Course of Study

Seminar I, Part 2 introduces students to the major conceptual and practical issues that confronted artists, theorists, critics, philosophers, and aestheticians in the twentieth century. Through the readings, culled from Art in Theory 1900-2000, seminar discussions, presentations, and debates, as well as written assignments, students are also expected to familiarize themselves with the language of theory, aesthetics, and philosophy as it is developed over the course of the century, in order to understand art as a dynamic, ever-changing mode of cultural and historical discourse. This seminar takes place in residence at Spannocchia Castle in Tuscany, Italy, over a period of two weeks in May-June. Seminar I introduces new IDSVA students to the IDSVA Program in Critical and Scholarly Writing.

Readings in Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud prepare the groundwork for Art in Theory Revisited. In Kant, we see the critique of art as form; in Hegel, the critique of art as history. Marx and Engels extend the Hegelian project to the possibility of a social criticism of art as ideological discourse. In a similar vein, Nietzsche upends the logical schemes of Western metaphysics. Finally, Freud presents the possibility of a psychoanalytic critique of art.

Seminar II, Part 2 revisits Art in Theory 1900-2000 in order to more fully grasp the ways in which Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud inform the artists and thinkers whose work appears in the anthology. Key words and concepts will be traced back to the five foundational thinkers and situated in the passage between modernism and postmodernism. Seminar discussions will be given over to intertextual analysis along the lines indicated above.

Seminar III begins with a six-day intensive residency in Madrid, Marrakech, or Mexico City (alternating years). Besides attending seminars and lectures, students give seminar presentations on their fall seminar papers (702), conceived as formal conference-style papers meant to prepare students to be effective speakers and presenters in professional academic environments. Museum, gallery, artist studio visits, and guided tours offered by curators and museum educators supplement the weekly activities. Museum visits in Madrid include the Prado, the Reina Sofia, the Caixa Forum, and a day trip to the ancient town of Toledo, a historical example of multi-cultural coexistence through its medieval Arab, Jewish, and Christian monuments. In Marrakech, students visit the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, the Medersa Ben Yousef, the Museé Yves Saint Laurent and Jardin Majorelle, the Berber Museum, the Palais el Badii, the Montresso Foundation, and Le Jardin Secret. In Mexico City, students visit the Anthropology Museum, the Frida Kahlo House, the ancient site of Teotihuacán, the Templo Mayor, and the Museum of Modern Art, among others.

Seminar III, Part 2 combines a critique of Western Philosophy from the ancient Greeks to the post-modern period with a quasi-Independent Study course, leading to a 15-page self-directed paper at the end of the semester. Coursework focuses on the close reading of one text, Reiner Schürmann’s Broken Hegemonies, led by Professor Howard Caygill. In parallel, students also read Solomon and Higgins’ A Short History of Philosophy, a broader introduction to the various schools of thought not limited to Western philosophy. The final paper is meant to hone students’ critical thinking and writing skills and broaden their engagement with the history of ideas and artworks.

Seminar IV focuses on subject/object relations as constituted and/or represented in philosophy and art in the last two centuries. Students learn to approach theoretical critique from the standpoint of close reading and intertextual analysis. After tracing the relation between subject and object in Kant and Hegel (via Jaspers and Kojève, respectively), we examine Bakthin’s theory of dialogical consciousness, Bergson’s notion of subjective time, Deleuze and Guattari’s critique of psychoanalysis, Virginia Woolf’s emerging feminist aesthetic, Jacqueline Rose’s reading of Lacan, and a different notion of the gaze in Levinas, ending with Amelia Jones’ important discussions of visual culture, art, and the relation between feminism and postmodernism more broadly.

Seminar I, Part 2 introduces students to the major conceptual and practical issues that confronted artists, theorists, critics, philosophers, and aestheticians in the twentieth century. Through the readings, culled from Art in Theory 1900-2000, seminar discussions, presentations, and debates, as well as written assignments, students are also expected to familiarize themselves with the language of theory, aesthetics, and philosophy as it is developed over the course of the century, in order to understand art as a dynamic, ever-changing mode of cultural and historical discourse. This seminar takes place in residence at Spannocchia Castle in Tuscany, Italy, over a period of two weeks in May-June. Seminar I introduces new IDSVA students to the IDSVA Program in Critical and Scholarly Writing.

Readings in Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud prepare the groundwork for Art in Theory Revisited. In Kant, we see the critique of art as form; in Hegel, the critique of art as history. Marx and Engels extend the Hegelian project to the possibility of a social criticism of art as ideological discourse. In a similar vein, Nietzsche upends the logical schemes of Western metaphysics. Finally, Freud presents the possibility of a psychoanalytic critique of art.

Seminar II, Part 2 revisits Art in Theory 1900-2000 in order to more fully grasp the ways in which Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud inform the artists and thinkers whose work appears in the anthology. Key words and concepts will be traced back to the five foundational thinkers and situated in the passage between modernism and postmodernism. Seminar discussions will be given over to intertextual analysis along the lines indicated above.

Seminar III begins with a six-day intensive residency in Madrid, Marrakech, or Mexico City (alternating years). Besides attending seminars and lectures, students give seminar presentations on their fall seminar papers (702), conceived as formal conference-style papers meant to prepare students to be effective speakers and presenters in professional academic environments. Museum, gallery, artist studio visits, and guided tours offered by curators and museum educators supplement the weekly activities. Museum visits in Madrid include the Prado, the Reina Sofia, the Caixa Forum, and a day trip to the ancient town of Toledo, a historical example of multi-cultural coexistence through its medieval Arab, Jewish, and Christian monuments. In Marrakech, students visit the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, the Medersa Ben Yousef, the Museé Yves Saint Laurent and Jardin Majorelle, the Berber Museum, the Palais el Badii, the Montresso Foundation, and Le Jardin Secret. In Mexico City, students visit the Anthropology Museum, the Frida Kahlo House, the ancient site of Teotihuacán, the Templo Mayor, and the Museum of Modern Art, among others.

Seminar III, Part 2 combines a critique of Western Philosophy from the ancient Greeks to the post-modern period with a quasi-Independent Study course, leading to a 15-page self-directed paper at the end of the semester. Coursework focuses on the close reading of one text, Reiner Schürmann’s Broken Hegemonies, led by Professor Howard Caygill. In parallel, students also read Solomon and Higgins’ A Short History of Philosophy, a broader introduction to the various schools of thought not limited to Western philosophy. The final paper is meant to hone students’ critical thinking and writing skills and broaden their engagement with the history of ideas and artworks.

Seminar IV focuses on subject/object relations as constituted and/or represented in philosophy and art in the last two centuries. Students learn to approach theoretical critique from the standpoint of close reading and intertextual analysis. After tracing the relation between subject and object in Kant and Hegel (via Jaspers and Kojève, respectively), we examine Bakthin’s theory of dialogical consciousness, Bergson’s notion of subjective time, Deleuze and Guattari’s critique of psychoanalysis, Virginia Woolf’s emerging feminist aesthetic, Jacqueline Rose’s reading of Lacan, and a different notion of the gaze in Levinas, ending with Amelia Jones’ important discussions of visual culture, art, and the relation between feminism and postmodernism more broadly.

PhD candidates enroll in Dissertation Preparation at the start of their dissertation project, after passing the Qualifying Exams, and for each following fall and spring semesters until the completion of the dissertation. The main goal of the Dissertation Preparation course is to guide the process of writing the dissertation, and to help the PhD candidate produce a document that fulfills the following criteria: 1) To form a distinct contribution to the knowledge of the subject and afford evidence of originality by the discovery of new facts and/or by the exercise of independent critical power, interpretation, and argumentation; 2) To give a critical assessment of the relevant literature, and in so doing, 3) To demonstrate a deep and synoptic understanding of the field of study, objectivity, and the capacity for judgment in complex situations and autonomous work in that field.