coursemapLoading course
School of Art and Design · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
What is the best way to approach the research, writing, and display of works of art, artefacts, and material culture? What are the ideas that underpin the kind of projects that we undertake as art historians and curators? Theories of Art History and Curatorial Studies provides an overview of methods and theories that allow us to answer those questions. The course provides students with essential tools that will equip them to develop a focussed individual research project, with assessments that will encourage students to develop and pursue their own interests. We will explore various approaches and examine in-depth the methodological strategies and institutional critiques adopted by art historians and curators. These include iconographic, semiotic, formalist, and socially/ethically engaged methods as well as critical theory, queer theory, feminist, and post-colonial critiques.
Identifying a research question (1000 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2
Research plan (500 words)
Learning outcomes 2, 3
Research proposal presentation (10 mins)
Learning outcomes 4
Extended research proposal (2000 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3
130 hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 36 hours of contact over 12 weeks, comprising weekly 3-hour workshops; and b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing.
Not applicable Preliminary Reading Altshuler, Bruce, Collecting the New: Museums and Contemporary Art, Princeton University Press, 2005. D’Alleva, Anne, How to Write Art History, Laurence King, 2010. Janes, Robert R., and Richard Sandell, Museum Activism, Routledge, 2019. Minor, Vernon Hyde, Art History’s History, Prentice Hall, 2000. O’Neill, Paul, The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s), The MIT Press, 2012. Preziosi, Donald (ed.), The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology, Oxford University Press, 2009.