ARTH 396 Art & Culture: World's Fairs

• Wednesdays,  11:45 am-14:15 pm
• Course delivery: Online
• Instructor: Dr. Marco Deyasi

Our modern concepts of race, nation, and cultural identity were developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This course examines how visual culture was a key element of that process via the series of World’s Fairs or Expositions from 1851 to the mid-twentieth century. These festivals, of which Expo ’67 is a more recent example, are sites where both the construction and contestation of national identities were made visible through architecture, material objects, and museum-style displays. This course will combine analysis of the visual culture of these expositions with both historical and theoretical readings. By examining the changing historical contexts we can better develop our understanding of how cultural change happens. Rather than take for granted our contemporary concepts of racial and cultural difference, we will pay close attention to how these World’s Fairs helped to build, step-by-step, particular ideas about identity—about “us” and about “them”—that have since become part of our shared culture.

If you are interested in how visual culture was used to create and maintain racial, cultural, or national difference, this course is for you. No prior study of art or history is required.