Upcoming Courses

Spring 2023 Courses

 

AMST 381-01: SEM: Latinx on Stage: Barrio-Brd (Herrera)
W 3:00-5:45

This course provides students with a historical and theoretical framework for understanding the politics of representing Latinas/os/xs. We will explore how Latinx practitioners use orality, visuality, movement, and performance as tactics of resistance, pushing against normative standards and generating alternative narratives of belonging. We will engage with visual art, music, poetry, theater, and performance to make meaning of the socio-political realities experienced by Latinxs.  The course will examine the evolving formation of Latinx identity throughout history by engaging with theoretical concepts such as Afro-diasporicity, borders, hybridity, homeland, feminism, colonization, citizenship, and migration. This course is open to all students with or without a background in theater or dance.

 

AMST 391-01: ST: Dance for Social Change (Diaz)
W 3:00-5:45 

Bridging the gap between theory and practice, this course will consider the significance of the presence of the body, and the dancing body in particular, as an activist tool towards social change. We will read authors like Judith Butler, Silvia Federici, Jade Power Sotomayor, and anne maree brown as we consider how we can animate our own bodies in meaningful and intentional ways. We will turn to the work of influential choreographers like Katherine Dunham and Liz Lerman as well as interdisciplinary artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz to learn how they have approached activism through the arts. This community based learning course will be anchored in two events of the 2022-2023 Tucker Boatwright Festival Nuestra America/Our America: “Comunidad, lucha y resistencia: A call to eradicate racial and gender violence,”a feminist intervention in the UR Campus in collaboration with Chilean collective LasTesis and Latinos in Virginia Empowerment Center; and “El poder del pueblo: Environmental justice and decolonial worldmaking in Puerto Rico and beyond,” a three-day event focused on decolonizing activist practices that take Puerto Rico’s environmental justice movement as emblematic of people-power interventionist strategies. As a class, we will co-envision, co-create, and participate in body-centered, artistic interventions designed to bring awareness and meaningful conversation about these issues. The course will build on the strengths, imagination, and contributions of each student. Previous dance experience in any style is welcomed but not necessary, only a willingness to engage creatively with movement and the arts as a tool for social change.

 

AMST 391-02: ST: Activisms (Mendez)
T 3:00-5:45

Drawing on feminist decolonial thinking by Ochy Curiel, Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, Lélia Gonzalez and Rita Segato, among others, this course engages with various activisms throughout the Americas vis-a-vis those that have emerged on campus over the past few years. Extreme violence against subjects self-identified as women and the LGBTQIA+ population in various Latin American countries have led to the creation of collectives like #NiUnaMenos in Argentina or #NiUnaMás in Mexico. Some of these collectives, like Chilean LasTesis, have resorted to innovative and experimental ways of occupying the public space and making their demands heard. Alongside readings and discussions, we will co-create our own interventions to address the violent history of our campus via participation in  two events of the 2022-2023 Tucker Boatwright Festival Nuestra América/Our America: “Comunidad, lucha y resistencia: A call to eradicate racial and gender violence,” a feminist intervention in the UR Campus in collaboration with Chilean collective LasTesis and Latinos in Virginia Empowerment Center; and “El poder del pueblo: Environmental justice and decolonial worldmaking in Puerto Rico and beyond,” a three-day event focused on decolonizing activist practices that take Puerto Rico’s environmental justice movement as emblematic of people-power interventionist strategies.

 

AMST 398-01: ST: Data and Society (Tilton)
MW 12:00-1:15

Data is everywhere. We will explore how data impacts from algorithms to social media impact our daily lives and society at large

 

AMST 398-02: ST: Data and Society (Tilton)
MW 1:30-2:45

Data is everywhere. We will explore how data impacts from algorithms to social media impact our daily lives and society at large

 

AMST 398-03: ST: Music Industry: History/Tech/Prom (Love)
MW 10:30-11:45

 

AMST 399-01: Independent Study (Tilton)
TBA