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 Special Topics Fall

AH 4620F/MCS 4610F - Special Topics: Botanical Visions: Art and the Politics of Plants

This course explores the representation of plants in art through the lenses of globalization, colonialism, and the Plant Humanities, examining how botanical imagery reflects histories of trade, power, scientific exchange, and cultural identity. Focusing on works from diverse cultural contexts, students will consider how artistic and scientific knowledge shape ways of seeing and depicting plant life. Students will engage in close looking at artworks, including paintings, ceramics, textiles, and prints. Through hands-on and interdisciplinary approaches, the course emphasizes how visual culture both documents and transforms human relationships with the natural world. The course also incorporates critical museological theory and practice, examining how museums and galleries have historically framed botanical knowledge and how curatorial strategies can reinforce or disrupt colonial narratives, classification systems, and modes of display. Throughout the course, we will ask critical questions: Why have plants been central to artistic practices across time and place? How have images of plants have been used to construct, legitimize, or challenge systems of power? And what relevance do plants hold in a time of global climate crisis? With this, the course invites critical reflection on the cultural, ecological, and political meanings embedded in botanical aesthetics.

 Special Topics Winter

AH 3640G/MCS 3692G - Looking East

The idea of an “Orient” (the East) as an opposition to the West has shaped artistic, political, social, and cultural discourse for centuries. In the 19th century, the creation of the Orient was a result of imperialism, industrial capitalism, mass consumption, tourism, and colonialism. This course examines 19th-century European fascination with the Asian visual and material cultures. The course will look at influences and exchanges between Europe and Asia centring on art, ceramics, interior design, fashion, and architecture. This course will introduce students to art and material cultures from countries, like China, Turkey, India, and Japan and how these objects were appropriated, incorporated, copied, remediated, and exhibited by western artists. Through critical frameworks including postcolonial theory, feminism, queer theory, and critical race theory, students will engage with key historical and political developments alongside major artistic styles, media, and practices in both Asia and Europe.

A central component of the course will be the study of 19th-century World Fairs, such as the 1862 London International Exhibition and L’Exposition universelle de 1867, which played a significant role in shaping European perceptions of Asia through displays of Asian art and objects. In addition to historical analysis, the course will also examine how 21st-century artists and curators revisit, engage, disrupt, and challenge the canon of ·ÛºìÅ®ÀÉ art and Orientalist legacies and gaze in contemporary exhibition and art making.

AH 4640G/MCS 4690G - Special Topics: Contemporary Feminist Art in Canada

This fourth-year seminar explores ideas and practices within contemporary feminist art. Together, we will examine how artists engage with issues of gender, identity and representation in a shifting social and political landscapes. The course encourages students to think deeply about how feminist frameworks shape artistic production and interpretation today. Through readings, discussions, presentations, and writing, students will engage with a range of artists and texts while developing their own critical voice. The seminar prioritizes curiosity and dialogue in making meaningful connections between artworks, theory, and broader cultural contexts.