<p>I am an upcoming computer science major at UMD, therefore I am not artistic at all. I am horrible at pretty much anything artistic and have no artistic or musical knowledge. So can anyone recommend a CORE HA class I could take? I am absolutely horrible at interpreting images or music, so anything that could be straight-up book work and memorization would be fine. I understand that all of these classes probably have at least some image analyzing, but I would appreciate it if it could be kept to a minimum. Also, I would really appreciate it if the class had a diversity focus as well!</p>
<p>I know there is a catalog online of courses that would fulfill these requirements, but I am looking for personal experiences. I just don't want to take the chance of taking a class that I have absolutely no hope in. </p>
<p>To give you a rough idea, this is the list of classes that fulfill both HA and D:</p>
<p>– ARTH250 (Art and Archaeology of Ancient America)
– ARTH275 (Art and Archaeology of Africa)
– ARTH290 (Art of Asia)
– CMLT280 (Film Art in a Global Society)
– DANC200 (Introduction to Dance)
– MUET200 (World Popular Musics and Identity)
– MUET210 (The Impact of Music on Life)
– MUET220 (Selected Musical Cultures of the World)
– WMST250 (Introduction to Women’s Studies: Women, Art, and Culture)
– WMST298D (Women’s Bodies in Contention)</p>
<p>It’s really up to you to explore which classes sound better to you… if you pick a topic that sounds mildly interesting, you’ll enjoy it much more.</p>
<p>Of those, the only course I’ve taken (i.e. can give personal experiences for) is ARTH250, and I absolutely LOVED that course. There was a lot of memorization of images, but our professor really knew her topic and was happy to work with us to make sure we understood what she was looking for. </p>
<p>There are some parts of the course where you are expected to analyze images (you write three papers where you’re doing artistic analysis), but I didn’t find that too bad, and I’ve never taken any art history classes or anything like that. The course is very information-filled and memorization-heavy, but I didn’t mind it, probably in part because I love learning about ancient cultures. </p>
<p>Ok…funny story… One of my DS’s friends took Intro to Womens Studies for Core credit (and in order to meet some young ladies). Good plan…but he absolutely loathed the class. :p</p>
<p>No lower-level HA class is going to be difficult for someone non-artistic imho. The majority of those kinds of classes are memorizing. Yes, you have to analyze images, but most of the points come from remembering what was said in class :P.</p>
<p>Pick the class that sounds like an interesting topic and has a good teacher. Teachers make the world of a difference. I took ARTH275 and liked it (tests based on identifying images and writing a bit about what makes them artistically unique and how that relates to their societal/historical context). But with a bad teacher it could be Hell I imagine.</p>