University of Alberta; Winter 2010
Tuesdays, 9:30am-12:20pm
Class website: www.betsyboone.com/fairs
Dr. M. Elizabeth (Betsy) Boone
Phone 492-4583; Email betsy.boone@ualberta.ca
Office Hours: Thursdays, 2:00 - 4:00 pm or by appointment
Office Location: FAB 3-98
WorldÕs Fairs
and Centennial Expositions were organized in the 19th and early 20th centuries
to mark a variety of milestones—from the anniversary of the American and
French Revolutions (1867 and 1889) to the independence of Mexico and the
opening of the Panama Canal (1910 and 1915)—inspiring both organizers and
their guests to reflect upon the characteristics of their national culture and
its relationship to other cultural traditions. This course examines this
phenomenon with particular attention to the national displays of art and
industry in Western Europe and the Americas.
Prerequisites: Consent
of the Department. Students are normally expected to have completed two 200
level Art History courses with a minimum grade of B- in both. ArtH 255 or 206 strongly recommended.
As this is a
reading and research seminar, you are expected to read each weekÕs assignment
in advance and arrive in class prepared to discuss it. Readings are on reserve
in the Visual Resource Centre and / or in Rutherford Library. I will be paying
attention to whether you have thought about the issues presented by each author
and whether you are contributing to the class discussion. You will be marked on
your class participation.
Students
enrolled in ArtH 411 B1: You will also
prepare a preliminary paper and bibliography, a conference presentation, and a
term paper. The preliminary paper is a 2-page page essay (about 500 words) and
bibliography (minimum 10 entries), in which you present your initial research
on a topic that is related to the issues in this class. The conference
presentation and term paper will build upon this topic. Conference
presentations will be 10 minutes, and include a visual presentation. Final
papers will be 8-10 pages (about 3000 words), include a title page, notes,
captioned illustrations as appropriate, and final bibliography.
Students
enrolled in ArtH 511 B1: You will also
prepare a preliminary paper and bibliography, a conference presentation, and a
term paper. The preliminary paper is a 4-page page essay (about 1000 words) and
bibliography (minimum 10 entries), in which you present your initial research
on a topic that is related to the issues in this class. The conference
presentation and term paper will build upon this topic. Conference
presentations will be 20 minutes, and include a visual presentation. Final
papers will be 16-20 pages (about 6000 words), include a title page, notes,
captioned illustrations as appropriate, and final bibliography.
Term papers in
art history are generally written using Chicago style; MLA is also acceptable.
Style guides may be found on the University of Alberta Library website. Paper
topics must be approved by the instructor, who will assist you in all phases of
the project.
Grading: Preliminary paper and bibliography
(15%), oral presentation (20%); term paper and final bibliography (35%);
readings, attendance, class participation (30%). You are expected to attend
every class, arriving on time and staying until the end. Absences, late
arrivals and/or missing assignments WILL affect your grade.
Grade System:
Students will be evaluated according to the 4-point scale adopted
by the University of Alberta, which will result in a letter grade (from A to
F).
Policy about course outlines can be found in ¤23.4(2) of the
University Calendar.
ÒThe University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards
of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with
these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the
University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize
themselves with the provisions of the Code
of Student Behaviour (online at www.ualberta.ca/secretariat/appeals.htm)
and avoid any behaviour which could potentially
result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentations of facts and /
or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and
can result in suspension of expulsions from the University.Ó (GFC 29 Sep 2003)
In particular, the Code of Student Behaviour states that:
ÒNo student shall represent anotherÕs
substantial editorial or compositional assistance on an assignment as his or
her own.
No student shall submit any course or
program of study, without the written approval of the course instructor, all or
a substantial portion of any academic writing, essay, thesis, research report,
project assignment, presentation or poster for which credit has been obtained
by the Student or which has previously been or is being submitted by the
student in another course or program of study in the University or elsewhere.
No student shall submit the words, ideas, images or data of
another person as the student's own in any academic writing, essay, thesis,
project, assignment, presentation or poster in a course or program of
study.Ó (Section 30.3.2(1) of the
University Calendar.)
Recording
of classes is permitted only with the prior written consent of the professor or
if recording is part of an approved accommodation plan.
Important Dates:
Tuesday, January
5: Introduction to the class
Tuesday, January
12:
Readings: Benjamin Portis and Neil Harris, Civic Visions, WorldÕs Fairs. Exh. cat., Montreal: Canadian Centre
for Architecture, 1993, 7-12 (read carefully) and 13-28 (on reserve in
Rutherford Library)
Assignment for
class: 5 minute presentations on a single worldÕs fair or centennial exhibition
Tuesday, January
19:
Readings: Walter Benjamin, ÒParis, Capital of the 19th Century
[1935],Ó in Reflections, trans. E. Jephcott. New York: Schocken
Books, 1978, 146-53 (read ÒGrandville, or the World ExhibitionsÓ carefully; on
reserve in Rutherford Library)
and
Thomas
J. Schlereth, ÒThe Material Universe of American
World Expositions, 1876-1915,Ó in Cultural
History and Material Culture: Everyday Life, Landscape, Museums.
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992, 264-99 (on reserve in
Rutherford Library)
Tuesday, January
26:
Reading: Benedict Anderson, ÒIntroduction,Ó and ÒCultural RootsÓ in Imagined Communities: Reflections on the
Origin and Spread of Nationalism [1983]. Rev. ed., London and New York:
Verso, 1991, 1-36 (on reserve in Rutherford Library and also available as an
electronic resource)
Assignment for class: 5 minute
presentations on term paper topics
Preliminary paper and bibliography due in
class
Tuesday,
February 2:
Readings: Paul Connerton,
How Societies Remember. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1989, 1-13, 41-43, 72-79 (on reserve in Rutherford
Library)
and
Lyn Spillman,
Nation and Commemoration: Creating
National Identities in the United States and Australia. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997, 17-56 (on reserve in the VRC)
Tuesday,
February 9:
Readings: Tony Bennett, ÒCivic Seeing: Museums and the Organization
of Vision,Ó in Critical Trajectories:
Culture, Society, Intellectuals. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishing, 2007,
121-37 (on reserve in Rutherford Library)
and
Annegret Fauser,
ÒIntroduction,Ó in Musical Encounters at
the 1889 Paris WorldÕs Fair. Rochester: University of Rochester Press,
2005, 1-14 (on reserve in Rutherford Library)
February 15-19: Reading Week
Tuesday,
February 23:
Readings: Burton Benedict,
ÒThe Anthropology of WorldÕs FairsÓ in
The Anthropology of WorldÕs Fairs: San FranciscoÕs Panama-Pacific International
Exposition, 1915. Berkeley: Scolar Press, 1983, pp. 1-65 (on reserve in the VRC)
Tuesday, March
2:
Readings:
Curtis M. Hinsley, ÒThe World as Marketplace:
Commodification of the Exotic at the WorldÕs Columbian Exposition, Chicago,
1893,Ó in Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, ed. Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and
Politics of Museum Display. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1991, 344-65 (on reserve in Rutherford Library)
Assignment: Term paper titles and short (150 word) abstracts due in
class
Tuesday, March
9:
Readings: Beatriz Gonz‡lez-Stephan, ÒShowcases of Consumption: Historical
Panoramas and Universal Expositions,Ó in Sara Castro-KlarŽn
and John Charles Chasteen, eds. Beyond Imagined Communities: Reading and Writing the Nation in
Nineteenth-Century Latin America. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2003, 225-38 (on reserve in Rutherford Library)
and
Alvaro Fern‡ndez Bravo, ÒAmbivalent Argentina: Nationalism, Exoticism, and
Latin Americanism at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition,Ó Nepantla: Views from South 2:1 (2001), 115-39 (PDF available)
Tuesday,
March 16:
Readings:
Zeynep ‚elik, ÒSpeaking
Back to Orientalist Discourse at the WorldÕs Columbian Exposition,Ó in Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures: Orientalism
in America, 1870-1930. Exh. cat., Princeton:
Princeton University Press in association with the Sterling and Francine Clark
Art Institute, 2000 (on reserve in Rutherford)
and
Randal Rogers, ÒColonial Imitation and Racial
Insubordination: Photography at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition of 1904,Ó The History of Photography 32 (Winter
2008), 347-67 (on reserve in Rutherford)
Tuesday, March 23:
Readings: Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo,
Ò1910 Mexico City: Space and Nation in City of the Centenario,Ó Journal of Latin American Studies 28 (February 1996), 75-104 (PDF
available)
Tuesday, March
30: Conference Part I: Schedule to be
announced
Tuesday, April
6: Conference Part II: Schedule to be announced
Research papers due in class