Honors 301: Mixed Race Art and Identity |
Honors 301: Mixed Race Art and Identity
DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
Autumn Quarter 2011-2012
Laura Kina, Associate Professor Art, Media, & Design
Mixed Race Art & Identity will focus on contemporary art and popular culture to critically examine images of miscegenation and mixed race and post-ethnoracial identity constructs. Students will learn about the history and emergence of the multiracial movement in the United States from the 1967 Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court Case, which overturned our nation’s last anti-miscegenation law; to the emergence of the multiracial movement in the 1990s leading up to the 2000 U.S. Census, which for the first time allowed multiracial individuals to self-identify as more than one race; to the ways in which discussions of race have unfolded following the 2008 election of President Obama and the results of the 2010 Census. Through the vehicle of art and cultural studies, students will reflect upon our present moment and the increasingly ethnically ambiguous generation that is coming of age. This seminar course is designed to be interactive and will include: class discussions, leading or co-leading a reading, online reflection posts on readings, viewing films, art lectures, a visiting artist talk, a mid-term paper, and a final creative group curatorial project.
Course Books/Readings and Research Resources
Required Text Books (Available through the University Bookstore and on reserve at the LPC library. We will read select chapters from these two books.)
- DaCosta, Kimberly McClain. Making Multiracials: State, Family, and Market in the Redrawing of the Color Line. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2007.
- Beltrán, Mary and Camilla Fojas, ed. Mixed Race Hollywood. New York: NYU Press, 2008.
Required E-reserve and/or Online Readings (Available through library.depaul.edu or through the course blackboard site, Mixedheritagecenter.org (MHC), or online.)
- (Online) Cotter, Holland. “The Topic is Race; the Art is Fearless.” The New York Times.com. 30 March, 2008.1 Jan. 2009 .
- (MHC) Dariotis, Wei Ming. “Hapa: Word of Power,” Mixed Heritage Center, 2008..
- (E-res) Duus, Masayo. Ch 5 “Becoming a Nisei.” The life of Isamu Noguchi : Journey without Borders. Trans. Peter Duus.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. 149-175 - (E-res) Elam, Michele. 2011. Introduction.” The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics, and Aesthetics in the New Millennium.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011. 1-26 - (E-res) Pinder, Kymberly N. “Biraciality and Nationhood in Contemporary American Art.” Race-ing Art History.
Ed. Kymberly N. Pinder. New York: Routledge, 2001. 391-401. - (E-res) Piper, Adrian. “Passing for White, Passing for Black.” The Visual Culture Reader. Ed. Nicholas Mirzoeff.
New York: Routledge, 1998. 353-362.
Research and selections from original artist interviews with contemporary artists from the forthcoming book “War Baby/ Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art” edited by Laura Kina and Wei Ming Dariotis (University of Washington Press, 2013) and related exhibition co-curated by Kina and Dariotis (DePaul University Art Museum April 26 – June 30, 2013, Chicago, IL and Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience August 9, 2013 – January 19, 2014, Seattle, WA. ) The artists covered include: Mequita Ahuja, Albert Chong, Serene Ford, Kip Fulbeck, Stuart Gaffney, Louie Gong, Jane Jin Kaisen, Lori Kay, Li-lan, Richard Lou, Laurel Nakadate, Samia Mirza, Chris Naka, Gina Osterloh, Adrienne Pao, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Amanda Ross-Ho, Debra Yepa-Pappan, and Jenifer Wofford.
Film, Video, TV, and Radio
- Chasing Daybreak: A Film About Mixed Race in America, Dir. Justin Leroy. Pro. Matt Kelley. Mavin Foundation, 2005.
- Isamu Noguchi: Stones and Paper, Dir. Hiro Narita. Perf. Christo, Linda Hunt, Isamu Noguchi.
- A Pictures & Words production in assoc. with Thirteen-WNET. Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1997.
- MiXeDmE, Dir. Kristen Lee. Pro. Nancy Wen. Ed. Chris Woon. Los Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies, 2010.
- Muni to the Marriage, Dir. Stuart Gaffney. Independent film, 2004.
- Silences, Dir. Octavio Warnock-Graham. A production of Octave Films, 2006.
- “Kip Fulbeck Mixed Kids,” The TODAY Show. MSNBC. March 28, 2010.
Supplemental E-reserve and Reserve Readings are also available through the LPC Library
Tags: DePaul University, Laura Kina