Graduate Courses

Core Courses

HAVC 201A: Introduction to Visual Studies and Critical Theory (Fall)
An introduction to the visual studies discipline through a range of discourses and approaches that have proven productive for practitioners of visual studies, in diverse thematic foci and cultural contexts. The course features intensive readings and student-led discussions. Students work on three short papers on topics of their choice that relate to the broader issues discussed in class. Required seminar for all first-year visual studies graduate students. N. Furtado

HAVC 202: Introduction to Visual Studies Methods (Winter) 
Examines research methods and approaches in a variety of materials, cultures, periods and subjects that are relevant in the discipline of Visual Studies. Discussions focus on research and readings by individual VS faculty who share practices, experiences and advice. Required seminar for all first-year visual studies graduate students. A. Narath

HAVC 204: Grant Writing, Pedagogy, and Professional Development (TBD) 
Students work on grants for educational support, dissertation funding, or both; learn about effective, accessible, and equity-minded TA- and GSI-related pedagogy (including developing course content, logistics, assessment, and grading criteria); and cultivate professional skills in relation to the publication process, CV preparation, and gaining employment in academia and beyond. K. Polzak

Electives

HAVC 220: Hair in the Arts and Visual Culture of Asia and Beyond (Fall)

This graduate seminar focuses on human (and non human) hair as material for artistic creation, sight of power, race, gender, sexuality and the body in the arts and visual culture of Asia and beyond. Due to the export of cheap labor, the processing and selling of both natural and synthetic hair is part of global capital flow. This course is broadly designed to welcome graduate students from all academic disciplines (and inclusive of cultures beyond Asia) to participate and to engage with this theme in their respective area of research. Participants will be asked to contribute critical readings on this topic in their respective research area to the assigned weekly readings on the syllabus before the meeting of the seminar. This seminar is intentionally designed as a workshop, thus allowing participants to share critical readings and perspectives on this theme. B. Ly

HAVC 245: Race and Representation: Antiracist Theories and Poetics in Art and Visual Culture (Winter)

How have antiracist artists and visual culture practitioners developed sophisticated and intersecting vocabularies for engaging with body, language, geography and power? How do their works create a critical, visual poetics? Open to all grad students, the course will draw on an interdisciplinary selection of texts from art history, cultural studies, post-colonial theory, and literature. We will explore relations among language, image and poetic practice with an emphasis on culturally diverse, hybrid forms. To enliven our discussions, students will be invited to contribute critical readings from their respective research areas. J. Gonzalez

HAVC 241: Decolonizing Nature: Contemporary Art and Ecology (Spring)

What role do cultural practitioners—artists, activists, new media programmers, architects, theorists—play in relation to today’s manifold ecological crises? This graduate-level seminar considers the diverse ways visual culture intersects with environment in a global framework, exploring subjects such as the financialization of nature, climate refugees, rights of nature, and Indigenous ecologies. It examines experimental documentary practice in video and photography, speculative ecological thought, and socially-engaged collaboration, in terms of how they confront the violence and biopolitics of climate change, destruction of ecosystems, and global warming in the age of the Anthropocene. T. Demos

HAVC 297: Independent Study

Independent study or research for graduate students. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. May be repeated for credit. The Staff