Hair and Jeans: Who am I? Identity and Visual Representation

Founding Director, Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions/

Mason Gross School of the Arts and Director, Institute for Women and Art

Founding Head, Margery Somers Foster Center/ Rutgers University Libraries and

Grades: This is a pass-fail course for 1 credit. You are expected to attend all 5 sessions of the class, participate in the discussions and complete all assignments. The final project is described below.

Class meetings:  5 Tuesdays, 2:50-5:30pm, Civic Square Building, Room 229; cell phones/pagers are to be turned off during class:    

January 22- The Gaze in Art History and Popular Culture

Introduction to course and ideas; view “Killing Us Softly-3”

                Assignment 1:  Keep a journal about the material presented in class, class discussions and readings. If during the time between class meetings something pertinent to our focus catches your attention, then please note it in your journal. You will be expected to hand in pages from the journal at each class session (and they will be returned at the next meeting).

Assignment 2: Based on the movie and class discussion, select two print (newspaper or magazine) advertisements. Write an analysis (250-500 words) about each image- describe your reaction to it and explain how your view may have or may not have changed as a result of viewing the movie. You may wish to select an ad that you believe is offensive and one that is positive; one aimed at females and one for males; or that catches your attention. Please make sure to include the ad with your commentary.

Assignment 3: Read in preparation for the next class:

·         Kymberly N. Pindar, “Biraciality and Nationhood in Contemporary American Art, “in Race-ing Art History (New York: Routledge, 2002): 391-401.

·         bell hooks, “The Oppositional Gaze,” in Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston: South End Press, 1992): 115-131.

·         Adrian Piper, “The Triple Negation of Colored Women Artists,” in Amelia Jones, ed. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (London: Routledge, 2003): 239-248.

·         Peggy McIntosh, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”

·         Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative,” in Amelia Jones, ed. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (London: Routledge, 2003): 44-53.

***Assignment 4: Attend the January 31 “Rang Di Nila Performance” in the Civic Square Building Auditorium at 4:30 (provided you do not have a scheduling conflict). Write no more than one page in your journal describing your experience of this event.

Assignment 1: Write no more than a one page reaction in your log to the material presented in class.

                Assignment 2: Visit the Brodsky Center Gallery at The Heldrich and the Douglass Library Galleries, both which have exhibitions of works by women artists of the South Asian Diaspora. Select one work on display and write about it—why you selected it; what meaning it has for you; what you think the artist was expressing; other comments.

                Assignment 3: Read in preparation for class:

·         “Genealogies of Community, Home, and Nation,” in Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity (Chapel Hill, NC:Duke University Press, 2004): 124-136.

·         John B. Ravenal, “Shirin Neshat: Double Vision,” in Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, Reclaiming Female Agency: Feminist Art History After Postcolonialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005): 447-458.

·         Pratibha Parmar, “Hateful Contraries: Media Images of Asian Women, “in Amelia Jones, ed. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (London: Routledge, 2003): 287-293.

·         Chaitanya Sambrani, “On the Double Edge of Desire, “ in  Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India (New York: Asia Society, 2004): 12-34.

 February 26- The Diaspora and Transnational Identity

Class visit to Siona Benjamin’s studio in Montclair.

Assignment 1: Journal entry: write about your experience meeting this artist and learning about her work .

                Assignment 2: Read the following and be prepared to discuss them at the 3/11 class meeting:

·         bell hooks, “Paris is Burning?,” in Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston: South End Press, 1992): 1145-156.

·         Sandy Stone, “A Posttransexual Manifesto,” in Amelia Jones, ed. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (London: Routledge, 2003): 187-191.

·         Susan Bordo,” Never Just Pictures: in Amelia Jones, ed. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader (London: Routledge, 2003): 454-466.

·         “Hunger” in Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth (NY: Anchor Books, 1992): 179-217.

·         Susan Bordo, “Beauty (re)Discovers the Male Body,” in Peg Zeglin Bran, ed. Beauty Matters (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000): 112-154.

                    Assignment 3: Select a movie to watch; then write an analysis of it based on class discussions to date, issues of femininity/masculinity and physical appearances. Be prepared to talk about the movie and your critique of it on March 11.

                ***Assignment 4: On Sunday, March 9, take the Rutgers sponsored bus to PS 1/MOMA in Long Island City to view the exhibition WACK! Women, Art and Revolution and to attend the afternoon program,” Film and Personal Stories: Documenting the Feminist Art Movement in the US;” and/or attend the March 6, 4:30 artist panel discussion at the Douglass Library, “Passage to Jersey.” Write a reaction piece of about 500 words to one or both programs.

                Assignment 1: Write a reaction piece to the class meeting.

                Assignment 2: For the final class we ask that you come dressed in an outfit that makes you feel powerful; be prepared to give a brief presentation to the class that explains how you define power and what about your selected apparel represents power (of no more than 5-7 minutes).

                Assignment 3: Read in preparation for next class:

·         Erin Mackie, “Red Shoes and Bloody Stumps,” in Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss, Footnotes: On Shoes (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001): 223 – 247.

·         Hans Christian Anderson, “Red Shoes, “ in Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss, Footnotes: On Shoes (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001).

·         Todd Lyon, “Big Feets; or, How Cinderella’s Glass Slippers Got Smashed under the Heel of a Size Ten Doc Marten,” in Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss, Footnotes: On Shoes (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001): 291-295.

·         Elizabeth Wilson, “Fashion and the Postmodern Body,’ in Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: Univerrsity of California Press): 3-16.

 Meet with artists Two Girls Working (Tiffany Ludwig and Renee Piechocki), authors of Trappings: Stories of Women, Power and Clothing (Rutgers University Press, 2007), who will describe their projects (book, exhibition, film).

Final Project Due: Part of the class time will be taken up with class presentations by each student: describe your attire, why you selected the clothing to wear; and what power means to you.