Articulating Diaspora through Contemporary Art: Navigating Migration, Displacement, and Place in Art History

This panel presentation will explore the developments of diaspora through the use of contemporary visual art (including painting, sculpture, new media, etc.) produced by the global community. Utilizing the course Introduction to Global Contemporary Art recently developed and taught at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) as a frame of reference, this presentation will examine pedagogic strategies utilized to frame and support classroom engagement with the thematic and historical developments of migration, displacement, and place as situated within trans-nationalist and globalized frames. Student engagement with diaspora (as well as globalization at large) within the course has been formally structured through a thematic survey in an effort to combat homogenization and provide a visual and theoretical articulation of diaspora as a multiplicitous identity, experience, culture, and a framework for analysis. Throughout the course, students recurrently participate in classroom discussions and related contemporary art analyses in an effort to provide a more holistic purview of globalized cultural identity and the power structures that mitigate them.