VAST-Visualizing Abolition Studies
For information on courses offered through the Visualizing Abolition Studies (VAST) program, see the catalog's VAST Certificate Program.
How does cultural and political change happen? What role can cultural institutions play in meeting the social, political, and ecological challenges of our times? This interdisciplinary course explores curation as a place for critical engagement with pressing social and political issues including prison abolition and climate destruction, using the current exhibitions and programs at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences as a case study.
Cross Listed Courses
HAVC 188J
General Education Code
IM
Quarter offered
Fall, Spring
Students work with faculty to develop an agreement that outlines learning objectives, assignments, and assessment for an individual study. To enroll, students submit a petition to the faculty director of the Visualizing Abolition Studies Certificate Program that includes the student/faculty agreement.
Quarter offered
Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer
Cross-listed Courses
Examines the voluminous history of popular culture representing incarceration through new research in visual criminology, carceral aesthetics, and critical prison studies.
Cross Listed Courses
VAST 176
Why has the proliferation of research on prisons—demonstrating economic and racial disparities, as well as negative effects on individuals and communities—not led to more substantial questioning of public policy that treats imprisonment as a major solution to social problems? This course is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the role visual culture plays in the maintenance of the prison industrial complex and an introduction to artistic practices that challenge law and social policy; the course also introduces fundamental concepts to the study of art and visual culture in relation to the movement for prison abolition.
Cross Listed Courses
VAST 01
General Education Code
IM