Students wishing to pursue an honors project involving a particular art practice area are recommended to have taken at least the relevant introductory course in that area from the list below or be able to demonstrate equivalent competency.

ARTSINST 11Q – Art in the Metropolis

MUSIC 2C – An Introduction to Opera
MUSIC 5G – Introduction to Gu-Zheng
MUSIC 11N – A View from the Podium: The Art of Conducting
MUSIC 15N – The Aesthetics of Data
MUSIC 19A/B – Introduction to Music Theory
MUSIC 21, 22, 23 – Elements of Music I, II, III

TAPS 1 – Introduction to Theater and Performance Studies
TAPS 20/124D – Acting for Non-Majors
TAPS 30 – How Theater is Designed
TAPS 31 – Introduction to Lighting and Production
TAPS 103 – Beginning Improvising
TAPS 120 A and B – Fundamentals of Acting
TAPS 120V – Vocal Production and Audition
TAPS 159 – Introduction to Game Studies
TAPS 175 – Writing for Performance: The Fundamentals

DANCE 37 – Beginning Lyric Contemporary
DANCE 39 – Intro/Beginning Contemporary Modern
DANCE 43 – Liquid Flow: Introduction to Contemporary Dance and Dance-making
DANCE 46 – Social Dance I
DANCE 48 – Beginning Ballet
DANCE 58 – Beginning Hip Hop
DANCE 65 – Construction Site
DANCE 118 – Developing Creativity in Dance
DANCE 160 – Performance and History: Rethinking the Ballerina

ARTHIST 1 – Introduction to the Visual Arts: History of Western Art from the Renaissance to the Present
ARTHIST 2 – Asian Arts and Cultures
ARTHIST 3 – Introduction to the History of Architecture
ARTHIST 157A – Histories of Photography

FILMSTUD 4 – Introduction to Film Study
FILMSTUD 102 – Theories of the Moving Image
FILMPROD 101 – Screenwriting
FILMPROD 114 – Introduction to Film and Video Production

ARTSTUDI 15AX – Introduction to Sculpture
ARTSTUDI 130N – Introduction to Art Practice
ARTSTUDI 140 – Drawing I
ARTSTUDI 145 – Painting 1
ARTSTUDI 148B – Introduction to Printmaking Techniques
ARTSTUDI 151 – Sculpture I
ARTSTUDI 160 – Design I: Fundamental Visual Language
ARTSTUDI 170 – Introduction to Photography
ARTSTUDI 177 – Video Art I
ARTSTUDI 179 – Digital Art I
ARTSTUDI 180 – Color

ME 101 – Visual Thinking
ME 103Q – Product Realization: Making is Thinking

ENGLISH 90 – Fiction Writing
ENGLISH 91 – Creative Nonfiction
ENGLISH 92 – Reading and Writing Poetry

Students interested in an interdisciplinary honors project might find inspiration in the following courses.

ANTHRO 178A: Culture, Narrative, and Medicine (HUMBIO 177C)
This course examines the ways in which medicine is practiced in diverse cultural contexts with narrative skills of recognizing, interpreting and being moved by the stories of illness. It is an examination of the human experience of illness and healing through narratives as presented in literature, film, and storytelling. We explore how cultural resources enable and empower healing and how narrative medicine can guide the practice of culturally competent medical care.

ARTHIST 145: Culture Wars: Art and Social Conflict in the USA, 1890-1950 (ARTHIST 345)
This course examines social conflicts and political controversies in American culture through the lens of visual art and photography. We consider how visual images both reflect and participate in the social and political life of the nation and how the terms of citizenship have been represented and, at times, contested by artists throughout the first half of the 20th century. The class explores the relation between American art and the body politic by focusing on issues of poverty, war, censorship, consumerism, class identity, and racial division.

ARTHIST 245: Art, Business & the Law
This course examines the intersection of art, business, and the law from a number of different angles, focusing on issues that impact our understanding of works of art and their circulation in the modern and contemporary periods. Topics range from individual case studies (e.g., Leonardo da Vinci; Richard Serra) to the consolidation of the art market, and include cultural heritage issues, problems of censorship, and conceptions of authorship and intellectual property.

ARTSTUDI 284: Art and Biology
The relationship between biology and art. Rather than how art has assisted the biological sciences as in medical illustration, focus is on how biology has influenced art making practice. New technologies and experimental directions, historical shifts in artists’ relationship to the living world, the effects of research methods on the development of theory, and changing conceptions of biology and life. Projects address these themes and others that emerge from class discussions and presentations. (upper level)

BIO 7N: Introduction to Conservation Photography
Introduction to the field of conservation photography and the strategic use of visual communication in addressing issues concerning the environment and conservation. Students will be introduced to basic digital photography, digital image processing, and the theory and application of photographic techniques. Case studies of conservation issues will be examined through photographs and multimedia platforms including images, video, and audio. Lectures, tutorials, demonstrations, and mandatory field trips will culminate in the production of individual and group projects.

BIO 196A/B/C: Biology Senior Reflection
Capstone course series for seniors. Creative, self-reflective and scientifically relevant projects conceived, produced and exhibited over the course of three quarters. Explore scientific content of personal interest through creative forms including but not limited to writing, music, fine arts, performing arts, photography, film or new media. A written essay on the creative process and scientific significance of the selected topic will accompany the creative work. Completed projects may be included in a creative portfolio. Required enrollment in 196A,B,C. Satisfies WIM in Biology.

DANCE 67: Being S(c)ene: Dance, Fashion and Art as Exhibition
In everyday life we are constantly moving from the subjects of the public, to its objects–from seeing to being seen. This performance- creation, interactive seminar explores everyday/pedestrian movement as articulated through the language of dance. Looking through the interpretive lenses of fashion, dance and visual representation, we critically consider how we observe others and ourselves in the world, and how we respond performatively or unconsciously. In addition to seminars and rehearsals, we will host guest lectures by curators, artists and professors: incorporate fieldwork research in museums as sites of display, and discuss scholarly texts and films. A performance installation with dance, fashion and visual display will ensue in the galleries at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, in conjunction with the Fall 2013 exhibition, Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video.

DANCE 197: Dance in Prison: The Arts, Juvenile Justice, and Rehabilitation in America
Participatory seminar. The nexus of art, community, and social action, using dance to study how the performing arts affect self-construction, perception and experiences of embodiment, and social control for incarcerated teenagers in Santa Clara Juvenile Hall. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center).

HISTORY 168: American History in Film: Since World War ll
U.S. society, culture, and politics since WW II through feature films. Topics include: McCarthyism and the Cold War; ethnicity and racial identify; changing sex and gender relationships; the civil rights and anti-war movements; and mass media. Films include The Best Years of Our Lives, Salt of the Earth, On the Waterfront, Raisin in the Sun, Medium Cool, and Broadcast News.

HUMBIO 167: The Art of Vision
This course concerns eyes and art. It asks how eyes are built, how they process visual information, and how they are affected by diseases that are major problems in our society. These topics are illustrated through fine art and famous artists, and we explore the implications of both normal and abnormal vision for art. There are short diversions into animal eyes and the role of vision in music, literature, and sports. This course will be taught in Florence in Autumn, 2012.

HUMBIO 175: Health Care as Seen Through Medical History, Literature, and the Arts
The differences between disease as pathology and as the patient’s experience. Topics include: patient-doctor relationships; medical technology; the changing focus on illness; gender issues; love, sex, and illness; mental illness; sick children; and death and dying. Limited enrollment.

ME 377: Design Thinking Studio: Experiences in Innovation and Design
Design Thinking Studio is an immersive introduction to design thinking. You will engage in the real world, with your eyes, with your mind, with your hands, and with classmates to learn, practice, and use the tools and attitudes of design. The fundamental goal of the class is to cultivate the creative, synthetic, and divergent thinking of students. This is a project-based class, asking students to take on new behaviors of work: collaboration, experimentation, empathizing, visualization, craft and inference. Field work and collaboration with teammates are required and critical for student success. 

OSPPARIS 30: The Avant Garde in France through Literature, Art, and Theater
Multiple artistic trends and esthetic theories from Baudelaire to the Nouveau Roman, from the Surrealists to Oulipo, from the theater of cruelty to the theater of the absurd, from the Impressionists to Yves Klein. Interdisciplinary approach to reflect on the meaning of avant garde and modernity in general, and on the question of why revolutionary artists in France remained in search of institutional recognition, nonetheless.

PWR 2JP: Writing & Rhetoric 2: The Rhetoric of Art and Commerce
Prerequisite: PWR 1. Further work in developing skills in argument and research-based writing, with emphasis on both written and oral/multimedia presentation of research. Examination of unspoken rules regarding the separation of creativity and commerce and arguments about how consumer culture influences the work of the artist.

TAPS 13N: Law and Drama
Preference to Freshmen.Beyond the obvious traits that make a good (court room) drama, theater and jurisprudence have much more in common. Just as drama is engaged not only in entertainment but also in examination of social conventions and mechanisms, so law is not only concerned with dispensing justice but with shaping and maintaining a viable human community. In this class we will read and discuss a series of plays in which court proceedings are at the center of dramatic action and concluding with an investigation of the new genre of documentary drama.

TAPS 130: ReDesigning Theater (ME 288)
In this class students will learn and apply the design thinking processes to reinvent the theater experience. Students will learn and then identify, define, needfind, ideate and prototype the elements necessary to create a new artistic genre of live performance that will utilize technology in new ways and embody what is unique to the Silicon Valley / San Francisco Bay Area. This multidisciplinary class will leverage different technical and creative disciplines to create an accessible and radical collaborative performance atmosphere.