Independent study offers students the opportunity to pursue research in areas beyond the range of the standard curriculum. Requirements are determined by the student and …

This two-semester, team-taught course, required of all entering MA students, and PhD students who have not taken a course deemed comparable, traces major historical developments …

This seminar presents a cultural study of European and American women’s dress from the Belle Époque through the 1980s. Within a chronological framework that …

"Ah, when a man constructs a house, embellishes it with fine furnishings, and dwells therein, he finds it difficult to avoid an attitude of proud …

This course will survey anthropological theories of art and material culture with a cross-cultural purview and a concentration on indigenous societies in colonial and contemporary …

This course examines manifestations of ‘modernity’ in British design, from the Aesthetic Movement of the 1860s to the “New Art” tendencies around 1900, with reference to …

What is the purpose of design? At some level, all design aspires to change the world in which we live, and with it, our experience …

This seminar focuses on craft in the American Counterculture of the 1960s and 70s as well as its legacy in contemporary creative practice. In …

This collaboration between BGC and the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers an intensive and practical course on …

This class will provide a study of ceramics within a broad chronological scope, from sixteenth-century Italian maiolica to contemporary porcelain. Students will gain a connoisseurial …

This course will examine the legacies of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement around the world. We will look at a variety of …

The German term Sachlichkeit is central to the development and interpretation of twentieth-century modernism—and yet it is rarely fully understood.  In 1936, design historian …

This course will pursue the theme of metamorphosis in Renaissance art and decoration, in terms of narrative illustration but also as a ruling metaphor and …

Archaeological finds uncovered throughout ancient Palestine shed important light on the daily life, material culture, and social behavior of the local Jewish population (1st through …

Colonization, slavery, immigration, industrialization, westward expansion, and community—these are large topics central to the history and identity of the United States. Particular narratives about …

How do we study a thing for which there is no formal disciplinary framework? How do we (and should we) syncretize the diverse practices, textual …