Picturing Race

This course offers an introduction to the cultural roots of cultural roots of modern Western conceptions of race and of racism. It traces a history of visual constructions of race and ethnicity in Europe and America-by way of paintings, sculpture, prints, caricature, photography, public art, maps, and other forms of visual depiction of racial difference. Together we analyze visual representations of race and racial difference from their origins in the classical Mediterranean world to the present. How have images of racial difference been produced, circulated, and understood in different historical periods and according to western notions of beauty and the ideal? How does visualization relate to concepts and practices and politics? Readings, discussion, and visual and critical analyses are formulated to consider how visual cultures of race have been shaped by the histories of colonization, enslavement, nation-building, and immigration. From the fine arts to popular imagery and public monuments, we aim to trace how the visual construction of race has translated human difference into hierarchies of power. Prerequisites: none
Course Attributes: FA AH; BU BA; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM; AS SC; EN H

Picturing Race

ART HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY 280

Section 01