This seminar will explore elite craft production in the urban centers of sixteenth-century northern Europe. It focuses on the years between roughly 1540 and 1620, a unique …

The course will trace artistic and cultural exchange over the centuries through trade, religion, and war as a way to understand the global reach of …

This hybrid course—part seminar, part practicum—will introduce students to the theory and practice of Public Humanities. Students will work closely with the instructor—…

What is a doll? This is the second in a series of courses to conceptualize and design “Welcome to the Dolls’ House,” the Spring 2025 Focus …

What is so essential about the inessential? Since the nineteenth century, ornament has been the focus of a multi-disciplinary attempt to explain its enduring presence …

The material history of the ancient civilizations that belong to the Nile Valley, Egypt and Nubia, ranges from environmental shifts to complex human interaction. This …

How does dress shape the American experience? In which ways have dress conventions been used to make bodies “decent” and “acceptable” in American society? And …

It took over sixty years and three generations of leaders for the Mongols to finally conquer China. Khubilai Khan concluded that conquest in 1279, but he …

Academic thinking has always been in active dialogue with changing social, cultural, and political contexts. Many current modes of scholarly thought, which are employed broadly …

Over the past few decades, and especially over the past few years, digital technologies have changed our world from how we communicate, to how we …

This two-semester, team-taught course introduces incoming students to major historical developments in decorative arts, design, and material culture from antiquity to the present. Monday evening …

This two-semester practicum on Tuesday afternoons develops techniques for effective graduate-level writing through practical exercises and workshop sessions. Drawing on the assignments and readings in 500…

This seminar surveys the emergence of women designers and their contributions to American design from 1900 to the present. It draws upon Bard Graduate Center’s …

This seminar examines the shifting boundaries of craft and design in the United States from World War II to the present. In the postwar era’…

Although photography is usually approached as a visual medium of image production and reproduction, photographs are also objects with their own unique material properties. They …

This seminar seeks to impart a broad understanding of the history and visions of East Asian fashion from the seventeenth century to present. It foregrounds …