NOTE: All History of Art & Architecture courses use the prefix ARTHI
HAA Summer 2025 Courses
* = Museum Studies
^ = Architecture and Environment
~ = Game Studies
\ = Architecture & Urban History
(updated 3/31/2025)
Summer Session A (June 23 - August 2, 2025)
6E Survey: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Native North America - Ogbechie
W 6R Rome: the Game ~ - Moser
142E Architecture, Planning, and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris - Van Doorne
Summer Session B (August 4 - September 13, 2025)
6C Art Survey III: Modern-Contemporary Art - Sorkin
6L Playful Spaces: A Cultural History of Games - White
W 6R Rome: the Game ~ - Moser
136I The City in History - Chattopadhyay
6C Art Survey III: Modern-Contemporary Art Sorkin
This course is an introduction to the modern era of Western art history, with a focus on European and American histories. Its premise is that art and science as entwined enterprises within the eighteenth-century European Enlightenment: scientific inquiry, new forms of representation, looking and examining are the models for the course’s start of 1750. We proceed through nineteenth century histories of colonization and land grabs, issues of Empire and extraction, and the transatlantic slave trade. The twentieth century focuses on the rise of urbanism, migration, displacement, two world wars, and new developments in abstract art across painting, sculpture, and photography, as well as an intensive focus on ethnicity, race, sexuality and gender across the Arts & Crafts Movement, AAPI histories in California, the Harlem Renaissance, Feminist Art, LGBTQ histories, and the rise of internationalism and global art histories in the twenty-first century, ending the course examining the present moment.
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.
6L Playful Spaces: A Cultural History of Games White
This course examines the history of art through some of its strangest images, including spatial illusions, chance images, hidden faces and monsters, reversible images, caricatures and others. Primarily focused on the early modern period (1400-1750), we also consider similar experiments from other cultures.
W 6R Rome: the Game Moser
This online course presented as an adventure game introduces students to the art and archaeology of Rome, with assignments that focus on writing and the research process. The course asks students to determine whether or not a collection of ancient objects from an American museum should remain in the US or be sent back to Italy. Throughout the course, students excavate artifacts at a digital dig site, visit museums, explore Roman monuments, and navigate the shadowy world of the tombaroli (tomb robbers) and mafia-run black market for antiquities.
136I The City in History Chattopadhyay
An historical introduction to the ideas and forms of cities with emphasis on modern urbanism. Examination of social theory to understand the role of industrial capitalism and colonialism in shaping the culture of modern cities, the relationship between the city and the country, the phenomena of class, race and ethnic separation.
142E Architecture, Planning, and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris Van Doorne
Paris (and Versailles) from the Sun King to the Revolution, rococo, neoclassicism, origins of urbanism; extensive use of primary texts in translation to study architectural debates in the press and their connection to contemporary political battles.
HAA Fall 2025 Courses
* = Museum Studies
^ = Architecture and Environment
~ = Game Studies
\ = Architecture & Urban History
(updated 4/24/2025)
Lower Division Courses
6H Survey: Arts of the Ancient Americas * ^ \ - Boswell
6L Playful Spaces: A Cultural History of Games * ^ ~ \ - White
W 6R Rome: the Game * ^ ~ \ - Moser
Upper Division Courses
105R Art of Medieval Spain: Visual and Cultural Encounters - Badamo
115E ARTHI 115E: The Grand Tour: Experiencing Italy in the Eighteenth Century * - Paul
119G Critical Approaches to Visual Culture - Barnd
127B African Art II - Ogbechie
136C Architecture of the United States ^ \ - White
136M Revival Styles in Southern Californian Architecture ^ \ - Welter
139A Special Topics in Photographic History: Re-Reading American Photographs - Garnier
142E Architecture, Planning, and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris \ - Wittman
186D Seminar in Medieval Architecture & Sculpture ^ \ - Badamo
186SR Seminar in Architectural History ^ \ - Wittman
186SV Seminar in Modern Architecture ^ \ - Welter
187A Seminar: Approaches to Objects * - Boswell
187B Seminar: Public Art * - Paul
261A Topics in American Art: Material Ecologies of American Art - Garnier
6H Survey: Arts of the Ancient Americas Boswell
This course is an introductory survey to the arts and architecture of the ancient Americas which focuses on the materials and technologies that were sacred and powerful to peoples of the ancient Americas. Covering nearly 5,000 years of history and two continents the course follows the routes of early metalworking technologies and the exchange routes of precious materials between the Central Andes of South America (modern nation-state of Peru) and Chumash territory.
6L Playful Spaces: A Cultural History of Games White
This course introduces students to the history of games. It is organized chronologically as a global survey. We study games and the social, political, and economic conditions that support them, as well as the interface between the human player and the imagined world of the game. Taking as its premise that games are artifacts of culture, this course focuses on the visual and spatial practice of games in social context.
This online course presented as an adventure game introduces students to the art and archaeology of Rome, with assignments that focus on writing and the research process. The course asks students to determine whether or not a collection of ancient objects from an American museum should remain in the US or be sent back to Italy. Throughout the course, students excavate artifacts at a digital dig site, visit museums, explore Roman monuments, and navigate the shadowy world of the tombaroli (tomb robbers) and mafia-run black market for antiquities.
105R Art of Medieval Spain: Visual and Cultural Encounters Badamo
Focusing on medieval Spain, this course considers visual manifestations of exchange. Its goal is to examine the complexity of religious, political, and visual interactions on the Iberian Peninsula, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews co-existed. Students will study the dynamic interplay among Christian, Jewish, and Islamic visual cultures as they developed and coalesced through conquest, commerce, gift exchange, social intermingling, and diplomatic relations.
115E The Grand Tour: Experiencing Italy in the Eighteenth Century Paul
In the eighteenth century Italy was a mecca for European travelers who sought to enjoy its culture, diversions, landscape, and society. This course will examine the multifaceted experiences of these travelers and the ways in which they constitute the beginnings of the phenomenon of modern tourism.
119G Critical Approaches to Visual Culture Barnd
Critical ways of approaching and understanding a wide range of visual materials and images (paintings, ads, videos, etc.). Analytic approaches to culture and representation are used as a means of developing descriptive and interpretive skills.
An in-depth continuation of Art History 127A in a seminar/discussion format. Selected topics in masking, figural sculpture, etc., and emphasis on African contexts of ritual and social life.
136C Architecture of the United States White
History of architecture and urban planning: buildings and builders, patrons and occupants, but especially the historical forces and events that transformed the landscape. Course subjects include art, design, technology, economics, politics, and social forces.
136M Revival Styles in Southern Californian Architecture Welter
Much of California's historical architecture is characterized by revival styles that reference ways of building from other geographic locations, periods, and people. What motivated the eclectic, mixed appearance of much of California architecture? Geographical or climatic conditions? Political powers that have governed modern California? Or did revival styles follow immigrants into California? Do they express the identity of the designer, the builder, the owner, the occupier, or the user of a building?
The course examines the history of revival styles in Southern California architecture from approximately the eighteenth century onward. The course fulfills the GE Requirement Area F (Arts). Prof. Volker M. Welter: welter@arthistory.ucsb.edu
139A Special Topics in Photographic History: Re-Reading American Photographs Garnier
This course examines the history of photography in the United States from its origins in the daguerreotype to today, and how contemporary artists are responding to those histories now. Students will learn about different photographic processes, major historical debates, and important themes that continue to shape our visual world.
142E Architecture, Planning, and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris Wittman
Paris (and Versailles) from the Sun King to the Revolution, rococo, neoclassicism, origins of urbanism; extensive use of primary texts in translation to study architectural debates in the press and their connection to contemporary political battles.
186SR Seminar in Architectural History Wittman
Advanced studies in architectural history. Topics will vary. This course requires weekly readings and discussion, and the writing of a research seminar paper.
186SV Researching & Writing Architecture: Lutah Maria Riggs Welter
The topic of the seminar is the domestic architecture of Lutah Maria Riggs (1896-1984), one of Southern California’s most prominent female architects. Riggs’ many domestic designs moved effortlessly between revival styles, mid-century modernism, and elegant classicism. In order to research and write a longer final paper, participants will each focus on an individual project using original architectural drawings and related archival materials.
The seminar emphasizes the progression from researching and reading about architecture to writing about it. Accordingly, in-class writing exercises are essential to the seminar, during which participants write repeatedly about the same design and building but from different angles.
The advanced research seminar in architectural history is primarily directed at History of Art & Architecture majors who have already taken upper-division courses in the history of modern architecture in California and the US. Enrollment is by approval code; please email to express interest: Prof. Volker M. Welter at welter@arthistory.ucsb.edu.
187A Approaches to Objects Boswell
This seminar introduces students to the potential and different approaches of object-based scholarship drawing on multidisciplinary perspectives and analytic techniques from art history, archaeology, anthropology, object conservation, and the history of collecting and display. Topics and format will vary.
This seminar explores the history and development of public art and monuments. Together we study examples of various types of public art and consider their purposes, sites, audiences, patronage, and financing. We also discuss important controversies that public art has provoked. Using the background we develop in class, students work on individual projects addressing issues that we examine.
261A Topics in American Art: Material Ecologies of American Art Garnier
This course examines the history of American art and architecture through the lens of material histories, exploring the processes and networks behind different media from extraction through consumption. Each week will focus on a distinct material—including pigment, clay, wood, metal, cotton, and glass—across its various manifestations in painting, sculpture, decorative art, and architecture. Students will be introduced to key discourses and methods in the fields of ecocriticism, new materialisms, and technical art history, and encouraged to pursue their own research as it relates to the seminar’s theme of materiality.
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
| Schedule is subject to change - last updated 4/28/2025 | |||
| INSTRUCTOR | FALL 2025 | WINTER 2026 | SPRING 2026 |
| BADAMO | 105R: Arts of Medieval Spain | 105P: Intro. to Medieval Art and Architecture ^ \ | Non-Teaching |
| 186D: Seminar in Medieval Architecture & Sculpture ^ | |||
| BARND | 119G: Critical Approaches to Visual Culture | 186L: Seminar in Art of the Americas | Non-Teaching |
| BOSWELL | 6H: Survey: Arts of the Ancient Americas * ^ \ | Non-Teaching | 130D: Art and Archaeology of the Ancient Andes ^ |
| 187A: Approaches to Objects * | |||
| CHATTOPADHYAY | Sabbatical | Sabbatical | Sabbatical |
| SMITH-FLORES | Non-Teaching | 5B: Intro to Museum Studies * ^ \ | 131: Special Topics in Latin American Art |
| 263: Seminar: Topics in Contemporary Art | |||
| GARNIER | 139A: Special Topics in Photographic History: Re-Reading American Photographs | Non-Teaching | 121B: Reconstruction, Renaissance, and Realism in American Art |
| 261A: Topics in American Art: Material Ecologies of American Art | |||
| KHOURY | 132E: Islamic Architecture 1400-Modern | 6K: Survey: Islamic Art and Architecture * ^ \ | 132J: Modern Art of the Arab World |
| 132D: Islamic Architecture 650-1400 | 186Q: Seminar in Islamic Art and Architecture ^ \ | ||
| LUMBRERAS | Non-Teaching | Non-Teaching | 6I: The Arts of the Iberian World |
| 256: Topics in Early Modern Iberian Art | |||
| MEADOW | Non-Teaching | 107A: Painting in the 15th-Century Netherlands | Non-Teaching |
| MOSER | W 6R: Rome the Game * ^ ~ \ | 103G: Ancient Spectacle ~ | Non-Teaching |
| 252B: Topics in Roman Architecture and Urbanism | |||
| OGBECHIE | 127B: African Art II | 6E: Survey: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Native North America * ^ | 121D: African American Art and the African Legacy |
| 186N: Seminar in African Art | |||
| PAUL | 115E: The Grand Tour: Experiencing Italy in the Eighteenth Century * | Non-Teaching | 6B: Art Survey II: Renaissance-Baroque Art * ^ ~ \ |
| 187B: Public Art * | |||
| RITTER | Non-Teaching | Non-Teaching | 141MH: Museums and History * |
| SORKIN | Non-Teaching | 263: Seminar: Topics in Contemporary Art | Non-Teaching |
| STURMAN | Non-Teaching | 134CB: Chinese Painting II | 134K: Chinese Calligraphy |
| WELTER | 136M: Revival Styles in Southern Californian Architecture ^ \ | 136K: Modern Architecture in Early Twentieth-Century Europe ^ \ | Non-Teaching |
| 186SV: Seminar in Modern Architecture ^ \ | 136Y: Modern Architecture in Southern California, c. 1890s to the Present ^ \ | ||
| WHITE | 6L: Playful Spaces: A Cultural History of Games * ^ ~ \ | 6J: Survey: Contemporary Architecture * ^ ~ \ | Non-Teaching |
| 136C: Architecture of the United States ^ \ | |||
| WITTMAN | 142E: Architecture, Planning, and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris ^ \ | Non-Teaching | 6F (online): Survey: Architecture and Planning ^ \ |
| 186SR: Seminar in Architectural History ^ \ | 142B (online): Architecture and Planning in Rome: Napoleon to Mussolini ^ \ | ||
Summer 2024 History of Art & Architecture Courses
* = Museum Studies
^ = Architecture and Environment
~ = Game Studies
\ = Architecture & Urban History
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:
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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