AFR 105
Materials, Meanings, and Messages in the Arts of Africa and the Diaspora Fall 2015
Division II Exploring Diversity Initiative
Cross-listed ARTH 104
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

This course introduces students to the wealth, power, and diversity of expressive forms that have characterized the arts of Africa and its Diaspora from prehistory to the present. Pulling extensively from the collections at the Williams College Museum of Art and other campus resources, students will not only experience firsthand the wide array of objects that have been produced within this vast geography, but will also come to recognize how multiple senses including sight, sound, smell, and touch play a key role in understanding how these objects work within their respective contexts. As tools of political control, social protest, divine manifestation, and spiritual intervention, these objects and their associated performances also challenge what we might typically consider art in the Western tradition and as such students will be pushed to think beyond such terms in their examinations of these rich creative traditions. This course fulfills EDI requirements through its exploration of the differences between concepts of art in African and Western traditions, and its focus on renovating historical biases and assumptions about these objects that position them as ‘primitive’ or ‘exotic’ constructs.
The Class: Format: lecture
Expected: 25
Class#: 1455
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: four 2-page response papers, class journal, midterm exam, final exam or paper
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: lottery
Distributions: Division II Exploring Diversity Initiative
Notes: meets Division 1 requirement if registration is under ARTH; meets Division 2 requirement if registration is under AFR
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AFR 105 Division II ARTH 104 Division I
Attributes: ARTH post-1600 Courses

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