Due: Monday December 12
Length: 3-4 pages

For this self-assessment, I’d like you to take seriously Lucy Lippard’s call for a critical self-consciousness about your path through art history to date, and consider what might come next for you.

You have 2 options:
1. Choose a paper/project you are working on this semester. Ask yourself: what is it about my background, experience, and sense-of-self that leads me to this subject, and to the approach I am taking with it? Are there particular classes, scholars, ideas, or interactions that were important in getting me to this point in my thinking? To what extent does this fit in with what I want to do next (in college, and/or after graduation), and what will I need to do to get there?
2. Revisit elements of the original self-assessment I asked you to write: what brought you to art history, what does it do for you in the here and now, and how does it relate to your larger ambitions? Be specific about how readings, courses, artworks/monuments, and interactions have brought you to this point. How does your path to date and plan for the future relate to your personality, strengths, and weaknesses? What will you need to do to further your ambitions? Research this on-line and draw on your discussions with/exposure to folks working in the field.

Either route, keep a few things in mind.
1. Where you started this semester: take a look at your original self-assessment; what still holds true, what is changing for you?
2. You are writing a narrative, first and foremost, about how you see yourself and your ambitions at this moment in time. There are various narrative conventions you might employ here—like the classic "ah-ha" moment. The nature of the assignment asks you to make sense of your trajectory in a coherent way – even if that coherence is ultimately fleeting!
3. I am not prescribing any specific terms in which you must analyze your trajectory: you might deploy terms similar to those deployed by Lippard (race, class, gender); you might identify and analyze religion, regional identity, political alignment, family history, or any number of other social and historical factors that you have negotiated on your path to and through art history. You could even go beyond social factors to consider psychological ones. Either way, I am asking you to think critically about your own subjectivity.

I am looking for:
1. A clear, compelling, and well-written narrative.
2. Self-consciousness and reflection.
3. Citation of specific books, articles, artworks/monuments/objects that have helped you create the trajectory you describe. If you do research about how to go forward with your goals, be sure to cite the resources you consult—even conversations with people (give name, and date of communication).