Students interested in art, Caribbean culture, history and spirituality can explore Rastafarian imagery in Rastafari, Race and Resistance, a Cornell winter session distance course taught online by art historian Petrine Archer-Straw.

Archer-Straw, a visiting associate professor at Cornell, is based in Jamaica. She first taught this course on campus as a Society for the Humanities research fellow in 2005-06 under the society's "Culture and Conflict" theme, and again in spring 2007. During the 2008 summer session, she taught a Caribbean Dialogs course entirely online.

"All my courses relate to the Caribbean and the wider African diaspora," she said. "My need to offer students more real-life, real-time experiences of the Caribbean made me experiment more and more with the Web as a form of communication."

Students will log in online, blog and use a virtual classroom, open source software, media including lecture podcasts and video, and a Wiki created for the four-credit course, Art History 4525, which is based on Archer-Straw's personal research in Jamaica and Ethiopia.

"As Rastafari gains popularity and becomes more commercialized, its mystical signs, symbols and sacraments related to the Bible, Africa and Jamaican culture stand to lose their relevance," she said. "I hope that this course will give students a fuller understanding of its historical origins and its spiritual imagery."

Symbols including the Star of David, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and photographs of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie will be examined to understand why Rastas believe that Selassie's coronation in 1930 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

The course also draws on imagery and media related to street art, fashion and music, "through which students will gain both a theoretical and visceral understanding of this aberrant modern paradox, at once a vehicle for racial resistance and a belief system advocating universal equality," Archer-Straw said.

The course begins Dec. 26, and registration is taking place now. For information, call Cornell's School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at 607-255-4987.