Visual Cultures of the Afro-Americas

This course will examine how the visual modalities of power operate to ascribe, authenticate, and contest meaning within the Afro-Americas, understood here to include Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latin American and African-American cultures. We will query the complex histories and technologies that constitute the social life of vision in the Afro-Americas, while cognizant of the fact that the field of visuality cannot be understood from single point of view. We will consider images made of and images made by peoples of African descent throughout the Americas as we attend to the reception, interpretation and reproduction of images, as well fields of invisibility. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors and seniors.