Courses

NOTE: All History of Art & Architecture courses use the prefix ARTHI

Click here for winter quarter course meeting times and locations 

HAA Winter 2026 Courses

* = Museum Studies
^ = Architecture and Environment
~ = Game Studies
\ = Architecture & Urban History

(updated 12/12/2025)

Lower Division Courses

5B   Introduction to Museum Studies * ^ \ - Smith Flores
6E   Survey: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Native North America * ^ - Ogbechie
6J   Survey: Contemporary Architecture * ^ ~ \ - White
6K   Survey: Islamic Art and Architecture * ^ \ - Khoury

Upper Division Courses

103G   Ancient Spectacle ~ - Moser
105P   Introduction to Medieval Art and Architecture ^ \ - Badamo
107A   Painting in the 15th-Century Netherlands - Meadow
134E   The Art of the Chinese Landscape - Sturman
136K   Modern Architecture in Early Twentieth-Century Europe ^ \ - Welter
136Y   Modern Architecture in Southern California, C. 1890s to the Present ^ \ - Welter
163   Digital Visual Studies - Offert

186D   Seminar in Medieval Architecture & Sculpture ^ \ - Badamo
186N   Seminar in African Art: On the Spiritual in Black Atlantic Art - Ogbechie
186Q   Seminar in Islamic Art and Architecture ^ \ - Khoury

Graduate Courses

252B   Topics in Roman Architecture and Urbanism: Sex and Religion - Moser
263   Seminar on Contemporary Art: Feminist Historiographies and the Emergency of Community - Sorkin

5B   Introduction to Museum Studies   Smith Flores

Designed to introduce students to various aspects of Museum Studies- historical, theoretical, and practical- by examining a range of issues and topics with which the field is engaged.

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6E   Survey: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Native North America   Ogbechie

A conceptual, cross-cultural introduction to Amerind, Eskimo, African, and Oceanic arts: artists, sculptures, festivals, body decoration, masking, architecture, and painting will be seen in the context of social and religious values. Films, slides, and museum tours.

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6J   Survey: Contemporary Architecture   White

Global survey of architectural production in the twenty-first century. Emphasis on form and technology, as well as economic, sociopolitical context. Explores built form at a variety of scales (buildings, cities, virtual spaces), as well as the concept of a contemporary.

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6K   Survey: Islamic Art and Architecture   Khoury

A survey of Islamic art and architecture.

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103G   Ancient Spectacle   Moser

Explores the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome through the participants in and observers of a variety of spectacles in the ancient world. Examines public spectacles such as bull-leaping, Olympic games, theatrical performances, gladiatorial combats, naval battles, religious rituals, and military triumphs, as well as other more private spectacles such as dinner parties with the gods.

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105P   Introduction to Medieval Art and Architecture   Badamo

This course explores the soaring cathedrals, monstrous sculptures, and marvelous images that inspired The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Beginning with the fourth-century rise of Christian images and ending with the advent of print, it traces how images developed new roles and reinvented old ones over the course of the Middle Ages. Investigating architecture, sculpture, and manuscripts in their historical contexts, it asks why medieval objects look the way the do and how viewers saw them.

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107A   Painting in the 15th-Century Netherlands   Meadow

Netherlandish painting from C1400- C1500 examined in its social, religious,and cultural contexts. Van Eyck, Rogier, Bouts and Memling, among others.

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134E   The Art of the Chinese Landscape   Sturman

Chinese approaches to landscape as subject matter in art, with a focus on painting and garden architecture. The course begins with the immortality cult in the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 221 CE) and ends with contemporary artists of the twentieth century.

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136K   Modern Architecture in Early Twentieth-Century Europe   Welter

History of modern architecture in Europe in the early twentieth century. Focuses on movements (for example, Art Nouveau, Futurism, Expressionism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, and Constructivism) and on individual architects (for example, Le Corbusier, Gropius, Mies van der Rohe.)

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136Y   Modern Architecture in Southern California, C. 1890s to the Present   Welter

Critically analyzes the changing definitions of modern architecture in Southern California from the 1890s to the present, focusing on the work of architects like Greene and Greene, R.M. Schindler, and R. Neutra, as well as the Case Study Houses.

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163   Digital Visual Studies   Offert

In the past ten years, the scope of the digital humanities has broadened to include the visual world: distant reading became distant viewing. This visual turn has not only facilitated the digital transformation of traditional disciplines like art history but has also introduced a new set of media-technological questions into the digital humanities discourse: questions concerning the nature of digital images, and the modalities of machine seeing. This course serves as an introduction to the emerging discipline of digital visual studies that investigates these questions. Participants will acquire skills in the analysis and critique of digital visual culture and learn to use contemporary digital tools to explore the visual world.

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186D   Seminar in Medieval Architecture & Sculpture   Badamo

Advanced studies in Medieval architecture and sculpture. Topics will vary. This course requires weekly readings and discussion, and the writing of a research seminar paper.

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186N   Seminar in African Art: On the Spiritual in Black Atlantic Art   Ogbechie

This course explores the resurgence of spiritual iconographies of African gods in contemporary global Black art and media, with emphasis on the enduring, transformative power of Yoruba iconography. It examines how artists in Africa and the African Diaspora leverage spiritual frameworks for a powerful aesthetic language that grounds contemporary expression in ancestral wisdom and cosmic order to create works whose influence permeate diverse media such as painting, film, music and digital art. Artist(e)s discussed include Ben Enwonwu, Beyonce, Jeff Donaldson, Harmonia Rosales; Afrofuturism in the movie Black Panther and the he iconography of musician Sun Ra; and the diverse African deities represented in the TV-series American Gods.

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186Q   Seminar in Islamic Art and Architecture   Khoury

Advanced studies in Islamic art and architecture. Topics will vary. This course requires weekly readings and discussion, and the writing of a research seminar paper..

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252B   Topics in Roman Architecture and Urbanism: Sex and Religion   Moser

This seminar will explore the intersection between sex and religion, specifically investigating the Roman phallus and how it functioned as a semi-religious object. We will look at the role of the phallus in Roman art, decoration, architecture, city-planning, jewelry, and medicine, and we will study its representation as an aniconic object, an elaborate household decoration, and a simple personal adornment. We will pair a particular lens or approach to each distinct category of phallic imagery every week: divine embodiment, materiality, agency, fertility, power, magic, liminality, protection, masculinity, otherness, health, and fragmentation. While broadly based in the ancient Roman world, each week we will bring different global phallic celebrations and traditions into our study, moving from contemporary Japan and Bhutan and Greece to early-modern Italy to 4th-century Peru. Using ancient and modern examples, we will work together to better understand and conceptualize the distinctive religious function of the Roman phallus. All geographic areas, time periods, and interests are welcome!

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263   Seminar on Contemporary Art: Feminist Historiographies and the Emergency of Community   Sorkin

The valuation of women’s work is still a relatively recent phenomenon in museums, archives, and library collections, a response to their historic absence from public culture at large. For most of the twentieth century, women artists did not see themselves reflected in art museums and library collections around the world: that is, institutions did not purchase or exhibit their artworks, or consider their papers, diaries, and ephemera to be worth preserving. This was a disheartening experience, as most women had already overcome great odds to become artists at all.

During the 1970s, women artists, curators and art historians worked in tandem to alleviate this crisis of representation. They formed separatist arts organizations, artistic communities, alternative art spaces, exhibition opportunities, and art schools. These spaces and places fostered fruitful aesthetic collaborations, offering favorable conditions for flourishing ephemeral and non-commercial practices, such as artist’s books, choreography, performance, video, and self-publishing. A feminist ethics arose in opposition to the rampant commercialization and exclusionary practices of the mainstream art worlds in which their male peers easily circulated. However, the frameworks for feminist worldmaking began decades earlier, and can be found in pockets and communities globally. We will examine these practices. Proto-feminist and anti-feminist viewpoints will also be a subset of our consideration this quarter.

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2025-2026 History of Art & Architecture Course Overview

* = Museum Studies
^ = Architecture and Environment
~ = Game Studies
\ = Architecture & Urban History
Red = Grad Seminars
Purple = Undergrad Seminars
Black = Undergrad Upper Division
Green = Undergrad Lower Division

Crashing a History of Art & Architecture Course

Add codes will not be distributed prior to completing the following procedure:

The Department of History of Art & Architecture recognizes the difficulties that students face in adding courses and recommends the following when trying to add a closed or full course:

1. Please do NOT email the instructor to see if there is a waiting list. Instead, sign up on the waiting list on GOLD
   • Make sure to fill out your name, major/minor, and class year (e.g., third year, fourth year)
   • Please note that the enrollment availability listed on GOLD might not accurately reflect the latest enrollment for the course
   • Reminder: students cannot add themselves to a waitlist unless one of the following occurs: the student has enrolled in 12 units, or all lectures and sections of the course are full or closed
2. Attend and participate in all lecture and section (if applicable) meetings and assignments for the first week, both synchronous and asynchronous
   • If you are unable to attend a class and/or section meeting due to religious observance, illness, or other unavoidable conflict, do contact the instructor via email
3. If you haven't been admitted to the course prior to the first class, also try joining the Canvas course site, if a page exists, as another way to follow the first week of class
   • NOTE: Even if you are able to join the Canvas site, this does not mean you are officially enrolled in the course. You must be registered on GOLD to receive credit for the course
4. Continue attending lectures and discussion sections until you receive admission
   • Priority of enrollment and distribution of add codes are at the discretion of the instructor. Generally speaking, priority is given to those who participate in lectures and discussion sections - please note crashing protocol may vary by instructor