Selected Courses Taught
contemporary art
A survey of the history of contemporary art and its critical discourses from 1980 to the present.
21st century aesthetics
A graduate seminar tracing the history and theory underlying new directions in the arts.
dada, surrealism, and futurism
An introduction to avant garde art, design, writing, and film of the early twentieth century, with an emphasis on historical contexts.
image and object: postpunk
This course examines the aftereffects of punk on the production of art and design, including the tactics of postproduction, DIY, and the abject.
black lipstick: gothic art and design
An interdisciplinary course on the history of the Gothic, from Ruskin to the present. Includes fashion, graphic design, painting, sculpture, objects, interiors, and music.
art theory seminar
A course designed for art and design students, with an emphasis on major developments in theory of the 20th and 21st centuries. Students consider questions of originality, ideology, the avant garde, popular culture, the studio and gallery as sites of production and exhibition, postmodernism, and postcolonialism.
modernism, post-modernism & popular culture
An introduction to the theories that have influenced contemporary American art & design of the last 20 years, with special emphasis on the history of typography, video, techniques of appropriation, sampling, pastiche, allegory, and simulation.
modern and contemporary design
An interdisciplinary survey of theoretical issues informing the design practices of the 20th century to the present, including the ideologies of modernism, sustainable design, globalism, youth culture, and intersections with art practice.
design culture now
An interdisciplinary course presenting a history of the way the designed world around us looks now. Current trends in graphic design, advertising, architectural and interior, fashion and product design are emphasized as well as attention to popular culture and fine art.
history of fashion
A survey course examining fashion through the centuries, including the historic relationship among clothing, painting, interior architectural design, literature, music, and social forces such as economics, politics, industry, labor.
contemporary fashion
From Dior’s New Look to Le Destroy, this course situates contemporary fashion in the economic and cultural contexts of global production and consumption of dress in the 21st century.