AR216 Facing America: Race and Representation, 1492 to the Present
Four credit hours.
Professor Juliet Sperling
This course explores how visual culture has shaped ideas of racial difference in North America, from circa 1492 to the present. Focusing on representations of bodies, we will examine prints, paintings, performances, films, and photographs that contributed to the construction of Black, Native American, Latino/a, and Asian identities and interwoven issues of class, gender, and sexuality. Students engage with original artworks, take one essay-based midterm exam, and complete two writing assignments. This course fulfills the “A” and “U” distribution requirements.

Above: Kehinde Wiley, Three Graces, 2005. Oil and enamel on canvas.