Note: This is the 2019–2020 eCalendar. Update the year in your browser's URL bar for the most recent version of this page, or .
Program Requirements
Required Course (3 credits)
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ARTH 305 Methods in Art History (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : An introduction to the main methodologies used in the analysis of the work of art: formalism, iconography/iconology, semiotics, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism and postcolonialism.
Terms: Winter 2020
Instructors: Skelly, Julia (Winter)
Prerequisite: Any 200-level Art History course, or by permission of the instructor.
Restriction: Restricted to students in the Major, Minor, Honours and Joint Honours programs in Art History.
Complementary Courses (33 credits)
33 complementary courses chosen from among departmental course offerings as follows:
-A maximum of 12 credits may be at the 200 level.
-A minimum of 3 credits must be at the 400 level or above (excluding ARTH 490 Museum Internship).
Note: Courses in studio practice cannot be counted toward the Major concentration.
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ARTH 200 Introduction to Art History 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Selected introductory survey of the history of art.
Terms: Summer 2020
Instructors: Skelly, Julia (Summer)
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ARTH 202 Introduction to Contemporary Art (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : A critical survey of contemporary art and theory, from 1945 to the present focusing on pivotal issues such as anti-war politics, feminism, sexual diversity, AIDS awareness, discourse of multiculturalism, debates about modernism and postmodernism, post colonialism, technology, and globalization.
Terms: Summer 2020
Instructors: Skelly, Julia (Summer)
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ARTH 204 Introduction to Medieval Art and Architecture (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Surveys the arts from late Antiquity to the fourteenth century in Western Europe. Focuses on the body and space to introduce artistic and architectural concepts, practices, and styles from the late Roman, Byzantine and Carolingian empires to monastic and royal patronage of the French Kings.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Hilsdale, Cecily (Fall)
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ARTH 205 Introduction to Modern Art (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : The course is an introduction to the modern period in art history which begins around 1750. It examines the development in both painting and sculpture and relates to changes in the social and political climate of the times.
Terms: Fall 2019, Winter 2020
Instructors: Skelly, Julia (Fall) Skelly, Julia (Winter)
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ARTH 207 Introduction Early Modern Art 1400-1700 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Surveys visual culture of early modern Europe across various social spheres and geographical locations.
Terms: Winter 2020
Instructors: Vanhaelen, Engeline (Winter)
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ARTH 209 Introduction to Ancient Art and Architecture (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Survey of ancient art and architecture: pre-historic Europe, ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Focus is on issues of political power, gender, sexuality, race, the formation of individual and group identities, and the relation between the body and social space.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 215 Introduction to East Asian Art (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Introductory survey of some of the major developments in the visual arts of Japan, China, and Korea. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity of artistic traditions in East Asia and the intersections among these traditions.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Hong, Jeehee (Fall)
Restriction: Not open to students taking or who have taken EAST 215.
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ARTH 223 Introduction Italian Renaissance Art 1300-1500 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Surveys the changing role of the artwork in Renaissance Italy in its social, political, and religious contexts.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Henry, Chriscinda Claire (Fall)
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ARTH 226 Introduction to Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Paintings, prints, sculpture and architecture produced in Europe in the 'long' eighteenth century, with an emphasis on major artists. Themes include the teaching of art and its display, the emergence of 'publics' for art, and eighteenth-century aesthetics.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken ARTH 334.
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ARTH 300 Canadian Art to 1914 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Canadian art from the pre-contact period through the colonial and nation-building centuries until the onset of the First World War. Emphasis will be placed on the diverse cultural influences that have been brought into contact in Canada.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Nelson, Charmaine (Fall)
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ARTH 302 Aspects of Canadian Art (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : An examination of selected subjects relevant to a specific period of art in Canada.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 310 Postcolonialism (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Examines selected art historians who respond to postcolonial theorists and analyse how paintings, sculpture, buildings, and visual culture participated in or resisted European imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 314 The Medieval City (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Towns and cities in the Middle Ages as architectural entities, their urban planning and development; main building types, profane and ecclesiastical: castle, defence works, town halls, houses, cathedrals, churches and monasteries; the role architecture played in forming a society.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 315 Indigenous Art and Culture (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : An examination of the work of selected First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists in Canada.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Bell, Gloria (Fall)
Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken or are taking CANS 315 or have taken "Aboriginal Art and Culture" as a CANS or ARTH topics course.
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ARTH 319 Introduction to Manga (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : This course provides an introduction to the history, aesthetics, and social impact of manga, or Japanese comics, exploring production, distribution and reception within Japan as well as transnational fan communitites, translation, and adaptation (to television, animation, and cinema).
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 321 Visual Culture of the Dutch Republic (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Examination of the functions of visual culture in merchant capitalist society, and the changing status of art, artists and patrons after the Protestant reformation. A wide range of visual imagery (from Rembrandt and Vermeer to popular culture) will be linked with 17th-century economic, historic, religious, colonial, scientific and literary developments.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Vanhaelen, Engeline (Fall)
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ARTH 323 Realism and Impressionism (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : The course is an investigation into Realism and Impressionism, the principal artistic movements between ca. 1840 - 1880.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 324 Sixteenth-Century Art in Italy (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Investigation of the arts during a pivotal century of conflict and an expanding image of the world. In this early modern context of state formation and religious reform, the course focuses on patronage of the Italian courts, the rising status of the artist, and new uses for visual imagery.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 325 Visual Culture Renaissance Venice (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Distinctive visual culture in the context of Venice's singular topography and reputation for licentiousness and toleration.
Terms: Winter 2020
Instructors: Henry, Chriscinda Claire (Winter)
Prerequisite: one 200-level Art History course recommended, or by permission of the instructor.
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ARTH 326 Studies in Manuscript and Print Culture (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Positing a dynamic relationship between manuscript and print culture and social experience, this course focuses on new forms and uses for printed imagery before the electronic age. Issues to be addressed include: the relationship between word and image, reading and viewing practices and visual and textual transmission, the history of the book and the consequences of technological change.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: one 200-level Art History course or by permission of the instructor.
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ARTH 334 Eighteenth Century European Art (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : A study of European painting and sculpture within the climate of social, economic, philosophical and political change in 18th-century Europe. The focus is on France, Italy, Germany and England from the last days of the Baroque to the Age of Revolution.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken ARTH 226.
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ARTH 335 Art in the Age of Revolution (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : The course deals primarily with European painting from the late 18th to the middle of the 19th century. Emphasis is placed on the relation of art to the political, social and intellectual transformations of the time. Major figures, such as David, Goya, Canova, Friedrich and Delacroix are considered.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 336 Art Now (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Recent art practices from the 1980's to the present - installation art, new media arts (video, digital and internet art), recent developments in performance, photography, and painting. Introduces students to the key fields of research of current art: postmodernism, representation, visuality, identity, embodiment, sexuality, memory, (bio)technology, intermedia, and globalization.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: One 200-level Art History course or by permission of the instructor.
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ARTH 337 Modern Art and Theory to WWI (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : The beginnings of modern art in Europe. Major figures and movements from Cézanne to Picasso are considered.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 338 Modern Art and Theory: WWI - WWII (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : An examination of the historical avant-garde (dada, soviet constructionism, and surrealism), Duchamp, and abstraction up to Abstract Expressionism. Examines how post-WWI art practices negotiate the intertwining of aesthetics and revolution, art and mass culture, modernism and modernity, imagined and material space, gender and sexuality, horizontality and verticality.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: one 200-level Art History course recommended, or by permission of the instructor.
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ARTH 339 Critical Issues - Contemporary Art (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : A critical examination of contemporary art from Abstract Expressionism to Pop art, Minimalism, Conceptual art, Land art, and Body art. Focuses on the development and critique of modernism, the dematerialization or art, the blurring of art and popular culture, the artist as shaman, temporality, and aesthetic redefinitions of subjectivity.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Ross, Christine (Fall)
Prerequisite: one 200-level Art History course recommended, or by permission of the instructor.
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ARTH 340 The Gothic Cathedral (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Prerequisite: reading knowledge of French.) An introduction to the Gothic cathedral: architecture, sculpture, and stained glass. Also considered is its genesis, its construction and its historical environment. Although main emphasis will be on French cathedrals of the 12th and 13th centuries, their development in England, Germany and Spain will also be represented.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 351 Vision and Visuality in Art History (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : An interdisciplinary investigation on how works of art construct the visual experience and on how they are received by the viewer.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 352 Feminism in Art and Art History (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : A consideration of the impact of feminism on recent art history, focusing on the examination of gender constructions in art and theory.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 353 Selected Topics in Art History 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Study of a special field in the History of Art and Architecture taught by a visiting scholar.
Terms: Winter 2020
Instructors: Nelson, Charmaine (Winter)
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ARTH 354 Selected Topics Art History 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Study of a special field in the History of Art and Communications.
Terms: Fall 2019, Winter 2020
Instructors: Scott, Braden (Fall) Straw, William O (Winter)
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ARTH 356 Modern & Contemporary Chinese Art (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Examination of modern Chinese art and visual culture from the 1920's to the present. Emphasis will be placed on the formation of the artistic avant-garde in the 20th century and its relation to socialist and post-socialist mass culture.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Restrictions: Not open to students taking or who have taken EAST 356.
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ARTH 357 Early Chinese Art (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Survey of Chinese art and visual culture during the pre-imperial and early imperial periods (1500BCE-900CE). A wide range of visual images and media (painting, architecture, inscription, funerary art) will be examined in the historical context of the rise and development of the empire.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: One 200-level Art History or East Asian Studies course, or by permission of instructor.
Restriction: Not open to students taking or who have taken EAST 357.
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ARTH 358 Later Chinese Art (960-1911) (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Survey of art and visual culture in later imperial China from Sorlg to Qing dynasties. A broad range of media (e.g. painting, calligraphy, print, architecture) will be examined to explore the development of literati aesthetics and its intersections with the arts of the court, the temple, and the marketplace.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: One 200-level Art History or East Asian Studies course, or by permission of Instructor.
Restriction: Not open to students who are taking or have taken EAST 358.
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ARTH 360 Studies in the Photographic (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : The course provides an introduction to the history of photography while considering its relation to major movements in the history of painting from the time of the invention of photography, in 1839, to the present day.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 366 Italian Renaissance Art 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Renaissance Florence was a centre of developments in painting, sculpture and architecture from 1300-1600. This course examines the production of art and its role within the context of the city's changing social and political history. Study in Florence enables this urban visual culture to be studied on site.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Summer
Must be taken concurrently with ARTH 367.
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ARTH 367 Italian Renaissance Art 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Exploring art history of Renaissance Florence, focusing on the role played by the Medici in fostering the arts as patrons. Study of the development of Florentine art and architecture against complex social and economic forces that shaped humanist culture and Renaissance taste.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
This course will be given in Florence, Italy, as part of McGill's Summer Study in Italy Program. For specific details about the course content, please consult Prof. B. Wilson, Dept. of Art History and Communication.
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ARTH 368 Studies in Northern Renaissance Art 01 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 411 Canadian Art and Race (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Examination of impact of colonialism on Canadian art and visual culture from contact to the present. Emphasis will be placed on role of racial marginalization and privilege in issues of cultural access, representation, production and reception.
Terms: Winter 2020
Instructors: Nelson, Charmaine (Winter)
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ARTH 420 Selected Topics in Art and Architecture 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : An advanced study of selected topics in the History of Art and Architecture.
Terms: Fall 2019, Winter 2020
Instructors: Hunter, Mary (Fall) Ross, Christine (Winter)
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ARTH 421 Selected Topics in Art and Architecture 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Selected topics in art and architecture. Topics vary by year.
Terms: Fall 2019, Winter 2020
Instructors: Hong, Jeehee (Fall) Bell, Gloria (Winter)
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ARTH 422 Selected Topics in Art and Architecture 3 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Selected topics in art and architecture. Topics vary by year.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Makarova, Evgeniya (Fall)
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ARTH 425 Arts of Medieval Spain (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : This course examines the arts of medieval Spain from the late antique 'barbarian' invasions through the fifteenth century. Within this broad span, particular attention will be paid to key themes, including historiography, the centrality of pilgrimage for shaping artistic practice, and the concept of 'convivencia' among Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: Any 300-level course or permission of instructor.
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ARTH 430 Concepts - Discipline Art History (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Methodologically focused examination of critical concepts for art historical study.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 435 Early Modern Visual Culture (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : A study of the works of Rubens, Van dick and Velasquez.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: one 300-level Art History course recommended, or by permission of the instructor.
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ARTH 440 The Body and Visual Culture (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : An examination of modern and contemporary redefinitions of corporeality in art, theory and visual culture. The course focuses on the dissemination of the body in the context of late capitalism and ongoing developments of image, information and biotechnologies. Interdisciplinary perspective establishing a dialogue between art and science.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken ARTH 510.
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ARTH 447 Independent Research Course (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Supervised independent research on an approved topic.
Terms: Fall 2019, Winter 2020
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
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ARTH 457 Brushwork in Chinese Painting (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : The seminar takes an in-depth look at the function and meaning of the brushwork in traditional Chinese painting. Analysis of paintings will be combined to close readings of theoretical texts in translation.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: At least one EAST or ARTH course or permission of instructor.
Restriction: Not open to students taking or who have taken EAST 457.
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ARTH 466 Studies in Italian Renaissance Art 01 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
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ARTH 473 Studies in 17th and Early 18th Century Art 04 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Studies in 17th and early 18th century art.
Terms: Winter 2020
Instructors: Vanhaelen, Engeline (Winter)
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ARTH 474 Studies in Later 18th and 19th Century Art 03 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Studies in later 18th and early 19th-century art.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: Any 200-level Art History course or permission of instructor
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ARTH 479 Studies: Modern Art and Theoretical Problems 04 (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Studies in modern art and theoretical problems.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Prerequisite: Any 200-level Art History course or permission of instructor
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ARTH 490 Museum Internship (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : The Museum Internship is intended to provide direct exposure to museum collections and practical experience in the museum setting for students interested in museum professions. Individually designed in consultation with the professor in charge of internships and the appropriate personnel at one of the Montreal museums.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Henry, Chriscinda Claire (Fall)
Note: In addition to architectural courses given by the Department, program students are encouraged to consider courses given in the School of Architecture and the departments of East Asian Studies and Philosophy which may, upon consultation with the Department, be regarded as fulfilling part of the requirements.
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ARCH 250 Architectural History 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Architecture : The study of architecture and cities from ancient times to 1750.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Castro, Ricardo L (Fall)
(3-0-6)
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ARCH 251 Architectural History 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Architecture : The study of North American architecture and cities from 1950 to the present.
Terms: Winter 2020
Instructors: Adams, Annmarie (Winter)
(2-1-6)
Prerequisite: ARCH 250
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EAST 303 Current Topics: Chinese Studies 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Asian Language & Literature : Consideration of important issues in Chinese Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Murray, Daniel (Fall)
Fall
Restriction: Departmental approval required
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PHIL 336 Aesthetics (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An introduction to issues central to aesthetic theory; the nature of aesthetic judgment, perception of the aesthetic object, the nature of the art object.
Terms: Fall 2019
Instructors: Davies, David (Fall)
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PHIL 436 Aesthetics 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An advanced discussion of issues in aesthetics.
Terms: Winter 2020
Instructors: Davies, David (Winter)
Prerequisite: PHIL 336 or written permission of the instructor
