Monday, December 5
Review Methods, Discuss Annotated Bibliographies

Wednesday, December 7
Heller, Scott. "What are They Doing to Art History?" and Roger Kimball, "Introduction to Tenured Radicals" in Critical Perspectives in Art History. McEnroe and Pokinski, editors. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, pp.288-301.

With the critical perspectives of Heller and Kimball fresh in your minds, think about how your introductory art history courses (taken here or elsewhere) fit into this debate.

What did your course(s) cover?
What do you think were its goals as an introductory course? How does this compare with the ideas articulated by Heller and Kimball?
What did you take away from the experience?
What do you think intro courses should accomplish?

See the links below to remind yourself of some of the courses here:

Art Across Cultures: The Americas
Episodes
Elements of Architecture
Visual Culture

Friday, December 9
Nelson, Robert S. "The Map of Art History" The Art Bulletin vol.79, no.1 (March 1997), 28-40.

Nelson analyses some of the key structures of art history as a discipline. What questions does he ask to drive this analysis? What are some of the assumptions he uncovers that help give form or structure to art history?

Nelson comments on the first page, "If these structures are seldom noticed, much less studied, they are always present. They are revived whenever a student attends an introductory class, reads a survey book, or follows a prescribed curriculum, whenever a colleague retires, a chair justifies and a dean endorses a replacement position, and a recent PhD is hired... whenever the discipline...publishes its journal...."

With this in mind, consider the department's curriculum. What does its structure and its content say about Ithaca College's Art History Department's values?