NEH Enduring Questions Course on the Significance of Art

FAIN: AQ-229068-15

Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA 90263-0002)
Kristen Chiem (Project Director: September 2014 to June 2019)

The development and teaching of a new first-year seminar on the role of art in diverse cultures.

Dr. Chiem will create a new first-year seminar to explore a plurality of approaches to the question, "What is the Significance of Art to Humanity?" Guided by extensive primary source readings from the history of art, literature, philosophy of aesthetics, cultural production, social history, religion, and anthropology, this course will engage a comparative perspective that explores the role of art in diverse cultures throughout history. Seven questions will anchor the course and allow for open-ended investigation of artworks from a range of theoretical perspectives, world traditions, and time periods. Museum visits will stimulate reflections and provide opportunities for application of readings and discussions. By exploring the origins and afterlives of artistic production throughout world history, this course will mediate the divide between Western and non-Western traditions and so deepen our understanding of the significance of art to humanity.

Associated Products

“Mediating the West/Non-West Divide: What is the Significance of Art to Humanity?” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Mediating the West/Non-West Divide: What is the Significance of Art to Humanity?”
Author: Kristen Chiem
Abstract: Following recent studies on global approaches to the humanities, this paper details the development of a first-year seminar designed to investigate the divide between Western and non-Western traditions in art history. It explores a plurality of approaches to the enduring question, what is the significance of art to humanity? Thematic and object-driven, it engages a comparative perspective on the role of art in diverse cultures throughout history. Primary source readings extend across disciplines to encourage critical debate, and team-based projects offer avenues for adapting this model to larger classroom settings. This paper examines how the design and experience of teaching a global seminar at the undergraduate level not only extends beyond the bounds of any art historical specialty, but also tests the methods and pedagogical practices standard in our discipline today. At the foundational level, this course aims to mediate the west/non-west divide and inspire a global conversation in our classrooms.
Date: 2/5/2016
Conference Name: Annual Meeting of the College Art Association

“Looking Beyond the Canon: Localized and Globalized Perspectives in Art History Pedagogy” (Article)
Title: “Looking Beyond the Canon: Localized and Globalized Perspectives in Art History Pedagogy”
Author: Aditi Chandra
Author: Leda Cempellin
Author: Kristen Chiem
Author: Abigail Lapin Dardashti
Author: Radha J. Dalal
Author: Ellen Kenney
Author: Sadia Pasha Kamran
Author: Nina Murayama
Author: James P. Elkins
Abstract: Our pedagogical choices make art history classrooms political spaces of cultural production. Through a global exchange of ideas we consider questions of imbalance between western and non-Western materials and differing art history pedagogies in introductory courses and reveal teaching methods shaped by varied local contexts. Kristen L. Chiem suggests re-routing students to the fundamentals of art historical inquiry rather than to a specific time or region. Abigail L. Dardashti’s essay re-configures the global art history course by focusing on artworks that defy the neat West and non-West categories. Radha J. Dalal discusses a curriculum that includes a series of courses on Islamic arts in a global context, which highlight shared visual cultures as an alternative to the traditional perspective. Ellen Kenney discusses the complexities of teaching Islamic art history in a city where the art the author teaches is located. Sadia Pasha Kamran explores the post-1970s Islamization of Pakistan’s art history curriculum and stresses the necessity of educators to foreground the syncretic nature of Pakistan’s past and the diversity within Islamic art. Nina Murayama presents methods of teaching the global survey to Japanese students within a monocultural setting and stresses that the importance of local narratives in world art courses. There is potential in the interdisciplinary nature of art history and specifically in the way we approach introductory courses that can enable students to become global citizens. To be globally competent is to understand the interconnectedness of our increasingly complex world and to appreciate its diversity – precisely the skills that global art history courses, that challenge the canon, can provide. The purpose of these introductory courses, then, is to cultivate students’ empathy, so that they can become aware of their assumptions and welcome challenge rather than feeling threatened by difference.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://academicworks.cuny.edu/ahpp/vol1/iss1/2/
Primary URL Description: Art History Pedagogy & Practice is a peer-reviewed open access e-journal devoted to scholarship of teaching and learning in art history. It is published biannually by Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR), a peer-populated open educational resource, in partnership with the Office of Library Services of the City University of New York and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Art History Pedagogy & Practice
Publisher: Art History Pedagogy & Practice

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