34 undergraduate courses in the 2025–26 Undergraduate Calendar.
VCULT 100World Cinema and Visual Culture0.50 units
Introduction to film analysis via national cinemas and their worldwide reception, taking into account the role of new technologies. This course acknowledges not only the importance of multiple languages and cultures on the planet today but also the rapidly growing international contexts, complicated chains of production and distribution, and vastly different cultures of spectatorship.
All films will be shown with subtitles; no second language expertise is required.
This course takes a case study approach to examining the role of the art object as a means of communication within the history of visual culture. Particular attention will also be paid to the unique properties of a range of diverse media, both traditional and new.
VCULT 112Introduction to Black Arts, Culture, and Literature0.50 units
This course examines the evolution and development of Black Peoples' artistic, cultural, and literary experiences from a global perspective including art and design, theatre and performance, literature, music, spoken word, and other modes of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice. Coursework is designed to immerse students in analyzing Black art, culture, and literature through intersectional, feminist, and queer lenses. The course is designed for both thinkers and creators. Students will engage in the course material through readings, viewings, and field trips around film, comics, anime, popular culture events, plus the visual and performing arts.
VCULT 200Visual Studies Across the Discipline0.50 units
Weekly lectures by visiting faculty introduce students to how visual studies are conducted across and between the disciplines. Recognizing the vastness of the global study of visual culture, this course reinforces how, despite the diversity of media analyzed, various disciplines share related approaches and theories.
VCULT 201Global Histories of Art 1500-1800 C.E.0.50 units
This course takes a survey approach to examining the role of the art object as a means of communication within the history of global visual culture. Students will study key examples of art, spanning the 16th to the 19th centuries, and will achieve a thematic comprehension of art’s role in shaping political structures, social mores, cultural discourses, and cosmological beliefs. Particular attention will also be paid to the unique properties of a range of diverse media, both traditional and new.
This course examines the history of art institutions, such as museums, galleries, collections, artist run spaces, and considers their place and meaning in contemporary society. Students will explore the history and future shape of such institutions and examine current practices, issues, and debates surrounding them. Topics to be considered include the politics of the art institutions; history and discourse of collecting and display; history of curatorial practices and the development of exhibitions; art publics; technology and new media; collections and collecting practices; and issues of artistic freedom and censorship.
A study of the global development of modern art (1800 to 1940). Topics such as primitivism, Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, abstraction, imperialism, colonialism, artists' reactions to calamitous world events such as World War 1, and various methodologies, including semiotic and Marxist analyses, will be explored.
This course introduces students to a thematically, materially, and geographically varied set of art practices which developed across the world from 1940-1970 and are referred to, under different monikers, as high modernism, mid-century modernism, and more recently global modernism. These variants of global art production are explored by analyzing theoretical and aesthetic ideas, as well as art movements and styles such as Socialist Realism, Gutai, Postcolonial Modernism, Cannibalist Aesthetic, Brutalism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Négritude, Indigenous Modernism, and others.
VCULT 216Indigenous Visual Culture in Canada0.50 units
This course will introduce students to issues in contemporary Indigenous visual culture within the Canadian context. Special attention will be paid to the complexities of contemporary art and cultural practices. The course will examine both practice and relevant theoretical paradigms.
VCULT 241Survey of Greek Art and Architecture0.50 units
A survey of Greek art and architecture from the earliest times to the coming of the Romans. Material studied may include the art of the Bronze Age, the development of Greek sculpture, the evolution of the Acropolis at Athens, and the change in art and architecture after Alexander the Great.
VCULT 242Survey of Roman Art and Architecture0.50 units
A survey of Roman art and architecture from the earliest times to the age of Constantine the Great. Material studied may include the art of the Etruscans, the evolution of Roman portraiture, innovations in architectural materials and forms, the use of art and architecture by the Emperors, and the change to Late Antique art.
VCULT 244History of Visual Media to 19100.50 units
This course provides a chronological and thematic overview of the history of visual media examining technologies such as the printing press, photography, early cinema, and the representation of perspective.
VCULT 245History of Film and Visual Media from 1900 to Today0.50 units
The course provides a chronological and thematic overview of the history of visual media in Modernity and Postmodernity. It starts at the beginning of the 20th century with the rise of cinema and ends with discussion of the digital age.
This course examines how religion has been a central concern and inspiration for filmmakers and how popular films have informed and shaped our understanding of religion.
The course introduces students to the history, methodologies, theories, and aesthetics of non-narrative experimental film with a focus on intersections between film and visual and performing arts.
VCULT 257Video, New Media and the Digital Turn0.50 units
This course analyzes the shift in visual practices of the 20th century transformed by the arrival of various digital technologies. An emphasis is placed on the increasing interdisciplinarity of new media, as well as their multi-sensory nature.
This course introduces the varied production of world-wide gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender cinema. Inquiry will focus on how queer cinematic production serves as a vehicle for documentation and education, aesthetic and sexual experimentation, as well as cultural export and self-inquiry.
VCULT 275Calligraphy to Conceptual Art: Text as an Image in Islamic and East Asian Visual Arts0.50 units
Exploring the history of Islamic and East Asian calligraphic arts and the study of Eastern and Western artists, this course examines multiple ways in which writing and other forms of visible language are incorporated into visual arts. Through studio projects, students explore conceptual approaches to text-based image making.
A study of selected themes dealing with gender in the history of art: e.g., the representation of the human body; portrayal of mythological, spiritual, and allegorical figures; professional and amateur artists and their status within societies; etc.
VCULT 282Canadian Art from the 17th Century to 19400.50 units
This course examines art in Canada from the beginning of the European settlement in the 17th century to the Group of Seven and the Canadian Group of Painters. Some of the issues that will be investigated include the perception of Canada from abroad, the "new world", nation and nationhood, and the invention and appropriation of culture.
This is a topics course that provides students with an introduction to and a familiarity with the art and culture of a particular destination. Working in the field with landscape, cityscape, and monuments of art, students will employ a variety of media to develop techniques for visual reportage, documentation, note-taking, and journal-keeping. Individual aesthetic responses to a wide range of subject matter will be encouraged.
An advanced introduction to theorizing in art and media, highlighting the distinctive role of visual representation in cultural experience and the varied modes of thinking about images that visual representation has engendered. Readings will be drawn from several disciplines including art history, film and literary studies, media studies, and philosophy.
Prerequisites
Complete all of the following
Must have completed the following:
VCULT200 - Visual Studies Across the Discipline (0.50)
A survey of contemporary international art movements with emphasis on work since 1970. Readings in contemporary criticism and gallery visits are an integral part of the course.
VCULT 330Topics Course in Museums, Galleries, Curatorship0.50 units
Often taught by the University of Waterloo Curator, this course explores a range of topics dealing with museums, galleries, and curatorial practices. Field visits may be a required component of this course.
What is art? What is beauty? What do the two have to do with each other? This course introduces students to some fundamental issues in the philosophy of art, and to a variety of philosophical views on these issues.
VCULT 341Advanced Studies in Greek Art and Architecture0.50 units
An advanced survey of the art and architecture from a selected time period of Greek history. Material studied may include the art and architecture of the Aegean Bronze Age, and the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. Archaeological, historical, and cultural issues specific to each time period will be discussed through the important media of the day.
Prerequisites
Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
CLAS241 - Survey of Greek Art and Architecture (0.50)
VCULT241 - Survey of Greek Art and Architecture (0.50)
VCULT 342Advanced Studies in Roman Art and Architecture0.50 units
An advanced survey of the art and architecture from a selected time period of Roman History. Material studied may include the art and architecture of the Etruscans, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire. Archaeological, historical, and cultural issues specific to each time period will be discussed through the important media of the day.
Prerequisites
Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
CLAS241 - Survey of Greek Art and Architecture (0.50)
VCULT241 - Survey of Greek Art and Architecture (0.50)
VCULT 377Religion in Science Fiction Films and Television0.50 units
This course examines how religion, religious themes, and the religious imagination are explored in and through science fiction film and television. Topics include the use of science fiction to discuss questions of transcendence, humanity, and divinity, as well as the challenge of extraterrestrial and artificial lifeforms.
This is a topics course that provides students with an introduction to and a familiarity with the arts and culture of a particular destination. Working in the field with landscape, cityscape, and monuments of art, students will employ a variety of media to develop techniques for visual reportage, documentation, note-taking, and journal-keeping. Individual aesthetic responses to a wide range of subject matter will be encouraged.
This fourth-year honours seminar leads students through a variety of topics in the theory and history of visual culture. Through class discussions, readings, and presentations, students will engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue around what constitutes visual culture today and how to analyze it.