080040 SE Seminar: Constructing the Contemporary: Decolonizing Art and Knowledge (2018S)

Course Description:
This course examines the methods, histories, and theories of colonization and decolonization in relation to the formation of modern and contemporary art, its discourses, and the expanded social sphere. It draws on perspectives from indigenous studies, critical ethnic studies, gender studies and post colonialism studies to: 1) interrogate how dominant art historical frameworks, narratives and methodologies structure our knowledge of specific art objects, exhibitionary models, and social subjects; 2) examine practices that perform critical interventions, resistance to and re-framings of art historical frameworks, narratives, and methodologies; 3) explore the global connections between art history, artistic and curatorial practices, museology and the formation of national and racial identity and political and economic inequalities ; 4) grapples with the need to shape renewed imaginations, practices, and methodologies towards diverse ways of knowing and collective change

Course Aims: The aims of the course are to 1) familiarize students with the practices, histories, and theories of colonization, decolonization, and contemporary Art; 2) engage with the issues raised by these practices along multidisciplinary pathways, including critical ethnic studies, indigenous studies, gender studies, post colonial studies 3) introduce students to methods, models, and theories for the critical analysis of contemporary art.

Course Methods: This is a conceptually and theoretically driven seminar that approaches the study of contemporary art as an expanded and entwined constellation of representational artifacts, discursive objects, and material practices. Within this multidisciplinary constellation, we will be attentive to the ways in which artistic production relates and responds to forces, techniques, and effects of power and is implicated in the constitution of new subjectivities.
Specific pedagogical methods include: Close textual and visual analysis; class discussions, oral and written components, field trips.