CMPS 455 Sp 2026 UG and Graduate

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Many of the most important buildings, objects, and ideas in design history are located in or near Florence—from Brunelleschi’s dome to the latest hyper-car from Ferrari. This sketch and analysis course will allow you to see, to study, and to engage these critical works of design through daily sketching assignments. Many of the most world’s most renowned designers once did the same; learning to be designers by analyzing the most important design artifacts in history—the buildings, objects, and ideas that have been most influential to design. What better way to learn about design than to spend six weeks experiencing, first-hand, the most incredible design artifacts in the world? What better way to learn how to draw than to practice daily? In the great tradition of the ‘Grand Tour’, we will visit, draw, and analyze the great works of Florence, and in doing so, learn how to design with confidence.

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The Renaissance has long been fascinated by many themes including religion and ritual, archaeology, art and civilian, the natural world to tales of the monstrous and murder through tales and images of terrible things. Florence has been the home and has served as a source of inspiration for artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Giotto, the poet Dante, among others. Like Florence’s great artists of the past, students will be guided by their individual interests while examining and using Florence’s landscape, museums and culture as sources for creative exploration and research.

You will visit some of the most important museums in Florence and they will serve as our classroom including the Uffizi Gallery, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Museo degli Argenti Bargello Museum, Boboli Gardens, Academia, the Fondazione Bisonte, and the Armadillo Atelier to study prints, drawings, and paintings first hand. These locations will serve as sources of inspiration allowing you to develop a greater awareness of the role of drawing and the print has as an investigative process in the development of creative work and it’s use as an expressive means of communication. Students develop a site-responsive studio practice in relationship to the cultural landscape of Florence. We will consider the unique identity of particular sites and structures, land use, and use our experiences on-location to inspire and frame ideas for our work. We will work both in the studio and on-site in the city. Practical and didactic learning will include a complement of methodologies: texts, lectures, films, demonstrations, site visits, field work, and travel to Venice and other sites outside of Florence.

Students will develop a suite of prints through a series of prompts. Ultimately, all students will have the power to make independent work that explores their own visual and media interests. This course will give students a greater awareness of the role of drawing as an investigative process in the development of creative work and it’s use as an expressive means of communication. This course will be divided between working on creative work on location in Florence and utilizing the cities world class museums and galleries and individual work outside of class. Students will also learn how to utilize a sketchbook/journal in the development of creative research, the documentation of the city, and a source for the stimulation and development of ideas.

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London is full of artwork in museums and galleries as well as on the streets. We will visit museums and galleries to learn about the mainstream art, including the work of great British artists ranging from John Constable, William Blake and J.M.W. Turner to Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Damien Hirst and more. Wait! Don’t forget Banksy! We will walk on the streets of the East End and Camden Town since London streets are full of Graffiti and Street Arts! And we will visit the Cartoon Museum, Henry Boxer Gallery and the Gallery of Everything to learn about outsider art.

Why do some countries hold elections while others do not? Why are some states able to provide security and welfare to their citizens while others struggle to do so? Why are some countries plagued by violence while others enjoy internal peace? These questions have long animated the field of comparative politics and are among the several of which we will explore this semester.

This course will provide students with a firm foundation in the sub-field of comparative politics, preparing them for further analysis of politics around the world and across contexts. The course has two main objectives:

1. To familiarize students with the importance of theory and research design for describing, explaining, and understanding political processes. After taking this course, students should be able to distinguish between different theoretical explanations and evaluate the merit of evidence used to support them.

2. To provide students with an overview of key topics and debates in comparative politics. Students should be able to understand the basis of these debates as well as take and support positions on them.