France: Paris (May - June)

FAH391Y0: Studies Abroad in Ancient Art and Architecture: Greek and Roman Art and its Reception in France

May 9 - June 6, 2026

This is a course on Greek and Roman Art in French collections, as well as the reception of antiquity in French art and architecture. For the first half of the course, the course will be based in Paris, where students will have exclusive access to the spectacular collections of the Musée du Louvre; visit the Cabinet des Médailles, an important collection of ancient art at the National Library, as well as a series of architectural landmarks appropriating Roman monuments and aspects of ancient architecture. The second half of the course will be based in the south of France, where students will visit important Gallo-Roman sites such as Nîmes, Arles, Orange, Glanum, Vaison-la-Romaine and Pont-du-Gard. These sites feature some of the best preserved examples of Roman architecture (such as the Maison Carrée in Nimes), as well as two of the most important museums for Roman art and culture in Europe (Archaeological Museum in Arles, Musée de la Romanité in Nîmes).

Prerequisites
Required: at least 1.0 full FAH credit.

Students in their second (completed), third, and fourth year will be eligible for the DRG undergraduate award.

Recommended Preparation: FAH206H1/ FAH207H1/ FAH208H1/ FAH205H5

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

2026 COURSE OUTLINE (preliminary)

Field Trips (Tentative)

• Louvre Museum
• Bibliothèque Nationale
• Panthéon
• Church of the Madeleine
• Week-long trip to Nimes, with day trips to Glanum, Vaison-la-Romaine, Avignon, and Orange

Note: Field trip schedule may change based on availability and costs. 

Students in their second (completed), third, and fourth year will be eligible for the DRG undergraduate award.

Instructors

Bjoern Ewald is a Historian of Ancient Art who is known internationally for his expertise on Greek and Roman iconography and sculpture, in particular Roman funerary art. He received his training in the History of Ancient Art and Architecture (Classical Archaeology), as well as the history, philosophy and languages of the Classical World in Germany and Italy. He has over 20 years of teaching experience, at Yale University and the University of Toronto, where he is Associate Professor in the Department of Art History (cross-appointed in Classics).

Christina Katsougiannopoulou received her PhD. in Early Medieval Archaeology from the University of Bonn, Germany and has taught in the Hellenic Studies Program at Yale University. Since 2007 she has been a sessional lecturer at the Department of Art History, University of Toronto, where she has taught several courses on ancient Greek and Roman art and archaeology on all undergraduate levels.

FAH393Y0: Studies Abroad in Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture

May 16 - June 13, 2026

“There is but one Paris,” declared Vincent Van Gogh in 1886. This course explores the city’s art, architecture, and museum collections focusing on the early modern period, when Paris acquired its reputation as a world capital of art. Its history offers an invaluable window into the Renaissance, the founding of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, the popularity of rococo and chinoiserie, and the rise of the salon exhibitions in the early Enlightenment. Students will develop field research skills through frequent visits to key sites such as the Louvre, Bibliothèque Nationale, Musée Carnavalet, and the chateaux of the Loire Valley. Guest presentations by French curators, conservators, and scholars will bring the city and its artworld to life.

Prerequisite Required: at least 1.0 full FAH credit 

Recommended Preparation 
FAH230H1/ FAH231H1/ FAH274H5/ FAH279H5/ VPHB64H3/ VPHB74H3

Distribution Requirement: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Draft 2026 FAH393Y0 Syllabus

Field Trips (Tentative) 

• Louvre Museum
• Musée Cluny
• Musée Carnavalet
• Royal Tombs at St. Denis
• Musée de l’armée
• Bibliothèque Nationale
• 3-day trip to the Loire valley, including excursions to Blois, Château d'Azay-le-Rideau, Château de Chambord, Château de Chenonceau, and Château d'Ancy-le-Franc

Note: Field trip schedule may change based on availability and costs. 

Students in their second (completed), third, and fourth year will be eligible for the DRG undergraduate award.

Instructor

Christy Anderson studies and teaches the history of architecture. While most of her work focuses on the buildings of early modern Europe, these projects extend broadly across oceans and into contemporary design. A full-time member of the Art History Department at the University of Toronto, and a member of the Graduate Faculty at the Daniels, she enjoys teaching both the undergraduate students and those in the professional programs. She received her PhD from MIT in the School of Architecture. In addition to teaching at the University of Toronto since 2005, she has also taught at Yale University, MIT, and the Courtauld Institute in London.

Out of her many years of teaching, Christy Anderson has published a survey of Renaissance Architecture (Oxford University Press, 2013) that treats buildings across Europe and rewrites the history of the field. She has also published on the complicated history of classicism and gender, the failure of architectural language, and the politics of wonder. Her most recent project is a study of the ship as an architectural type by exploring the spaces and environments that connect the sea to the shore.

GER354Y0: Paris - Dreamworld of Modernity 

May 16 - June 13, 2026 

Paris was described by the cultural critic Walter Benjamin as a “dreamworld” of seductive consumer goods, beguiling architecture, pathbreaking artistic movements and exciting technological breakthroughs. This course examines the emergence of modern Paris through the lens of Benjamin’s unfinished magnum opus, the Arcades Project, a work that has become a model for cultural criticism across the fields of literature, film and media studies, history of philosophy, art history, urban studies and architecture. As an exile who fled Nazi Germany, Benjamin offers an incisive outsider perspective on Paris, inviting us to see it not only as the alluring birthplace of capitalist mass consumer culture, but also as a city haunted by displacement, revolutionary upheavals, and movements of resistance. Guided by Benjamin’s creative interdisciplinary lens, this course examines how the legacy of Paris’ radical modernization in the 19^th century is reflected in its urban fabric and material culture. Through city walks, site visits, museum explorations, and seminar discussions, students will engage with the aesthetic, historical, and social dimensions of one of the world’s most influential capitals.

GER354Y0 is taught in English (no knowledge of German is required).

Prerequisites: None
Recommended Preparation: 100-level HIS/POL/GER course/International or European Studies
Breadth Requirements:  Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

Draft 2026 GER354Y0 syllabus

Field Trips (Tentative)

• Paris Sewer Museum
• Musée d’Orsay
• Cinémathèque Francaise
• Musée des Arts & Métiers
• Musée d’Art Moderne
• Goethe Institut

Note: Field trip schedule may change based on availability and costs. 

Instructors

Hang-Sun Kim earned her PhD in Germanic Languages and Literatures from Harvard University in 2012 and has been teaching German language, literature, and culture courses in the University of Toronto’s German Studies Department since 2015. Her areas of specialization include German and European Modernisms, Literary Urban Studies, and Second Language Pedagogy. She has a long-standing interest in the cross-cultural connections between France and Germany and regularly offers an interdisciplinary course on the topic of cities, both real and imagined. As a recipient of U of T’s International Student Experience Fund, she founded and leads the Multilingual German Lab. She has received the Dean’s Excellence Award for every year of active service and was honored with the Faculty of Arts & Science Outstanding Teaching Award in 2022.