August Orientation Session
The August Orientation Session is required of all incoming master’s degree students. It is designed to introduce new students to the field, research technique and the range of resources available within the city. Intensive language courses are offered to students to prepare them to complete the BGC language requirement.
The Academic Programs Office offers three intensive, noncredit, two-week classes, in French, Italian, and German,to prepare students for the language proficiency examination. Classes meet four days a week.
Students are initially tested for language proficiency upon arrival. Those who require additional instruction will be tested again at the end of the orientation session. All entering BGC students must fulfill the language requirement by April 15 of their first year.
Courses
The list below gives some sense of the range and depth of courses offered in the last few years, and include courses offered in the Spring 2010 and Fall 2009
| IND |
Independent Study |
| INT |
Internship |
| 500 |
Survey of the Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture |
| 501 |
Survey of the Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture II |
| 501 |
Survey Review - Group A |
| 501 |
Survey Review - Group B |
| 505 |
Bibliographical Information in the Digital Age |
| 506 |
European Gold and Silver |
| 509 |
History of European Textiles |
| 510 |
Islamic Decorative Arts up to the Mongol Conquest |
| 511 |
Manners, Morals, and Aesthetic Reform in 19th-Century America |
| 514 |
The Arts and Crafts Movement in America |
| 518 |
History of European Jewelry |
| 519 |
Arts of the Ancient World |
| 520 |
Medieval Art and Society |
| 521 |
Decorative Arts of the Renaissance |
| 522 |
Arts of the Baroque |
| 523 |
Ornament, Primitivism, and the Idea of Decoration |
| 524 |
From Morris to the Mackintoshes: Arts and Crafts in Britain and Europe, 1860–1900 |
| 526 |
Arts of China (Decorative Arts of Later Imperial China, 1000–1900) |
| 527 |
American Decorative Arts and Design to 1820 |
| 528 |
Decorative Arts and Design in America, 1820–1914 |
| 530 |
English and American Ceramics |
| 536 |
The Aesthetic Movement |
| 539 |
Modes and Manners in the 18th Century, 1675–1804 |
| 541 |
Northern European Interiors, 1550–1680 |
| 542 |
Ancient Ceramics and Glass |
| 543 |
Nineteenth-Century European Furniture |
| 544 |
The Rediscovery of Antiquity and Its Influence on the West in the Postmedieval Period |
| 548 |
Women Designers in the USA, 1900–2000: Diversity and Difference |
| 552 |
Gothic Revival |
| 554 |
Art Nouveau in Europe |
| 559 |
Domesticity, House, and Home in 19th-Century America |
| 561 |
The Arts of the Book |
| 562 |
Politics and Design of World’s Fairs |
| 564 |
Ritual and Design in Imperial China |
| 565 |
Twentieth-Century Fashion |
| 566 |
Rites of Passage: Arts of Childbirth and Marriage in the Italian Renaissance |
| 567 |
Art and Material Culture of the Tang Period, 618–907 |
| 568 |
American Silver |
| 571 |
Fragmenting Modernism, Deconstructing Postmodernism: Design, Architecture, and Film |
| 572 |
Arts of Song Period China |
| 573 |
Graphic Design in Europe, 1890–1945 |
| 574 |
History of Glass |
| 581 |
Studies in Culinary History and the Decorative Arts |
| 583 |
The Northern Renaissance: The Arts in an Age of Uncertainty, ca. 1520–1600 |
| 584 |
Survey of European Ceramics, 1400 to the Present |
| 585 |
The Museum |
| 586 |
Inside Today’s Museums |
| 587 |
Object Exhibition and Display |
| 589 |
Historic House Museums |
| 591 |
American Furniture of the 19th Century |
| 592 |
Origins of Commercial Society in 17th-Century Holland and 18th-Century Britain |
| 593 |
American Furniture of the 17th and 18th Centuries |
| 594 |
The Material Culture of Childhood |
| 595 |
Aspects of Domestic Interiors, 1850–1920 |
| 596 |
Aspects of Domestic Interiors, 1920–1970 |
| 598 |
Master’s Thesis Seminar - Section 1 |
| 598 |
Master’s Thesis Seminar - Section 2 |
| 599 |
Master’s Thesis |
| 602 |
Attic Red Figure Vases and Their Influence |
| 604 |
Japanese and Korean Ceramics |
| 605 |
European Carpets |
| 606 |
The Colonial Revival |
| 608 |
Western Europe in the 18th Century |
| 611 |
Oriental Carpets |
| 612 |
History of European Clothing |
| 613 |
Ancient Jewelry and Metalwork |
| 615 |
Ceramics in the American Marketplace |
| 621 |
Collecting and Collections in the Early Modern Era |
| 622 |
From “Wild Things” to “A Sense of Things”: Issues in Design History and Material Culture Studies |
| 624 |
Classicism in the North, 1500–1620 |
| 625 |
Architecture and Design in the Weimar Republic |
| 627 |
Western Luxuries and Chinese Taste |
| 632 |
Topics in Ancient Furniture |
| 634 |
Supply and Demand: The Decorative Arts Marketplace, 1662–1889 |
| 647 |
Thinking about Things: Walter Benjamin as Historian |
| 648 |
Art and Ornament in Early China |
| 650 |
Issues in Modern and Contemporary Architecture |
| 652 |
City and Country in the Italian Renaissance |
| 654 |
Objects of Virtue: Material Culture and Moral Order in 16th-Century Northern European Society |
| 655 |
Markets to Manners: Cooking and Eating in Early Modern Europe |
| 656 |
Eighteenth-Century European Ceramics: A Social and Cultural History |
| 672 |
Design and Architecture, 1950–1975 |
| 674 |
Society and the Arts in 18th-Century France |
| 675 |
Art and Court Culture at Versailles |
| 678 |
Arts and Crafts in Early Modern Europe: The Case of the Kitchen |
| 679 |
Neoclassicism and the Arts in Europe and America, 1740–1840 |
| 680 |
Survey of American Glass |
| 682 |
The Anthropology of Museums |
| 686 |
Furniture and Furnishings in Early Modern France |
| 691 |
Nineteenth-Century Fashion |
| 692 |
American Material Culture Studies: Methods and Models |
| 693 |
Craft and Design in the USA, 1940 to the Present |
| 694 |
Landscape and Rusticity in the Chinese Living Environment |
| 695 |
The Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean: Methods of Material Culture in the 20th Century |
| 699 |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| 702 |
A Cultural History of Gardens in China and Japan |
| 704 |
Reading the American Landscape |
| 706 |
The Art and Architecture of the Baroque Garden |
| 726 |
North American Frontiers: The Landscape of Early North America |
| 729 |
Silk Road Textiles: Producers and Patrons |
| 730 |
The Social Lives of Things: The Anthropology of Art and Material Culture |
| 731 |
All That Glitters: Early Medieval Material Culture and the Making of Europe |
| 732 |
Design Reform in Britain: From Pugin to Mackintosh |
| 733 |
The Exhibition Experience: Design and Interpretation. BGC/N-YHS Collaboration |
| 734 |
Field Seminar: Readings in Early Modern Visual and Material Culture |
| 735 |
The Medieval Reliquary: Shrine, Pilgrimage and Souvenir |
| 736 |
Christmas Cards in America, 1875-1975: A Focus Gallery Course |
| 737 |
The Triumph of Mars: Arms, Armor and the Material Culture of War in Early Modern Europe, 1400-1800 |
| 749 |
Arts of the Book in the Islamic World |
| 750 |
Thesis Workshop - Section 1 |
| 750 |
Thesis Workshop - Section 2 |
| 752 |
Antiquarianism and Archaisms in Chinese Design |
| 753 |
Tudor and Stuart Textiles |
| 754 |
Film and Design in Hollywood |
| 755 |
Thinking with Technology in Medieval and Renaissance Europe |
| 758 |
European Modernism |
| 761 |
Design and Material Culture of the Qing Period, 1644–1911 |
| 762 |
The Exhibition Experience |
| 763 |
The Monument: Designs and Meanings |
| 764 |
The Material Culture of New York City: The 19th Century |
| 765 |
New Amsterdam in the Dutch Atlantic (BGC/N-YHS Collaboration) |
| 766 |
Material Culture in New Netherland (BGC/N-YHS Collaboration) |
| 767 |
Collecting Islamic Art, from Historical Sources to Modern Times |
| 769 |
Designing Modernity, 1860–1900 |
| 771 |
The Rococo: 18th Century to Today |
| 772 |
The Aesthetic Movement: Designing Modernity, 1865–1905 |
| 773 |
Art of Island Southeast Asia |
| 774 |
The Material Culture of New York City: The 20th Century |
| 778 |
Survey of Islamic Art and Material Culture from Early Islam to the Ottoman Period, Its Meaning, Ideas, and Development |
| 779 |
The City in the Middle East from Late Antiquity to the Ottoman Period |
| 794 |
Psychologies of Things: Emotion, Perception, and the Life of Inanimate Objects |
| 795 |
Exhibiting Culture(s): Anthropology In and Of the Museum |
| 796 |
Print and Visual Culture in Europe, ca. 1700–1900 |
| 797 |
Gender Issues in Design |
| 798 |
Charles Rennie Mackintosh |
| 799 |
Material Culture of the 19th-Century American Home |
| 800 |
Print Culture 1700–1914 (from William Hogarth to Peter Behrens) |
| 801 |
Other Europes: Design and Architecture in Central Europe, 1880–1940 |
| 802 |
The Arts of the Five Dynasties (907–960) and the Khitan Empire (907–1125) |
| 803 |
Jewish Material Culture in the Modern Period |
| 813 |
Material Rome, 1200–1700 |
| 817 |
The Archaeology of China’s Decorative Arts |
| 820 |
Chinese Ceramics |
| 821 |
Hispanic Arts of Design, 1300–1900 |
| 822 |
Foundations of Material Culture |
| 823 |
American Consumer Culture |
| 824 |
Twentieth-Century Interiors |
| 827 |
Issues in the Study of Ancient Art |
| 828 |
The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and Jean de France, Duc de Berry |
| 829 |
Industrial Design in the 20th-Century United States |
| 830 |
“Orientalism”: Meetings of East and West from the Crusades to Postcolonialism |
| 831 |
Decorative Arts of 16th-Century Italy |
| 832 |
English Silver |
| 833 |
Modern Textiles, 1850–1970 |
| 834 |
American Collectors and Collections |
| 835 |
Charles and Ray Eames and Mid-Century Modern Design |
| 838 |
Technical Cultures of 19th- and 20th-Century America |
| 841 |
Dress and Textiles in World Cultures |
| 843 |
Research Methods |
| 844 |
Interpretation of the Artifact in the Age of New Media |
| 845 |
American Craft, Design, and Folk Art in the 1920s and 1930s |
| 846 |
Objects of Knowledge: Renaissance Ornament and Society in Northern Europe, 1500-1650 |
| 848 |
Under Western Eyes: Metals, Ivories and Mosaics in the Medieval Italian Peninsula |
| 850 |
Ancient House and Garden |
| 853 |
The Art of the Coin in Cross-Cultural Perspective |
| 854 |
Ceramic, Metal, and Glass: Questions about the Relations between Design, Technology, Industries, and Trade Patterns in Pre-Modern Middle East |