Study Abroad
Study Abroad & Study USA
Almost all of Elon’s art history majors and minors study abroad or participate in Elon’s Study USA program. These experiences are important to our students and our faculty. Choosing the right program at the right time should be made in consultation with your advisor.
Semester Study Abroad
Most of Elon’s Art History students choose to study abroad for a semester at one of Elon’s many affiliate programs where students either take part in a program sponsored by a U.S. organization or enroll directly in classes at a university abroad. Art History students have participated in Affiliate & Exchange programs in Perth, Australia; Brighton, England; Cairo, Egypt; Paris, France; Dublin, Ireland; St. Andrews, Scotland; Accra, Ghana; Osaka, Japan; and Copenhagen, Denmark. For more information about these programs visit the Isabella Cannon Global Education Center. **If you are considering studying abroad and want to transfer ARH credit back to Elon, you must make an appointment to meet with Dr. Ringelberg or Dr. Gatti before you leave for the semester. Many Art History courses taught abroad cannot replace required courses for the ARH major or minor.**
Short Term Study Abroad
Art History faculty and students regularly participate in Winter Term study abroad courses. These courses are generally 200-level Global Studies (GBL) courses and fulfill Elon Core graduation requirements. The same courses do not run every semester. Be sure to talk with your advisor about offerings that are of interest to you.
Current offerings
GBL 294/Bodies of Knowledge: Healthcare and the History of Art in Italy
**Now accepting applications for January 2022**
This course is designed so that students from any major who are interested in the intersection of healthcare and the humanities have a better understanding of perceptions of the body in relation to healthcare and wellness and the history of the body as a symbol of cultural values. The course will build knowledge around the interdependent histories of the arts and sciences and develop skills in the modes of inquiry practiced in science and the humanities. Students will actively participate in a combination of engaged and experiential learning activities within the local community and collaborate with community partner(s) in Florence. Students in this course will integrate theory, knowledge and skills to support intercultural engagement and the development of cultural competence.
Past offerings
Winter Term / Italy’s Heritage: Past is Present
From the Roman Colosseum to the Olympic Futball Stadium; from the ancient catacombs to the Contemporary Art Museum; from the medieval celebration of a saint’s martyrdom via modern loudspeakers; Italy’s past lives in its present. Italy and the Italians have contributed so much to the world’s history—and over such a long period of time—that it can be extremely difficult to see how all of these disparate pieces fit together. The goal of this course is twofold: to make Italy’s extraordinarily rich cultural heritage more meaningful by placing familiar traditions, landmarks, and people in their proper historical contexts; and to articulate the ways in which Italy’s past is relevant and essential to its present. To this end, we will explore the theme of Italy’s Heritage: Past is Present paying special attention to what Italian culture has borrowed, incorporated, rejected and recycled.
Winter Term / Paris: Capital of Modernity
For the disciplines of history and art history, the emergence of the modern world is inextricably linked to the city of Paris and its series of political, social, and cultural revolutions in the nineteenth century. This course will challenge students to develop an understanding of the city as the host to key political and social upheavals that transformed the way people look at themselves and the world around them. Students will achieve a truly interdisciplinary vision of Paris as the capital of modernity by not merely seeing the results of the historical transformations in art, but that the art itself changed the ways in which people understood the nature of those transformations.
Study USA
Elon has two semester-long study programs in New York and Los Angeles as well as a number of short-term semester programs that connect students to locations beyond Elon. Some of these programs require internships while others include a Core Capstone course, which all Elon students need to take before they graduate.
Elon in LA/Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (formerly taught by Elon Alumna Rachel Zimmerman ’13)
Students taking this course will learn about the contemporary art scene in Los Angeles. Depending on the expertise of the instructor, this could include a look back to the openings of the Ferus Gallery and Womanhouse or an examination of the roles played by Eli Broad and Jeffrey Deitch in more recent years, or both as bookends to 50 years of singular and ambivalent LA art making, patronage, and display. Art forms covered may include pop, performance, video, installation, conceptual, graffiti/street, and digital/new media. Engaged, attentive visits to museums and galleries will be an important part of this class, as will learning to recognize and put in context the art and institutions studied.