In this course, we will examine the development of Critical and Ethnic Studies as a field of knowledge, an academic discipline, and a set of collective practices and resistance through an investigation and disruption of critical race, feminist, diaspora theoretical canons. Designed for students interested in understanding the complex dynamics that drive societal change, this class will highlight relationships between student activism, international solidarity, and transnational fights for freedom. In midst of global uprisings against police violence, imperialism, and the legacy of colonialism, this course charts the historical forces, social contradictions, and political contexts in which race, racism, and white supremacy have figured in the United States. Rather than present a comprehensive narrative of social change with a unitary set of answers, students in the course will work collaboratively to develop a toolbox for interpreting power, place, and race in our contemporary world. Our course will direct us toward thinking about how our art, design, and writing practices can be activated to shape the world along axes of difference while developing the critical thinking skills necessary to explore arguments, debates, and ethics of cultural production and engagement. Students in this course will interpret and analyze assigned texts while producing multimedia interventions that imagine new social relationships amongst artists, designers, writers, architects, urban planners, curators, and community organizers.
- Instructor: shah hussein