Queertiques

Queertiques is an interdisciplinary critique course and seminar open to upper-level undergrad and grad students within the School of Art, and from other Schools with instructor permission. Queertiques or Queer Critiques embraces bell hooks and Tim Dean's terming of 'queer' as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and that has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live. Students will read and discuss critical-theoretical texts that center intersections of queerness with gender, race, class, and ability; and examine how critical queerness has historically manifested via varied formalisms, materialities, methodologies, and artistic praxis. We will critically engage with the politics of visibility and institutional critique, as we interrogate the coopting of queerness and other marginalized identities within institutions, the art market, and beyond. Students are expected to maintain an active art practice, and to complete and present their own projects and exhibitions (including thesis exhibitions) for peer-driven, intimate, and in-depth critical discussion. This course offers students language, theory, community, and an intro to a queer artistic canon that will enable students to interpret and articulate the queer content in their own and each other's artwork.