SOC30690 Art & Social Change

Academic Year 2022/2023

This module examines the dynamics, roles and politics of culture, art and creative agency in the reproduction and transformation of society. It focuses on the ways art and artists respond to, dismantle and reimagine beyond the discursive and institutional formations that render difference ‘problematic’ and the material consequences of the injustices such formations foment.

We will critically explore art, arts practices and art institutions
(1) as objects of research (ie., as forms of cultural production that provide insights into the workings of the social world);
(2) as acts and spaces of political intervention which are, themselves, implicated in the global colonial histories of modernity, and their legacies for the contemporary politics of voice, representation and participation; and
(3) as forms and sites of inquiry – how, like other forms of 'research', art practices involve processes of social engagement, analysis and critique.

This is an empirically- and practice-focused module that interrogates the relationships and tensions between knowledge, aesthetics and pedagogy through examination of ground-breaking works of art and scholarship across a range of pressing social justice issues and national contexts. It is interdisciplinary, convening readings from sociology and anthropology, art history and social movement studies, across the theoretical traditions of feminism, Black studies, indigenous, queer and post-colonialism. There is no ‘textbook’ or singular approach to this area of study. Coursework therefore will require equal measures of weekly scholarly and weekly arts-based work (given the fact that the embodied and creative mobilisation of art and artists is the central focus of the course!) that we will engage in critical conversation with an array of grassroots and global mobilisations.

NOTE: This course is not recommended for students who are not seeking active learning experiences that require a commitment to class participation and engagement with the readings and other course materials, as well as reasonable amounts of work that is cumulative and must be undertaken on a weekly basis.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this module, students should demonstrate
(1) the foundations of critical, theoretically and empirically informed understandings of the complex relationships between culture, knowledge production and social change;
(2) the cultivation of skills for effectively working with and across different disciplinary traditions, cultural practices and pluriversal scholarship; and
(3) progress in developing fundamental skills necessary to undertake advanced research, and for some professional and/or activist work, in these areas.

Indicative Module Content:

Course content is divided into three main parts:

PART 1: Art-Historical Entanglements in Colonialism, Eurocentrism & Western Modernity
PART 2: Art as/in Movements: From the Avant Garde to Afro-Futurism
PART 3: Moving Art: Protest & the Politics of Representation

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

24
Specified Learning Activities

50
Autonomous Student Learning

50
Total

124
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
As noted in the general module description, given the central role played by embodied, relational dynamics in the politics and practices of art, activism and research, we also will be incorporating experiential forms of learning in the class.

Thus, in tandem with the course focus on resistance, reimagining and social transformation, we will be employing arts-based and creative practices as learning tools in order to interrupt and expand the standard practices of reading, discussion and presentation as the central ways of making sociological sense of the social phenomena we’ll be exploring. This may involve experimentation with such activities as reflexive journaling, drawing, collage with and alongside more conventional modes of study.

As previously noted, this course is not recommended for students who are not seeking active learning experiences that require a commitment to class participation, engagement with course readings and materials, and reasonable amounts work that is cumulative and must be undertaken on a weekly basis.
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Project: Final project Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded No

60
Portfolio: Portfolio of weekly assigned work (written, reflective and visual arts-based) Week 6 n/a Graded No

40

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Self-assessment activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.