Art History and Visual Culture

Faculty List

• M. Gervers, A.B. (Princeton), M.A. (Poitiers), Ph.D. (Toronto), Professor
• Y. Gu, M.Phil (Fudan). Ph.D. (Brown), Associate Professor
• E. Harney, M.A. (Harvard), M.A. (Washington), Ph.D. (London), Associate Professor​
• E. Webster, B.A., M.A. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Case Western Reserve), Associate Professor, Teaching Stream

ACM Program Manager: M. Hussain Email: acm-pa@utsc.utoronto.ca

Art History and Visual Culture at UTSC focuses on the global and contemporary and gives you a solid grounding in visual materials produced across time, cultures, classes, gender, and geography. You will learn to look, read, and write critically about the visual in the classroom and in real-world learning experience, such as in galleries and museums and other urban situations. You will understand how and why histories are written, how representations are formed, and how artists, critics, curators, dealers, and art historians (in other words, art world players) enter a shared discourse. The courses reveal the multiplicity of perspectives with which art may be approached, using recent methodologies that consider the works of art in the specific visual cultures of their day and in the social, political, and economic contexts in which the artists lived and worked.

For more information, please review the Art History and Visual Study Guide.

Planning a Program in Art History and Visual Culture

Guidelines for first-year course selection:

Students intending to complete a Major or Minor Program in Art History and Visual Culture should include VPHA46H3 in their first-year course selection, as it familiarizes students with the necessary historical, theoretical, and methodological foundations of the discipline of Art History specifically and Humanities more generally. Moreover, it will introduce students to the kinds of reading, research and writing skills they will be expected to develop in the program.

Students are strongly encouraged to enroll in VPHB39H3 early in their program of study and certainly by the beginning of their second year of study. This course further focuses on studies to address deeper questions in the disciplines of Art History and Visual Culture.

After completing these two foundational courses, students are encouraged to build a depth of learning in focused areas of concentration. The table below identifies the four areas of focus in Art History and Visual Culture. Students are encouraged to choose their courses from one or two of these areas.

Program Combination Restrictions in Art History and Visual Culture:

The Minor in Art History and Visual Culture cannot be combined with the Major in Art History and Visual Culture.   

Art History and Visual Culture Areas of Focus Table:

Experiential Learning and Outreach:

For a community-based experiential learning opportunity in your academic field of interest, consider the course CTLB03H3, which can be found in the Teaching and Learning section of the Calendar.