Date of Award

12-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Art History of Visual Culture

Department

Art

First Advisor

Stefanie Snider

Second Advisor

Jonathan Frederick Walz

Third Advisor

James Hutson

Abstract

This project is an upper-level art history seminar addressing identity and representation – specifically related to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality – in contemporary art. Primarily a discussion-based course, the course is focused on inclusivity and is highly structured, with weekly low-stakes assignments that provide students with ample opportunities to practice engaging with academic texts. Designed for students with varying levels of academic skills, it is built around current non-academic articles that students select via an online survey. Students then “unpack” the “big ideas” in each of the four chosen non-academic articles via a cluster of academic readings and videos with varying levels of difficulty (from a comedian’s TedX video on gender and sexuality, to a 4-page excerpt of Michel Foucault’s “Domain” in The History of Sexuality).

The final project deliverable consists of a syllabus, a list of sources for each of the non-academic articles, examples of guided reading tasks and questions, and notes (in this report) on how the content and assignments are crafted to promote student agency and academic inclusivity.

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