Have you ever visited a museum or art gallery and asked yourself, “Where are all the women artists?” How about all of the Black, Latinx, Asian, Native-American, multi-racial, non-Western, working-class, poor, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and (dis)abled women artists? And where are the women who neither paint nor sculpt but who are photographers, film-makers, actors, musicians, performance artists, writers, poets, fashion designers, architects, and mixed-media artists? Well, I can tell you where they are not: they have been generally excluded from art history (HIS STORY) and the artistic canon.
In this course, we will engage in an intersectional exploration of the interplay among gender, art, and society. The course is very demanding, in all senses of the word. There is a great deal of reading, viewing, writing, thinking, critiquing, and online participation. In order for us to have a lively and productive semester together we must be accountable to one another, as a community of learners, rather than accountable only to ourselves. You will have many opportunities to shine as scholars in this course – some will involve independent work and some group work. You may have just thought, “Group work? In an online course?” Yes, that’s correct – it has its challenges but most 255 students have found that the final group project is an invaluable experience so trust me when I say that you, too, will survive. If you devote the time and effort necessary to succeeding, engage deeply with the course materials and with one another, and keep your mind and heart open to the learning process, then you really can’t go wrong in this course.