ARTH 381 - Feminism and Art History

• F - 12:15-14:45
• EV-1.605
• INSTRUCTOR: DR. CYNTHIA HAMMOND

Feminist ideas and activism have had a substantial impact on the disciplines of art and architectural history since the rise of second-wave feminism. This course will introduce students to important feminist thinkers whose work has challenged art and architectural history since 1969 (Linda Nochlin, Griselda Pollock, Lucy Lippard, Lynda Nead, bell hooks, and more). This historical and analytical work was sometimes allied with new forms of creative production, including performance, video, installation, and arts activism. Accordingly, this course will invite students to discover key examples of foundational feminist art and arts activism (Judy Chicago, Ana Mendieta, Carolee Schneemann, Valie Export, Martha Rosler, Guerilla Girls, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and others). Students will consider how feminist approaches can help deepen our understanding of art and architecture made by women prior to second-wave feminism. The course will also explore more recent artists who identify as feminist, or who engage with the history of feminism. We will study art that explores space from an intersectional feminist perspective, and we will raise the subject of feminist curating with a guest lecture by Studio XX programming coordinator, Erandy Vergara-Vargas. Through the major project for ARTH 381, students will be given the opportunity to collaborate with two important institutions dedicated to gender equality and cultural inclusion, the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative, and the historic Atwater Library,  in order to create a series of short films about historical Canadian woman artists and architects. The Atwater Library will host the final launch of our films at the end of the semester, so that students can make their research about women artists and architects accessible to a broad public.