Students may take courses at our consortium partner institutions which include Columbia University (COL), Cooper Hewitt, Parsons School of Design (CH), the City University of …

Independent study offers students the opportunity to pursue research in areas beyond the range of the standard curriculum. Through independent study, students further their knowledge …

Internships are arranged through the BGC, the student, and the sponsoring institution. A wide variety of internships are available, including positions at museums, historic houses, …

This two-and-a-half week August session includes introductions to resources at Bard Graduate Center, as well as required digital and writing seminars, and language classes, if …

This course will investigate the topic of the period room—both as an historical and contemporary object. Period rooms began as a fashion in Britain …

This course continues a sequence begun in Fall 2020 (488. What is Research?) and will continue through the opening of Utopias of Research in 2023. This year’s …

This course is the second of two “In Focus” courses where students will actively contribute to Conserving Active Matter, an exhibition opening at BGC in …

This seminar is offered as part of BGC’s mission to integrate teaching and exhibitions. Threads of Power: Lace from the Textilmuseum (September 17, 2022-January 1, 2023), co-curated …

As a number of Black feminist scholars, in particular, have described, the history of African Americans in this country has been one of erasure, appropriation, …

Over the past twenty years the mounting environmental crisis of global scale has led many scholars to question the dominant anthropocentric models of interpretation inherited …

Perhaps more than ever before, contemporary designers are concerned with the intersections of natural science and utilitarian form. Our built environment is populated with complex …

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 fall-term course is required for entering MA students, and for PhD students who have not taken a course deemed comparable. Drawing on the expertise …

Our first-year tutorial matches entering MA students with faculty advisors who hold regular meetings throughout the year that blend advising and informal intellectual mentorship. These …

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…

The Song dynasty unified the Chinese heartlands in the tenth century, but had to contend with powerful neighboring empires to the north and west, the …

This seminar explores the evolution of ceramic techniques and materials within the wider contexts of economic, social, and cultural life. We will study the role …

This seminar surveys anthropological theories of art and material culture with a cross-cultural purview and a concentration on Indigenous societies in colonial and contemporary times. …

This course is a broad examination of the material remains of medieval culture through two interpretive prisms: that of visual culture and the other of …

Over the past four decades a number of sensational archaeological finds have drawn scholarly attention to the long neglected Kitan-Liao empire in northern China and …

This seminar explores the history, theory, and practice of collecting in the United States from the turn of the nineteenth century to the present. Both …

The seminar will study The Oxford Handbook of History and Material Culture (2020) to ascertain its place in the development of material culture history. The Handbook …

This course will provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to conceive of and implement an exhibition. We will consider, analyze, and critique different …

This course will introduce students to the historical archaeology of New York City and to the material traces of the past that lie beneath our …

The nineteenth century saw a revolution in the materials and technologies that were available to artists for their representation of the natural world. These innovations …

In conjunction with what has been called the “coming of the book,” knowledge about food, including its preparation and service, moved from the realm of …