This year, professor Katherine Hacker (faculty page) will be offering two undergraduate courses in Art History that will discuss Himalayan Buddhism in both its premodern and contemporary forms. Prof. Hacker welcomes graduate students to her classes as well, and will tailor course work accordingly.
ARTH 353: Nepal and Tibet: Art, Ritual, and Performance (Term 1)
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30 – 11:00 am
This course is a critical examination of the visual culture of Nepal and Tibet, with particular attention to the relationship between art and ritual. We will study the ways in which art and architecture are situated within religious and social frameworks and hierarchies, and are shaped by political developments. In addition to an exploration of temples, palaces and cities located within an historical grid, the urban fabric will be ‘animated’ by a focus on performative events and meaningful practice exemplified by specific, local festivals and annual processions. This strategy will enable us to explore some of the key tropes of the ‘ritual’ paradigm: an emphasis on order and regulation, or as a principal site of cultural construction and maintenance. Other scholars have seen ritual as a means to accommodate conflicts within the system. Our task will be to interrogate these theoretical models and to investigate the ways in which the visual constructs and negotiates different ideological positions. The course will conclude by examining post-1959 Tibet and the ways in which art may function in the manufacture of a utopic, imaginary Tibet for the west and of a national identity for the diasporic community.
ARTH 455: Meeting Old Buddhas in New Clothes: Contemporary Tibetan Art (Term 2)
Time: Thursdays, 2:00 – 5:00 pm
[coming soon]
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