What does it mean to make, critique, or curate art within global systems of power? This graduate seminar interrogates the political, technological, and ecological infrastructures that shape the production, circulation, and reception of contemporary art worldwide. From museums to grassroots initiatives, art fairs to interdisciplinary conferences, in this course we examine how value and legitimacy are constructed and contested across international art networks—systems deeply shaped by colonial legacies, market logic, and cultural geopolitics.Exploring a range of sites and strategies—from transnational biennales to local DIY initiatives, from institutional critique to collective world-building—the course traces how globality is produced, and invites students to situate their own practices within these infrastructures. Through readings, discussion, writing, and research, students will explore how artists, curators, critics, institutions, and even nation states have challenged dominant narratives, inverted hierarchies, and built counter-publics within and against the global art economy. We’ll study alternative genealogies, practices of refusal, and critical reimaginings of modernity, drawing most of our case studies from the so-called Arab world alongside Asia, Europe, and the United States.Students will engage with critical theory, visual analysis, and experimental research methods to develop their own responses to the conditions shaping contemporary art globally. Alongside close study of key exhibitions, events, and artworks, we’ll examine how digital platforms and emergent technologies are reshaping aesthetic strategies, authorship, and curatorial practice.Beyond simply observing and analyzing global art worlds, this course is an invitation to students to critically position themselves within these entanglements and imagine how to act from there.Theory and Criticism courses are designed to hone students' critical skills through intensive reading and writing assignments. Recent course topics have included gender, ethics, disease, aesthetics, and discourse on global art movements of the past 50 years.

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