Risky Business: The Stakes for Visual Culture in the 21st Century (2020)

The Universities Art Association of Canada annual conference in 2020 hosted the pedagogy caucus session Risky Business: The Stakes for Visual Culture in the 21st Century, featuring XXXX. This session explored what is at stake in teaching art history and visual culture in 2020—as educators grappled with remote learning amidst a global pandemic. As educators grapple with calls for Indigenization and internationalization, they also strive to foster inclusive and accessible learning environments. Simultaneously, there is increasing demand for experiential learning, high-impact teaching and transformational learning. Within art history, meanwhile, the place of the traditional chronological survey continues to be questioned as an effective instructional format. Amidst this environment, this session aims to spark a candid conversation addressing these, and other significant issues, which lie at the heart of teaching in our field. In so doing, we hope to provide a space for educators to raise difficult questions and share constructive strategies and approaches.

Topics may include: equity, diversity and inclusion in the classroom; reconciliation in and through pedagogy; difficult images and censorship; teaching across cultural competencies; grappling with the survey; and more. We also welcome contributions that address the labour of pedagogy, acknowledging that new approaches and transformational learning is difficult work, for both learners and instructors (Halonen and Dunn, 2018). Given this, how do we care for our students while fostering resiliency? How do we care for ourselves when our teaching hinges on being vulnerable? We are particularly interested in participants who might share practices and strategies that support diverse perspectives and foster inclusion. To emphasize engagement and discussion, the session format will prioritize audience involvement.