LATINIDADES: Art, Music, & Performance
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Prof. Cary Cordova Spring 2021 AMS 370 / #31600 Class Schedule: AMS 370 Tues/Thurs, 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m. LATINIDADES: ONLINE Art, Music, & Performance How have Latinas/Latinos/Latinxs turned to art as a form of creative expression? And how have they used art to demand social change? This class will contextualize and analyze diverse forms of Latina/o/x artistic expression, including visual art, music, dance, theatre, and film, or what this class will call, “Latinidades.” Moving from the mid-twentieth century into the twenty-first century, students will study these diverse constructions of Latinidad alongside the politics of community organizing amongst various communities, and in conversation with the histories of Chicana/o/x, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Salvadoran populations. Topics will include representations of citizenship and immigration; borders and surveillance; community formation, displacement, and segregation; access to and content of education; and the construction and criteria of art history. Students also will engage with how citizenship, nation, race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability have complicated these artistic representations. As students develop an understanding of the range and diversity of artistic expressions (graphics, cartoons, paintings, murals, photographs, films, installations, performance art, dances, songs, poems, plays, and comedy), they also will develop an understanding of the complexity of Latino communities, and the coalitions and conflicts bridging and dividing larger social movements. Course Objectives: n To introduce students to diverse aesthetics, contexts, and politics of Latina/o/x art and its interconnections with U.S. histories and Latina/o/x social movements; n To skill students in critically analyzing a variety of artistic mediums, including visual art, music, theatre, and film; n To engage students in major themes and debates shaping Latina/o/x art, including tracing ideologies about citizenship and immigration; community formation, displacement, and segregation; local, national, and international borders and surveillance; access to and content of education; and the construction and criteria of art history; n To interrogate how citizenship, nation, race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability have complicated these debates and artistic mediums; n To examine how structural inequalities have shaped artistic expressions and the lives of Latina/o/x artists; n And to connect scholarly research, analysis, and writing with creative expressions. REQUIRED TEXTS: n This class relies on a variety of articles and relevant online materials, which students can access via the course Canvas site: https://utexas.instructure.com n Any exceptions also will be noted on Canvas and in class announcements. n If you have trouble accessing the Canvas system, please contact the UT helpdesk (512- 475-9400). n Please note: Some printed texts, art, and videos will incorporate statements in other languages, not always with translations. GRADING: n Latinx Art in the News (2 pages) (5%): Students will sign up for one day over the course of the semester to deliver a 5-10 minute report on Latinx art to the class and submit a short paper corresponding to the report. The objective is to familiarize students with contemporary resources on Latinx news, to link our readings to contemporary issues and debates, and to build discussions from multiple voices. n Art and Politics Essay (4-5 pages) (20%): The first section of our class, “Living in America,” focuses on the experiences of Latina/o/x artists living in the United States and various complex representations of inclusion and exclusion. For this essay, students will choose a work of art covered in our “Living in America” segment (or seek the permission of the professor). They will conduct additional research on this artist / art and develop a thoughtful essay about the work. Most art can be interpreted in a multiplicity of ways. This essay requires students to apply the tools of analysis that we are developing in the first section of the class and compose a thoughtful, persuasive discussion of the work of art in its larger social context. Students may wish to consider how the work illustrates forms of inclusion, exclusion, politics, and/or resistance. Students are required to develop their argument using at least two of our class readings and at least five additional sources. n Art on the Border Essay (5-7 pages) (20%): This essay assignment will focus on the second section of our class, which will focus on the ways that the border and immigration have served as key issues in the work of many Latino artists. Students are encouraged to select an artist / art work covered in this section of the class and engage with the strategies that an artist uses to represent, contest, or spur change. How does their approach help them express their ideas? What contradictions or complexities emerge as you study their work? How might this material help us think through the larger cultural context? Students are required to develop their argument using at least two of our class readings and at least five additional sources. n Latinidades Final Paper (10-12 pages): o Option A (25%): Students will draw on the themes and content of this class to develop a well-researched, well-organized, well-argued, persuasive essay. Students can identify an artist, a group of artists, an artwork, a series of art, and/or a specific artistic medium (murals, photography, fine art, theatre, etc.) to analyze. This paper will require students to do more substantial research on a topic that speaks to their interests in the class. o Option B (25%): Students are invited to participate in a developing project to document community murals in San Francisco or Austin (other cities and towns have very relevant murals, but the focus on these two locations is an effort to collaborate with ongoing documentation efforts). Students should be willing to share their research and writing with a larger public. Students will select a minimum of 4-5 murals, preferably murals that need to be documented, as opposed to ones that are more recognized. They will conduct research on the artists, medium, origins, history, and iconography of the murals, including discussing artist intentions and public reception. While students also need to write the same amount as for the research paper, this assignment does not have to be as cohesive, since each mural may have a very different history and intent. o Both options will require: o Research Proposal (1-2 pages) (5%): This final essay will require an initial research proposal to help students develop their ideas and seek guidance and sources from the professor. o Final Presentation (7-10 minutes) (5%): Students will present on their research topic in the last two weeks of the class. n Attendance and Participation (20%): o Because class participation is considered an important part of this class, I will note attendance, but I am seeking more than the appearance of a blank screen in the classroom. Online classes do require some new methods of engagement, but we are a small class, and I think we can generate some meaningful online discussions. Students can participate in ways that show they have done the reading, or are actively engaged in the class. A variety of class exercises will ensure you are up-to-date with readings and contributing to class discussion. I appreciate engagement more than quantity of comments. § Tips for participation: As you read, think about what you might add to our discussion. What ideas are driving the reading? How is the argument supported? Consider not just your personal reaction, but the big picture questions and contradictions. Come to class with questions for discussion or with related ideas to make connections. o Discussion Forums: This online class will occasionally draw on discussion forums posted alongside our readings on Canvas to help us develop thoughtful discussions about the readings, ideas, arguments, artists, and art work. The objective is to enrich our engagement with the course materials, to build our capacity to analyze and engage complex ideas, and to develop our ideas diplomatically and respectfully. These asynchronous discussion forums also may serve to replace a synchronous class meeting at certain points in the semester, to be announced. § All students are required to participate in the discussion forums when they are assigned. § Meaningful participation in a discussion forum is usually conveyed with a well-developed question, or a thoughtful paragraph, so, something along the lines of 150-200 words. § For some discussion forums, students will be assigned alternating responsibilities as a member of the “Kick-Off” team, or the “Engagement” team. The intent is to cultivate listening and engagement with each other, and promote more cross-communication. Teams are welcome to work together on these discussion forums. § Students can develop questions, draw out points of confusion, connect course materials to related current events and art, or engage more closely with one of the works of art relevant to the discussion. § Students can choose to skip participation in one discussion forum over the course of the semester. § Discussion forums will be graded credit/no credit and reviewed in the broader spirit of participation and engagement with class materials. n EXTRA CREDIT o As the semester rolls along, there may be a few opportunities for extra credit. Extra credit opportunities often entail attending an event or talk related to our class and submitting a short paper (1-2 pages) on how the content of the event relates to the content of our class. If you have an idea for an extra credit assignment, you are welcome to discuss it with the professor. o So, what is extra credit worth? Extra credit is given weight in the assessment of your participation grade. It is meant to help students that would like a little more recognition in this aspect of the grading process.