Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2021 - IAT 883 G100

Special Topics III (3)

Intersectional approaches to research-creation

Class Number: 7778

Delivery Method: Remote

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 11 – Apr 16, 2021: Fri, 12:00–3:00 p.m.
    Burnaby

Description

COURSE DETAILS:

In this seminar, we will explore the emergence of research-creation as an academic field that highlights the potential of artistic practice as research and making as a form of knowledge creation in and of itself.  We will contextualize this field’s emergence as sharing roots with various social movements across the Americas. By framing the turn towards research-creation as a critique of dominant epistemologies and disciplinary boundaries, we will highlight and understand its connections to feminisms, critical race theory and decolonial approaches. Special attention will be given to research-creation projects that address the ways race, gender, sex, age,  ability and other categories of difference shape our digital world and explore how new media platforms are deployed to contest dominant social structures and epistemologies across the Americas.

The course will be a reading-intensive, extended seminar-style investigation of debates in research-creation as it relates to feminisms, critical race theory and decolonial approaches across the Americas. To emphasize the relevance of these readings for research-creation projects, each set of readings will be paired with a case study. Each week students will develop oral presentations and guide discussions on the readings and case studies assigned.  For the final project, students will be given the option to write a final essay or to develop a new or work on an existing research-creation project

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

The student will be able to:

  • Identify key approaches in research-creation;
  • Apply these key approaches in the description and analysis of research-creation projects;
  • Prepare, guide and participate substantively in discussions across the range of texts included in the course readings;
  • Deliver short oral and written presentations summarizing how research-creation is informed by feminism(s), critical race theory and decolonial approaches;
  • Develop a research-creation project;
  • Engage in scholarly writing more effectively.

Grading

  • Weekly Discussion Presentation 20%
  • Weekly Reading Summaries 25%
  • Final Project (essay/research-creation project) 45%
  • Attendance and Participation 10%

NOTES:

* This a draft of the assignment schedule and grade breakdown. Final assignment schedule and grade breakdown will be given during the first week of class.

*Remote Learning: each week we will meet synchronously (online) during the assigned lecture time to discuss and present readings. Attendance and participation in these weekly meetings count towards your grades and are important to your successful performance in this class.

REQUIREMENTS:

An internet connection and computer with camera and microphone to connect to our weekly synchronous meetings.

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

All required readings will be available via SFU library online databases. A final list of readings will be provided at the beginning of the term.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Some weekly readings may include excerpts from the following list:

Anzaldúa, Gloria, and Ana  Louise Keating. Light in the Dark = Luz En Lo Oscuro : Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality / Gloria E. Anzaldúa ; Edited by AnaLouise Keating. Duke University Press, 2015.

Ahmed, Sara. 2010. “Orientations Matter.” In New materialisms : ontology, agency, and politics, edited by Diana H. Coole and Samantha Frost, 234-257. Durham : Duke University Press.

Benjamin, Ruha. Race after Technology : Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code.  Polity, 2019.

Coleman, Beth. 2009. “Race as Technology.” In  Camera Obscura 24, no. 170: 177-207

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Cusicanqui, S. R. “Ch'ixinakax Utxiwa: A Reflection on the Practices and Discourses of Decolonization.” In The South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 111, no. 1, 2012, pp. 95–109.

Escobar, Arturo. Designs for the Pluriverse : Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Duke University Press, 2018.

hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992.  

Loveless, Natalie. How to Make Art at the End of the World : a Manifesto for Research-Creation / Natalie Loveless. Duke University Press, 2019.

         — Knowings & Knots : Methodologies and Ecologies in Research-Creation. University of Alberta Press, 2020.

Lugones, Maria. 2010. “Toward a Decolonial Feminism.” In Hypatia 25 (4):742-760.

Santos, et al. Knowledges Born in the Struggle : Constructing the Epistemologies of the Global South / Edited by Boaventura De Sousa Santos and Maria Paula Meneses. Routledge, 2020.

Segato, Rita. 2016. “Patriarchy from Margin to Center: Discipline, Territoriality, and Cruelty in the Apocalyptic Phase of Capital.” South Atlantic Quarterly 115 (3):615-624.


Graduate Studies Notes:

Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

TEACHING AT SFU IN SPRING 2021

Teaching at SFU in spring 2021 will be conducted primarily through remote methods. There will be in-person course components in a few exceptional cases where this is fundamental to the educational goals of the course. Such course components will be clearly identified at registration, as will course components that will be “live” (synchronous) vs. at your own pace (asynchronous). Enrollment acknowledges that remote study may entail different modes of learning, interaction with your instructor, and ways of getting feedback on your work than may be the case for in-person classes. To ensure you can access all course materials, we recommend you have access to a computer with a microphone and camera, and the internet. In some cases your instructor may use Zoom or other means requiring a camera and microphone to invigilate exams. If proctoring software will be used, this will be confirmed in the first week of class.

Students with hidden or visible disabilities who believe they may need class or exam accommodations, including in the current context of remote learning, are encouraged to register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112).