VISCR608 GE: Critical Race Art History

This course is a primer in Critical Race Art History, a comparative approach to studying the representation of race (plural) in art and visual culture. First, we will work to expand the present definition of race, which has come to mean non-white difference. Whiteness, a construction that has been dependent upon blackness and alterity from its beginnings, is an obvious target. Second, we will also consider ethnicity and nationality in the U.S. context, e.g., "the Indian," "Asian-ness," and Orientalism, too. We shall undertake contextualized examinations of depicted appearances and style as image-making strategy and of power differentials mediated across specific, constructed communities of artists and patrons. Requirements: Oral presentations (2), precis of assigned readings (2), papers (2).