Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2025 - HUM 222 D100

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Art (3)

Class Number: 3718

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 3 – Dec 2, 2025: Thu, 2:30–5:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Dec 12, 2025
    Fri, 8:30–11:30 a.m.
    Burnaby

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Art as viewed through the history of artistic forms, ideas, materiality, and/or literature in multiple cultures. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:


Paint splattered across canvases, strange abstract sculptures, bananas duct-taped to walls—art can often be difficult to understand. This course introduces the history of visual art, c. 15th century CE to the present, from a cross-cultural perspective. We will ask: what is art? How should we understand it? And what can it tell us about ourselves and our world?

This course will explore artists and artworks; major artistic movements; interactions between European, Indigenous, and other cultural traditions; as well as changing aims and understandings of art in different times and places. Students will learn to view, describe, interpret, and critique works of art from formal, iconographic, historical, and other perspectives. This course is designed to equip students with skills to analyze historical and contemporary works of art and to engage critically with the diverse visual materials that surrounds us in our everyday lives today.

Course content will be presented in weekly lectures and assigned readings and videos. Students will assess their knowledge and practice art historical analysis through in-class discussions and activities, weekly online quizzes, in-class writing exercises, and midterm and final exams.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  • Recognize, describe, and discuss art, c. 15th century CE–present from a cross-cultural perspective
  • Employ art historical terms and methods to analyze and interpret visual material

Grading

  • Attendance and participation 10%
  • Weekly online quizzes 15%
  • In-class writing 15%
  • Midterm exam 30%
  • Final exam 30%

NOTES:

This course fulfills the Global Humanities requirements for the

REQUIREMENTS:

No previous knowledge of art or art history is expected.

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

This course utilizes open educational resources and other materials that the instructor will make available to students at zero cost. Students will be required to access course materials online. 

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.