Category: Art History
Art history undergraduates explore research ethics and practice
March 24, 2026 Written by Department of Art History Staff | Photos by Jennifer Van Horn
Students transform 91Ô´´ Museum archives into a laboratory for methodology and collaborative inquiry
In spring 2025, 13 students took ARTH301: Research and Methodology in Art History taught by Jennifer Van Horn, which focuses on how art history is done, with discussions on methodology, ethics and the future of the field in the first half of the course.
Readings and guest lectures helped guide and support students as they undertook the main assignment for the course: a research paper and accompanying art dialogue based on a work of art from the 91Ô´´ Museum. Students visited Mechanical Hall to view a selection of eleven artworks and were each assigned one based on their preferences.
Throughout the semester, students pursued research and topics of interest while collaborating with peers to offer feedback and insight into one another’s research. The gradual process of researching and writing culminated in public art dialogues wherein two or more students presented their works of art and offered interpretations about how they related to other works.
The process of developing the art dialogues began a discussion of the themes of the chosen works. These themes ranged from emotional response, subject matter, method of creation, and function, and students created a web of connections between works. Groups of two and three works coalesced from shared themes, and discussions began on how the works might be compared and contrasted.
Pairings included themes such as the depiction of motherhood in Gertrude Käsebier’s Adoration and Käthe Kollwitz’s Die Mutter, as well as the effect of art as documentation in Lucia Moholy’s Abstract Circular Design and James McNeill Whistler’s The Riva #1. These comparisons opened pathways to discuss broader questions about visual language, memory and meaning across different time periods and mediums.
In the last few weeks of class, groups met to organize talking points and draft presentations. After brainstorming, writing scripts, and practicing dialogues for peers, students presented their work in Mechanical Hall’s gallery space. Guests were invited to view the works in the study room and attend the dialogues and ask questions. Students and faculty attending introduced new connections during the dialogues.
The art dialogues evolved into dynamic conversations that emphasized the interconnectedness of works of art across time, medium and intent, deepening students’ understanding of the methodologies that guide the field of art history.