Welcome, undergraduate students! Below you’ll find a list of the latest course offerings at UD that engage significantly with material culture. Don’t forget to check out the amazing grant opportunities sponsored by CMCS.
Fall 2026 Courses
Tues. 2:20-5:15 pm
Professor Chandra Reedy
(This meets one of two required courses for the graduate Historic Preservation Certificate, open to undergraduates if courses are taken at the 600 level).
Analysis of the theory underlying historic preservation in the United States and globally, including its history and evolution over time. Examines the impact of preservation laws and public policies, and the strategies and regulations for identifying significant structures, sites, and cultural heritage worthy of preservation.
UAPP467/667: Seminar: Public Art Policy
Thurs. 2:20-5:15 pm
Professor Chandra Reedy
(This meets one of two electives needed for the graduate Historic Preservation Certificate, open to undergraduates if courses are taken at the 600 level).
Focuses on policy for management of art in public spaces. Begins with discussion of what constitutes public art; examines policies for equitable commissioning procedures; location, theme, and design approval processes; and long-term preservation and maintenance practices. Concludes with exploration of policy-based solutions when public art becomes controversial.
ARTH435-010: Revolution 1776/2026
W 9:10am-12:10pm
Professor Bellion
As the US commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, this seminar will explore the ways art and material culture represents, remembers, and reimagines the legacies of political revolutions. The “Age of Revolutions” in the late 18th century catalyzed new art forms, styles, iconographies, and iconoclasm throughout the Atlantic World. What practices and opportunities were made possible by the American, French, and Haitian revolutions and Indigenous rebellions against colonialism? What historical actors and artistic media have been privileged and marginalized in art histories of revolution? How are contemporary scholars, artists, and curators critically revisiting matters of revolutionary memory, violence, justice, absence, and reinvention? Students will complete an original research paper and participate in required field trips to local exhibitions and archives.
Art History Requirements: ARTH Seminar or Art of the Americas or European or1700-1900
ARTH318-010/080: Photography and Evidence
R 2:20-5:20pm
Professor Hill
Case studies in the history and theory of photography as a form of documentary proof and/or evidence in a wide variety of fields, including journalism, the sciences, the justice system, and foreign and domestic policy. We will consider the technical and cultural bases of photography’s association with certainty and truthfulness and the many challenges, past and present, posed to the medium’s evidentiary authority.
Art History Requirements: Americas/Europe or 1900-Present
ARTH238-010: Domestic and Institutional Architecture from Cairo to Timbuktu
Professor Okoye
Asynchronous/Online
Architectural dialogues across the Sahara since the 9th C., focusing on the buildings of Cairo, Fez, Agadez, Maradi, Kano, Djenne and Timbuktu –old centers of Islamic learning in Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Nigér, Nigeria, and Mali. Introduces philosophical texts, travelers’ memoirs, and the visual arts in relation to buildings as congregations of space, materiality, and visual imagery.
Art History Requirements: Africa/Asia/Middle East or 1400-1700
ARTH301-010/080: Research & Methodology in Art History
M 1:50-4:50pm
Professor Bellion
Methods and major approaches to advanced art historical study, together with the practical aspects of research and work in art historical professions, such as education, historic preservation, museums and galleries. Experience with original works of art.
Art History Requirements: Required course. Requires permission of instructor to enroll. wbellion@udel.edu
ARTC390-010: Art and Forensics: Painting
MW 8:40-10:00am
Professor Wickens
The class will introduce the materials and techniques used by Western easel painters from the early Renaissance through the early 20th century and explore how science and analytical methods can answer questions relating to the materials, methods, age, attribution, and authenticity of paintings and artwork.
ANTH104-010: Introduction to Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
TR 9:35AM – 10:55AM
Professor Rocek
Surveys human biological and cultural evolution by looking at fossils and archaeological materials to understand the origin and change of humans and culture over time. Emphasis on how anthropologists study and develop scientific understandings of the past. Covers a basic understanding of genetics, biological evolution, the origins and diversity of primates, and the origins and diversity of human cultures.
WOMS 260 – Women: Cultural Representations: Fast Fashion: Commodities, Culture and the Global South
Professor Amrut Mishra
In the past two decades, internet commerce has reshaped the global consumption of fashion. The “Fast Fashion” market promises low cost apparel based on luxury brands—often designed in Europe—shipped internationally from factories in the Global South. Consumers encounter cultural representations of fashion through digital marketing and purchase items on retail platforms like Depop and Shein.
This course examines the rise of “Fast Fashion” from the perspective of feminist cultural studies. This course will use the theoretical tools of post-colonial and transnational feminists to discuss: the historical antecedents of Fast Fashion; the commodity’s relation to style, desire and identity; and the gendered distribution of labor and consumption in contemporary global contexts. Students will practice textual, visual and historical analysis, to develop greater context for the transnational role fashion commodities play in the formation of gendered identity.