Berlin is re-emerging as a cultural capital of Europe, and its museums showcase that. This excursion course to Berlin will review its history of collecting art and antiquities, examine the building designed to house them, and analyze the cultural conditions inflected by their changing political contexts, from the18th century to the present. Conflicting issues of a past of cultural nationalism and imperialism and a present driven by historical conscience and revisionism will be discussed on a case by case basis. We will exercise analytical skills relevant to visual culture within complex historical contexts, with comparative material drawn from our experience of Rome and its museums.

*Course content subject to change