ARAD 3100 Principles and Practices of Arts Administration

Garcia

Introductory survey of principles and practices of arts administration, as the crossroads of art and audience.

ARAD 3559 Arts Leadership and Cultural Resilience

Garcia

This course explores how artists and cultural leaders shape thriving communities through visionary, inclusive, and sustainable practices. Bridging traditional arts administration with community-based approaches, this course introduces students to leadership models that are both innovative and grounded in cultural knowledge. We examine how the arts can drive public engagement, support environmental and social well-being, and inform policymaking and civic decision-making. Through applied projects, guest speakers, and collaborative learning, students will build practical strategies for leading impactful and resilient arts initiatives across a variety of settings.

ARTH 1505 Art and Money

Fordham

This introduction to the history of art examines the relationship of artistic value to economic value from the Italian Renaissance to the present. While not a uniquely Western phenomenon, the commodification of art plays a particularly important role in modern capitalist economies, and it enables us to think about the relationship of Western art to imperialism, post-colonialism, and global markets today. 

ARTH 1507 Art and Travel

Kondyli

This course examines the dynamic relationship between art and travel across cultures from ancient to modern times, exploring how journeys for trade, exploration, pilgrimage, and leisure inspired diverse artistic forms. From the sacred routes of ancient Greece and the vast Silk Road to the global rise of modern tourism, students discover how architecture, murals, sculptures, luxury objects, and souvenirs both reflected and shaped travel experiences. A diachronic perspective also reveals how travel's logistics and experiences evolved, highlighting travelers' challenges and rewards throughout history.

ARTH 2052 Ancient Egypt

Dakouri-Hild

Survey of Egyptian art and architecture (Predynastic-New Kingdom, 4000-1100 BC). The course introduces students to the great monuments and works of art, and to the beliefs that engendered them. While the focus is on pharaonic 'visual' culture, neglected 'others' (women, cross-gendered persons, foreigners, commoners) and their material/visual cultures are brought to attention to provide a nuanced understanding of Egyptian society and culture.

ARTH 2053 Greek Art and Archaeology

Kreindler

The vase painting, sculpture, architecture, and other arts of the Greeks, from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic periods. Works are studies in their social, political, and religious contexts with a special focus on archaeology and material culture.

ARTH 2451 Art in the 20th Century

Noel Robbins

Art in the 20th Century surveys visual art from 1900 to 2000 with an international perspective. Major questions and themes will be tracked across a range of media (sculpture, painting, printmaking, video art, performance art, etc), attending to the social, theoretical, and practical concerns structuring the making and reception of modern and contemporary art.

ARTH 2559 American Art and Diaspora

Oslé

This course offers a multicultural history of American art, from the second half of the twentieth century into the present. Accordingly, we will define the field of “American art” to include works created by artists of Euro-American descent as well as by Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander, African American, Middle Eastern, and Latinx artists, as well as others who have prominent ties to the United States. This course will therefore predominantly examine the visual arts created by diaspora communities across the United States. We will use artwork as a means of understanding the lived experiences of Americans from the diaspora—that is Americans of non-European descent, whose origins are from across the world. Students will study drawing, printmaking, painting, sculpture, photography, performance, and the built world.

ARTH 2861 East Asian Art

Wong

Introduces the artistic traditions of China, Korea, and Japan, from prehistoric times to the modern era. Surveys major monuments and the fundamental concepts behind their creation, and examines artistic form in relation to society, individuals, technology, and ideas.

ARTH 3591 Andy Warhol's Media

Getsy

Arguably the most influential American artist of the last century, Andy Warhol was obsessed with media. This course will track Warhol’s career & impact by examining his varying use of different artistic media & his appropriation of images & themes from mass & popular media. We will examine the larger cultural themes that Warhol slyly mediated through his work, such as capitalism, queerness, gender, ecology, authorship, & technology. 

ARTH 3591 Art, Death, and Ritual: Mysteries of Ancient China

Wong

Through the close study of well-documented archaeological sites of ancient China, which reveal ritual practices as well as astonishing grave goods that include spectacular jades and bronzes, this course explores the Chinese notions of afterlife, ancestor worship, state ritual, and immortality cults. The material culture and beliefs and practices examined form a backdrop to understanding the period when ancient Chinese civilization was formed. 

ARTH 3591 Urbanization in the Roman World

Kreindler

This course will use archaeological evidence to interrogate processes urbanization in the Roman Empire.  Using archaeological evidence, students will study how Rome went from being a city-state to the capital of a global empire, urbanized its provinces, adapted extant cities to serve its administrative needs, and connected the people living in the empire, creating the necessary conditions for the spread of Christianity. 

ARTH 3591/ARH 3500 Medieval Mediterranean

Phillips & Reilly

Examining Muslim-Christian interactions in the medieval Mediterranean, this course explores the idea of 'encounters' using art, architecture, and material culture. Through case studies such as Constantinople and Cordoba, we'll analyze how power, identity, and cultural translation shaped visual and built environments. The course also poses questions about the ways in which communities with different beliefs and traditions shared the same space.

ARTH 3595 Egypt and Nubia

Dakouri-Hild

This course examines the artifacts on display in the Egypt and Nubia exhibition at The Fralin Museum of Art, prodding students to reflect on art, identity and cultural frontiers.

ARTH 4051 Art History: Theory and Practice

Ramírez-Weaver

This course introduces art history majors to the basic tools and methods of art historical research, and to the theoretical and historical questions of art historical interpretation. The course will survey a number of current approaches to the explanation and interpretation of works of art, and briefly address the history of art history. Prerequisite: Major or minor in art history.

ARTH 4591 Politics of the Past

Dakouri-Hild

Subject varies with the instructor, who may decide to focus attention either on a particular period, artist, or theme, or on the broader question of the aims and methods of art history. Subject is announced prior to each registration period. Representative subjects include the life and art of Pompeii, Roman painting and mosaics, history and connoisseurship of baroque prints, art and politics in revolutionary Europe, Picasso and painting, and problems in American art and culture. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.

ARTH 4591 History of Electronic/Digital Art, 1960-2000

Vargas

Our Lady of the Pixels: from Electronic to Digital Arts (1960s-2000s)

In this course, we explore the evolution of media art, tracing its roots from the 1960s to the 2000s. We will examine the terminology, historical context, and critical debates surrounding electronic art, and analyze how, as media converges, electronic media transformed into digital media, reshaping artistic practices and the media art landscape. Through foundational texts of media art, students will investigate the relationship between contemporary art and new media, addressing key questions about the genre, its boundaries, and its significance.

Key topics include the historical development of video art in the 1960s, the pivotal role of the 1990s in digital media, the impact of the Internet creating new contexts for artistic production, and the ongoing dialogue among media, new media, post-media, and contemporary art. Students will engage with case studies of pioneering artists and curators, analyze the socio-cultural implications of digital art, and discuss the debate around medium specificity and media convergence. By the end of the course, students will have a comprehensive understanding of the role of media art in contemporary culture.

ARTH/GDS 4951 University Museum Internship

Love

This is a two-semester sequence of two three-credit courses. Students will do internships (lasting for an academic year) at either the Fralin Museum of Art or the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. As interns, students will work approximately 100 hours each semester (7-8 hours per week) in the museum, under the close supervision of museum professionals, and will participate in three training sessions and three academic seminars. Space is limited. Application required: to apply please email instructors your transcript, resume, and a one-page essay indicating your interest in museum work and your experience (if any). Deadline May 1st.

ARAH 8051 Theory and Interpretation in the Visual Arts

Getsy

Investigates problems in the theory and interpretation of the visual arts

ARAH 8060 Prospectus and Grant Writing

Phillips

This course will guide students through the process of drafting a clear and compelling dissertation prospectus in collaboration with program faculty and peers.

ARAH 9515 It's Time: Prayer, Power, and the Apocalypse

Ramírez-Weaver

The medieval cosmos everywhere made visible the divine musical harmonies and sense of balance, which reflected the order of the planets, the humoral constitution of the body, regulated uses for astrology and magic, and the unfolding mysteries of salvation history culminating one day in its end. This seminar explores in great depth how medieval astronomy and cosmology informed the creation of medieval calendars and classic books of hours, while focusing upon those in the UVA Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. We will assess the End of Days on tympana and in manuscript form, exploring the Beatus and great church sculptural programs.  We will explore the musical ratios informing Cistercian architecture, and order specific aspects of monastic complexes. Auspicious times for magical activities will be studied with an emphasis upon medieval magical and alchemical literature, including books of astrology, necromancy, secrets, and the Ars Notoria. Finally, we unpack the techniques of medieval medicine, including phlebotomy and  iatromathematical conceits or procedures, which required celestial study in order to plan and schedule effective treatments.

ARAH 9565 Autobiography in Academic Research & Writing

Noel Robbins

In this cross-disciplinary graduate seminar we will discuss autobiography, personal narrative, and self-reference as methodological approaches in academic research and writing. Generally shunned as unscholarly and characterized as anathema to historical research, self-representation in scholarly writing is increasingly recognized as a legitimate method. We will discuss the ethical, historical, and political imperative to name the self in academic writing as we read through examples of autobiography, personal narrative, auto-ethnography, and self-reference in multiple disciplines, including history, literary studies, and aesthetic theory. Authors we will discuss include Roland Barthes, Saidiya Hartman, Rosalind Krauss, Anne Carson, and Ashon Crawley, among several others. Students will be encouraged to think about self-reference in their own scholarship and in relation to their own research interests.