Visual Arts Colloquium Hum 20 Will Become Department-Level HAA 10 in the Fall

Humanities 20, Harvard’s interdisciplinary art history colloquium, will no longer be offered under the Arts and Humanities division-wide “HUMAN” label and will instead be changed to HAA 10, a History of Arts and Architecture introductory course, starting this fall.

Hum 20, which was first offered in Fall 2020, was originally developed with the intention of having faculty members from across the arts and humanities provide perspectives on the visual arts. HAA 10, which intends to cover similar material, will instead be taught by a panel of five HAA professors who will teach the course on a rotational basis.

Though the Hum 20 course was primarily taught by HAA faculty, most instructors have held dual appointments with other departments.

HAA professor Yukio M. Lippit ’92, who was the lead instructor for Hum 20, wrote that he felt the shift was motivated by the annual challenge “to recruit faculty from the many different departments across the Arts and Humanities Division.”

Lippit added that, because the course was largely taught by faculty from the History of Art and Architecture department, it felt like “more of a departmental than a divisional course.”

Lippit also added that he felt the change would result in more “stability” in the course and allow the department to better advertise the course to students during pre-registration period.

Over the last three years, Hum 20’s enrollment decreased from 65 to 62 to 34. Former instructor Felipe Pereda, an HAA professor, said he hoped the change to HAA would remedy the decline, which he attributed to confusion about the HUMAN label.

“It is true that enrollments were less than expected this year. However, students’ feedback remains very positive,” he wrote. “The department looked for other factors that would explain the declining enrollment and considered that teaching the course under the HUMANITIES banner might have been the cause, potentially confusing or misleading some students.”

In addition to clearing up confusion, Pereda wrote that changing the label would allow the course to better align with student interests “by providing the course with a better structure.” The new structure, he added, would better connect topics and lectures by theme, “such as the ‘artist,’ the ‘media,’ or ‘identity.’”

“Students are expected to receive a more organic background in art history’s contribution to the humanities,” he wrote.

HAA 10 will be co-led by Pereda and HAA professor Jeffrey F. Hamburger. Hamburger said that discussions about the details of the course will take place over the next few weeks.

“Our first task will be to recruit three colleagues to teach the course with us, which I hope won’t be too difficult,” Hamburger said. “I assume we’ll try and ensure both chronological and geographical diversity, so that a wide spectrum of viewpoints, fields, periods, and areas are covered.”

HAA 10 will be required for HAA concentrators, though it will be open to all students. It will not expect any prior experience and will have no enrollment cap, according to interim HAA department chair Ewa Lajer-Burcharth.

Lippit wrote he was optimistic that with these changes, the course will better suit students’ needs.

“It’s important to continuously revisit a course and make sure that it is evolving in such a way as to meet the needs of new generations of students,” he wrote. “I’m confident that the change to HAA 10 will provide another good occasion to do just that.”

—Staff writer Ellen P. Cassidy can be reached at ellen.cassidy@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @ellenpcassidy.

—Staff writer Catherine Jeon can be reached at catherine.jeon@thecrimson.com.