Studies in Arts and Performance (380-0-2)
Topic
Asian Caribbean Visualities
Instructors
Ashleigh Anestine Deosaran
Office Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 1:30-3 PM
Meeting Info
Locy Hall 305: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
The Asian diaspora has a long history of migration to and within the Caribbean, inaugurated with the system of indentured labor established by European colonial governments. Today, many Caribbean nations—including Jamaica, Cuba, Trinidad, and Guyana—are brimming with food, art, music, and other cultural expressions that bear strong traces of Indian and Chinese influence. Despite the profound impact of the Asian diaspora on this region, the Caribbean has been primarily understood, theorized, and historicized in terms of its African and European diasporas. In this course, we will explore the under-theorized history of Asian Caribbean visuality by analyzing how Asian-descended Caribbean artists address race, colonial histories, and cultural erasure. These artists include Sybil Atteck, Albert Chong, Maria Magdalena Campos Pons, Wendy Nanan, Andil Gosine, Nicole Awai, Suchitra Mattai, and Richard Fung, among others. Their work will be contextualized with sustained critical attention to: the history of indentured labor to supplement plantation labor after Emancipation; the cultural politics of interracial relations and Afro-Asian solidarity movements; diasporic communities in the U.S., U.K., and Canada; and the intersections of race/ethnicity, queerness, and gender.
Learning Objectives
Significant historical trajectories, icons, and frameworks taken up by artists, critics, and scholars to historicize and analyze Asian Atlantic migration and visual production.
Class Materials (Required)
Contact instructor for information about class materials
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area