English 339 - The Visual Culture of Protest

This course examines social protests from the perspective of the visual. Examining cultural productions from 1948-2015 we will focus on the geographical specificity of planned and spontaneous protests that have mobilized people into action. We will use a black studies framework to engage the possibilities present in resisting disparate power structures of race, gender, sexuality, class, and region. Artists, musicians, activists, writers, and grassroots organizers of social movements have been ever cognizant of the role of the visual in subverting power structures. We will use this opportunity to place visual culture at the center of a conversation concerning resistance, human rights, political agency, citizenship, and freedom.

Prereq: English 200 or Africana Studies 200.