Economy, Identity, Body

UG - Undergraduate

At the Intersections: Economy, Identity, Body

In her poetic-prose work Schizophrene, Bhanu Kapil
writes, "An economy is a system of apparently
willing but actually involuntary exchanges." What
are these economic systems that permeate our
bodies, lives and decisions, and how do they work?
How do they work on and through us as people
living in a late-capitalist society? And
importantly, how do economic structures inform
your practices as artists and creators?

Our goals are to look more in depth at terms and
concepts we hear on a daily basis and to explore
how they affect us and the world we live in. We
will gain a working knowledge of contemporary
discussions and debates about labor, debt,
austerity, privatization, and governmental and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In addition
to critical texts, we will look to film,
literature, performance and music to see how
artists are interrogating economic issues in their
practices, including the tenets of economic
theories of capitalism, neoliberalism, and
Marxism.

Our study will take an intersectional, materialist
feminist approach that takes gender, sexuality,
race, ethnicity and ability as its starting point.
We will locate our analysis in material life
including class, jobs, paid and unpaid work, money
and resources. Our analysis and practice will
highlight the feminization of poverty, domestic
work, emotional labor and economic inequity.