Art History Minor

Directed Research and Writing allows for specifically-designed intensive studies in the student’s area of interest. A student must be in good academic standing, have a mentor instructor who agrees to direct the study, and present to the mentor a proposed focus for the units earned; this then needs to be approved by both the instructor and chair. If approved, the instructor will craft the specifics re: materials, assignments, workload, and learning outcomes. Roughly 5 books read and 5000-7000 words written over the course of the semester. Some of the writing could take the form of journals and more informal reflections, however a formal academic written analysis of some kind must be part of the writing produced. Also, museum visits or personal tours of artifacts, et. al, may stand in lieu of some of the readings.

An introductory course exploring the art and architecture of Mesoamerica from the rise of the Olmec in 1500 BCE to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521, Mesoamerican Empires will focus on how changes in visual culture have reflected larger religious and political transformations in Mesoamerica. Issues of cultural memory and myth will be examined to understand indigenous conceptions of art, history, cosmology, and social hierarchy. Forging links with the present day, students will learn to identify and contextualize Mesoamerican iconography in contemporary media including the creative expression of lowrider culture, tattoos, fine art, and fashion. Students will be required to demonstrate their understanding of the material through visual (art) projects, a formal writing assignment, and their participation in class discussions. No prerequisites.

This course is an introduction to the arts of Asia, focusing on India, China, Korea, and Japan. The course covers material from the neolithic period to the present, and the lectures are divided into four units: 1) Art in the Tomb; 2) Art in the Temple; 3) Art at Court and in the Life of the Elite; and 4) Art in the Marketplace. We examine how art was commissioned, collected, and used by royalty, the elite, popular audiences, and religious communities in various settings. Lectures within each unit are organized chronologically with minor modifications of geographic considerations. Students are required to complete weekly readings and to participate actively in class discussions. In addition, two short quizzes, one mid-term and one final exam in class will be given. Pre-requisite: None

If consciousness is shaped by our history, then where are we, collectively, if we’ve lost faith that a shared historical commonality among cultures ever existed? To the people who thrived in the strange and beautiful empires of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, religious and cultural differences found in one’s neighbors weren’t unusual, confusing or frightening—they were part of everyday life. In short: normal coexistence. In the class Egypt, Greece, Rome—we’ll explore the commonalities and shared experiences found among these three remarkable civilizations, as well as follow the cultural fault lines exploited by those in power which eventually forced these empires to dissolve. Together, we’ll explore three millennia of artefacts, objects, architecture, writings, as well as cultural and religious practice to see how these civilizations evolved, ran alongside one another, then overlapped and overcame one another to lay the foundations of modern western society. Through lecture, images, discussions, essays, and close readings, students will learn to identify, decode, understand and describe artworks and objects from the past, translating them from visual to verbal and textual language. In addition, in an effort to gain insight into the ancient state of mind, students will reconstruct a piece of history with a hands-on laboratory project and a small, original artwork of their own. No prerequisites.

Rome, the Eternal City, is a city unlike any other. It is entrenched in history and undeniably beautiful, where Roman ruins serve as a backdrop for classically restrained Renaissance structures and dramatic Baroque spectacle. This course takes students through the incredible transformation the city has undergone from ancient times through the rise of Christianity, culminating with the tumultuous era and style of the 17th-century Baroque. Through these great epochs of Roman history, the city attracted some of the most revered artists including Raphael, Michelangelo, Gentileschi, Caravaggio, and Bernini. Students will leave this class with an in-depth understanding of the innovation of Roman architecture and engineering, what led to the decline of ancient Rome, and how the city transformed from a glorious capital of pagan culture to the prominent seat of the Catholic faith, home to over 900 churches. Requirements for this class include a museum visit, independent research, and the creation of an artwork related to the course content and historic techniques analyzed in this course.

The Middle Ages were a time of knights and ladies... or maybe brutal Viking warlords... or a clash of civilizations between Christians and Muslims... and maybe there were dragons? A lot of what we “know” about the medieval world comes from fantasy, pop culture, and from old nationalist scholarship that mostly invented origin myths. So, how can we know what the Middle Ages were really like? In this class, we’ll go back and try to get a more accurate picture by looking at things medieval people made: manuscripts, sculptures, buildings, weapons, clothing, etc., all in tandem with reading primary sources by the people who were there. Starting with the collapse of the western Roman Empire, we will uncover a different picture of how two related cultures arose out of the wreckage of the ancient world: Christendom and Dar al-Islam. Along the way we’ll learn that the “barbarians” weren’t that barbaric, that some Vikings converted to Islam, that trade and cooperation across the Mediterranean were far more common than Crusades, and that the medieval world was more diverse, cosmopolitan, and queer than you may have been led to believe. No prerequisites.

Nature in Art explores the rich and varied traditions of artistic expression unique to the regions of Japan, Korea, and Tibet, from prehistoric indigenous practices through the mid-19th century. Looking closely at Japan, the Korean renaissance, and the coded art of Tibetan Buddhist culture, we will uncover the distinct artistic heritage found in each, noting particularly the sharing and transmission of art practices and ideas as they cross geographical and cultural boundaries. Working chronologically, this course will identify intersections of spirituality and nature, then examine artistic expressions of such concepts through lacquer, ceramic, ink, paper, stone, bamboo and ivory, among other media. Both two- and three-dimensional art forms are considered, from calligraphy, wood-block prints and landscape painting to festivals, garden design, poetry, and tea ceremonies. The objects and sites studied in this course will reflect how concepts of beauty and aesthetics are achieved through the practice of “harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility.” The course is conducted as a hybrid seminar-lecture style course, with instructor led lectures and video, student presentations, research, writing, culinary experiences, as well as hands-on exploration of the traditional processes of historic art production in these regions. This class requires a visit to the USC Pacific Asia Museum to see art in person from each of the regions studied in this class. No prerequisites.

People often wonder exactly when, throughout history, women first became active in society? Of course, the answer is: always. Even though women’s efforts have been overshadowed by that of their male contemporaries in the chronicling of official histories, women have always participated in every facet of life, from rich to poor, north to south, east to west, and from the ancient period to the present. In this course, we will examine the lives and creative pursuits of the many women who contributed to the arts, sciences, and humanities throughout history, particularly focusing on artists & craftspersons, writers & poets, healers, pharmacists, natural philosophers, and rulers, with a few warriors included for good measure. Students will conduct close readings, originate research, formulate short essays, and in an effort to gain insight into the state of mind of historical women, reconstruct a piece of history with a hands-on laboratory project and a small, original artwork placing themselves in the environment of a chosen historical female.

“Force yourself to imitate Michelangelo in everything.” These were the words expressed by Michelangelo’s biographer to a remarkably self-aware generation of artists in 16th-century Florence, Rome, and Venice. However, whether rival artists wanted to, or even imagined they could succeed in imitating Michelangelo’s work is another question—one among many we’ll explore in The Age of Michelangelo, 1450-1650. In consultation with a range of visual, historical, and literary materials, we’ll delve into the spirit of the age, looking at drawing, painting, sculpture, furniture and garden design, food, weaponry, architecture, and urban planning, as well as people. We’ll tap into the players and personalities of the times—Leonardo, Giorgione, Raphael, Sofonisba Anguissola, Titian—as well as Isabella d’Este, the Della Rovere, and the Medici families who sought to shape their immediate world through power, imagination, and the artistry of their times. Students will conduct close readings, originate research, formulate essays, and in an effort to gain insight into the Renaissance state of mind reconstruct a piece of history with a hands-on laboratory project and a small, original artwork of their own. Prerequisite: AH210, or one course from Ancient Civilizations category. This course can be taken concurrently with Medieval Worlds in Motion category.

As author Giuseppe Mazzotta reminds us, “Imagination is the weapon of the poet.” It’s an old idea, and, wielded properly, the imagination can nudge us from where we are in the present, ferry us back to the past, and transport us into the future. But imagination has its faults according to Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), exiled poet of the late Middle Ages. Imagination or visionariness (the ability or likeliness to see visions) as Dante found out, confounds us when we attempt to describe visions with words. Vision exceeds language and the power of description. In the Divine Comedy, Dante laments how speech is unable to contain the plenitude of what he envisions; that not everything can be elucidated with language. In this sense, the Comedy is a way of thinking about the relationship between vision and language, and equally important, the cultural traction inherent in images. People had deep imaginations in Medieval culture, and artists and illustrators were there to bring those visions to life. Upon examination of the nightmares populating the poem’s Inferno—the fallen Lucifer, serpent-covered Furies, loathsome Harpies, deceitful Geryon, as well as classical figures from the Purgatorio and the crystalline beings populating the Paradiso, all made famous by Botticelli, Bosch, Blake, Doré, and Sandow Birk, among others—we’ll consider the ethics of Medieval Italian culture symbolized by such vivid imagery, but we’ll also prepare ourselves for what the poem is really about: a love so perfect it moves the sun and stars. We’ll also ask what we think Dante was doing in the writing of it. Did he write a romance? An epic tale? Autobiography? A novel? Novel, as in new, marvelous, strange, unexpected? The answer is Yes. The Divine Comedy is all these things, including a remarkably styled circle of knowledge, or an “encyclopedia” in the old sense—knowledge gathering that begins with a point of departure, then takes us along the road of learning to finally return to its original starting point—a point now seen from a different perspective, with a new understanding. In short, Dante uses all the tools of the Liberal Arts to come to know the world around him and to construct a poem of hope, peace, exile, and a story of desire as a witnessing to his imagination, his visions, and to his understanding of love. Prerequisites: None. 3 units.

For centuries, earthly creatures, charmed animals and otherworldly beings conjured by artisans, magicians, folklorists, natural philosophers, and physicians, have inspired both wonder and delight as well as revulsion, alarm, and terror in the hearts and minds of otherwise thinking persons. Considering beasts and beings of all sorts, both earthly and divine, this course seeks to investigate the origin stories of such creatures and inquire as to what motivations compel an individual or society to conjure such creatures. From the Classical World to Medieval Scandinavia, from the Americas to Slavic Europe, this course explores how art and monstrosity intersected in the cultural imagination to both delightful and devastating effect. In consultation with a range of visual and literary primary materials, including the Great Chain of Being, the Malleus Maleficarum (the Witches Hammer), and Della Porta’s How We May Produce New and Strange Monsters, students will conduct close readings, originate research, formulate essays and create original artwork of their own in an effort to gain insight into earlier states of mind as well as open avenues into wholly new creations. All readings for the course will be in English, although international and graduate students may be asked to give additional reports on texts written in other languages.

What happens when we are forcibly removed from the safety of our home, our family, our community, profession, church, or perhaps even removed from what we thought was the safety of our ideas or beliefs? Dismaying as this sounds, for the Renaissance thinker, exile was a source of profound alarm, particularly since there were few ways to restore one’s previous life or reputation after the fact. “Exile” is a concept we’re not often confronted with today, but during the Early Modern period this type of action was frighteningly common. One way to survive the state of exile was to mine the recesses of the imagination—a method which propelled some of the greatest thinkers in the western tradition to leave the quotidian behind and discover new stories, new theories, new inventions, and new planets. From the diverse region of Tuscany, four remarkable artists and thinkers emerged—Dante, Leonardo, Artemisia, and Galileo—who made their most important cultural contributions while living in states of profound displacement. From roughly 1300 to 1700, the lives of these Italians found commonalities against the backdrop of the city of Florence, made relevant, splendid, and dangerous by the rising Medici family. As thinkers in exile, students will study and live in this environment. We’ll visit major sites and museums that bring our lectures to life, plus make day excursions to Pisa, Siena, San Miniato al Monte, and Pistoia. We’ll complete projects in fresco and traditional Italian cooking, plus sketch live animals on site. Pre-requisite: Interview meeting. Art History or Liberal Arts credit.

Largely obscured from the history of “feminist” art, Latin American artists such as Ana Mendieta, Yolanda Andrade, Sylvia Palacios Whitman, Marisol, and Marie Orensanz, among many others, were crucial to the development of contemporary art in the twentieth century. Active in Latin America and the United States during a key period in this dual-continental history, many of these artists may not have considered themselves feminists per se, but their work can be interpreted in relation to feminist art theory. This course examines selected issues,movements, and artists of global importance from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. We will explore ways in which themes such as repression parallel those of liberation and how women, whose experiences were shaped by violence, censorship, and exile, developed an aesthetic that addressed body politics, marginalization, and repressive regimes. What can we learn from women whose legacies continue to be relevant today? Through text, video, and images exploring these histories, students will produce written responses and formulate a final research project based on one of the organizing themes of this class.

Los Tres Grandes explores the Mexican Muralist movement of the 1920s from its beginnings under the post-Mexican Revolution government to its present-day influence on Chicanx and Street artists. Utilizing a curricular framework centered on Los Tres Grandes (the big three), Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, our studies will then expand to include further influential figures such as Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo among others. Students will be required to demonstrate their understanding of the material through visual (art) projects, a formal writing assignment, and participation in class discussions. Prerequisite: One course from Ancient Civilizations category and one course from either Medieval Worlds or Renaissance/Early Modern category.

This course examines a diverse array of art created by different ethnic groups in West Africa from pre-colonial through the 19th century and beyond. Through the lens of both spiritual and cultural traditions, we will consider a wide range of styles and materials, and ask how meaning is derived from objects and practices, keeping in mind particular challenges that emerge when studying art that is both permanent and impermanent. The significance of oral traditions will be studied, as well as the roles of ancestor spirits, mythical creatures, divination and initiation rites, and how music, dance, and masking function in establishing power, status, political, and social conventions. Objects created exclusively for performative and ritual uses, art in service to royalty, sculpture, utilitarian objects, architecture, performance, and the body as subject and site of adornment will form the core of our studies. Materials studied will include metal, wood, textiles, mud, ivory, beads, bone, dung, and blood/bodily fluids. While important, this class does not intend to cover present-day political crises, border disputes, or changing social constructs in West Africa. This course is conducted with instructor led lecture, film, guided reading and discussions, student presentations based on independent research, and other exploratory exercises. A visit to the UCLA Fowler Museum is required for this class. Students will experience textile creation and the development of personal symbolism in a hands-on project. Prerequisite: One course from Ancient Civilizations category and one course from either Medieval Worlds or Renaissance/Early Modern category.

This course will examine the relationship between visuality and technology as expressed by photographers of the 19th- and 20th-centuries. Materials and readings for the course will focus on the roles and development of photography primarily in India, Afghanistan, China, and Japan, and the alterations it engendered in the perception and depiction of the world. We will examine the use of photography in the service of journalism and news reporting, ethnographic studies and geographical awareness, science, propaganda, tourism, entertainment, and of course, art. Beginning with Western photographers’ images of a distant “Orient,” this course will conclude with the uses of photography in contemporary Asian art, looking particularly at themes of national and personal identities as well as commentary on traditions. Students are required to do class readings and engage actively in class discussion, complete two papers, submit one individual project related to the course apparatus, and make a final presentation. Projects deriving from other time periods or regions are welcome, for example, photography from Imperial Russia or the Ottoman Empire. Prerequisite: One course from Ancient Civilizations category and one course from either Medieval Worlds or Renaissance/Early Modern category.

Los Angeles, not known for being a bastion of either culture or liberalism during the early twentieth century, was—for a time—both a cradle of high-modernism and a refuge from the charnel house of European fascism. Icons such as poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht, Marxist philosopher Theodor Adorno, noir filmmakers Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder, composers Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinski, novelists Thomas Mann and Aldous Huxley, and architects Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler, many of whom had fled the Nazis, made their homes in Los Angeles. In this course, we will examine the lives and major works of the many refugees and exiles who transformed LA’s intellectual and aesthetic culture in the 1940s, as well as look closely at three critical aspects of their enduring legacy. First, the transnational exchange of aesthetic and intellectual history between Europe and the United States; Second, the effects of fascism on aesthetics and its implications; and Third, the degree to which the creative output of European émigrés provided survival strategies in the wake of such genocidal and illiberal ideologies. What, in other words, can we glean from Brecht’s poetry, from Adorno’s “reflections from damaged life,” from Fritz Lang’s deeply expressionistic noir films, from Huxley’s Brave New World? Through the consumption of text and images representing this history students will create a project utilizing this aesthetic and intellectual history of art (and artists) as a means of strategizing survival in today’s climate. Prerequisite: One course from Ancient Civilizations category and one course from either Medieval Worlds or Renaissance/Early Modern category.

Since 1954 when the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the people of the United States have been engaged in a series of “culture wars” concerned primarily with identity—particularly race and gender—and a grappling with its morally ambiguous past. This deep and alienating sense of polarization and clashing of identities—some voluntary and others forced upon us—has only intensified over the years, coming to an explosive climax in the chaotic and tragic years of 2020-21. Everything from the anti-mask movement and “cancel culture” to the fate of Confederate Statues and defunding the police falls under the rubric of a longstanding, and increasingly tribal culture war in the United States. In this course we will look at the broad historical context of the 1960s from which these battles emerged and trace them through the present. In doing so, we will pay close attention to the ways in which the expansion of rights, freedoms, and liberties for historically marginalized groups has elicited conservative reactions seeking to roll back those gains through an often sectarian vision of American culture and history. This course will focus on flashpoints or sites of contestation—Roe v. Wade, the Oklahoma City Bombing, the rise of “Alt-Right” groups such as the Proud Boys, recent controversies about “Big Tech” censorship, the fate of civil rights, Black Lives Matter protests, and the violent denouement of the Trump Administration. Students will produce written responses to the readings and also formulate a final project determining the role of art and the artist in meeting this particular historical moment. Prerequisite: One course from Ancient Civilizations category and one course from either Medieval Worlds or Renaissance/Early Modern category.

This course will introduce students to current theoretical and real-world applications of exhibition design operating today in museums, galleries, and contemporary art spaces, both real and virtual. Through weekly in-person exploration of cultural sites in and around Orange County and Los Angeles, students will observe and critique aesthetic and practical decisions made by professional curators and exhibition designers, with particular emphases on structural layout, cultural themes, the curation and arrangement of objects, and how artworks interact with one another in outdoor and indoor spaces. In doing so, students will sharpen their perceptive skills, strengthen their discourse specific to the fields of art production, curation, collecting, and museum studies, and pursue theoretical examples of design brought to life within the rich artistic landscape of Southern California. Students produce written journal entries, participate in discussions, produce directed reading responses to museum catalogues, articles, and other didactic material, as well as participate in oral presentations and collaborative hands-on projects. Prerequisite: One course from Ancient Civilizations category and one course from either Medieval Worlds or Renaissance/Early Modern category.

Set primarily in Paris, this course traces the development and public reception of modern art in Europe from the mid-19th century through the early years of the 20th century. The main focus of this course is the Post-Impressionists, artists working in diverse styles during the years 1880-1900. In order to better understand the radical approaches to art undertaken by these artists, the course will include a brief investigation of the cultural, political, and artistic trends which led up to the period known as Post-Impressionism. Thus, students will gain familiarity with the major art movements of the 18th and 19th centuries: Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism. This course will be framed by the theories of “bohemian” poet Charles Baudelaire, whose close friendship with many artists helped shaped the trajectory of modern art. Encircled by other likeminded writers, these artists spurred the creative process and championed one another. Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Munch, Mucha, and Klimt are among the artists examined in this class. Through close analysis of the artists’ own words, students will explore the psyche of the modern artist as they sought to create an expressive art imbued with feeling, originality, and innovation. This course requires a museum visit, independent research, analysis of primary sources (artist letters and essays), and the creation of an artwork related to course content.

Nostalgia is notoriously amorphous. Is it conservative or liberal. Is it political. Or does it align more with culture and aesthetics. Is it a psychological phenomenon that is confined to the plane of the individual. Or is it collective. Is it an industry unto itself, responsible for a relentless stream of remakes and reboots that appear on Netflix and in theaters or is it that which animates very real and vivid memories that can never truly be recovered. In truth, it is all these things and more. Nostalgia blurs the boundaries between politics and aesthetics, between the realm of individual reflection and collective calls for restoration. Discovered by a Swiss doctor in the seventeenth century, nostalgia was at first a literal disease (akin to homesickness) that afflicted soldiers and servants made to serve far from home. The concept migrated, first geographically and then metaphorically, but it has always maintained a deeply sensual component. This course is designed in such a way that we will trace the “career” of nostalgia through three key realms—Politics, Culture, and Nature—in order to demystify and typologize nostalgia so that we may differentiate between the reflectivity of “modernist nostalgia” and the commodified pastiche of retro that the culture industry offers as a pallid substitute for the past. In the end, it is important that we become familiar with how nostalgia works on us and how we, as artists, thinkers, and creatives use nostalgia as a conceptual framework for seeing, analyzing, and representing the past as more than just kitsch, or a cramped politics of looking back toward a “simpler” past, or the myth of an Edenic and untouched natural environment. In this course we will read across disciplines, authors such as Svetlana Boym, Frederic Jameson, Walter Benjamin, Susan Stewart, and William Cronon. These readings, by and large, will provide the bulk of our intellectual understanding while we will take time in class to discuss the contemporary contours of nostalgia. Students will produce written responses to the readings and also formulate a final essay that will, instead of just summarizing the reading and discussions, ponder the future of nostalgia. Prerequisite: One course from Ancient Civilizations category and one course from either Medieval Worlds or Renaissance/Early Modern category.

From the birth of photography to stop motion to film, this course explores the history of cinematic technology and its intersection with the art movements and cultural shifts of the late-19th to early-20th centuries. Pioneers of Light and Form: Art Nouveau and the Birth of Film introduces the dynamic movements of Expressionism and Art Nouveau alongside the pioneering era of film to discover how advances in technology and the shock of world events shaped emerging artistic and aesthetic values. Through the examination of photography, film, artwork, fashion, architecture, and home goods, students will gain an understanding of the roles art and cinema played within the burgeoning modern lifestyle of the late 1800s through the Roaring Twenties.

This course considers the history of art produced in the Americas from the mid-1940s to the present, with special emphasis on the artistic contributions of Afro-Latinx, Indigenous, and women artists. Over the course of this semester, we will explore a variety of media including sculpture, photography, installation, architecture, performance, textile, painting, film, graphic and mural art created in Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Cuba and Chile, among other countries. This course will interrogate the idea of “center and periphery” and reevaluate the concept of “Latin American Art” through readings, in-class discussions, museum/gallery visits, and the analyses of selected art forms and artists such as Alfredo Jaar’s billboard A Logo for America installed in Times Square in New York in 1984; Doris Salcedo’s 2003 Untitled public installation consisting of 1,500 chairs stacked between two buildings in Istanbul; and Sandra Monterroso’s video artwork Coloring the strands/Bleaching the strands produced in 2011, among many others. Some of the themes that will be discussed in this course include gender, sexuality, nationality and identity, modernity and coloniality, and political activism.

Since 1954 when the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which sought to desegregate American schools, the people of the United States have been engaged in what some have come to call the “culture wars” in which even the most intimate things have become subject to politicization: sex, marriage, language, education, spiritual life, housing patterns, gun ownership, art, music, movies, literature, media, sports, access to bathrooms. Everything from abortion and bussing in schools to Gamergate and Drag Queen Story Hour falls under the rubric of a longstanding, and increasingly tribal culture war in the United States. In this course we will look at the broad historical context – segregation, Cold War, Vietnam, the Summer of Love – from which these battles emerged and trace them through the present, paying particularly close attention to the ways in which the legal expansion of rights, freedoms, and liberties for historically marginalized groups often elicited conservative reactions seeking to roll back those gains. Through open discussion, the politicization and policing of everything as a means of reasserting a traditionalist, and often sectarian, vision of culture on an increasingly liberal (and liberated) secular society will be examined. This course will focus on flashpoints or sites of contestation—Roe v. Wade, the reaction to the artist Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ (1987), the Oklahoma City Bombing, the North Carolina “Bathroom Bill” and many others – via contemporaneous media coverage and analysis. Students will produce written responses to the readings and also formulate a final project (with a written component) urgent to the awareness of policing and politicization of contemporary culture. (Satisfies Social Science)

The unique opportunity to learn other cultures through lived experience is something you’ll remember all your life. This 3-unit course abroad is an intensive faculty-led summer program where through the study of literature, the visual arts, architecture, garden, and urban design, you’ll gain cross-cultural perspectives, develop language abilities, and marvel at how the Humanities come alive when experienced first-hand, outside the classroom. Combining novels, memoirs, poetry, the history of art & design, and plein-air practice & techniques, this program now in its fourth decade, has led students to France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic to study and experience world-class cities, monuments, and museums, intimate towns and artist ateliers, as well as restorative natural seascapes and gardens. The program typically runs three weeks following Spring semester. (Satisfies Non-Western Cultural Experience OR Liberal Arts Elective OR Language Arts OR Literature)