Theory I
ISSUES IN ARTS POLITICS
This course expands the methodological, theoretical, and discursive possibilities of situating culture and the arts in relation to the political, tracking this relationship in a transnational world. By privileging analytics from transnational feminism, critical race theory, disability discourse, and queer studies, this course specifically reimagines the issues of arts and politics in relation to questions of power and survival. However, rather than perpetuating a dominant discourse of art merely being resistant to the state, we aim to expand other narratives and analytics that seek to complicate not only the political, but also the aesthetic. While tracking shifts in visual art in relation to performance, social practice, and the intermedial, we will also find grounding in concepts from political economy. This course is thus organized historically to introduce you to key analytics in critical theory to help one theorize and historicize their own practices and approaches. Each week is meant to be a broad introduction to key concepts in arts/politics since the mid 20th century so that you have grounding for your future courses.