The Global Arts Studies Program

The Global Arts Studies Program (GASP) is a unique curriculum that integrates diverse subjects normally housed in different departments, including art history, visual studies, ethnomusicology, performance studies, and cultural studies. The program provides opportunities for students to analyze artistic practices in multiple media, and to investigate how those practices have been impacted by industrialization, colonialism, commercialism, and globalization. GASP offers students a more global comprehension of the arts in comparison to other existing programs.

Students develop a set of critical skills and specialized knowledge through an interdisciplinary and rigorous curriculum. While concentrating on a particular course of study in visual and music studies, GASP students are encouraged to pursue studies outside of their immediate concentration to broaden their critical perspective. The comprehensive curriculum of the program aims to foster students’ critical thinking and creative skills. As they learn that the arts are fundamentally means for communicating ideas and effecting change, GASP students will become not only competent observers of and commentators on cultural transactions, but also active participants in global artistic and cultural production.