Yale Is Eliminating Its Art History Survey Course Over Complaints That It Prioritizes a White, Western Canon Over Other Narratives

For decades, Yale University’s
art history survey course, covering the evolution of art from 1300
to today, has been one of the department’s most popular
offerings. But the
program is now eliminating the course following complaints that it
promotes an overly white, westernized canon at the expense of other
narratives.

“Introduction to Art History:
Renaissance to the Present” is being taught for the last time this
spring, albeit with a twist. The course’s instructor, art history
department chair Tim Barringer, will use the final installment to
demonstrate the importance of taking a more holistic approach to
the subject, according to
the Yale Daily
News.

“I want all Yale students (and
all residents of New Haven who can enter our museums freely) to
have access to and to feel confident analyzing and enjoying the
core works of the western tradition,” Barringer wrote in an email
to the Yale Daily News. “But I don’t mistake a history of European
painting for the history of all art in all
places.” 

As part of this semester’s
syllabus, which will look at art’s evolution in relation to
“questions of gender, class, and ‘race,’” Barringer will ask
students to submit essays making the case for the inclusion of a
work that’s not currently part of the canon. The course retains its
official title on transcripts, but in the classroom the professor
refers to it as an “Introduction to Western Art.”

Barringer declined to comment further on the new course.

Interest in the course among
undergraduates surged following news that this will be the last
time it’s taught. During the school’s shopping period, when
students sit in on potential courses before officially enrolling,
more than 400 people attended the semester’s “Introduction to Art
History” class. Due to space limitations, it is capped at
300.

Moving forward, the intro course
will be replaced by surveys of individualized themes and movements,
such as “Art and Politics,” “Global Craft,” and “The Silk Road.”
Another 100-level course will be added in the next few years, but
it will not be billed as a comprehensive survey. The
diversification of curricula follows a similar move by the
university’s English department, which changed the
requirements for its major in 2017 after a petition calling for the decolonization
of course offerings went public.

The art department’s news
elicited a maelstrom of opinions online, fomenting particular
unrest among conservatives who perceive it as a disservice to
students looking for a broad overview course, rather than more
specialized offerings. (Further fringes of the right have
long adopted
Classical Greek and Roman
artworks as symbols of white
nationalism, from
Mussolini and the Nazi Party to crypto-fascist organizations such
as Identity Evropa today.) 

Right-wing publications such
as Breitbart, The Daily
Wire, and The Washington
Sentinel all picked up
thestory shortly after it
went live. “It’s just another example of our system of higher
miseducation trying to destroy American education in favor of
pushing anti-American and racist ideologies,” says the
Sentinel. 

The post Yale Is Eliminating Its Art History Survey Course
Over Complaints That It Prioritizes a White, Western Canon Over
Other Narratives appeared first on artnet News.