ARC3304H S
Instructor: Amin Alsaden
Meeting Section: L0101
Tuesday, 6:00PM - 8:30PM

This graduate seminar explores the recent historiographic and museological turn towards the global, revisiting Eurocentric narratives and recognizing the manner in which modernity unfolded worldwide: in multiple, variegated, and context-specific iterations, and yielding interrelated, overlapping, and co-constitutive modernisms. Within the disciplines of art and architectural history, this turn has called for a reassessment of existing assumptions about the modern cultures of non-Western geographies, whereas exhibitions have increasingly presented previously overlooked figures, demonstrated relationships between disparate places, and expanded the definition of objects worthy of display and collection.

Going beyond the limitations of the Western canon, this course considers the contributions of post-colonial geographies, alternative ideologies, and hitherto neglected figures and groups, and foregrounds the cross-cultural exchanges that produced a worldwide heterogeneous modernism. The seminar critically interrogates questions of universalism and globalism, pondering the impact of the notion of a decentered modernism on contemporary discourses and practices. Through weekly discussions and presentations, a series of pertinent theoretical constructs and case studies will be examined, and students will be encouraged to pursue original research based on archival material and unconventional sources.

Together, participants will engage in close readings of texts that challenge existing dogmas and champion novel concepts, and regard examples of salient initiatives that are transforming the manner in which modernism is understood and presented today. Therefore, active participation in discussions is expected, as well as the submission of brief critical responses to weekly reading assignments. Students will also complete three projects during the semester:

1. Abstract: Presenting a concise case for an underexplored modern object (artwork or building), conveying its significance.
2. Biography and Annotated Bibliography: Compiling an overview of the life and career of the chosen object's creator (artist or architect), with a list of reliable resources.
3. Final Paper: Brief essay about the chosen object, situating it within its context, and positioning it historically.

The course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of modernism, and covers key discourses with relevance to both art and architectural history. It aims to underline not only the transnational reality of modernism, but also its manifestations across mediums.

Graduate students with a strong interest in modern and contemporary art and architecture, and a desire to explore and document currently underexplored objects, figures, and geographies, are invited to enroll. Although many of the readings will explore non-Western contexts, those invested in studying the work of figures who have not been given their due in the West, including women, minorities, or Indigenous artists and architects, as well as those who might not fit within conventional disciplines, are also encouraged to join.