Queer Art & Visual Culture
HAAVC 2000-3 / Fall Semester 2023 /
3 Credits / Tuesdays, 4:00-7:00 PM / Main Building E1
Instructor: Dr. Thomas O. Haakenson (he/him)
Email: thaakenson@cca.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Queer Art and Visual Culture explores sexual desires, representations, and gender identities that do not conform to socially constructed norms. This seminar queries simple binaries of straight and gay, linear and circular time, positive and negative images, visibility and invisibility in order to engage with the complexity and fluidity of sexuality and gender as it intersects with notions of race, place and histories. What does a queer decolonial aesthetic look and feel like in real life, as well as on mainstream and social media? How can we reimagine queer futures? What is a queer art of failure?
HAAVC 2000-level courses develop students' visual analysis skills while providing the opportunity for in-depth study of the visual/structural artifacts associated with a particular topic, region, or movement. Students will also engage with the relevant primary/secondary literature for the topic at hand. Courses will pay particular attention to the larger cultural, historical, and theoretical/ideological contexts in which the visual artifacts and structures under consideration were created.
This course focuses on cultural diversity, critical analysis, and visual literacy. Students will also sharpen their critical reading, verbal communication, writing skills as well as create a creative project.
CCA campuses are located in Huichin and Yelamu, also known as Oakland and San Francisco, on the unceded territories of Chochenyo and Ramaytush Ohlone peoples.
- Instructor: Thomas Haakenson