Symposium: Issues in RTVF (398-0-25)
Topic
Sex, Censorship & the Art of Queer/Trans Life: Per
Instructors
Joshua Takano Chambers-Letson
Joshua Wade Rains
Meeting Info
AM Swift Krause Studio 103: Thurs 12:00PM - 2:50PM
Overview of class
A queer mix of a seminar, studio/performance art workshop, and research methods course, this course studies the underground histories of queer and trans art and performance. We will study and create art and performance, learning about a set of queer and trans of color artists, the sexual cultures and racial/colonial contexts that produced them, and the regimes of, censorship, regulation, and devaluation that their work confronts. The course will visit and conduct research in traditional and queer archives and museum spaces (including the Block, NU special collections, and Chicago's Leather Archive and Museum) and students will develop their own creative practice as a method of research. Final projects may take the form of traditional scholarly research, experimental writing, or creative practice/performance.
Registration Requirements
No prerequisites or permission number. Undergraduates only
Learning Objectives
Students should expect to be challenged by, and able to respond to, the concepts and ideas covered by queer and trans of color artists and theorists explored in this course. The seminar portion, led by Professor Chambers-Letson of Performance Studies, will explore the troubled history of queer and trans art and performance in class discussions and visits to archives and museum spaces to conduct research. In the studio portion, led by Professor Rains of RTVF, students will be expected to create new and conceptually rich performance-based work in response to concepts covered in class.
By the end of the course, students will have created both written and performative work informed and inspired by the student's own research into contemporary queer makers, thinkers, and writers, as well as their own developing performative practice.
Class Materials (Required)
None. All reading/viewing materials will be supplied via Canvas by the instructor.
Class Attributes
SDG Peace & Justice