Current Undergraduate Courses

PLEASE NOTE:

• Times and locations of courses are published in the Public Class Schedule.
• Official Calendar Course Descriptions are available in the Undergraduate and Graduate Calendars.
• Official Course Outlines will be distributed at the first class of the term.

Fall 2026-Winter 2027

First Year

ARTH 1100A: Art and Society: Prehistory to the Renaissance – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Morgan Currie
• DESCRIPTION: This course is a broad survey of different artistic traditions from prehistory to the Renaissance that explores how works of art were produced, and the roles that they played in their societies. Principle theories of art from the ancient and medieval worlds will also be introduced. Participants will gain the ability to recognize images from a wide range of times and places, and their relationships with the societies and cultures where they originated. Course activities develop basic visual analysis skills that are valuable in today’s image-saturated world.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Three-part analysis and virtual exhibit assignment 45% total; In-class Midterm test 15%; Final Exam 25%; Tutorial 15%
• READINGS: Students are not required to purchase textbooks or other materials; lectures are supported by a background video and online readings

ARTH 1101B: Art and Society: Renaissance to Present – Winter Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Morgan Currie
• DESCRIPTION: This course is a broad survey of the theoretical and practical developments in Western art and its changing relationship to society from the Renaissance to the present. Major ideas, artists, and works will be introduced and analyzed. Participants will gain the ability to recognize images from a wide range of times and places, and their relationships with the societies and cultures where they originated. Course activities develop basic visual analysis skills that are valuable in today’s image-saturated world.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Three-part analysis and virtual exhibit assignment 45% total; In-class Midterm test 15%; Final Exam 25%; Tutorial 15%
• READINGS: Students are not required to purchase textbooks or other materials; lectures are supported by a background video and online readings

ARTH 1200A History and Theory of Architecture: Prehistory to 1500 – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Destiny Kirumira
• DESCRIPTION: This course introduces world architecture across several continents, examining major monuments, building traditions, and architectural ideas from prehistory to the Renaissance. It explores architectural histories from Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and beyond, while highlighting the contributions of marginalized communities, labourers, and women. Through religious, military, commercial, and domestic buildings, the course considers formal and technological developments and situates architecture within its broader cultural, social, and historical contexts.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBA
• READINGS: TBA

Second Year

ARTH 2009A: Art Live: Art History Workshop  – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Stéphane Roy
• DESCRIPTION: This course focuses on the techniques, materials and institutions of art history through lectures and workshops on subjects ranging from art historical research and writing to the materials of art. Numerous activities (workshops, guest speakers, etc.) will provide students with a better sense of the professional skills required in the field of art history, giving them exposure to works of art and to the professionals of art in a variety of institutions. Ultimately, this course aims to provide a truly unique perspective on art history by: 1) introducing students to those who “make” art history: artists, curators, scholars and conservators; 2) exposing students to the materiality of art.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Reaction papers (throughout semester, 5%); Report on “Slow Looking” (20%); Exhibition proposal (20%); Exhibition project (30%); Class presentation 15%; Class participation 10%.
• READINGS: Weekly readings will be available online — no textbook required.

ARTH ARTH 2106A: Chinese Art and Visual Culture – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Birgit Hopfener
• DESCRIPTION: This course introduces Chinese art history and its cultural foundations. Based on close examinations of art objects and their respective cultural, historical, religious and socio-political contexts of production, the seminar introduces ritual bronzes, the tomb of the first Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, Buddhist art, calligraphy, and ink painting as central research subjects in Chinese art history. We will study media, materials and techniques of Chinese art and learn how the worldviews of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism have constituted specific visual cultures and concepts of art. The course introduces students to pre-modern art but also examines how contemporary artists have been critically engaging with traditions. 
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBD
• READINGS: TBD

ARTH ARTH 2107A: Islamic Architecture and Art – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Boshra Moossavi
• DESCRIPTION: This course explores Islamic art, architecture, and urbanism not simply as aesthetic achievements, but as material evidence through which we can investigate questions of power, environment, movement, belief, technology, and everyday life.
  This course combines short lectures with collaborative activities, discussions, visual and spatial analysis, debates, and object-based learning. Students will investigate historical questions using works of art, architecture, maps, manuscripts, and other primary sources, developing interpretations through discussion and evidence-based analysis.
  By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze works of Islamic art, architecture, and urbanism as historical sources; relate them to their social, political, religious, environmental, and material contexts; evaluate how different forms of evidence contribute to historical interpretation; and develop informed arguments about the diversity of artistic and architectural traditions across the Islamic world. Students will also develop the ability to ask historically meaningful questions about works of art, architecture, and urban space, and to evaluate what different forms of evidence can and cannot tell us about the past.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Activities 50%
  Midterm 25%
  Final 25%
• READINGS: TBA

ARTH 2202B: Medieval Architecture and Art  – Winter Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Morgan Currie
• DESCRIPTION: This course is a survey of major themes and monuments of medieval visual culture from its fourth-century roots to the fifteenth century. We will examine developments in religious and secular architecture, sculpture in various materials, and pictorial media, including stained glass, metalwork, enamel, mosaic, and manuscript illumination across the changing cultural landscapes of post-classical Europe. Themes include reception and methods of visual communication, relationships with the broader culture, exchange and interaction with neighbouring societies, and the complicated legacy of antiquity.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Terminology Quiz 5%; Midterm Test 25%; Term Project 35%; Final Exam: 30%; Attendance: 5%
• READINGS: There is no assigned textbook for the course. Weekly readings will be posted on the class Brightspace page

ARTH 2510A Architecture of the 18th and 19th Centuries – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Marie Clausén
• DESCRIPTION: The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were a time of great contradiction. It was a time of looking forward to a Golden Future and a time of looking back to a Golden Past. It was a time of exuberant progress and a time of deep nostalgia. It was, in a sense, the best of times and the worst of times.
  This course offers a survey of this turbulent and contradictory era’s key architectural styles and monuments, highlighting the way they both spearheaded and reflected its competing political, philosophical, cultural, and aesthetic ideals, as well as its technological innovations. The course also covers the birth of Architecture History as a university discipline, a development which had its own effect both on the art of building and on how we have come to ‘read’ and interpret architecture to this day.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBA
• READINGS: TBA

ARTH 2710A Experiencing Architecture – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Destiny Kirumira
• DESCRIPTION: This course focuses on how we see, understand, and analyze the built environment. It is built around three core skills: observation, analysis, and interpretation. Through a variety of activities, we will explore how architecture is experienced both directly through the senses and indirectly through drawings, images, and other forms of representation. We will also consider how people experience buildings differently based on cultural background, social position, race, gender, sexuality, and physical ability.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBA
• READINGS: TBA

ARTH 2710B Experiencing Architecture – Winter Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Destiny Kirumira
• DESCRIPTION: This course focuses on how we see, understand, and analyze the built environment. It is built around three core skills: observation, analysis, and interpretation. Through a variety of activities, we will explore how architecture is experienced both directly through the senses and indirectly through drawings, images, and other forms of representation. We will also consider how people experience buildings differently based on cultural background, social position, race, gender, sexuality, and physical ability.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBA
• READINGS: TBA

Third Year

ARTH 3108A: History and Methods of Art History  – Winter Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Carol Payne
• DESCRIPTION: The study of current methodologies and research tools employed by art historians. This course examines the writing of art history and the methods and theories that underpin art historical texts.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: A combination of response papers, presentations, discussions, and written research TBA.
• READINGS: The emphasis in the class will be on reading current and classic theoretical texts. Readings will be available through Brightspace and ARES.

ARTH 3400A: History of Printmaking  – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Stéphane Roy
• DESCRIPTION: This course provides a survey of the various printmaking techniques used from the 15th to the 21st century (woodcut, etching, lithography, linocut, etc.) through the work of their practitioners. In order to give a better sense of the medium’s materiality and to develop elements of basic connoisseurship (identification, technical processes, and scholarly conventions), teaching and discussions will be conducted – whenever possible – from actual objects, drawn mainly from Carleton University Art Gallery’s collections. By the end of this course, students will have a better understanding of this important yet overlooked art form.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Reading responses 25%; Research Project 40%; Class Presentation 25%; Class participation 10%
• READINGS: There is no textbook for this course — weekly readings will be posted online. In addition, additional reading material will be available at the AVRC.

ARTH 3501A Digital Media Production for Emerging Arts Professionals – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Paul Jasen
• DESCRIPTION: This course is designed for emerging arts (and design) professionals in any field. Our focus is on developing fundamental skills in digital media production that will be of use to students planning careers in the arts sector or related industries. Through lessons, case studies, workshopping and collaborative production sessions, students will gain experience in the following areas: website design and development, image editing, audio recording and podcasting, digital photography, streaming video, designing for print, social media integration and writing for the web. Students will leave this course having developed a multi-faceted portfolio project related to their field, as well as confidence and demonstrated proficiency using current media production tools and platforms.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: In-class workshopping activities; small skill-building assignments; production of a multi-part media project on a topic related to your field or creative practice.
• READINGS: TBA
• CROSS-LISTED WITH: FILM 3901A/MUSI 3201A

ARTH 3604A Contemporary Art in the Global Context – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Amy Bruce
• DESCRIPTION: How did contemporary art become global? This seminar explores the historical, political, and institutional forces that transformed contemporary art into a global field. Through critical readings, case studies, and discussions of major exhibitions and biennials, students will examine debates surrounding globalization, representation, decolonization, mobility, and the role of cultural institutions in shaping contemporary art
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBA
• READINGS: TBA

ARTH 3809A: Roman Baroque Architecture – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Morgan Currie
• DESCRIPTION: The dynamic architecture that emerged in Rome beginning in the 1580s retained the classical vocabulary of the earlier Renaissance but transformed it into something formally and experientially very different. As with the rest of the visual culture of the Baroque era, spatial engagement and rhetorical effects became paramount, with fluid curves and theatrical flourishes predominating. The movement spread across Italy and around the world in countless regional variations, but the archetypal innovations appeared in Rome. This course will trace the emergence of an identifiable Baroque idiom and its development over the following century and a half, with specific attention to historiographic and other theoretical implications and cultural contexts. Architects to be considered include Carlo Maderno, Francesco Borromini, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Pietro da Cortona, Plautilla Bricci, and Carlo Fontana among others.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Term project 30%; Midterm test 25%; Final Exam 35%; Attendance 5%
• READINGS: There is no assigned textbook for the course. Weekly readings will be posted on the class Brightspace page
• CROSS-LISTED WITH: ARTH 4809A

ARTH 3809B: Special Topics in Art and Visual Culture – Sculpture of the Roman Baroque – Winter Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Morgan Currie
• DESCRIPTION: The Italian Baroque, defined roughly from the 1590s to the early 18th century, witnessed the emergence of a radically new form of sculpture. Superficially similar to the work of the earlier Renaissance and Classical Antiquity, it innovated new methods of spatial integration and viewer engagement. While figures such as Gianlorenzo Bernini are reasonably well-known, the theoretical implications are less so. This course examines Baroque sculpture as essentially a new art form that does not fit neatly in the theoretical categories inherited from Renaissance art writing. Themes will include early modern sculpture theory, an extensive survey of specific works and their reception contexts, problems with critical and historiographic responses, and the development of new analytic vocabulary to account for this phenomenon.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Term Assignment 35%; Midterm Test 25%; Final Exam 35%; Attendance 5%
• READINGS: There is no assigned textbook for the course. Weekly readings will be posted on the class Brightspace page
• CROSS-LISTED WITH: ARTH 4809B

ARTH 3810A: Salvage and Reuse of Discarded Building Fragments: From Curatorial to Circular Practices – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Susan Ross
• DESCRIPTION: This course introduces students to the afterlives of building fragments as materials, components, artefacts and resources. We will study histories of demolition, deconstruction, salvage, spolia, and reuse strategies and meanings. Through these lenses students will discover both unique and ordinary related places, from building sites and salvage yards to museums and rubble landscapes. In parallel, we will consider the roles of collection, storage and exhibition of architectural fragments and relocated buildings. Students will apply their learning about key concepts and terminology to discuss Canadian and International practices for integration of reclaimed materials and components in new projects and sites
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Student assessment elements include: a collaborative glossary of key concepts; documenting research in the archives of demolition photography; a critical review of practices for salvage and reuse of fragments; participation in weekly lectures and class discussions
• READINGS: All readings for this course will be made available electronically at no cost to the students via the Library’s ARES Reserves platform or through Brightspace.

ARTH 3810B: Black Architecture I – Winter Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Destiny Kirumira
• DESCRIPTION: This course will focus on the architecture of Blackness, that is, the architecture of race, beginning with its origins during slavery and continuing through colonialism. The course will provide a critical and timely introduction to the role of architecture in the spatial, aesthetic, and social construction of race as it pertains to Blackness, with special emphasis on the design of slave castles, ships, and plantations. The course will examine the architectural relationships and tools used to make race visible, discernible, and self-evident, and discuss the implications and manifestations of these spatial rules in the contemporary. It will also consider how Black communities resisted these architectural paradigms.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBA
• READINGS: TBA

ARTH 3810C: Special Topics about the Designed Environment: Iron Gall Ink, Chalk, and Laid Paper: Lessons from the Early Modern Architectural Drawing and Sketchbook – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: TBA
• DESCRIPTION: This course focuses on the material circumstances of early modern architectural design by studying architectural drawings and drawing compendiums. We will learn about the histories of ink, chalk, and paper, among other early modern design tools and materials, and how they shaped and were shaped by architectural design practices.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBA
• READINGS: TBA

Fourth Year

ARTH 4008B Special Topics in Global Art: Global Art History: Discourses, Histories and Methodological Approaches  – Winter Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Birgit Hopfener
• DESCRIPTION: This course will provide a critical introduction to discourses, socio-political contexts, histories, scholars, institutions, concepts, and methodological approaches of Global Art History since the beginning of “Weltkunstgeschichte” (world art history) discourses in 20th century Europe until today’s discourses of World Art Studies, Global art, Post-colonial  and Decolonial Art History, Art and Migration, Transnational Art and Transcultural Art History and Planetary and ecological perspectives. Among others, we will study and compare the meaning of figures such as cultural influence, diffusion, transfer, circulation, exchange, contact, migration, entanglement, interaction, negotiation. We will study and examine descriptive and analytical concepts of cultural contact such as hybridity, creolization, metissage, appropriation, reconfiguration, and resonance, and will study methodological approaches such as discourse analysis, cultural translation and relational comparison. The course will be a an intensive reading course.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBD
• READINGS: TBD

ARTH 4800A: The Witch’s House: Premodern Architectures of Dissent  – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Dijana O. Apostolski
• DESCRIPTION: Dissidents in premodern European society, witches transformed everyday places into sites of transgression, refuge, and resistance through their presence, occupancy, labor, or ritual practices. Witchcraft depositions reveal that the boundaries between the public and the private home –the realm of the feminine– were continually challenged by witches. Witches magically transported from place to place in spirit and body, defying the fixity of their place in society and morphing the spatiotemporality of everyday life. Framed as essentially mysterious and occult, they escaped exactness and delineation. Writer and lecturer Marina Warner poignantly notes that “the supernatural is difficult terrain; of its very nature, it resists discourse; or, to put it more accurately, it is always in the process of being described, conjured, made, and made up, without ascertainable outside referents.”This course is imagined as a historical workshop that will study, map, and speculatively recreate the witch’s premodern spaces, including, but not limited to, the witch’s house, sabbath site, and inquisitional courtroom. We will study and analyze exemplars from primary sources (texts) to get familiar with the witch’s spatial presences and relationships intertwined with social, economic, and spiritual themes, with a focus on the notion of dissent. Finally, we will experiment with mapping tools, methods, and representations, both analog and digital, to play against or with the concept of exactness and the difficulty of delineating the premodern supernatural landscape. Selecting this seminar would suggest interest and curiosity about history and alternative ways of mapping and designing spaces that relate to studying existing and imagining new situated architectural design and production methods, praxes, and poetics.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Note-taking (5%), participation (10%), mini-seminars(15%), final presentation (15%), and term project (10%+10%+35%= total 55%). No exams.
• READINGS: TBD

ARTH 4800B: Black Architecture II  – Winter Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Destiny Kirumira
• DESCRIPTION: This course explores Black architecture as a dynamic field of design, creativity, and spatial imagination across post-colonial Africa, the African diaspora, and African American communities. Examining the work of Black architects and designers, it positions architecture as a site of culture, identity, and innovation. Topics include Black modernism, vernacular architecture, diasporic Blackness, and the intersections of race, power, and place in the built environment.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBA
• READINGS: TBA

ARTH 4800C: Understanding Sacred Architecture: History, Form and Meaning  – Winter Term

• INSTRUCTOR: TBA
• DESCRIPTION: This course explores thousands of years of religious building, examining the permanent link between human spirituality and physical construction. Our investigation begins with how the earliest known architecture of humankind was fundamentally devoted to concepts of the afterlife and the divine. We then explore the ways in which sacred architecture has, throughout history, served as a crucible for new architectural styles, driving both structural innovation and aesthetic evolution. The deep connection between human religious life and physical construction also makes sacred space an invaluable lens for interrogating the human condition more generally. However, today’s architectural landscape faces a historic shift: in many contemporary societies, a religious life is no longer the default proposition. This cultural transition carries profound consequences for religious buildings, both historic and modern. Consequently, this course balances historical inquiry with modern reality, investigating how contemporary cultural heritage, conservation practices, and adaptive reuse strategies address the shifting dilemmas facing sacred spaces today.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: TBA
• READINGS: TBA

ARTH 4809A: Roman Baroque Architecture  – Fall Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Morgan Currie
• DESCRIPTION: The dynamic architecture that emerged in Rome beginning in the 1580s retained the classical vocabulary of the earlier Renaissance but transformed it into something formally and experientially very different. As with the rest of the visual culture of the Baroque era, spatial engagement and rhetorical effects became paramount, with fluid curves and theatrical flourishes predominating. The movement spread across Italy and around the world in countless regional variations, but the archetypal innovations appeared in Rome. This course will trace the emergence of an identifiable Baroque idiom and its development over the following century and a half, with specific attention to historiographic and other theoretical implications and cultural contexts. Architects to be considered include Carlo Maderno, Francesco Borromini, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Pietro da Cortona, Plautilla Bricci, and Carlo Fontana among others.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Three-stage term project 70% total, Reading Review Presentation 15%; Attendance and Participation 15%
• READINGS: There is no assigned textbook for the course. Weekly readings will be posted on the class Brightspace page.
• CROSS-LISTED WITH: ARTH 3809A

ARTH 4809B: Sculpture of the Roman Baroque  – Winter Term

• INSTRUCTOR: Morgan Currie
• DESCRIPTION: The Italian Baroque in Rome, defined roughly from the 1590s to the early 18th century, witnessed the emergence of a radically new form of sculpture. Superficially similar to the work of the earlier Renaissance and Classical Antiquity, it innovated new methods of spatial integration and viewer engagement. While figures such as Gianlorenzo Bernini are reasonably well-known, the theoretical implications are less so. This course examines Baroque sculpture as essentially a new art form that does not fit neatly in the theoretical categories inherited from Renaissance art writing. Themes will include early modern sculpture theory, an extensive survey of specific works and their reception contexts, problems with critical and historiographic responses, and the development of new analytic vocabulary to account for this phenomenon.
• METHOD OF EVALUATION: Three-stage term project 70% total, Reading Review Presentation 15%; Attendance and Participation 15%
• READINGS: There is no assigned textbook for the course. Weekly readings will be posted on the class Brightspace page.
• CROSS-LISTED WITH: ARTH 3809B

Previous terms

• 2025-2026 Course Listings (F/W/S)
• 2024-2025 Course Listings (F/W/S)
• 2023-2024 Course Listings (F/W/S)
• 2022-2023 Course Listings (F/W/S)

Courses in the BA programs

The goals of the majors and honours program in Art History are to give students a thorough knowledge of the history of art, and to engage them critically in the current debates within the discipline and in the humanities in general. Such an education provides students with an awareness and understanding of various cultures as well as an appreciation of cultural difference. It also enables them to think and look critically. Students gain important communication skills, verbal and oral, through exchanging ideas in the classroom and writing research papers.

This training gives students a curiosity for intellectual endeavours, as well as a critical advantage that is necessary for professional life. It also provides them with the communication and research skills that are demanded in a variety of workplaces. Finally, our thorough training in art historical matters enables students to go on to studies at the graduate level, as many of our students do.