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Department of
History of Art and Architecture

Students standing in the rain on immersion trip in Maine

Immersion

Immersion Is… an opportunity for undergraduate students to pursue their passions and interests through experiential learning. The Department of History of Art and Architecture provides many opportunities for students to complete Immersion projects, from engaging in original research leading to an Honors thesis, to helping curate an exhibition.

Immersion Courses

The Department of History of Art and Architecture has a portfolio of in-depth courses that fulfill a student’s Immersion requirement.

HART 2815: Digital Heritage: Methods and Practice
A cutting-edge course in the digital humanities, HART 2815 provides case-based introduction to digital application in history of art and archaeology, including theory, research design, current methods of photogrammetry, 2D and 3D modeling, mapping and spatial analysis, and data management and digital publishing. This course is a regular offering in the HART curriculum, so please check the current schedule for timing. 

HART 2820: Architectural Heritage, Research and Documentation
Curating the Vaughn Home, site of the Robert Penn Warren Center

The Vaughn Home is one of Vanderbilt University’s seven original faculty houses and thus among the oldest buildings on our campus, dating to 1875. Today, it is the location of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities. This Victorian house is architecturally and culturally important, and through a series of courses, it is studied for its architectural significance and its place in the histories of Vanderbilt and Nashville. These in-depth, original investigations into the building’s history present a unique immersive experience for students.

HART 2810W: Museum Exhibition and 3810W: Exhibiting Historical Art
The department regularly offers the seminar courses HART 2810W/3810W allowing students to research, develop, design, and curate an exhibition that, combined with other experiences, constitutes an Immersion experience.

Depending on the specific topic and focus of the seminar course taken, students will take additional coursework or participate in additional complementary experiences to complete the Immersion sequence. The final project for this experience would be a research paper in the form of a catalogue essay or another substantial contribution to an exhibition project.

These courses are regular offerings in the HART curriculum, so please check the latest schedule of classes for availability.

Immersion Pathways

Cultural Heritage: Asian Architecture Data Curation Workshop
Students can assist in the development of an architectural history digital archive through working with HART faculty to develop data for a Chinese architectural history dynamic site archive and architectural thesaurus. Students will develop entries on individual sites and add visual material for a thesaurus of technical terms for traditional Chinese architecture.

Pre- or co-requisite coursework includes:

  • HART 1200: Arts of East Asia
  • HART 1220: History of Asian Architecture
  • HART 2100: Architecture and the Mapping of Empire in Asia
  • HART 2151: Architecture and Gardens in Imperial China
  • HART 2815: Digital Heritage: Methods and Practice: The Chinese Temple

Students may apply to the Buchanan Library Fellows program for funding to support their lab work. For further information, contact Professor Tracy Miller. 

History of Art and Asian Studies: Asian Medicine, Health, and the Healing Arts
Asian studies faculty includes a strong cohort of professors who work on aspects of medicine, health, and society in East Asian cultures. An Immersion in Asian Medicine and Health allows undergraduates to combine interests in pre-health professions with interest in Asia. Students may take three courses and enrich a course-based final paper as an Immersion project. They may also take two classes and then enroll in a 3-credit-hour Immersion completion course that may entail a wide range of research experiences. Possible topics include the translation of a section of a Chinese medical text, a research paper on health issues in contemporary China, or possibly interviews and/or shadowing practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine in the Nashville area.

To set a foundation for Immersion, students may combine two or three of our current course offerings, including:

  • ASIA 2630: Chinese Medicine
  • ASIA 3633: Self-Cultivation in Ancient China
  • MHS 2310: Chinese Society and Medicine
  • HART 3140: Healing and Art in East Asia

For further information, contact Professor Tracy Miller.

Honors as Immersion

HART 4999: Honors Thesis
Students will undertake independent research on a topic in the history of art or history of architecture and produce an Honors Thesis. The history of art Honors Thesis sequence requires the completion of 9 credit hours including independent study leading to the research and writing of the HART Honors Thesis:

  • HART 3850: Independent Research (3 credits hours)
  • HART 4998: Honors Research (3 credit hours)
  • HART 4999: Honors Thesis (3 credit hours)

Learn more about the Honors Program or reach out to the director of honors.

Other Immersion Opportunities

Beyond courses, students can pursue a myriad of other Immersion opportunities. In addition to the courses above, some students have coupled Immersion with study abroad or internship experiences.

Immersion Stories

Group of students standing on rocks in front of waterIn fall 2023, nine students registered for the course HART 3810W: Exhibiting Historical Art, with Professor Kevin Murphy. Their focus was on research leading to an exhibition about the work of American modernist painting Russell Cheney (1881-1945). Cheney came from a Connecticut family well known for their manufacturing company: Cheney Silks in Hartford. Cheney was educated at Yale, then studied art in Hartford, New York, and Paris. While he exhibited extensively during his lifetime, he has not been the subject of a great deal of research and publishing subsequently.

Students were able to break new ground in their study of Cheney’s work, including by travelling to New England over fall break, to meet important collectors of Cheney’s paintings in both Connecticut and Maine, and to see the museum where the exhibition will open on August 1, 2024: the Ogunquit (Maine) Museum of American Art. The student’s research will be published in a scholarly catalog alongside an introduction by Professor Murphy as well as essays by Scott Bane, the biographer of Cheney and his partner F.O. Matthiessen, and by Richard M. Candee, a scholar and collector who has worked tirelessly to document the painter’s life and work.