Mar 29, 2024  
College Catalog 2021-2022 
    
College Catalog 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Liberal Arts


Interdivisional Liberal Arts

two students looking at a laptop

Faculty

  

Juilliard actively promotes a liberal arts education that provides the humanistic, ethical, social, critical, and aesthetic background essential to personal development and professional excellence. Studies in literature, philosophy, history, social sciences, arts, and languages, foster in students a deeper understanding of themselves and the complex world in which they live.

All students in the B.F.A. and B.M. degree programs are required to complete a minimum of 24 credits in the Liberal Arts. Qualified students begin a three-semester core-curriculum program in their first year by taking “Ethics, Conscience and the Good Life” and “Society, Politics and Culture.” In the following year students enroll in “Art and Aesthetics.” Students who place into “Writing Seminar” enroll in that course their first year and in “Ethics” their sophomore year, completing the three-semester sequence as above. This core curriculum in the humanities introduces students to a cross-cultural range of texts, traditions, and issues and emphasizes critical thinking and writing throughout.

Students pursue electives in such fields as art history, creative writing, literature, African-American studies, American and European history, gender, philosophy, and the environment. Juilliard also offers courses in four modern foreign languages: French, German, Italian, and Russian. Most students take electives in the third and fourth years but may take them earlier. All Liberal Arts coursesare conducted in small seminars to foster participation and a spirit of inquiry. Eligible students may also cross-register for certain courses at Columbia and Barnard Colleges.

Through their work in the Liberal Arts, students refine skills in reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking, learning to communicate with greater clarity and effectiveness. This program equips them to become active, well-informed citizens; develops their awareness of the social and humanistic dimensions of professional work; and lays the basis for a fulfilling cultural and intellectual life.

Courses

Liberal Arts Core

  • LARTS 101-2 — Writing Seminar

    3 credits per semester
    Fall and Spring
    Faculty

    This course is a prerequisite to LARTS 111. Emphasis is placed upon reading and writing skills, verbal expression, and critical analysis of texts. Successful completion satisfies six Liberal Arts Elective credits. Students may qualify out of this course on the basis of a diagnostic exam which evaluates their preparedness.
  • LARTS 111 — Ethics, Conscience, and the Good Life

    3 credits
    Fall
    Faculty

    Prerequisite: LARTS 101-2 . Students read and discuss works of ethicists, philosophers, religious figures, and literary authors on the nature of the ethical life. Students will be encouraged to think critically about personal responsibility, responsibilities to others, the good life, the problem of evil, and human nature. Authors and traditions that may be included: Classical Greek and Roman, Buddhism, Taoism, the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, Hume, Kant, Utilitarianism, Mary Shelley, and Shakespeare, as well as contemporary readings that address the ethical questions arising in a scientific, technological and global age.
  • LARTS 112 — Society, Politics, and Culture

    3 credits
    Spring
    Faculty

    This course is an introduction to the seminal issues, methods, and traditions that inform historical and contemporary conceptions of politics, society, and culture. Drawing from classical to contemporary readings in political theory, philosophy, the social sciences, literature, and gender studies, the course encourages students to explore such topics as why people live in society; how social life influences personhood; how society regulates and institutionalizes power and authority; and how societies are transformed. Authors who may be included are Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Marx, Mill, Wollstonecraft, and Woolf.
  • LARTS 212 — Citizenship, Art, and Politics

    3 credits
    Fall or Spring
    Faculty

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 From the moment that creators share their work with the public, these works take on new meanings. Students enrolled in Citizenship, Art, and Politics will consider problems of abiding interest and frequent disagreement: Who gets to decide what is art, and what sort of conclusions have been reached? When appraising a performance, should audiences take an artist’s personal qualities into account? Are artists obligated to consider for whom a performance is given, or where it is performed, or should artists simply focus on the performance itself? What are governments’ interests in creative expression? During times of social or political conflict, what are the limits and possibilities of cultural diplomacy?

     

Liberal Arts Electives: Humanities (Art History)

  • LARTS 340 — Frozen Music: On Interrelating the Arts

    3 credits
    Fall
    Greta Berman and Samuel Zyman

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . Architecture has sometimes been called frozen music. This course begins in 16th-century Venice, where the architecture and opulent setting help illuminate Venetian music, and especially the blossoming of opera in that city. We will start by looking at Palladio’s architecture, the paintings of Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, and the music of Gabrieli and Monteverdi. We will continue through the mid-19th century in France. The course focuses on important art and music of the periods. Using slides, musical demonstrations, and recordings, we will examine many moments in time and places where art and music come together.
  • LARTS 343 — Art of the 19th Century

    3 credits
    Fall
    Greta Berman

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . In this class we will study painting, sculpture, and architecture in Europe from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Topics include Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism, Post-Impressionism, and Art Nouveau. Students will be introduced to the works of David, Ingres, Delacroix, Turner, Goya, Courbet, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec, among others.
  • LARTS 344 — Art of the 20th Century

    3 credits
    Spring
    Greta Berman

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . This class is a survey of the arts of Europe and the United States from the beginning of the 20th century to today, starting with the transition from the late 19th century into the 20th. We begin with an examination of Fauvism and German Expressionism, continuing through Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and movements of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Artists include Matisse, Klee, Kandinsky, Picasso, Dali, Pollock, Warhol, and many others. Class time will be spent discussing and viewing slides, videotapes, and live performances, where possible. Students will be encouraged to go to museums and galleries, as well as to read current criticism.

     

  • LARTS 347 — Focus on a Major Artist

    3 credits
    Spring
    Greta Berman

    Prerequisite:LARTS 112 . This course selects a different major artist each semester and delves in depth into the oeuvre of this artist, and the influence he or she had on contemporaries. Possible artists include Vincent van Gogh, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Monet, Picasso, and Matisse.
  • LARTS 349 — Art of the Renaissance

    3 credits
    Spring
    Greta Berman

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . This class looks at painting, sculpture, and architecture of the Renaissance. By means of slides, lectures, and class discussions, we explore the meaning of the Renaissance and its manifestations in Italy and Northern Europe. Major artists include Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, and Hieronymus Bosch.

Liberal Arts Electives: Humanities (Literature and Creative Writing)

  • LARTS H358 — Honors: Contemporary American Literature

    3 credits
    Fall
    Anthony Lioi

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . This class begins with a survey of American literature after 1960 through the framework of postmodern culture with special emphasis placed on postmodern aesthetics, the fiction of social protest, and the rise of fantastika. The class then examines one major work of literature and one work of digital media from the 21st century, to investigate contemporary culture. Students will develop independent research projects related to 21st-century American literature and new media, including video games, streaming narratives, and social media, culminating in a presentation delivered during a symposium at the end of the semester. This is a Liberal Arts Honors course and may be taken to fulfill academic honors requirements. 

  • LARTS 312 — Asian American Literature and Film

    3 credits
    Spring
    Anthony Lioi

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . Asian American literature and film emerged in the 1960s, when disparate groups from East and South Asia created a cultural alliance in the United States. This course will explore the core questions emerging from that alliance: What does it mean to represent “Asian American” experience in literature and film? What is American about this work in the context of the Asian diasporas in English-speaking countries? What place does Asian American art have in global literature and film? Work by Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Filipino, and Vietnamese American artists, as well as Asian artists who have influenced American art, will be considered. 

  • LARTS 315 — Writing Poetry and Flash Fiction

    3 credits
    Spring
    Ron Price

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112  Designed to help students recognize options rather than flaws in what they write, this course will focus on how language works at its most evocative — in poetry, prose poems, and short stories. The aim is to generate material and to find appropriate forms to contain that material by identifying the musical and rhythmic shape of words. The semester comprises writing exercises, critiques, and discussions of related issues: the image, spoken language, syntax, music, tone, story, and form. Students will develop writing, editorial, and performance skills — the emphasis being on how to use those tools to enhance the expression of experience.
  • LARTS 358 — Contemporary American Literature

    3 credits
    Spring
    Anthony Lioi

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . This class examines American literature after 1945 from a variety of critical perspectives. Possible topics include: Postmodern literature and culture; American literature and social revolution; American literature and the post-Colonial condition; the Beat movement; the Black Arts movement; the literature of witness; poetry as performance; gender, sexuality, and literature; literature and critical theories of race; the literature of immigration; literature and the environment; the literature of New York City; religion, spirituality, and American literature; literature and contemporary film; folklore and literature; the graphic novel; the New Journalism; and digital literature.
  • LARTS 359 — English Romantic Literature of the 19th Century: Sublime, Gothic, Heroic

    3 credits
    Spring
    Jo Sarzotti

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . This course takes as its subject the literary art generated by English and American writers in the years 1780 to 1830, known as the “Romantic period” and characterized by enthusiasm for the imagination, the power of nature, and belief in boundless possibility for human achievement, including the supernatural. We will start in the 17th century with the origins of the Gothic tradition, reading Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and poetry by Coleridge, Byron, and Keats. Then we take up Burke’s idea of the Sublime, reading parts of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the first Vampire story, and poetry by Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, and others. We finish by reading stories by E.A. Poe and Bram Stoker’s Dracula as well as looking at contemporary versions of the supernatural in film.
  • LARTS 361 — Creative Nonfiction

    3 credits
    Fall
    Ron Price

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112  Creative Nonfiction tells a story. The story might have a political or an ecological, an economic or a racial focus. It might be about the art of glassblowing or animal husbandry, anything from a narrative history of the U.S. Civil War to a coming of age memoir — stories about what real people do, what happens to them, how they respond. The genre employs a journalist’s focus on facts; the dialogue and scenes of a novelist or playwright; the analytical thinking of an essayist; the images, musicality, and wordplay of a poet. Creative Nonfiction writers use literary techniques when facts alone cannot adequately render the truth of a subject. They aim for the truth as they understand it. Strategic analysis of work by Jonathan Swift, Virginia Woolf, Joyce Carol Oats, John Hersey, Truman Capote, Annie Dillard, Tom Wolfe, Isabella Allende, Joan Didion, Gay Talese, and John McPhee will serve as models for student writings to culminate in a manuscript of original essays.
  • LARTS 365 — Contemporary American Poetry

    3 credits
    Spring
    Ron Price

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112  An examination of the cultural and historical elements shaping the very young and fluid tradition of American poetry, including issues such as the modern quarrel with Classicism; the dialectic between language and reality, regional and international, personal and political; the social function of poetry; and the poet’s relationship to community and the human family. In addition to poems, students will read literary and cultural essays written by contemporary poets on issues related to the American tradition.

Liberal Arts Electives: History and Social Sciences

  • LARTS 302 — Language, Culture, and Society

    3 credits
    Spring
    Robert Wilson

    This course will allow students to examine the complex relationships among language, culture, and society. Drawing on scholarship from the sociolinguistic and anthropological study of language, discourse, and communication, students will explore theories positing how language is shaped by, and in turn shapes, identity and interactions. Topics of investigation include how language influences our perception of the world, how new languages emerge, how children learn to use language appropriately, and how verbal communication reveals biases toward identities based on race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and ability. 
  • LARTS 318 — Making Modernity, Good and Bad: 19th Century Europe

    3 credits
    Fall
    Gonzalo Sanchez

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . Social, cultural, and economic development in Europe during the so-called “long 19th century”—the period encompassing 1789 to the eve of World War I—in many ways shaped the modern world, for better and for worse. Political upheaval, unprecedented industrialization, scientific and technological advancements, and avant-garde art swept the continent—along with social conflict, racism, imperialism, and the nationalist ideologies that would eventually lead to two World Wars and continue to haunt the globe today. Drawing from works by authors such as Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe, and Claire de Duras, this courseoffers a thematic survey of the historical movements and ideas that inform modernity’s equivocal legacy.

  • LARTS 369 — Civil War, Reconstruction, and Slave Emancipation

    3 credits
    Spring
    Lisa Andersen

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . This course explores the role of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and slave emancipation in catalyzing a massive transformation in America’s political economy and social organization. Slaves, abolitionists, freed people, Northerners, Southerners, politicians, workers, women, and intellectuals debated the advent of war, the strategic decisions made throughout its development, and the form of post-war Reconstruction. They advanced social and political movements that were imbued with the war’s legacy. This course will conclude by considering how diverse groups of Americans “” both historians and citizens “” have posited dramatically different interpretations of the war and its significance, often using war memorialization to advance social and political claims.

Liberal Arts Electives: Languages

  • LARTS 151-2 — Russian I

    3 credits per semester
    Fall and Spring
    Gina Levinson

    Introductory language courses provide basic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Students also study the culture and history of the language and the countries where it is spoken. Students may not enroll in courses involving the study of their native languages.
  • LARTS 161-2 — English and Communication

    3 credits per semester
    Fall and Spring
    Robert Wilson

    May be required as a result of language assessments. This course is designed for emergent bilingual English speakers to advance their academic language skills. Working with periodicals and literature, this course fosters the comprehensive development of language skills including reading, writing, listening, speaking, and grammar.
  • LARTS 171-2 — French I

    3 credits per semester
    Fall and Spring
    Faculty

    Introductory language courses provide basic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Students also study the culture and history of the language and the countries where it is spoken. Students may not enroll in courses involving the study of their native languages.
  • LARTS 181-2 — German I

    3 credits per semester
    Fall and Spring
    Faculty

    Introductory language courses provide basic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Students also study the culture and history of the language and the countries where it is spoken. Students may not enroll in courses involving the study of their native languages.
  • LARTS 191-2 — Italian I

    3 credits per semester
    Fall and Spring
    Faculty

    Introductory language courses provide basic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Students also study the culture and history of the language and the countries where it is spoken. Students are expected to pass the first semester with a grade of at least “C” in order to continue to the second semester. Students may not enroll in courses involving the study of their native languages.
  • LARTS 561-2 — Graduate English Seminar

    0 credits
    Fall and Spring
    Robert Wilson

    May be required as a result of language assessments. This course is designed for emergent bilingual graduate students to advance their academic language skills. Working with popular, academic, and scientific articles, along with literature, this course cultivates the rhetorical knowledge and compositional skills required for participation in postgraduate education.

Liberal Arts Electives: American Studies

  • LARTS 353 — August Wilson’s American Experience

    3 credits
    Spring
    Renée Baron

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . Playwright August Wilson’s 10-play “Century Cycle focuses on each decade of the 20th century, creatively addressing the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans. Using his plays as a point of departure, this class will explore the historical, literary, and cultural context of each play to gain insight into Wilson’s creative offering and–more broadly–African American life. What events did Wilson reference and why? How does each play respond to the moment it depicts, and how does it respond to the moment in which it was written? How do the plays work together as a commentary on 20th-century America? In addition to all ten of Wilson’s plays, texts may include Harold Cruse’s Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns, and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.

  • LARTS 391 — The History of American Social Movements, 1954-2016

    3 credits
    Fall
    Lisa Andersen

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112   This American history course will introduce students to 20th-century social movements, starting with the African-American civil rights movement and campaigns by organized labor. We will trace conservative, liberal, and student endeavors, asking: When do movements emerge, and what is their relationship to each other? What are the techniques used to build a mass organization, and how do movements coordinate their large numbers? What distinguishes a social movement from a political party or special interest group? Which movements have been the most successful at achieving policy objectives? Students will consult both historical documents and modern scholarship, and will have the opportunity to complete a research paper that draws upon archival materials.
  • LARTS 392 — Democracy at the Crossroads

    3 credits
    Spring
    Anita Mercier

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . Members of Western societies tend to assume that democracy is the best form of government. Yet today, many democratic countries are sliding toward authoritarianism, and others are struggling to maintain stability. What conditions are necessary to establish and maintain democracy? What are democracy’s vulnerabilities? Does democracy have a future? To answer these questions, we will trace the intellectual foundations of democracy from its origins in the ancient world through the Atlantic republican tradition and through the emergence of modern liberal democracies worldwide.  We will examine the ideas of both proponents and critics of democracy. Finally we will focus on some of the pressing problems facing contemporary democracies, including populism, the persistence of illiberal and anti-democratic ideologies, skyrocketing economic inequality, and sweeping technological changes.

Liberal Arts Electives: Gender Studies

  • LARTS 304 — Feminist Philosophy

    3 credits
    Spring
    Aaron Jaffe

    Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . This class explores feminist philosophy, beginning with Diotima’s response to Socrates, with the aim of reconstructing an historical arc of the concerns informing contemporary feminist thinking. Though starting with the “Western” tradition, the class will problematize the largely White and upper-class feminisms of the so-called “global north” with challenges from the “global south” as well as Black, Chicana, and working-class feminisms. This process will generate not only a sequential, but a comparative and critical approach to different possible feminisms. The class will examine the nature of women’s oppression and the structuring role of gender and orientation, and highlight the conceptual resources to reflect upon and resist domination developed by people not traditionally identified as “men.”