In the early twentieth century, millions of Americans entered the workforce for the first time.  Artists and producers of visual culture depicted and documented these workers, some of whom engaged in jobs that had not existed in previous centuries—including taxi...

How did ivory, a material sourced from the corpse of a slain elephant, affect a carved Buddha icon? What did tin have to do with the global obsession with blue and white porcelain? From monumental stone temples to tiny bronze...

This course explores the use of folk arts, folklore, and “the folkloresque” in contemporary art. We will begin by asking ourselves: what is folklore? Who are “the folk” (and alternatively, who are not)? What kinds of socio-political power structures and...