Course variations

Course summary

The discipline of art history is object-based cultural history. It is founded on the premise that artifacts embody, reflect, and shape the beliefs and values of the persons who made, commissioned, and used them. Unlike exclusively text-based historical disciplines, art history documents and interprets changes in human society by taking works of art and other objects of material culture as its primary sources. But since these objects can only be fully understood within the social, economic, political, and religious contexts in which they were produced and used, art history further requires the critical analysis and interpretation of other historical sources to illuminate these contexts. The concentration must include nine upper-level courses at least one course in each of the four historical periods -classical, medieval, renaissance/baroque, and modern - and at least one course in the areas of either African or Asian art.

Program modules

The courses include ARHA174-01 Taking Spaces/Making Places: American Artists and the Landscape, ARHA181-01 Mughal India: Introduction to the Practice of Art History, ARHA201-01 Introduction to Archaeology, ARHA203-01 Survey of Greek Archaeology, ARHA213-01 Monastic Utopias: Architecture and Monastic Life to the 13th Century, ARHA280-01 Islamic Art and Architecture, ARHA281-01 The Traditional Arts of China, ARHA299-01 African History and Art, ARHA358-01 Style in the Visual Arts: Theories and Interpretations, ARHA360-01 Museum Studies, ARHA363-01 Fluxus: Collectivism and Intermedia Art in the 1960s and 1970s, ARHA151-01 European Architecture to 1750, ARHA180-01 Great Traditions of Asian Art, ARHA225-01 Art and Society in Ancient Pompeii, ARHA253-01 Contemporary Art: 1960 to the Present, ARHA255-01 Anthropology of Contemporary Chinese Art, ARHA267-01 From Assimilation to Self Expression: Afro-American Art Since 1865, ARHA268-01 Portuguese Expansion to Africa and the Atlantic World, 1440-1640, ARHA288-01 Temples and Shrines of Japan, ARHA290-01 Mahabharata and Ramayana: The Sanskrit Epics and Indian Visual Culture, ARHA348-01 Frank Lloyd Wright: Myth and Fact, ARHA381-01 Relic and Image: The Archaeology and Social History of Indian Buddhism.

Entry requirement for international students

Students to be considered for admission are expected to have a strong secondary school preparation in English, social science, science, mathematics, and a foreign language. Students who are studying at foreign schools who have taken national examinations for university admission (GCSEs, ‘A’ levels, Abitur, International Baccalaureate, etc.) are expected to have achieved superior results. All students are required to take the SAT Reasoning Test of the College Board or the ACT. Also those students whose native language is not English are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), or alternatively, the academic modules of the International English Language Testing System examination (IELTS) with a score close to 100 on the Internet-based TOEFL test, or a 7 on the IELTS. A high score of 650 or better on the critical reading section of the SAT may also demonstrate the necessary English language proficiency.

Qualification

Major

Awarding body

Wesleyan University

Department name

Department of Art and Art History