Visiting Associate Professor of Art History
James Bloom
Jame Bloom's interests include the cultural anthropology of images, economic histories of the arts, and the history of art history.
Art History
As part of your studies you may work as a docent or help with an exhibit at the College’s Wellin Museum of Art, an acclaimed facility. With guidance from your professors, you may secure an internship at the nearby Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, home to an important American art collection, or in a great art city such as New York or Boston.
About the Major
Art history at Hamilton focuses on understanding the rich cultural and historical contexts in which art is created and experienced. Coursework covers a range of periods, cultures and critical approaches. The department’s links to Hamilton programs in history and culture will encourage students to make connections to other fields of critical inquiry.
Hamilton is just one of those places that is really special. Everyone there is just so motivated and into their own thing, and they get you excited about it as well.
Teddy Altman ’15 — art history major
Students may choose to explore not only the European-American tradition, but Chinese and Japanese art and the arts of the Islamic and Buddhist traditions. Other courses, such as museum studies, women in art and contemporary critical theory, are organized around a particular theme.
Careers After Hamilton
- Account Manager, Sotheby’s
- Vice President and Real Estate Counsel, Lehman Brothers
- Cataloguer, Lang Antiques
- President, McGraw-Hill Professional
- Sales Manager, NBC News
- Senior Vice President, William Doyle Galleries
- Tour Coordinator, Academic Arrangements Abroad
- Presidential Innovation Fellow, The White House
- President, Nye & Co. Auctioneers
Meet Our Faculty
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History
Brigit Ferguson
Brigit Ferguson focuses on the history of art and architecture, and medieval art and architecture.
Associate Professor of Art History
Steve Goldberg
Steve Goldberg, who earned a doctorate from the University of Michigan, specializes in the history of Chinese art.
Professor of Art History
Scott MacDonald
Named an Academy Scholar by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in 2012, Scott MacDonald is the author of 17 books.
the John and Anne Fischer Professor of Fine Arts
John McEnroe
John McEnroe teaches courses in classical art, Renaissance art, medieval art and critical theory.
Chair, Associate Professor of Art History
Deborah Pokinski
Deborah Pokinski is working on a study of the images of women in the work of American artist William McGregor Paxton.
Professor of Art History Emeritus (retired)
Rand Carter
Rand Carter wrote a book about Karl Friedrich Schinkel and has written three guidebooks in the Landmarks Society of Greater Utica series.
A Sampling of Courses
Introduction to the History and Theory of Film 120F
A general introduction to the wide world of cinema and cinema studies, focusing on crucial films from many cinematic traditions. Topics include the evolution of film from earlier forms of motion picture, the articulation and exploitation of a narrative language for cinema, the development of typical commercial genres, and the appearance of a variety of forms of critical cinema. Focuses on basic film terminology, with the cinematic apparatus and ongoing theoretical conversation about cinema and its audience.
View All CoursesProseminar in Art History 152FS
A writing-intensive course designed to introduce students to ways of critically evaluating differing viewpoints on the meaning and social significance of art. Writing assignments provide opportunities to engage students in a critical examination of the power of images to promote certain social values and to shape viewers'' understanding of themselves, their relations to others, and to the world around them. Writing-intensive. Proseminar.
View All CoursesVisual Narratives: Images With(In) Books 220
How do you read images with(in) books? Can images persuade, seduce, or even lead the narrative astray? Drawing from the works on text and image from Visual Culture scholars, this interdisciplinary course focuses on visual textuality—the ‘book’ as a visible object of cultural consumption and production in the West and Mediterranean. Students will undertake the task of understanding and analyzing this multifaceted art form by examining illuminated manuscripts, woodcuts, printed texts, and illustrations (Duc de Berry, Goya, Max Ernst, Edward Gorey, Orhan Pamuk).
View All CoursesShow and Tell: Comics and Graphic Narratives 288
In Reading Comics, Douglas Wolk states “The cheap way of referring to them is “comics” or “comic books”; the fancy way is “graphic novels”. Erasing these common prejudices, this class reinforces that comics is a sophisticated and complex medium that bears close affinities with art, film, and literature. This is an introductory study of comics across cultures and within global contexts—Tintin, Astro Boy, Wonder Woman, Watchmen and others—one that emphasizes visual narrative storytelling as well as the socio-political and visual trends that have shaped the powerful creative industry of comics.
View All CoursesToday and Tomorrow
Student Internships
Wellin Docent Program Leads to Major Museum Internships
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