothebyÕs in London. It became the most expensive work ever by a Chinese contemporary artist, and created a sensation over Chinese Contemporary Art in the Art and Business Worlds. This course will focus on 12 major artists (from Installation, painting, sculpture, performance art, photography and cinema), some of whose works were banned in China, but gained international recognition. The year of 1949 is the year of the split of the PROC (Mainland China) and ROC (Taiwan), and when the Communist Party gained its political legitimacy in Chinese history; we will thus consider with the artistic climate from the 1950s until the present time. All these 12 artists were born between the 1950s and 70s; ten of them went through the Cultural Revolution of the 1970s, and were in exile after the TianÕanmen Incident/Massacre in 1989. Visual Culture Emphasis course. 3 credits.

Anthropology

Course No. SNS378.1  Credits: 3
Faculty Diane Lichtenstein

The course is an introduction to the nature of culture and a comparison of contemporary western and non-western cultures worldwide. Readings, films, slides and class discussion help review cultural similarities and differences in subsistence technology, language, social organization, politics, religion and art. An analysis that views culture as humankind's most important adaptive tool, a strategy for survival, also suggests anthropology's relevance for appreciating modern world social, economic and ecological problems. The course addresses contemporary issues of human choices and culture change. 3 credits.

Art & Design History I: Ancient - 18th C.

Course No. ACD103  Credits: 3
Faculty Andrew Dolan | Gary D Sampson | Lane Cooper | Michael Weil

Intended to introduce students to art history through the study of major art concepts, theories, and historical events from the ancient Greek and Roman periods to Europe of the Enlightenment. The approach is both chronological and thematic. Offered fall.

Arts Journalism

Course No. LLC205W.1  Credits: 3

In this elective course, students will study various forms and stages of writing about art for publication. In addition to reading and discussing effective examples of published writings on art, students will produce a total of 20 pages of writing throughout the semester in the form of reviews, interviews, profiles, and feature stories. Students will alternately function as writers and editors as they produce written work that is expressly conceived and shaped for publication. Through reading and writing assignments, discussions, and in-class exercises, students will gain a well-rounded knowledge of arts journalism from multiple vantage points: as readers, writers, and editors. Students will gain experience in producing finished articles that can be published online through various websites and blogs, eventually including CIAÕs own online journal. As a Sophomore writing elective, this course will fulfill LLC 104 requirement and also serve as a valuable component of CIAÕs new writing concentration. Fulfills Humanities/Cultural Studies distribution requirement. Creative Writing Concentration course. 3 credits.

Asian Art Survey

Course No. ACD372.1  Credits: 3
Faculty Diana Y. Chou

This course serves as a "survey" or a window for the art of multiple cultures. This lecture/exercise/discussion-style course explores the art and visual culture of Asia, focusing on India, Japan and China. Political, religious, social, and visual aspects of the art will be stressed in class. In order to understand the art and civilization of these three countries, we will look at art objects ranging from ancient archeological finds, medieval architecture to modern and contemporary art. Subjects such as women artists, performing arts and animation will also be discussed in this course. The content of this course will be generally divided into pre-Modern, Modern & Contemporary eras in which art and visual culture will be discussed with geographic perspectives. As the semester progresses, some additional readings and films may be assigned. Each student is encouraged to find examples learned in this course and apply them to his/her intellectual development. Visual Culture Emphasis course.

Autobiographical Narrative in African Literature

Course No. LLC207W.1  Credits: 3

This course consists of six first-person accounts, which highlight the socio-historical and psychological significance of the autobiographical narrative in the black experience. The autobiographical mode is one of the predominant forms of literary expression in black literature, dating back to the "slave narrative" of the eighteenth century, just as it is in the hands of African artists a prominent literary form that is characterized by its predominantly collective and communal narrative voice. The course will focus on the interface between individual life-story and collective (social) history. It will also consider in the postmodernist sense the thin line between fiction and history (art and life), while exploring individual consciousness as an art of rhetorical self-definition and subjectivity. The last two books include two generational responses to womanist issues; and both of them problematize the autobiographical art-form. There are six videos primarily to provide socio-historical background to the course. The videos, as visual texts, are also meant to create a critical interface with the 6 literary socio-constructs, with a view to stimulating your deep insights into the course. Fulfills Humanities/Cultural Studies distribution requirement. Creative Writing Concentration course. 3 credits.

Basic Theories of Psychology

Course No. SNS308.1  Credits: 3
Faculty Adina Davidson

This course will offer an overview of the basic theories of psychology and how they apply to human development. We will explore the questions of what motivates people to do what they do. How and why do people change as they grow from infants to adults? How do we develop in our ability to play, to work, to love and to be ethical human beings? The course will cover the major personality theories of Freud and his understanding of the unconscious, Erickson, Jung with his description of the shadows and archetypes in the human mind and Rogers' humanistic psychology as well as learning theories and systems of moral development. The course will also cover the major feminist critiques of these systems. There will be a brief overview of psychological problems such as major depression, schizophrenia, phobias, etc., as well as some methods of treatment. 3 credits.

Censorship, Art, & the Law

Course No. HCS386.1  Credits: 3
Faculty Cynthia McGrae

This course will cover the history of censorship in America. We will begin with the language of the First Amendment. We will then study the evolution of the definition of obscenity starting with the Comstack Laws and moving through the current Supreme Court test for determining whether an expression is obscene. We will look at the laws surrounding child pornography as well as hate speech and art that incite violence. For each of these categories of expression, we will discuss anecdotal applications of the First Amendment using artists such as Mapplethorpe, Serrano, Ligon, Zimmerman, Scott, Diana and Finley. While the primary focus of the class will be on government action, we will also look at examples of self censorship by the entertainment industry and public galleries. Finally, we will finish with an overview of the Patriot Act, its current applications and its implications for our future freedom of expression. The question underlying all of the historical context, anecdotal applications and the current law is why do we censor? Are there ever legitimate justifications for censorship and if so, how do we, as a society, draw those lines? In addressing these issues, we will study in depth the feminist anti-pornography movement, excerpts from Susan Sontag's On Photography, and the outcry over music lyrics post Columbine. 3 credits.