Visual Studies Minor

Required courses

H142A Introduction to Visual Studies

An introduction to the trans-disciplinary field of Visual Studies, its methods of analysis and topical concerns. Traditional media and artifacts of art history and film theory, and also an examination of the ubiquity of images of all kinds, their systems of transmission, their points of consumption, and the very limits of visuality itself.

Visual Studies Capstone [No course number yet; not offered until Fall 2018]

The capstone course will focus both on close reading of relevant scholarship and theory as well as creative project implementation from conception to installment. Students will bring skill sets and perspectives from a variety of majors to the shared theme, and will be encouraged to incorporate an element of making into their projects. Final projects will be supported by and make use of the VCAM facility, including the screening room, gallery and common spaces.

Elective courses (Fall 2017)

The Director of Visual Studies determines the list of courses approved to meet the minor requirements and classifies the courses in three categories: Visual Literacy, Labs/Studio Courses, and The Ethics of the Visual. Currently, at least three of the four courses must be selected from a department outside of the student’s major and at least two of the four courses should be at the non-introductory level. Students must take one course from each of the three course categories listed below; the additional course can come from any of the three categories.

In addition to the following list, all courses in cognate departments (Fine Arts at Haverford, History of Art, Museum Studies and Film Studies at Bryn Mawr) will count as electives in the Visual Studies Minor.

Category A: Visual Literacy
Courses that encourage students to describe, analyze, and negotiate the visual and the impact of digital and/or material technologies on art, culture, science, commerce, policy, society, and the environment

• ANTH H112A The Anthropology of Architecture
• ANTH H264A Materiality and Spectacle in Nineteenth Century United States
• ENGL H346A Topics in 18th-century Literature: New(s) Media and Print Culture
• FREN H212A Grammaire Avancée: Composition et Conversation
• MUSC H254A Tones, Words, and Images
• PHIL H360A Topics in Philosophical Psychology: Perceptual Awareness and its Objects

Category B: Labs/Studio Courses
Courses that create curricular opportunities for students to make images, objects, films and digital artifacts and develop a critical awareness of the relationship between process, product, and reception

• ARTS  H101D Arts Foundation-Drawing (2-D)
• ARTS  H103D Arts Foundation-Photography
• ARTS  H104E Arts Foundation-Sculpture
• ARTS  H106D Arts Foundation-Drawing
• ARTS  H107E Arts Foundation-Painting
• ARTS  H108E Arts Foundation-Photography
• ARTS  H120E Foundation Printmaking: Silkscreen
• ARTS  H124D Foundation Printmaking: Monotype
• ARTS  H225A Lithography: Materials and Techniques
• ARTS  H229A Topics in Visual Studies: Roland Barthes and the Image
• ARTS  H231A Drawing (2-D): All Media
• ARTS  H243A Sculpture: Materials and Techniques
• ARTS  H251A Photography: Materials and Techniques
• ARTS  H322A Experimental Studio: Printmaking: Lithography
• ARTS  H331A Experimental Studio: Drawing (2-D)
• ARTS  H333A Experimental Studio: Painting
• ARTS  H351A Experimental Studio: Photography
• ICPR H243A Introduction to Documentary Video Production

Category C: The Ethics of the Visual
Courses that invite students to examine the relationship between the visual and social structures of power, analyzing the role of images in making consumers and attending to the role that images play in constructing “others” through such categories as race, gender, or disability

• COML H268A Artists Under the Policing Gaze of the State: Politics, History, and Performance
• EALC370 Advanced Topics in Buddhist Studies:
The Visual Culture of Pure Land Buddhism
• EALCH 355 Art and the Environment in East Asia (part of BMC 360 cluster)
• ENGL H215A Realism, Race, and Photography
• GERM H223A Visualizing Nations: Africa & Europe
• ICPR H258A American Queen: Drag in Contemporary Art and Performance
• REL 257 Yoga: Art, Text, Practice
• RELG  H303A Religion, Literature and Representation: Images of Krishna
• SPAN  H210A Spanish and Spanish American Film Studies
• WRPR  H118A Portraits of Disability and Difference
• WRPR H184A, Queer Contemporary Art