Identity and Visual Culture

How are personal and social identities constructed and how do they change? In what ways are identities personally, socially, or politically significant? This Art History course will study such questions in a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary manner. We will investigate both contemporary and historical issues surrounding critical theories and approaches from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas as they relate to the arts. Among other things, the following topics will be studied and explored: “primitivism;” “otherness;” colonialism, nationalism, ethnicity and hybridity; a sense of place; social order, gender, sexual orientation, religion in intercultural contexts; style and ethnicity; symbolism, meaning, and interpretation; social order (a systems view); and the phenomenology of “self” in art. Taken together, these themes are viewed as constructs that frame our understanding of art. In the process we will examine how artists have contested dominant representations of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, as well as other minority “subjectivities,” and how artists have proposed alternatives to such constituencies. Among other things, weekly writing assignments, both in-class and online, are designed to engage students with course topics, foster creative and critical thinking, and allow instructor assessment and evaluation of students’ progress. This course meets the General Education Diversity Requirement or the General Education Global Requirement.