Diversity and the Art History Curriculum (2018)
In a single Art History class, which artists and artworks are included? Over the course of an Art History program, which geographic and historical periods are covered, and which theories and methods foregrounded? These are practical questions, but they are also fraught with tension and our responses have significant political implications. This session follows up on last year’s discussion about the Art History Survey by addressing the issues of inclusion and exclusion, and ultimately, of diversity in the Art History classroom. How can we (dis)engage with the canon of Art History to do more than problematize the discipline’s relation to colonial or post-colonial power, to open up new conversations that speak to increasingly diverse classrooms and values? How do such shifts change the discipline itself? We invite proposals from those interested in participating in a round table discussion to share ideas and strategies, as well as instances of success or even failure.
Anne Dymond, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Art History and Museum Studies
University of Lethbridge
Andrea Korda, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Art History
University of Alberta, Augustana Faculty
Caroline Seck Langill, PhD, OCAD University
Decolonizing the Art and Design Curriculum : Navigating backlash
In his recent article for the New York Times Magazine, Cameron Tung notes the term backlash actually stems from mechanical engineering. His analysis of the chain reaction of backlash focuses primarily on politics, but he also points out popular culture’s dependence on it. Most significant for this conversation is his observation that «[s]ocial media, in particular is almost perfectly designed to turn mundane exchanges into ferocious moral dust-ups.» Social media platforms are playing an integral role in the conversation around decolonization within the university environment. In this presentation, I will speculate on how backlash has influenced our work on decolonizing the curriculum knowledge at OCAD U, how social media is implicated in this, and how we might prepare for it. This paper will also build upon my presentation titled « Art History Restart : Curricular Approaches. » Since then OCAD University has undergone a lively and often difficult discussion as faculty enact an academic plan framed around its primary principle of decolonization and its first priority of Indigenous Learning: Nothing about us without us. While the paper will cover the dismantling of the first-year art history experience, and will also provide an update on the swapping out of «canon» courses in both English and Art History, it will primarily focus on the intensity of the environment that has emerged for both students and faculty as major changes are undertaken. It will reflect the clashes and backlash experienced by the community, and address the way Art and Design need to change if students are to see themselves reflected in curriculum. It will try to capture the sweeping conversations that have occured, and will delineate methods for institutional change so that this process might contribute to similar changes being undertaken at other schools of Art and Design.
Dr. Tracey Eckersley, Kentucky College of Art and Design
Diversifying Ancient/Medieval Survey
In recent years, attempts to make survey classes more inclusive have led to the creation of “global” texts that include additional “non-Western” cultures. In theory, this is a positive step towards expanding the cannon but, in reality, it further problematizes the issue. Neither Stockstad’s Art History nor Kleiner’s Gardner’s Art Through the Ages integrates African, Asian or Indigenous American cultures into their roughly chronological presentation of the Western material; the new chapters have simply been added to the back of the books, a practice that continues to “other” these cultures under the guise of inclusion. As an instructor at a small art college that offers intensive six-week class sessions, the amount of material presented in the global survey can be overwhelming for my students. In this roundtable discussion, I present my experiments with diversifying the curriculum within tight time constraints: rearranging the material under review to encourage discussions of topics such colonial/post-colonial power and historical views on gender, assignments that encourage students to critique and expand the cannon, and the inclusion of a diverse range of contemporary artists who borrow formal and conceptual elements from pre-modern cultures in their artistic practice.
