Courses Offered This Year

Fall 2025 Courses

  • Portrait of Terentius Neo and his wife, Pompeii, c. 50 CE

    ARHS 1300: From Mummies to Gladiators: Art of the Ancient Mediterranean and Ancient Middle East

    Course description
    Introduces the arts and societies of the major cultures of the ancient Mediterranean and ancient Middle East (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Bronze Age Aegean, Greece, Etruscan and Roman), primarily c. 4,000 B.C.-350 A.D., from the pyramids of the pharaohs to the official Roman adoption of Christianity. Focuses on art and architecture as a part of human life, from everyday activities to fabulous spectacles and the afterlife.

    Professor:Stephanie Langin-Hooper

    Monday/Wednesday, 11 - 11:50 a.m. (with Friday sections)
    Room 2130 (O’Donnell Hall), Owen Arts 天美传媒

    Image: Portrait of Terentius Neo and his wife, Pompeii, c. 50 CE

  • Hagia Sophia, 532-537 CE, reconsecrated 1473, Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey)

    ARHS 1306: Introduction to Architecture

    Course description
    Most of us take for granted the built environment through which we move every day. However, the world we inhabit is the product of millennia of architectural investigation and experimentation, from the first occupations of naturally formed caves to the plans for human habitation on Mars. In this course, we will examine the evolution of architectural and urban form across the world’s cultures. Through the analysis of site, structure, materials, and form, we will consider how the work of architecture quickly exceeded the primal need for shelter, giving shape to ritual practices and political agendas, defining communities and cross-pollinating cultures. We will approach architecture as a spatial language used to communicate cultural values, and by studying the architectural past, students will develop the interpretive tools necessary to “read” their own built environment.

    Professor: Elizabeth Eager

    Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 9 - 9:50 a.m.
    Room 306, Dallas Hall

    Image: Hagia Sophia, 532-537 CE, reconsecrated 1473, Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey)

  • Claude Monet, Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867, Metropolitan Museum of Art

    ARHS 1359: Impressionism

    Course description
    No art movement is more famous or beloved than Impressionism. But when it first emerged in Paris in the late 1860s, critics condemned it as bizarre, radical and dangerous. This class will explore the artistic and social conditions that made Impressionism possible, as well as the way it reshaped modern art with intense colors, loose brushwork and wide-ranging scenes of contemporary life.

    Professor: Randall Griffin
    CC: Historical Contexts

    Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30 - 1:50 p.m.
    Room 2130 (O’Donnell Hall), Owen Arts 天美传媒

    Image: Claude Monet, Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867, Metropolitan Museum of Art

  • Romare Bearden, Black Odyssey: Home to Ithaca, 1977

    ARHS 1380: Introduction to African American Art

    Course description
    This course surveys African American Art from the 19th century to the contemporary moment with specific attention devoted to considering notions of identity, race, class, ethnicity, gender, representation, sexuality and aesthetic sensibilities. Organized both chronologically and thematically we will explore the development of early American portraiture, landscapes, civic engagement, artist collectives, political and social influences, urbanization and the built environment, and various other cultural expressions. We will cover a range of visual and performing arts including painting, sculpture, prints, photography, mixed media, collage, public art, installation, happenings, film and new materials. Students will develop a basic familiarity with key figures and themes in African American art, learn the appropriate vocabulary and critical tools for discussing and writing about works of art, and be able to relate specific works of art to their stylistic, historical and social contexts.

    Professor: Tashima Thomas
    CC: Creativity & Aesthetics (pending)

    Tuesday/Thursday, 11 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
    Room 2130 (O’Donnell Hall), Owen Arts 天美传媒

    Image: Romare Bearden, Black Odyssey: Home to Ithaca, 1977

  • El Greco (Dom膿虂nikos Theotok贸poulos), Laoco枚n, c. 1610-1614, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

    ARHS 3336: Power and Spectacle in Early Modern Hispanic Art

    Course description
    Examines the visual arts of the early modern Hispanic world (Spain, the Caribbean, colonial Mexico and South America, southern Italy, the Philippines, and the Spanish Netherlands). Emphasis on the interplay and creative synthesis of distinct visual cultures within the colonial sphere.

    Professor: Adam Jasienski
    CC: Historical Contexts

    Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30 - 1:50 p.m.
    Smith Auditorium, Meadows Museum

    Image: El Greco (Dom膿虂nikos Theotokópoulos), Laocoön, c. 1610-1614, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

  • David Martin, Portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Murray, circa 1780. Scone Palace, Scotland.

    ARHS 3348: Eighteenth-Century European Art

    Course description
    In 18th-century Europe, the visual arts served as a form of royal propaganda, as a vehicle for Enlightenment philosophy, as a tool for religious education, as interior decoration, as a source of erotic stimulation, and as an expression of radicalism – and often as more than one of these things at the same time. In this writing-intensive course, we will examine, among other themes, the birth of the art market, the gendering of art production and the work of female artists, the role of the visual arts in European colonial conquest, and the political uses of art.

    Professor: Jennifer Laffick
    CC: Creativity and Aesthetics, Writing
    UC: 2016 Humanities and Fine Arts, 2016 History, Social and Behavioral Sciences

    Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 11 - 11:50 a.m.
    Greer Garson 3515, Owen Arts 天美传媒

    Image: David Martin, Portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Murray, circa 1780. Scone Palace, Scotland.

  • Eve Sandler. Mami Wata Crossing. 2008. Installation altar. Photo by Eve Sandler.

    Honors ARHS 3355: Exhibiting Cultures: Curating and Interpreting the Arts of the Global South

    Course description

    Explores ways that audiences and curators co-create the poetics and practices of exhibition display, with a particular emphasis on the arts and cultures of the Global South (especially Africa and the Afro-Atlantic). Students discuss, interpret, and research cultural objects and the histories of colonialism, cultural exchange and ethnographic research that underpin the ways that curators conduct their work. Analyzes how museums place the sacred and precious objects of cultural groups within an exhibition context, and considers how exhibition design determines the improvisational possibilities for visitors to position their bodies in relation to these objects. Discusses the importance of text and visuality in curating and how exhibitions “perform” even as they evoke the previous lives of objects in relation to the experiences of the viewing public. Students learn skills and best practices for curating and interpreting the arts of the Global South in ethical, accessible and culturally respectful ways.

    Professor: Elyan Hill
    CC: Creativity and Aesthetics

    Tuesday/Thursday, 11 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
    Greer Garson 3515, Owen Fine Arts 天美传媒

    Image: Eve Sandler. Mami Wata Crossing. 2008. Installation altar. Photo by Eve Sandler.

  • Frank Gehry, Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, 2014

    ARHS 3356: Modern Architecture

    Course description
    The purpose of the course is to provide a global survey of modern architecture since the late 19th century. The course will examine changing styles and functions of buildings, along with different building types and materials, and situate those within specific historical and social contexts. It will also explore the roles technology and modernity have played in shaping architecture during this period.

    Professor: Randall Griffin
    CC: Historical Contexts

    Tuesday/Thursday, 9:30 a.m. - 10:50 a.m.
    Greer Garson 3515, Owen Arts 天美传媒

    Image: Frank Gehry, Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, 2014

  • Fabrice Monteiro, Ogun, The Prophecy series, Senegal, 2016

    ARHS 3390: Art of the Afro-Fantastic: Visualizing Contemporary Black Imaginaries

    Course description
    This course explores the Afro-Fantastic as an aesthetic and theoretical framework for examining the liberatory possibilities of blackness in this contemporary moment. ‘Afro-Fantastic’ is a term that loosely assembles creative modalities of blackness including Afrofuturism, Afro-Surrealism, Afro-Punk, and Afro- Gothic. With a focus on the transnational African Diaspora, this class offers a generous understanding of how the Middle Passage, chattel slavery, and its afterlives have recalibrated a denied humanity through self-fashioning and burgeoning epistemologies. From Afrofuturism to Afro-Punk; Afro-Surrealism to Afro- Gothic – this course examines blackness through multi-media experiences in film, performance, fashion, technology, sculpture, architecture, visual arts, design, activism, and black speculative fiction.

    Professor: Tashima Thomas
    CC: Creativity & Aesthetics

    Tuesday/Thursday, 2 - 3:20 p.m.
    Greer Garson 3515, Owen Arts 天美传媒

    Image: Fabrice Monteiro, Ogun, The Prophecy series, Senegal, 2016

  • Thomas Struth, Louvre 2, Paris, 1989, 1989, SF MOMA

    ARHS 3398: Introduction to Museum Studies

    Course description
    Students learn to critically engage with art museums and galleries, exploring the history of these institutions as well as their interpretative, cultural and social roles today. Students evaluate how the visual, aesthetic, and didactic components of curatorship, collections management and exhibition design influence how art is understood by the public. Museum ethics and social justice concerns within art museums and galleries is carefully considered.

    Professor: Adam Jasienski

    Wednesday, 1 - 3:50 p.m.
    Greer Garson 3515, Owen Arts 天美传媒

    Image: Thomas Struth, Louvre 2, Paris, 1989, 1989, SF MOMA

  • student teaching

    ARHS 4303: Art Museum Teaching Practicum

    Course description
    This practicum trains students to teach in the art museum environment, with a focus on strategies for elementary student audiences in grades K-6. Students read scholarship about the theory and practice of the museum experience from the fields of art history, elementary education and museum education. Students become proficient in utilizing learning approaches including Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), Artful Thinking and activity-based teaching. Students put theory into practice by developing and co-leading tours for select school groups visiting the Meadows Museum.

    Professor: Stephanie Langin-Hooper

    Fridays, 9 - 11:50 a.m.
    Museum Education Room, Meadows Museum

    Image: Art History major Isabella Stern teaches fourth graders from Richardson ISD about a painting (Soup of Europe (Sopa d’Europa), Miquel Barceló, 1985) in the Meadows Museum as part of the Art Museum Education Practicum course.

  • student teaching

    ARHS 4322: Museum Theory: Topic: Museum Architecture

    Course description
    This course will explore how architecture has evolved alongside museum changes as part of the socio-cultural modernization process. In the first part, we will focus on museum buildings in both urban and non-urban settings, spanning from the Enlightenment to the era of mass culture and global virtual communication. Later, we will examine the characteristics of museums as an architectural program, particularly the design of long-duration and short-term exhibitions. The course will include discussions based on readings and analyses of museums and exhibitions in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with the Meadows Museum serving as a distinctive case study.

    Professor: Stephanie Langin-Hooper

    Tuesdays, 2 - 4:50 p.m.
    TBA, Owen Arts 天美传媒

    Image: Musée du Louvre, Paris, France