Mission Statement & Learning Outcomes

ARH @ Elon’s Mission Statement

�þ�� in Elon Art History courses study visual and material culture, the built environment, and practices of patronage, collecting, and display from the world’s histories. Our innovative curriculum consists of courses in which students engage in critical reading, discussion, research, analysis and problem-solving to consider power, identity, and cultural exchange across time and in a global context. �þ�� learn to critique existing systems of power that marginalize and oppress both directly and passively, and it is our mission to train students to recognize the workings and protest the value given such systems. Through critical analysis of visual and textual material, ARH@Elon challenges canonical art history and imagines a new way forward.

Goals and Student Learning Outcomes

Goal 1: Understanding Art History: An understanding of art history as both a discrete discipline and in relationship to museum studies, visual and material culture, and the study of built environments.

Outcome 1: �þ�� can provide evidence that art historical categories are ideologically based rather than self-evident.
Outcome 2: �þ�� can show competency in global art history. Outcome 3: �þ�� can synthesize materials from distinct courses or approaches in order to demonstrate a “big picture” view of art history as a discipline.

Goal 2: Critical Thinking, Reading, Writing & Looking: An ability to think, read, and look critically and analytically and be able to articulate those critical analyses both orally and in writing.

Outcome 1: �þ�� can locate, distinguish among, and state the meaning of a wide variety of textual and visual sources.
Outcome 2: �þ�� can interpret and analyze these materials in written form.
Outcome 3: �þ�� can interpret and analyze these materials in oral form.

Goal 3: Decolonizing the Discipline: An understanding of power, identity, and cultural exchange across time and in a global context.

Outcome 1: �þ�� can articulate their own engagement with and reflection upon that understanding.
Outcome 2: �þ�� can recognize and identify the workings of power systems and critique them.
Outcome 3: �þ�� can demonstrate the language, skills, and problem-solving abilities to protest those power systems.

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