ART 240 - History of Art and Feminism

Credits: 5
This course explores how artistic images shape our understanding of gender roles, morality, power, and social justice activism in relation to hetero-patriarchy and Eurocentricism. We will discuss female-identified artists from various global regions and time periods. We will critically examine the tradition of male gaze as it pertains to the visual arts and investigate how various feminist theories have impacted the art world.

Satisfies Requirement: Humanities/Fine Arts/English and Diversity
Course Fee: $10.00

Course Outcomes:
Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:

Identify key female-identified artists from the 19th-21st centuries, using the historical movements of abolition, suffrage and feminist waves of the late 20th century as benchmarks.
Define and utilize art historical terminology as it relates to the art and visual objects produced by female-identified artists.
Analyze the relationship between art created by female-identified artists and its social, cultural and historical contexts, including hetero-patriarchy and Eurocentrism.
Identify and define various feminist theories, and practice a feminist approach to analyzing art.
Explain how artistic images shape our understanding of gender roles, morality, power and social justice activism with an emphasis on an intersectional approach, including attention to race, sexuality, class, and disability.
Demonstrate competency in research and visual analysis skills through written and oral forms of communication.

Reading and video assignments, writing assignments, a studio art project, presentation assignment, and exams will enable students to achieve these course objectives.
Program Outcomes
Demonstrate knowledge of visual art elements and principles.

College-wide Outcomes

Critical Thinking - Critical thinking finds expression in all disciplines and everyday life. It is characterized by an ability to reflect upon thinking patterns, including the role of emotions on thoughts, and to rigorously assess the quality of thought through its work products. Critical thinkers routinely evaluate thinking processes and alter them, as necessary, to facilitate an improvement in their thinking and potentially foster certain dispositions or intellectual traits over time.
Diversity and Equity - In order to advance equity and social justice, students will be able to examine their own and others’ identities, behaviors, and/or cultural perspectives as they connect to power, privilege, and/or resistance.
Responsibility - Responsibility encompasses those behaviors and dispositions necessary for students to be effective members of a community. This outcome is designed to help students recognize the value of a commitment to those responsibilities which will enable them to work successfully individually and with others.
Written Communication - Written Communication encompasses all the abilities necessary for effective expression of thoughts, feelings, and ideas in written form.