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Visual Studies Courses
University of california, Irvine
Visual Studies Core Courses

Fall Quarter
Dept Course No., Title   Instructor
VIS STD (F09)291  VISION & VISUALITYPOWELL, A.

The first of three required seminars for students in the Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies, this course will examine the history of Art History. We will consider the political and philosophical stakes of the discipline as it has changed from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first, giving special attention to the concepts of the “visual” and the “historical” as they have been variously constructed over time. The aim of the course is to place our own deployments of these concepts, which are so important to Visual Studies, in a historical perspective that allows us to see them better.

VIS STD (F09)295  UNRULY NATIVE WOMENRONY, F.

This graduate-level visual studies seminar will investigate discourses of gender and sexuality in the figure of the Native Woman, across such diverse media as painting, missionary photography, ethnographic film, and found footage film that represent Bali, Java, Sumatra, and other islands of Indonesia from 1853 to the 1930s. Using postcolonial theory, art history, feminist theory, and film and media studies, we will explore critical themes including: conversion, time, modernity, sexuality, and the archive. Some of the questions that we will investigate are: what are the narratives of conversion in constructions of the Native Woman of Java, Sumatra, and Bali in painting, photography, and film; how did these constructions become codified in the years prior to 1935; how do these constructions relate to issues of spectatorship, narrative structure, and ideology; what were the haunting syncretic vestiges of pre-Western contact; and how can we move beyond the problem of representation of the European as the Voice versus the Native as the Silenced? The class will end with a study of the work of contemporary Indonesian women filmmakers around the themes of polygamy and women's sexuality.


Course Requirements:

Prompt attendance and participation at all classes and screenings, completion of all readings, noteboards due weekly, one presentation, research paper due on the last day of classes in tenth week. If you have more than two unexcused absences you will fail the class.

VIS STD (F09)295  ANATOMY OF GENDER/GENDER OF ANATOMYMASSEY, L.

Anatomy of Gender/Gender of Anatomy: Early Modern Science, Representation and the Body.

Issues of gender and sexuality are central to the development of anatomical science in early modern Europe. From the 1543 publication of Vesalius' celebrated De humani corporis fabricaŠ, to William Hunter's equally celebrated Gravid Uterus of 1774, the female body in particular underwent a radical re-conceptualization that had repercussions well beyond the domain of medical science. Visual images played a critical role in this re-conceptualization of the body. Pictorial representations both reflected and influenced the scientific and biological construction of sexual difference. This course will focus on the rich history of anatomical representations and on the ways in which these images produced gendered, epistemological understandings of the body. We will start by discussing Thomas Laqueur's "one sex" thesis in his book, Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud and then look at recent critiques of his ideas. Then, while exploring a wealth of visual material, we will discuss the cross-fertilization of erotic and anatomical prints in the Renaissance; the dialectical shifts between interior vs exterior views of the body and attempts to tame the uncanny; the persistence of moralizing sexual distinctions based on the prototypes of Adam and Eve and medieval humoral medicine; changes in the conceptualization of human reproduction and pregnancy; the life of certain allegorical associations with anatomical imagery and the early modern discourse on wonders, portents and "monstrous births" (including hermaphrodites). Included in the course will be visits to Special Collections at one or more of the following institutions: The Getty Research Center, The Clark Library, UCLA, The Huntington Museum and Library.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGPATEL, A.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGHATCH, K.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGBRYAN-WILSON, J.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGGONOSOVA, A.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGHERBERT, J.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGCOOKS CUMBO, B.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGMILES, M.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGRONY, F.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGSTEIN, S.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGLIU, C.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGWINTHER, D.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGPOSTER, M.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGLIM, F.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGKRAPP, P.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGJOHNSON, V.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGAMIRAN, E.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGHALL, J.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGWHITING, C.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGDIMENDBERG, E.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGBENAMOU, C.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGHATCH, K.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGHILDERBRAND, L.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGMIMURA, G.

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGSTAFF

VIS STD (F09)296  DIRECTED READINGDAULATZAI, S.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGBRYAN-WILSON, J.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGSEXTON, J.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGPATEL, A.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGGONOSOVA, A.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGHERBERT, J.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGHATCH, K.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGMILES, M.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGRONY, F.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGSTEIN, S.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGLIU, C.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGWINTHER, D.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGPOSTER, M.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGLIM, F.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGJOHNSON, V.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGMIMURA, G.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGCOOKS CUMBO, B.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGWHITING, C.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGKRAPP, P.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGDIMENDBERG, E.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGHALL, J.M.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGBENAMOU, C.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGHATCH, K.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGHILDERBRAND, L.

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGSTAFF

VIS STD (F09)298  COMPREHN EX READINGDAULATZAI, S.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHBRYAN-WILSON, J.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHPATEL, A.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHHATCH, K.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHGONOSOVA, A.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHHERBERT, J.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHCOOKS CUMBO, B.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHMILES, M.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHRONY, F.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHSTEIN, S.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHLIU, C.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHWINTHER, D.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHPOSTER, M.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHJOHNSON, V.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHHALL, J.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHLIM, F.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHWHITING, C.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHKRAPP, P.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHDIMENDBERG, E.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHBENAMOU, C.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHHATCH, K.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHHILDERBRAND, L.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHSTAFF

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHDAULATZAI, S.

VIS STD (F09)299  DISSERTATION RESRCHMIMURA, G.