UMM Fall 2017
ArtH 1801: Memorials
& Memorialization
Prof. Julia Dabbs
Office: HFA 5
Office Hours: Mon. & Wed. 1:30-2:30; Tues.
11:45-12:45; or by appt.
Phone: x6232
Email: dabbsj@morris.umn.edu
Scope and Objectives of the Course:
This course will
explore some of the ways in which various cultures throughout history have
sought to commemorate life, and death, through the visual form, with a
particular emphasis on the proliferation of memorials in the past two decades.
As an art history course, you will be introduced to methods of analyzing visual
works of art and you will learn to consider more deeply and express more
effectively the ways in which art can inform, persuade, challenge, and
heal.
And as an “Intellectual Community” course
offering, you will also gain practical skills that are especially pertinent to
our liberal arts college environment and doing well here, and beyond. In
addition, as a community of first-year students, you will have a chance to bond
with more of your new peers here at UMM (and perhaps with your instructor, as
well!). If there is any way that I can help you further with this adjustment,
don’t hesitate to ask!
Remember:
“We are all teachers, we are all students.” – former UMM professor and
chancellor, Sam Schuman
Class Website:
//cda.morris.umn.edu/~dabbsj/memorials
This will be
updated throughout the semester, and will be especially important for image
review lists as well as links to websites that will provide further information
for class discussion.
Course Book: [available
in the bookstore]
·
E. Doss, Memorial
Mania (
You do not need to bring this book to class. A
copy is on reserve in Briggs Library if you prefer not to purchase the book.
Grading:
Exams (2; each 15%): 30%
Attendance/participation: 20%
Presentation
15%
Paper 15%
Moodle participation 20%
Per the
B=
achievement that is significantly above level necessary to meet course
requirements; C= achievement that
meets course requirements (i.e. average);
D= worthy
of credit, but fails to meet fully the course requirements
(I do give +s and -s; Fs are given if the student regularly misses classes without any
documented excuse, as well for
deliberate academic dishonesty in any portion of the course.
An Incomplete (“I”) grade is given only in very exceptional
circumstances, such as a serious, and documented, health issue.
Exam format:
The exams will consist
of 1) some slide identifications of works of art studied in class (know artist,
title, culture) and some relatively short response questions based on those
works (such as concepts associated with them, symbolic elements, how they
served as memorials, terminology/technique, etc.; and 2) some open-ended questions, requiring
you to synthesize discussion and reading on works of art and concepts covered.
*A review list of
images/terms will be posted on the course website as we go.
Exam dates (mark your calendars now!):
Oct. 3; Nov. 14 (no final exam)
Make-up exam policy: Make-up exams will only be given if you have a reasonable excuse for
your absence (preferably documented), and have contacted me promptly to
schedule a make-up.
Policy on Equitable
Access to Learning
The
University of Minnesota Morris is committed to providing equitable access to
learning opportunities for all students. The Disability Resource Center
(DRC) is the campus office that collaborates with students who have
disabilities to provide and/or arrange reasonable accommodations. If you
have, or think you may have, a disability (e.g., mental health, attentional,
learning, autism spectrum disorders, chronic health, traumatic brain injury and
concussions, sensory, or physical), please contact DRC at 240 Briggs Library or
call 320-589-6178 to arrange a confidential discussion
regarding equitable access and reasonable accommodations. If
accommodations are approved, be sure to provide me with the letter from the DRC
as soon as possible and we’ll talk about how we can work things out.
Attendance and participation: This course will involve some lecture and with
your help, lots of discussion. Thus, your attendance and participation are
crucial (and will be tracked throughout the semester). Much of the information I present will not be
found in your assigned text, so it will be virtually impossible to make it
up. If you must miss a class, it is your
obligation to find out what you missed, and get notes from a classmate (my
notes are incomprehensible, so I don’t give them out). If you want your absence to be excused,
please obtain a note from the appropriate source and bring it in to me. If you
have a chancellor’s excuse or an athletic excuse for any UMM-related activity,
please still let me know. More than one unexcused
absences will negatively affect this portion of your grade; more than five unexcused
absences will result in an “F” for this portion of the grade.
Class
participation is vital to the success of this seminar. The assigned discussion readings should be
read before the class in which they will be discussed (see outline); on
occasion I may ask that you write a brief response to the reading. Participation also includes asking pertinent
questions.
Policy on Personal Use of Electronic Devices in
the Classroom:
Per University
policy, students may only use electronic devices in the classroom for class
purposes, such as note-taking or translating. Once class has begun, any devices
used for non-class purposes need to be put away and silenced. If you are using
your electronic device for non-class purposes during class (and I, or others,
WILL notice!), you are essentially a non-participant, and this will negatively
affect your attendance/participation grade. Students who persist in disrupting
the teaching/learning process can be asked to leave the classroom. (source:
www.policy.umn.edu/Policies/Education...)
Electronic Discussion Board (“Moodle”):
As a means of encouraging your further
engagement with the subjects we’re studying, you are asked to regularly
contribute to Moodle electronic discussions throughout the semester.
How do I access moodle? Go to the “MyU” site, then find this course under the
“Academics” tab.
What do I write about? various questions will be posted throughout the semester asking
you to respond to course readings, art on campus, and art in the world around
you.
These topics will be available usually for
a few weeks, then new ones will be posted, so don’t procrastinate or you may be
out of luck. You may also suggest topics to me.
How will Moodle be graded?
I’m looking at quantity AND quality for
moodle responses, as well as regularity of participation (by “regular,” I’d
like to see you posting approximately once every 2 weeks). 6 (or more) contributions that I feel are very good/excellent (in
terms of depth and clarity of response) will merit somewhere in the A/A-/B+
range. 3 contributions that are only
“o.k.” (not much said, not so well written) will be at the lower end (C/C-). No
moodle posts will lower your final grade for the course by a full letter. I
will give each student feedback a couple times in the semester; if you would
like feedback at another time, please email me.
Worth 20% of course grade.
Presentation:
Everyone will be doing
a 10-15 minute presentation on a memorial that they have experienced in person, either sometime in the past or
this semester. It might be something we’re covering on the syllabus – in that
case, you could be presenting on that day. Otherwise, most of the presentations
will come at the end of the course. If it has not been done already, give us
some background on the memorial (who for, why created, where, when, what
media), what message(s) are conveyed, and what is visually effective and
affective about its form. In addition to doing background research, I’ll be
looking for your original reactions and analytical thinking here. To share the
visual images with the class, please use Powerpoint or other presentation
software (a handout with more info on the presentation will be given out later,
and we’ll discuss further in class).
*Presentation topic choice will be due by Tues.
Sept. 19 (use the Googledoc
sign-up form I will send you, to avoid duplication of topics) . If you
are having trouble coming up with something, I can suggest some possibilities
here in Morris. The presentation will be worth 15% of the course grade.
Paper Assignment:
*draft due Nov. 28; final version due by Dec. 14
[send both versions to
me electronically as a worddoc OR a google doc; do not send as a pdf; email to:
dabbsj@morris.umn.edu]
This is not your
standard research paper, so please read carefully:
Part 1:
visual analysis
of the memorial you are presenting on (approx. 3 pages,
double-spaced) After giving a one paragraph
synopsis of the memorial’s subject and history, carefully describe and
thoughtfully analyze the visual components of the memorial, and what role such
things as scale, abstraction, pose, color, texture, light, location/site, etc.
perform in expressing something to the viewer about the subject of the
memorial. This must be in your own words,
and using terminology gained in the course. (We will discuss this further in
class)
*Please also include
at least one illustration of your memorial, and indicate the source of the
image (i.e., website address, or “.
Part 2: Bibliographic
essay on your memorial topic: (approx.
2 pages, d-s)
Based on the research that you conducted
for your presentation topic, thoroughly cite, summarize, and comment on the content
and usefulness of 5 scholarly or
primary sources on your memorial. This can be somewhat informally written, but
still must be clearly and well-written (and it is o.k. to use the first person,
i.e., “I found this source to be…..”).
For
bibliographic citations, I’d recommend using the Chicago Manual of Style or Turabian.
Evaluation
will be based on: the specificity and
interpretive depth of your analysis, the
attempt you’ve made to do scholarly research on your memorial topic, your
accuracy in citing sources, and (for both parts) how well-written the essays
are.
The paper (combined)
is worth 15% of the course grade; if
you fail to turn in a draft by Nov. 28, there will be an automatic letter-grade
deduction. Late papers, without a
compelling excuse, will similarly be graded down.
ArtH 1801
Memorials and Memorialization –
COURSE OUTLINE
Please note: this is a prediction of what we will do throughout the semester, and will likely change after I know what student presentation topics will be; an updated version will be posted on the course website. Exam and due dates will likely not change, however.
M Aug. 21: Welcome! (Course intro.)
Tu Aug. 29: Syllabus & Semester Project; Art History intro; and
Defining Memorials [Why do we memorialize? Who can be memorialized? Why is this
the “Age of Memorials”?(Doss, pp. 1-15; 37-48).
Tu Sept. 5: Remembering the Dead: Forms of Memorialization in Ancient Egypt & Greece;
AND, Visual Analysis 101
[background reading from the Met Museum website – see link on image review list; and “Sculpture Analysis” in Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art, on moodle]
Tu Sept. 12: Memorials in Morris (field trip! & assignment work)
Tu Sept. 19: Portraiture and Remembrance (and more visual analysis)
(background reading: S. West, “The Functions of Portraiture/The Portrait as Commemoration and Memorial,” in Portraiture, pp. 43-44; 62-65; on moodle)
*cemetery
assignment due; AND *Presentation TOPIC
choice due today (see Googledoc to sign-up)
Tu Sept. 26: Innovations in Memorials I: Shaw & 54th Mass Regiment
[background reading on web; see link from image review list]
AND Researching Memorials (library research session)
Tu Oct. 3: EXAM #1
Tu Oct. 10: Innovations in Memorials II: the VVM (Vietnam Veterans Memorial) & Its
Influence (Doss, pp. 123-131)
Tu. Oct. 17 NO CLASS, Fall Break!
Tu Oct. 24: (Revised) VVM Influence; start Victim Memorials (Titanic)
(Doss, pp.
133-185)
Tu Oct. 31: (Revised) more Victim Memorials; the AIDS quilt; Tattoos?
Background rdg: G. Stull, “The AIDS Memorial Quilt: Performing Memory, Piecing Action,”on e-reserve)
Tu Nov. 7: (Revised) Simon Tillier (guest) on upcoming musical memorial performance;
then The Ethics of Memorialization: Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, and the Crazy Horse Memorial (Alexa presentation); and Wounded Knee Memorial (Jesse)
Readings: (Doss, 55-56; 344-349; AND J. Pomeroy, “Rushmore –
Another Look,” in Critical Issues in
Public Art, 44-53 (on e-reserve)
Tu Nov. 14: EXAM #2
Tu Nov. 21: Presentations by Caity;
Michelle; Alexis; Peter
Tu Nov. 28: Presentations by Karlye; Madison;
Morgan; Owen
**Paper draft due sometime today (at least the visual analysis part; UNLESS you are a presenter (email to me: dabbsj@morris.umn.edu; students presenting today please get to me as soon as you can)
Tu. Dec. 5: Presentations by Tiffini; Dani;
Harley; course evals
· no final exam; final paper due by Thurs. Dec. 14, noon; email to me: dabbsj@morris.umn.edu