Dustin Aaron specializes in the art and architecture of the European Middle Ages. His scholarship explores the intersections of art making with colonial and environmental histories, particularly those of medieval Central and Eastern Europe. His research has been supported by the Medieval Academy of America, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Central European History Society and the Remarque Institute, among other organizations. Before coming to RISD, Aaron taught at NYU, Brandeis University and multiple schools within the City University of New York.
Academic areas of interest
Medieval visual rhetoric, memory and history writing; Ostforschung and its historiographic legacy; Race and colonialism, especially in relation to environmental history; 20th-century political medievalisms and their legacies
Courses
Fall 2023 Courses
THAD H101-06 - THAD I: GLOBAL MODERNISMS
LevelUndergraduate
UnitTheory + History of Art + Design
Subject Theory & History of Art & Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
FormatLecture
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
THAD H101-06
THAD I: GLOBAL MODERNISMS
LevelUndergraduate
UnitTheory + History of Art + Design
Subject Theory & History of Art & Design
PeriodFall 2023
Credits3
FormatLecture
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: T | 2:50 PM - 4:20 PM; TTH | 11:20 AM - 12:20 PMInstructor(s): Dustin AaronLocation(s): College Building, Room 431; Auditorium, Room 132Enrolled / Capacity: 20Status: Closed
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This is a required course for all first year and transfer students to introduce them to global modern and contemporary art, architecture and design in the period between 1750 and the present. The course addresses modernism as a global project, presenting several case studies from across the world that unfold to show how multiple kinds of modernism developed in different times and distant places. By presenting alternate, sometimes contradictory stories about modern and contemporary art and design, along with a set of critical terms specific to these times and places, the class aims to foster a rich, complex understanding of the many narratives that works of art and design can tell. With this grounding, students will be well positioned to pursue their interests in specialized courses in subsequent semesters.
Registration process: First-year students are registered into sections by the Liberal Arts Division. Transfer and sophomore and above students should register into the evening section offered in the fall.
For schedule conflicts during lecture times, please contact the Academic Programs Coordinator in the Liberal Arts Division office. For issues with registration, contact the Registrar's office for assistance.
Major Requirement | BFA
THAD H311-01 - THE ROOTS OF OUR ECOLOGICAL CRISIS: ART, FAITH, AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE AGES
LevelUndergraduate
UnitTheory + History of Art + Design
Subject Theory & History of Art & Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
THAD H311-01
THE ROOTS OF OUR ECOLOGICAL CRISIS: ART, FAITH, AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE AGES
LevelUndergraduate
UnitTheory + History of Art + Design
Subject Theory & History of Art & Design
PeriodFall 2023
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: TH | 1:10 PM - 4:10 PMInstructor(s): Dustin AaronLocation(s): College Building, Room 346Enrolled / Capacity: 15Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Over 50 years ago, Lynn White Jr. delivered a resonant critique of industrial society which he traced to the values, ideas, artworks, and technologies of the Christian European Middle Ages. His foundational thesis established a historical narrative in which Western culture since the Middle Ages has been naturally at odds with nature. Fighting against this antagonism has been the core mission of environmental movements ever since. But in the past 50 years much has changed in our understanding of how medieval art, faith, and technology informed human relationships to the environment. Is it possible that potential routes to a more eco-harmonious future still lie in this rejected past? This course seeks to re-address the historical material—art, architecture, writing, technology, and belief—that underlies White’s thesis to question whether the hidden vitalism of medieval art, religious values, and ethics might instead hold potential solutions to our modern ecological crisis.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
