Contemporary Asian Black Relations (310-0-1)

Topic

Asian-Black Connections in Performance

Instructors

Elizabeth Won-Kyung Son
847/467-0513
70 Arts Circle Drive, 5th floor, room #174
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 1-3pm
Elizabeth W. Son is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University. She is affiliated faculty in the American Studies Program, Asian American Studies Program, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, and the Department of Performance Studies. Her research focuses on the relationship between histories of gender-based violence and transnational Asian & Asian American performance-based art and activism. She teaches courses on race, gender, and culture; trauma, memory, and violence; and theatre and social change in U.S. and transnational contexts.

Meeting Info

Wirtz 235 Seminar Room 1: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

This course examines performances by and about Asian Americans and African Americans in order to understand an interconnected history of race and racism in the United States from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. We will explore the production and contestation of racialized meanings—how bodies are marked and redefined as "Asian," "oriental," "Black," "other," "Asian American," and "African American." In other words, we will study the construction of race through performances on stage and in everyday life. The course covers a range of performances or embodied practices, including museum and fair displays, exhibitions, minstrelsy, cabaret performances, theatre, martial arts, hip hop, and activism.

Class Materials (Required)

Please contact instructor for a full list of materials for this course.

Class Attributes

Ethics & Values Distro Area