Dialogs of Arts and Feminisms

Dialogs of Arts and Feminisms

Delivery institution

Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology
Gender Studies

Instructor(s):

MA Anastasia Khodyreva

Start date

28 January 2025

End date

8 April 2025

Study field

CHARM priority field

Study level

Study load, ECTS

5

Short description

Over the course of 10 weeks, the course discusses how “body,” “power,” “gender,” “affect,” “whiteness,” “migration,” “neuroqueerness,” “environment,” “crisis,” and “future” emerge in public discourses and how feminisms and arts approach them to develop a critical commentary.

Full description

Bringing in dialogue feminist theory and arts, the course explores 10 key concepts that stand out in contemporary public discourses. Feminisms and arts are brought into dialogue to enrich one’s understanding of the key social issues and relevant public discourses and expand one’s understanding of interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches. Over the course of 10 weeks, the course discusses how “body,” “power,” “gender,” “affect,” “whiteness,” “migration,” “neuroqueerness,” “environment,” “crisis,” and “future” emerge in public discourses and how feminisms and arts approach them to develop a critical commentary. Each week, the participants will be introduced to one theoretical text and one artwork cross-pollinating with each other to critically approach one of the 10 concepts at the material, aesthetic, affective, and theoretical levels. The course centres on queer, trans, crip and decolonial feminisms and contemporary performance, media, sound, and text-based arts. The course discusses the theoretical work of Margaret Schildrick, Mel Y. Chen, Astrida Neimanis, José Esteban Muñoz, Alison Kafer, Françoise Vergès, María Lugones, Jack Halberstam, Leopold Lambert, Alex Martinis Roe and the artworks by Ana Mendieta, Hannah Rowan, Chiara Bersani, Marry Magic, Camille Auer, Jumana Manna, Noor Abed and Hiwa K among others.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the learner will be able to gain a broad understanding of the key themes/issues that stand out in contemporary public discourses.
They will gain knowledge of key theoretical approaches to the social issues that are proposed by feminist theory.
They will have a broad understanding of ways contemporary arts respond to the debates.

Course requirements

None

Places available

10

Course literature (compulsory or recommended):

The course centres on queer, trans, crip and decolonial feminist literature and contemporary performance, media, sound, and text-based arts. The literature includes excerpts from the following texts: Margrit Shildrick (2002). Embodying the Monster. Encounters with the Vulnerable Self, SAGE Publications; (1997) Leaky Bodies and Boundaries. Feminism, Postmodernism and (Bio)ethics, Routledge Press. Magdalena Górska (2016). Breathing Matters: Feminist Intersectional Politics of Vulnerability. Linköping: Linköping University Press. Kathleen C. Stewart (2007). Ordinary Af ects, Duke University Press. Sara Ahmed (2014). The Cultural Politics of Emotions, Edinburg University Press. Gregory J. Seigworth and Carolyn Pedwell (2023). “Introduction: A Shimmer of Inventories.” The Af ect Theory Reader 2: Worldings, Tensions, Futures, Duke University Press. Mel Y. Chen (2023). Intoxicated: Race, Disability, and Chemical Intimacy Across Empire, Duke University Press. Astrida Neimanis (2017). “Hydrofeminism: Or, on becoming a body of water.” Undutiful Daughters: Mobilizing Future Concepts, Bodies and Subjectivities in Feminist Thought and Practice, Gunkel, Henriette, Gunkel, Nigianni, Chrysanthi and Söderbäck, Fanny, Palgrave Macmillan. Elizabeth Freeman (2010). Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories, Duke University Press. José Esteban Muñoz (2009). Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, NYU Press. Robert McRuer (2006). Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability. New York University Press. M. Remi Yergeau (2018). Authoring Autism. On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness, Duke University Press. Françoise Vergès. Capitalocene, Waste, Race, and Gender, e-flux, 2019. María Lugones (2007). “Heterosexualism and the Colonial / Modern Gender System. Hypatia, 22(1), 186–209; “Toward a Decolonial Feminism.” Hypatia, 25(4), 742–759. Leopold Lambert (2023). “Fifty shades of white(ness): Introduction.” The Funambulist 48. Françoise Vergès. Capitalocene, Waste, Race, and Gender, e-flux, 2019. Sara Ahmed (2007). “A phenomenology of whiteness.” Feminist Theory 8 (2):149-168. Alex Martinis Roe (2018). To Become Two: Propositions for Feminist Collective Practice. Archive Books, Berlin. Katve-Kaisa Kontturi (2018). Ways of Following: Art, Materiality, Collaboration, Open Humanities Press, London. The course engages with the artworks by Ana Mendieta, Hannah Rowan, Chiara Bersani, Marry Magic, Camille Auer, MELT, Jumana Manna, Noor Abed, Hiwa K, among others and the curatorial practices of Justine Daquin and Satu Herrala, among others.

Planned educational activities and teaching methods:

Lectures, discussions, artist/curatorial talks, practical exercises

Course code

GV00CV45

Language

Assessment method

Written assignment

Final certification

Transcript of records

Assessment date

Modality

Learning management System in use

Moodle

Contact hours per week for the student:

1.5

Specific regular weekly teaching day/time

Tuesdays 17.00-18.30

Time zone