Academic Studies
Whenever we engage in studio practice--whether we know it or not--we are also engaging with dominant social and cultural ideas that have sedimented over time.
How do you see beyond the conventions of critique to unearth new ideas for your thinking and practice? Academic Studies at Maine College of Art & Design helps you think critically about gender, race, history and theory to do just that. In our contemporary world, all studio practitioners also need to be creative, critical thinkers who are committed to social justice. To that end, we offer an interdisciplinary curriculum with classes that traverse media theory, art history, cultural analysis and critical theory.
We also offer classes in World History, Philosophy, the Art of Business, Literature, Natural Science and Math. We have instructors and professors who will push you to interrogate representations of identity and how they affect the way we read images and texts. Academic Studies Minors in Art History, Writing, and Sustainable Ecosystems: Art & Design ask how our ways of knowing, reading, and seeing are challenged by contemporary events and historical residues.
Curriculum Overview
The goal of the Academic Studies curriculum is not merely to supplement your studio work with research, writing and critical thinking skills—although it will also do that. Rather, Academic Studies enhances your ability to participate meaningfully in the discourses that shape your life. Expansive, at times confronting, conversations will occur as you move into the uncertain space of not knowing where critical thinking really begins.
Sample Courses
- Affects & Assemblages: Media, Politics & Emotion
- Global Contemporary Photography
- The Event of Seeing
- Race & Environment
- The Macro-Cosmos of Afrofuturism
- Super(vision): Art & Surveillance.
Fifteen Academic Studies courses are required to complete a BFA degree at Maine College of Art & Design, including:
- EN 100 - English Composition
- FN 108 - Research & Inquiry**
- AH 101 & 102 - Art History Survey I & II*
- AH 250 - Critical Approaches to Contemporary Art
- (2) Upper-level Art History electives
- (2) Humanities or Social Science electives
- (2) Natural Science or Mathematics electives
- (1) Philosophy elective
- (1) World History elective
- (2) Liberal Arts electives
*Two consecutive courses.
**An academic studies course paired with a studio foundation course.
Faculty
Sabine Malcolm
Chair of Academic Studies and Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities
Jon Calame
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts and Art History
Rob Canfield
Adjunct Associate Professor of Liberal Arts
Pedro Daher
Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts
Deb Debiegun
Adjunct Instructor of Liberal Arts
Elizabeth Dodge
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts
Alison Ferris
Adjunct Instructor of Art History
John Fireman
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts
Sophie Hamacher
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art History and Liberal Arts
Ken Knight
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts
Sharon Kunde
Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts
Rose Logie
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History and Coordinator of the Art History minor
Catherine McKenna
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts
Laura Jourdan Palmer
Adjunct Instructor of Liberal Arts and Art History
Jan Piribeck
Adjunct Professor of Liberal Arts
John Portlock
Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts and Chair of the Diversity Committee
A. Raina
Adjunct Instructor of Liberal Arts
Mitchell Rasor
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts and Art History
Marie Shurkus
Professor of Art History
Andrea Southworth
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts
Rick Stark
Adjunct Instructor of Liberal Arts
Sarah Timm
Adjunct Instructor of Liberal Arts
Chad Walls
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts and Interim Coordinator of the Writing minor