These courses are designed to prepare students with a wide range of knowledge regarding artists and the cultural issues highlighting specific centers of creation. The courses are also designed to help students develop informed approaches to viewing and critiquing works of art, involving not only academic theory but themes such as the commerce and industry of art in relation to museums and institutions. The core courses are offered on a yearly basis, vary from term to term and are open to Masters and PhD students. Some undergrad students, if eligible, can take a graduate-level course through the fast track program with departmental approval. (Note: The 7000-level courses are only open to doctoral students.)
Along with these core courses are offered seminars in the fields of Aesthetic Studies, the History of Ideas and Studies in Literature in collaboration with the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Museums (CISM), highlighting this interwoven educational approach within the field of Humanities. The CISM program is spearheaded by Richard Brettell, whose aim is to provide students with as wide an understanding about the field of aesthetic and intellectual practices as possible. The seminars are specifically designed to give students a deeper understanding of the way in which museums function as institutions, bearing in mind issues of display, conservation, curatorship, advances in technology, management and the museum space as a place of memorialization, especially in reference to Holocaust studies. These CISM-based courses also provide students with career possibilities in the field of aesthetics outside of academic institutions. The courses in conjunction with CISM in the field of Aesthetic Studies are HUAS 6313 The Business of the Arts, HUAS 6318 The Arts and Their Institutions and HUAS 6324 Spaces of Display and Performance, although there have been other core seminars taught in collaboration with museum partnerships and academic affiliations outside of The University of Texas at Dallas, namely Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University.
In an effort to give prospective students an idea of the courses offered within the fields generally termed as aesthetics, history and literature, here is a detailed list of various topics in relation to the CISM courses and other core seminars which were instructed in the past 3 years sharing a close association with the interdisciplinary study of museums.