Please note that room locations and schedules are subject to change and all details should be confirmed before the start of the class.
Fall 2026
ARTH 205 (CRN 1645)
Introduction to Modern Art (3 credits)
Prof Katelyn Alice Jones
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:05am-11:25pm, Arts W-215
The Modern period (roughly 1750-1950) is filled with overlapping and opaque “-isms.”
From specific art styles and movements (Impressionism, Pre-Raphaelitism, Cubism
etc.), to larger philosophies and approaches (orientalism, modernism, primitivism, etc.),
this course will introduce the myriad ‘-isms’ that span the long-nineteenth century and
beyond. Together, we will explore how artists responded visually to revolutions in
technology, culture, politics, and industry. By the semester’s end, students will be able
to readily define these complex terms, identify the formal characteristics and historical
contexts of key art styles and movements, and articulate their significance within the
visual language of today.
ARTH 215 (CRN 1646) - EAST 215 (CRN 2442)
Introduction to East Asian Art (3 credits)
Prof Jeehee Hong
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:05am-09:55am, Arts W-215
This course provides a historical overview of East Asian art and visual cultures from early dynastic times (ca. 6th century BCE) to the 21st century. Focusing on shared cultural foundations, we will mainly discuss China, Korea, and Japan. The course will be structured around several important themes such as funerary, Buddhist, landscape, and literati arts, each of which will be dealt with in chronological order, generally following the order of China, Korea, and Japan. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to think about both the overarching characteristics and more particularly local and temporal variations in East Asian art.
ARTH 223 (CRN 1647)
Introduction to Italian Renaissance (3 credits)
Prof Elijah Klein
Mondays and Wednesdays, 8:35am-09:55am, Arts W-215
This introductory course on Italian Renaissance art covers the period from approximately 1350 to 1550, focusing on significant developments in painting and sculpture. It addresses cultural and historical precursors to the Renaissance and discusses the enduring influence of Renaissance art, highlighting how it continues to inspire and be reinterpreted by contemporary creators. While focused on tracing the evolution of art across key urban centers such as Florence, Rome, and Venice, the course additionally emphasizes the importance of transcultural exchanges in shaping the Italian Renaissance. Consideration will be given to the classical roots of the period, and students will learn how to engage with primary source material, reading selections from Boccacio, Ovid, and others, and putting these texts in dialogue with Renaissance artwork. This course emphasizes sacred subjects, image-assisted devotional practice, bodily intervention and depiction, women in the Italian Renaissance – including as artist, patron, and subject - and depictions of saints, martyrs, goddesses, and courtesans.
ARTH 225 (CRN 1648)
Introduction to Seventeenth Century Art (3 credits)
Prof Angela Vanhaelen
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:35pm-3:55pm, Arts W-215
Visual imagery was mobilized in inventive and forceful ways in the seventeenth century. This course will critically examine the functions and uses of a wide range of visual and material culture in relation to the European and global expansion of absolutism, capitalism, urbanism, colonialism, diplomacy, slavery, missionary activity, and religious strife. Artistic and architectural production will be considered in relation to the body, especially historical understandings of gender & sexuality, race & racism, disability, labour, authority, and social status.
ARTH 302 (CRN 1650)
Aspects of Canadian Art: "Unsettling Canadian Art History" (3 credits)
Prof Julia Skelly
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:05pm-2:25pm, Arts W-215
Drawing on critical scholarship by Erin Morton, Charmaine Nelson, Sherry Farrell Racette and many others, this course will engage in what has been called “unsettling Canadian art history,” a phrase that points to the fact that Canada is a settler-colonial nation state, while also gesturing towards the importance of making (white) settler viewers, scholars and citizens “unsettled” through art and scholarship. We will read a number of methodological texts modelling how, as scholars, we might engage in critically Canadian art history, as well as readings about specific artworks and artists, focusing primarily on Indigenous artists, Black artists and Asian artists living and working on Turtle Island (the territory now known as Canada). Case studies will include Montreal artist Prudence Heward’s paintings of Black female subjects, as well as other white artists representing subjects of colour, but we will focus primarily on contemporary artists of colour. Readings will discuss, among other topics, residential school photography, contemporary Indigenous photography, and Rebecca Belmore’s performance Vigil (2002), which commemorated the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Ultimately, the objective of the course is to encourage students to think about both artistic producers and the subjects of representation through the lens of intersectionality, an analytical tool that has been adopted by some feminist art historians as a way to address not only gender, but also class, race, and sexuality, and which reminds us that whiteness must be critically interrogated as a racial category.
ARTH 315 (CRN 1651) - CANS 315 (CRN 1921)
Indigenous Art and Culture: "Continuities: Indigenous Art Histories on Turtle Island" (3 credits)
Prof Gloria Bell
Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:05pm-5:25pm, Arts W-215
This course will examine the production of First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists on Turtle Island.
A diverse range of art practices – including painting, drawing, beadwork, tufting, photography, film, performance, and tattooing – will be considered in relation to key aspects of the cultural, political and social life of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Much of the work examined reflects and responds to the continuing legacy of colonization and successive Canadian governments’ policies of assimilation and segregation.
Throughout the course we will look at historical and contemporary Indigenous art and the continuum of artistic production. We will hear from a variety of Indigenous curators, artists and scholars to gain a better understanding of Indigenous curatorial methods and the history of Indigenous art on Turtle Island. The course emphasizes Indigenous voices and curatorial methods to decenter colonial histories of Canada.
The course is inspired by scholarship in art history, museum studies, material culture studies, anthropology, feminist approaches and Indigenous methods. Some of the methods we will use include visual analysis, critical thinking, journaling, visiting, and comparative studies. Warning: By the end of the course your life path may change.
ARTH 323 (CRN 1652)
Realism and Impressionism: "Picturing Reality in Nineteenth-Century France" (3 credits)
Prof Annelies Verellen
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:55pm-3:55pm, WONG 1020
At first glance, this course will appear somewhat traditional: it looks at major artistic movements in the history of European art (mostly French), examines oil paintings by predominantly white male artists, and focuses on artworks that are regularly called ‘masterpieces.’ This class, however, will question these terms and histories to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the various debates. The point of the class is to learn about the works themselves, the context in which they were produced, their modes of production, and the local and global networks in which they (and the artists) circulated. Through an investigation of the various theoretical and methodological approaches to looking at art and visual culture from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, students will learn to look and read critically; synthesize course readings and lectures; research and write short research papers and assignments. Each class will generally follow the established chronology of modern art in France, and focus on a particular concept, artist, historical moment or artistic movement. We will analyze the categories of “the real”, “realism”, “impressionism”, “the modern” and “modernism” to look at the problems with categorization and the difficulties of writing art’s histories.
ARTH 353 (CRN 1653)
Selected Topics in Art History 1:"Modernities of Asian Art" (3 credits) *Same topic as in Fall 2024*
Prof Chanon Praepipatmongkol
Wednesdays and Fridays, 1:05pm-2:25pm, Arts W-215
This course provides a critical introduction to art in East and Southeast Asia from the 18th century to the present. We will focus on how conceptions of ethnic and gender identity arise through visual production in key moments of cross-cultural encounter, whether between the so-called West and non-West, or intra-regionally within Asia. Through a comparative framework traversing multiple cities and regional centers, we will investigate the structural relationships binding art and visual culture to major historical phenomena, including colonialism, urbanization, industrialization, militarization, and globalization.
ARTH 400 (CRN 1654)
Selected Methods in Art History (3 credits)
Prof Reilley Bishop-Stall
Wednesdays, 11:35am-2:25pm, Ferrier 230
This seminar approaches art history as a set of practices. Weekly exercises and workshops are
designed to offer training in the following arts: writing a compelling visual analysis, putting
together a successful research proposal, critiquing an exhibition, explaining your research with
clarity and confidence. A key aim of the class is practical skill building. The weekly writing
exercises are designed as building blocks for the Honours Research Paper (ARTH 401).
The major outcome of this course will be a strong honours research paper.
ARTH 401 (CRN 1655)
Honours Research Paper (3 credits)
ARTH 420 (CRN 1656)
Selected Topics in Art and Architecure 1: "Land and Identity in Canadian Art" (3 credits)
Prof Reilley Bishop-Stall
Wednesdays, 11:35am-2:25pm, Ferrier 230
This course concerns the centrality of land and landscape in Canadian art history. Canada is a
settler colonial nation, with a diverse and changing population, occupying Indigenous land and
contested territories. The history, economy and national identity of Canada have, since the nation’s
origins, largely been determined by the (colonized and expropriated) land upon which the country
was formed. As such, art production in and about Canada has consistently figured the land as a
vital element or actor. Throughout Canadian art history, the land has been represented as a
bountiful resource, sublime environment, impenetrable wilderness, conflict zone, and kin,
depending on the political moment and positionality of the artist. This discussion-based seminar
will be a collaborative endeavour where we, as a group, approach these topics from a variety of
perspectives, reading complex texts from a variety of disciplines and linking these to themes and
topics in Canadian art.
ARTH 422 (CRN 1658)
Selected Topics in Art and Architecture 3: "Bodies in Contact: Body Arts and Cultural Encounters" (3 credits)
Prof Gloria Bell
Fridays, 11:35am-2:25pm, Arts W-220
This seminar explores body arts through tattooing and other body modification practices within a global framework of cultural encounter and exchange. Expanding on the work of anthropologists and art historians, we will examine a variety of artistic media including: colonial prints and drawings, popular tattoo patterns and designs, anatomical and medical illustrations, circus posters, scrimshaw carvings, magazines on radical body modification including Re/Search, and the artworks of contemporary Indigenous artists working in the Pacific and North America as well as contemporary body modification artists. This course will cover historical periods from first contact in the Americas circa 1500 to present day “modern primitives” and the tattoo renaissance. In addition, we will consider body arts in relation to constructions of self and community, appropriation, resistance, and the assertion of multiple identities.
ARTH 447 (CRN 1660)
Independent Research Course (3 credits)
Instructor Approval Required
ARTH 490 (CRN 1661)
Museum Internship (3 credits)
Winter 2027
ARTH 202 (CRN 1135)
Introduction to Contemporary Art (3 credits)
Prof Chanon Praepipatmongkol
Wednesdays and Fridays, 11:35am-12:55pm, Arts W-215
ARTH 204 (CRN 1136)
Introduction to Medieval Art and Architecture (3 credits)
Prof Cecily Hilsdale
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:35pm-3:55pm, Arts W-215
ARTH 209 (CRN 1137)
Introduction to Ancient Art and Architecture (3 credits)
Prof TBA
Wednesdays and Fridays, 4:05pm-5:25pm, Arts W-215
ARTH 321 (CRN 1139)
Visual Culture of the Dutch Republic (3 credits)
Prof Angela Vanhaelen
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:05pm-2:25pm, Arts W-215
As Svetlana Alpers wrote in her provocative book, The Art of Describing: “In Holland the visual culture was central to the life of the society. One might say that the eye was a central means of self-representation and visual experience a central mode of self-consciousness. If the theatre was the arena in which the England of Elizabeth most fully represented itself to itself, images played that role for the Dutch.” In this course, we explore how the 17th-century Dutch Republic represented itself to itself through the examination of a wide range of visual imagery, from Rembrandt and Vermeer to various forms of popular culture. Our focus will be on the central role played by visual culture in an early capitalist republic whose sudden rise to wealth and power was fueled by overseas trade, colonization, and the brutal exploitation of people and land, including the transatlantic slave trade. The functions of art will be examined in relation to key symbolic sites such as the home, the marketplace, the brothel, the town hall, the anatomy theatre, the gallows field, the curiosity cabinet, the church, the synagogue, the rural countryside, and the colonies. Our exploration of Dutch visual culture as a central mode of self-consciousness will thus open into a broader understanding of early global capitalism, republican politics, gender and sexuality, religious conflicts, medical and scientific developments, and colonial and racist violence.
ARTH 354 (CRN 1142)
Selected Topics Art History 2 (3 credits)
Prof Gloria Bell
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:35pm-3:55pm, SADB 1/12
ARTH 357 (CRN 1143) - EAST 357 (CRN 1907)
Early Chinese Art (3 credits)
Prof Jeehee Hong
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:35am-9:55pm, Arts W-215
ARTH 420 (CRN 1145)
Selected Topics in Art and Architecture 1: "Medieval to Early Modern Collecting" (3 credits)
Prof Chriscinda Henry
Mondays, 11:35am-2:25pm, Arts W-220
Collecting is a culturally driven practice of consumption, caretaking, use, display, and reception. In this seminar we will primarily discuss “private” but also institutional collecting in Europe 1100–1700, that is, before the advent of the modern public museum. As western cultures became increasingly consumerist, market-oriented, and interconnected on a global scale across the late medieval and early modern periods, individual collections—of churches, monasteries, royalty and nobility, scholars, and connoisseurs—grew in size, scope, and complexity. This seminar begins with medieval church treasuries and their collections of relics and precious liturgical objects, explores the Renaissance studiolo (study) as a signifying space merged with the identity of its owner, and ends with large seventeenth-century “curiosity cabinets.” The primary questions we will ask include: Why do we collect? What does collecting tell us about the societies in which we live? Why do practices of collecting change over time? What do we do with our collections? How do we think about them and ourselves in relation to them?
ARTH 421 (CRN 1146) - EAST 493 (CRN 1912)
Selected Topics in Art and Architecture 2 (3 credits)
Prof Jeehee Hong
Thursdays, 11:35am-2:25pm, Arts W-220
ARTH 435 (CRN 1147)
Early Modern Visual Culture: "The Art of Labour in Early Global Capitalism (c. 1492-1700)" (3 credits)
Prof Angela Vanhaelen
Wednesdays, 2:35pm-5:25pm, Leacock 110
This seminar assesses the realignment of art, labour, and global capitalism during a period of systemic change (ca. 1492-1700). The transition from feudalism to capitalism precipitated new divisions of labour as the muscle power of humans and animals was deemed essential to the accumulation of profits. While we will consider the proto-industrial exploitation of bodies, we also will approach labour as invention, especially focusing on the often overlooked contributions made by Indigenous, Black, and female workers. The theoretical approach accordingly will take up questions raised by decolonial, anti-racist, feminist, Marxist, and ecocritical methods, and be attentive to conflicting and oppositional practices of world making.
Potential research topics include (but are not limited to):
- Labouring bodies: practices, knowledge, agency, reproduction
- The spectre of non-labour: witchcraft, itineracy, disability, illness, age, infertility, etc.
- Non-human animals
- Machines, devices, tools, and technologies
- Extraction: mining, quarrying, fishing, logging, hunting, monocropping, etc.
- Workspaces: mines, quarries, workshops, plantations, ports, markets, shops, ships, homes, farms, forests, gardens, workhouses, prisons, mills, etc.
- Material transformations: stones, metals, wood, gems, pearls, shells, glass, insects, pigments, minerals, paper, clay, textiles, ivory, bone, fur, hides, etc.
ARTH 447 (CRN 1148)
Independent Research Course (3 credits)
Instructor Approval Required
ARTH 501 (CRN 1150)
Advance Topics in Art History and Visual Culture (3 credits)
Prof Chanon Praepipatmongkol
Fridays, 2:35pm-5:25pm, Ferrier 230