Deanna Ledezma

This is an undergraduate survey of modernism and postmodernism in Latin America from the 1920s through the present. Topics will include national identity and 'anthropophagy' in the first wave of modernism in the region, debates over Surrealism and realism in the 1930s, the transition from 'concrete to 'neo-concrete' form and the link between architecture and developmentalism in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, conceptual art and politics in the 1960s and 1970s, and more recent sculptural, photographic, performance, and relational practices. Specific topics include the cosmopolitan avant-garde that appeared in Mexico at the start of the 1920s, the theorization of anthropofagia in Brazil and indigenismo in Peru, Cuba?s Grupo Minorista, Mexican muralism and surrealism, Joaquin Torres-Garcia?s introduction of abstraction to Uruguay and Argentina, links between art and architecture in Venezuelan and Brazilian developmentalism, the rise of kinetic and participatory approaches in the 1950s and 1960s, conceptual art as a response to the dictatorships of the 1960s and 1970s, Latinx and Chicanx actions and performance in the United States, the politics of memory in post-dictatorship/violence art in Chile and Colombia, persistent questions of borders and internationalism in contemporary approaches to ?relational aesthetics? in Central America and the Caribbean, and many other examples. This course requires weekly reading responses, two papers, and a final exam.

This course examines the dynamism and complexities of Latinx artistic and cultural production in the United States from the mid-twentieth century to the present. An imperfect yet ultimately generative identifier, Latinx is a gender-neutral term for people of Latin American and/or Caribbean birth or descent living in the United States. In addition to studying the formation of Latinx identities among artistic and creative practitioners, the course will study the context-specific histories that have shaped the aesthetics, ideological frameworks, and socially engaged practices of Latinx art and visual culture. We will read a variety of texts and publications that debate, conceptualize, and critique Latinx art and visual culture, including academic essays and book chapters, interviews and dialogues, exhibition catalogues, primary documents and manifestos, artists’ books, and zines. Throughout the class, we will investigate issues concerning race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, intersectionality, migration and diaspora, social and political activism, family and kinship, religion and spirituality, art markets, and cultural reclamation. Students can expect to complete weekly reading responses, a midterm exam, a 3-5-page essay on an exhibition or artwork, a final research paper, and a class presentation about their final paper topic.

This course focuses on literature forged among Latinx diasporas and the continued effects of colonialisms. While the course uses the gender-inclusive term Latinx as its point of intersection, the writers, literary practices, and communities we will study are dynamic, distinctive, and heterogenous. We will read works by multigenerational writers of Latin American and Caribbean descent who live in the United States, including: Magdalena Gomez, Raquel Gutierrez, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Monica Huerta, Claudia Castro Luna, Cherrie Moraga, Dave Ortega, and Jose Olivarez. In addition to contextualizing terms of self-identification (such as Nuyorican, Chicano/a/x, and Afro-Latinx) within larger social conditions and political movements, we will analyze how poetry, short stories, graphic novels, personal essays, and comics explore issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Latinx literature not only unsettles conventional expectations of literary genres but also demonstrates the liberatory and decolonial potential of literature. In this discussion-based course, students can expect to complete the following assignments: three essays, a creative response to materials in the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, a research/practice journal, and a final research-based project.

How have Latinx authors addressed the representation of Latinidad in literature and other cultural forms? How does the study of these representations change or revitalize our understanding of literature more broadly? These classes offer students with the opportunity to undertake a detailed study of thematic material related to Latinx literature, including its connections to Latinx culture more broadly. Depending on the instructor, the period and works may vary. Artists/Works/Screening/Reading/Content Area examples to be determined, based on the specific course being offered under this topic, but will include key texts and other cultural forms (i.e.films, television, and comics) by Latinx authors and artists. This 3000-level Humanities course, including readings, reading responses, essays, mid-terms, and finals.

This interdisciplinary course focuses on issues of identity and artistic production in modern and contemporary art from the nineteenth century to the present. Situated in the context of the United States, the class examines how individual and collective identities shape the production, categorization, and reception of art. While the terms “modern” and “contemporary” remain largely undisputed, categories of identification adopted by and placed upon artists are neither universally accepted nor applied. Even as more nuanced understandings of intersecting identities (including race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, nationality, and religion) develop, simplistic and reductive ideas concerning the correlation between identity and aesthetic persist. In our investigation, we will study how histories of migration, settler colonialism, activism, and the emergence of political identities intersect the art worlds and visual culture.