Visualizing Abolition Studies (VAST) Certificate Program
Visualizing Abolition Studies
The Visualizing Abolition Studies Certificate Program (VAST) provides students with access to a curriculum in critical studies of incarceration that builds through developing skills in analyzing art and visual culture. Based on a recognition that visual materials co-constitute our world and are often a primary means through which we come to access it, VAST will prepare students to examine not only the existing criminal legal system but also the means through which it has been studied in the past. As such, it offers students an arena in which to develop their critical thinking about the social and cultural systems that structure our lives.
Open to all students, the VAST Certificate Program encourages exploration of the many ways in which forms of visibility, representation, aesthetic production, and popular culture intersect with the carceral. The course of study is multidisciplinary and includes the potential for both creative and analytical coursework. Opportunities for practical learning, especially in collaboration with the Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS) and other area museums, are stressed. Above all, VAST courses encourage students to hone a sense of their own political commitments and capacities by supporting their views with a strong research foundation.
Students are encouraged to list the VAST Certificate on their resumés. The VAST Certificate will not appear on students’ transcripts but may be verified with the IAS.
For more information, visit: https://ias.ucsc.edu/visualizing-abolition-studies/ or contact vast@ucsc.edu.
Certificate Level Learning Outcomes
As a result of completing the VAST certificate program, students will be able to:
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Think beyond the entrenched social dynamics that center on punishment.
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Analyze the role played by visual media in constructing past and present social systems.
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Create and/or interpret visual art in order to challenge carceral practices and fashion new modes of relationality.
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Develop critical skills and workplace experience required to enter multiple post-graduate professions such as (but scarcely limited to): the arts, teaching, legal work, the non-profit sector, and social work.
Academic Advising for the Program
Undergraduate advising for the VAST Certificate Program is supported by the Humanities Division. The humanities divisional advisor offers specific information about navigating through the program and curriculum and assists students with academic planning, requirements, and extra-curricular opportunities related to the program. Please contact the advisor at vast@ucsc.edu.
Students are not required to declare their intent to complete the certificate program in advance. Once their third VAST course is completed and grades have posted, they will receive a PDF certificate via email from the VAST advisor. If they haven't heard from the VAST advisor, please reach out to them to confirm the certificate's completion.
Transfer Information and Policy
Students transferring to UC Santa Cruz are strongly encouraged to pursue the VAST Certificate. Transfer students may consult with the VAST advisor about transferring credits to count towards the completion of the certificate program; requests will be evaluated on a course-by-course basis.
Faculty
The faculty of the VAST program can be found here.
Course Requirements
The Visualizing Abolition Studies Certificate is awarded on completion of 15 credits in VAST courses.
Take the following course:
| FMST 71
/VAST 01
| Introduction to Visualizing Abolition Studies | 5 |
Plus 10 credits of electives:
10 credits from the following courses (students may earn 10 credits toward the VAST Certificate by taking the full two-quarter sequence of FILM 171S: Making an Exoneree):
| ART 108 | Art, Design, and Social Practice | 5 |
| ART 175 | Taking Art to the Streets | 5 |
| CRES 115 | Frantz Fanon: Resistance, Revolution, and Decolonization | 5 |
| CRES 132 | Black Speculations | 5 |
| CRES 190D | Black Geographies and the Imperative of Abolition | 5 |
| FILM 171S | Special Topics in Film and Digital Media Production | 5 |
| FMST 176
/VAST 176
| Law, Prisons, and Popular Culture | 5 |
| KRSG 60C | Narratives of Incarceration and Abolition | 3 |
| PRTR 132 | Writing the Future: Science Fiction | 5 |
| PSYC 147A | Psychology and Law | 5 |
| PSYC 147B | Psychology and Law | 5 |
| VAST 188J
/HAVC 188J
| Curation and Justice | 5 |
| VAST 199 | Independent Study | 5 |
Some courses may have prerequisites.
Per the university's Committee on Educational Policy on Undergraduate Academic Certificate Programs, "course credits should not count toward any other major or minor." Students who are pursuing a VAST certificate should contact the VAST advisor to discuss their plans; the courses for the certificate may need to be adjusted.