Fall 2026
Modernism and Modernity in Global Perspective
Dates: September 09, 2026 – December 23, 2026Day/Time: Wednesday 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT
Level: 400-Level
Certificate: Global Humanities
Global Humanities certificate requirement: Global imagination (study of art and culture).
Instructor: Jeffrey Taylor, European Humanities University
The first part of the course will focus on the phenomenon of Modernity in a global perspective, which is the rapidly changing world of the 19th and 20th Centuries. In this first section we look at the disorienting changes brought about by rapid urbanization and industrialization and how those led to new ideologies of imperialism, nationalism, and socialism. The second section of the course considers the artistic response to these forces that we can call Modernism. We look at the forms this movement took in architecture, applied arts, literature, visual arts, music, and film. The course will have two major assessments, one for each of the two sections. These can be in the form of a research paper, or students are also encouraged to develop an individual project of a more creative approach that explores key figures and movements related to the course's subject matter.
Credits: 3 US / 6 ECTS