A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
A headshot of faculty member Karen Morris

Karen Morris

Professor

Bio

Education: BA, Anthropology, 1996, Davidson College, NC; MA, Anthropology, 1998, and PhD, Cultural and Social Anthropology, 2005, Stanford University, CA.

Publications: Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, The Queer Precariat In and Out of Higher Education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Anthropology News, Studies in Art Education, City & Society: Society for Urban, National and Transnational/Global Anthropology.

Awards: Spencer Foundation Large Research Grant on Education, University of Illinois Award for Creative Activity, Innovation 80 CoGen Grant

Karen Morris is a lesbian mother, cultural anthropologist, and co-founder of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. She is interested in experimental, community-based collaborative research, pedagogy, and social justice work. Earlier in her career, Karen conducted ethnographic research in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa and Washington, D.C. to explore how transnational news media circulation among Ivorian families with diasporic members shaped the country’s political culture during crisis. Karen’s current work explores intergenerational connection between LGBTQ+ people, with a focus on care, kinship, aging, and activism.

Since its founding in 2019, The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project has evolved into a hybrid community/research partnership led by LGBTQ+ faculty and social service providers at SAIC, Center on Halsted (the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ+ community center), University of Illinois-Chicago, and University of Chicago. The project brings together racially, socioeconomically, and gender diverse cohorts of LGBTQ+ college students and older adults (60+) for year-long series of bi-weekly themed dialogues, collaborative art-making, and shared meals.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This studio seminar is centered around intergenerational queer art-making within the context of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project, which is a partnership between The Senior Services Program at The Center on Halsted and faculty members Adam Greteman and Karen Morris of SAIC. This spring course is run as a workshop in which students focus on intergenerational creative production with LGBTQ+ elders. Classes will be held at both SAIC and Center on Halsted. Students and elders will share a meal together after class meetings at Center on Halsted, and take at least one field trip together.

A range of artists, works, scholars, and activist groups will be introduced during the first third of the course as students get to know one another and the purpose of the course. This will potentially include the following: Marlon Riggs, Lesbian Avengers, Chase Joynt, ACT-UP, Ron Athey, S.T.A.R., Paul Preciado, E. Patrick Johnson, Mickalene Thomas, and others. Over the course of the latter 2/3rd of the semester, students collaborate with LGBTQ+ elders in small groups to conceive and produce work related to LGBTQ+ experiences, histories, and issues. Each small group decides on topic(s) and medium(s) while working with the instructors to create a list of relevant readings, films, and/or podcasts they will engage as part of the research and production process.

Over the course of the semester, students collaborate with LGBTQ+ elders in small groups to conceive and produce work related to LGBTQ+ experiences, histories, and issues. Final projects might take the form of visual art, video, oral history, photography, writing, a podcast, or something else. This work will be showcased on the project¿s website (generationliberation.com) and have the potential to be expanded into a range of other educational resources.

Class Number

1022

Credits

3

Description

This studio seminar is centered around intergenerational queer art-making within the context of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project, which is a partnership between The Senior Services Program at The Center on Halsted and faculty members Adam Greteman and Karen Morris of SAIC. This spring course is run as a workshop in which students focus on intergenerational creative production with LGBTQ+ elders. Classes will be held at both SAIC and Center on Halsted. Students and elders will share a meal together after class meetings at Center on Halsted, and take at least one field trip together.

A range of artists, works, scholars, and activist groups will be introduced during the first third of the course as students get to know one another and the purpose of the course. This will potentially include the following: Marlon Riggs, Lesbian Avengers, Chase Joynt, ACT-UP, Ron Athey, S.T.A.R., Paul Preciado, E. Patrick Johnson, Mickalene Thomas, and others. Over the course of the latter 2/3rd of the semester, students collaborate with LGBTQ+ elders in small groups to conceive and produce work related to LGBTQ+ experiences, histories, and issues. Each small group decides on topic(s) and medium(s) while working with the instructors to create a list of relevant readings, films, and/or podcasts they will engage as part of the research and production process.

Over the course of the semester, students collaborate with LGBTQ+ elders in small groups to conceive and produce work related to LGBTQ+ experiences, histories, and issues. Final projects might take the form of visual art, video, oral history, photography, writing, a podcast, or something else. This work will be showcased on the project¿s website (generationliberation.com) and have the potential to be expanded into a range of other educational resources.

Class Number

1768

Credits

3

Description

This studio seminar is centered around intergenerational queer art-making within the context of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project, which is a partnership between The Senior Services Program at The Center on Halsted and faculty members Adam Greteman and Karen Morris of SAIC. This spring course is run as a workshop in which students focus on intergenerational creative production with LGBTQ+ elders. Classes will be held at both SAIC and Center on Halsted. Students and elders will share a meal together after class meetings at Center on Halsted, and take at least one field trip together.

A range of artists, works, scholars, and activist groups will be introduced during the first third of the course as students get to know one another and the purpose of the course. This will potentially include the following: Marlon Riggs, Lesbian Avengers, Chase Joynt, ACT-UP, Ron Athey, S.T.A.R., Paul Preciado, E. Patrick Johnson, Mickalene Thomas, and others. Over the course of the latter 2/3rd of the semester, students collaborate with LGBTQ+ elders in small groups to conceive and produce work related to LGBTQ+ experiences, histories, and issues. Each small group decides on topic(s) and medium(s) while working with the instructors to create a list of relevant readings, films, and/or podcasts they will engage as part of the research and production process.

Over the course of the semester, students collaborate with LGBTQ+ elders in small groups to conceive and produce work related to LGBTQ+ experiences, histories, and issues. Final projects might take the form of visual art, video, oral history, photography, writing, a podcast, or something else. This work will be showcased on the project¿s website (generationliberation.com) and have the potential to be expanded into a range of other educational resources.

Class Number

1091

Credits

3

Description

This independent study course is a continuation of Thesis I and is taken with the student's primary thesis advisor to facilitate completion of the thesis. Research and approval (by the advisor and the rest of the student's committee) of the thesis topic and approach should have been completed during Thesis I. Students work closely with a thesis advisor during this semester in addition to scheduling meetings with other faculty on his or her committee whose input may prove useful in their research. This course covers the final completion and submission of the master's thesis. It is required for the Master of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies.

Class Number

2450

Credits

3