Erin Sassin

An Introduction to Global Visual Culture
This course is an introduction to the visual cultures of the world, with an emphasis on how images, objects, and monuments are made, experienced, exchanged, and used by groups of people with diverse religious, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds. We will focus on themes that have been taken up by different cultures and adapted over time, such as monumentality, the sacred, embodiment, science, and technology. Through a close study of these themes, we will consider how materials, cultures, and histories are transformed and negotiated through making and viewing works of art. In the process, we will challenge the art historical canon by shedding light on marginalized periods, regions, and artworks. 2 hrs. lect./1 hr. disc.

Modern Architecture
Rotating skyscrapers, green roofs, and avant-garde museums: how did we arrive in the architectural world of the early 21st century? In this course we will survey the major stylistic developments, new building types, and new technologies that have shaped European and American architecture since the late 18th century. Students will learn about the work of major architects as well as key architectural theories and debates. Special emphasis will be placed on the cultural and political contexts in which buildings are designed. 2 hrs. Lect./1 hr. disc.

Gender and the Making of Space
In this course we will investigate the complex relationship between gender and architecture, examining how the design of the built environment (buildings, urban spaces, etc.) can reinforce or undermine ideas about the respective roles of women and men in society, from the creation of masculine and feminine spaces to the gendered nature of the architectural profession. By looking at both visual evidence and textual sources we will also uncover how the social construction of gender roles and gendered spaces are, and continue to be, inflected by race, class, and sexuality. Not open to students who have taken FYSE 1407. 3 hrs. sem.

Home: The Why Behind the Way We Live
In this course we will examine the development of numerous housing types in America (with references to Europe). The prevalence of the single-family home today and its importance as the symbol of the “American dream” was never a forgone conclusion. In fact, the American home has been the focus of and battleground for cooperative movements, feminism, municipal socialism, benevolent capitalism, and government interventions on a national scale. 3 hrs. sem.

Berlin: History, Architecture, and Urbanism in Faust’s Metropolis (in English)
In this course we will investigate the rich and complicated built environment of Berlin. By looking at both visual evidence and textual sources we will uncover how the city has been transformed from a cultural backwater during the early modern period to the current capital of a reunified Germany. By the conclusion of this course, you will be comfortable “reading” buildings and spaces and will be able to navigate both the physical city of Berlin and the many layers of history buried within. 3 hrs. sem.

The State of Emergency and its Aftermaths: Kitchen Design to Counter-History
In this class we will uncover how architecture and design have mitigated and exacerbated the human tragedy of modern industrialized war in the 20th century. Taking the First World War and its inheritances as a through line to the present-day refugee crisis, we will discover how conflicts have manifested spatially (refugee camps to military installations, villages to capital cities), how design cultures of education, care, and memory emerged from battle and conditions of scarcity, and how war often blurred the meaning of what constitutes “architecture.” Shifting the focus from trenches, monuments, and imperial building projects to the architecture of the everyday, we will think about the politics of food systems and garden design, urban (and rural) recovery and reconstruction efforts, the creation of ephemeral and ad-hoc architectures, the role of mechanization, technology, and governmentality, and the gendered implications of states of emergency.

The Rise and Fall of Detroit: Urban Histories and Architectural Fragments
In this class, we will investigate the rich and complicated built environment of Detroit. By looking at both visual evidence and textual sources we will uncover how the city was transformed from its roots as a trading outpost into an industrial powerhouse and “arsenal of democracy,” and then became synonymous with urban “blight,” racial animus, and ruin tourism. We will orient ourselves to the different neighborhoods of Metro Detroit, diving into the past as we examine the buildings, monuments, and landmarks—both existing and destroyed—that constitute the city. Together, we will create a map of the city, which we will add to and adulterate through the term. This shared work will help serve as the basis for informal discussions and presentations throughout the term. By the conclusion of this course, you will be comfortable “reading” buildings and spaces and will be able to navigate both the physical city of Detroit and the many layers of (contentious) history buried within. An interdisciplinary endeavor, this course draws on writings by architectural historians, landscape historians, art historians, anthropologists, geographers, urban historians, scholars from ethnic studies and cultural studies, among many others. This course is part of the Axinn Center for the Humanities’ Mellon Foundation Public Humanities Initiative.

Design, Ornament, and Adornment: Self-Expression and Dissent
Considering the 20th and 21st century disparagement of ornament and fetishization of minimalism by Western design practitioners and the art world, why, when, and by whom has ornament been celebrated? In this seminar course we will consider how makeup, clothing, and the curation of domestic space are related to social status, commodity culture, religious practices, and broader design cultures (product design, architecture) over a range of cultures and epochs. What constituted “power dressing” in fifteenth century Peru versus Spain? What does historical makeup application (including the use of poisonous Venetian ceruse!) tell us about social status and morality in Elizabethan England? We will read primary and secondary sources, examine material culture and physical spaces, blend pigments, design product components, and work with Special Collections to curate a physical and virtual exhibition.

Senior Thesis: Research and Writing
This course is a continuation of HARC 0710 which consists of ongoing, supervised independent research, plus organizing, writing and presenting a senior thesis. (HARC 0301 and HARC 0710).