Course syllabus
Information about your course
Teachers:
Sanskriti Chattopadhyay
Mirka Duijn
Course Schedule:
Session 1: 19 January 2024, 13:00-15:00
Session 2: 9 February 2024, 09:00-15:00
Session 3: 16 February 2024, 09:00-15:00
Session 4: 8 March 2024, 09:00-15:00
Session 5: 15 March 2024, 09:00-15:00
Session 6: 22 March 2024, 09:00-15:00
Session 7: 19 April 2024, 09:00-15:00
For selected students the final session will be 12 April, 14:45 - 18:15.
Locations can be found on Time Edit.
The Spring 2024 always takes place in 4022 Screening Room.
Course content
The Decoloniality Elective Course aims to give students an in-depth understanding of the present condition and critical potential of contemporary art and film with a particular focus on the question of decolonial thinking and doing. Central to the project of decoloniality is to highlight and challenge the political, social and cultural domination established through the Eurocentric construction of knowledge and practice. The course will draw upon multiple cultural traditions and the concrete project of decolonisation operative for several centuries throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The course will generate deeper explorations into questions of colonialism, coloniality and its link to art and aesthetics and provoke new questions about the place of art and artists within the project of decoloniality.
Form of teaching
The course consists of Lectures, individual and group exercises, group critiques and text seminars.
Language of instruction: English
Preparation for each session
For each elective session we ask students to do preparatory work; Students can i.e. be asked to read articles, study visual art works, or think about proposed questions. The workload for this preparatory work will be around three hours for each elective session session. Students receive a brief with all information about each elective session at least one week in advance of the session’s date. In this brief one will find all information about the preparation we ask one to do for the session.
General Assignment
In addition to the mandated preparatory work for each elective session, students must craft a concise audio visual essay on a self-selected topic within the sphere of decoloniality. This task encourages students to contemplate the potential forms of decolonial art practices. It prompts them to explore various approaches for critically reflecting on their positions in the world - in and through the audio visual language.
Assignment: Audio Visual Essay
The task requires students to produce an audio-visual essay of three minutes. In the audio-visual essay students are required to explore a research question/topic of interest in and through film - through a decolonial lens. We ask students to depart from their own political standpoint, and relate that to their topic of interest.
There are various means of approaching a research question. Here are examples of two research questions explored in the previous years for your inspiration:
- A student decided to study the idea of masculinity in cinema through a decolonial perspective. On the one hand, this student needed to specify precise socio-political location from where his case study would emerge, and on the other hand, there needed to be a conceptual relationship developed between the idea of masculinity (within the specific context) and decoloniality.
- One student had decided to follow closely the process of making kanelbulle - from acquiring the materials to the final object. Through this process this student unfurled how the spice ‘cinnamon’ is loaded with colonial implications and how an iconic food object can have serious implications in world history.
Requirements and limitations
- The audio-visual essay should be rendered into a 3-minute film, .mp4. The film should start with your name (7 sec).
- Students have the freedom to incorporate a mix of still and moving images, sounds, titles, and music.
- Footage can be sourced from archives, including (colonial) archives and found footage, or students can create original content through photography, filming or by means of any other art form (Coding, craft, painting etc.).
- If music is included, it must not exceed one-fourth of the total film duration!
- At least one of the course literature must be referred to within the audio-visual project. Please note: we are requesting for a reference, not necessarily a direct quotation. Feel free to use creative interpretations. For example: You can use ‘opacity as a method’, thus referring to Edouard Glissant’s idea of ‘opacity as resistance’ (this will be discussed in class).
Note: Given that not all students are filmmakers, the evaluation will not focus on the technical aspects of the film. Instead, consider this assignment as a visual exercise centered on the exploration of the research question.
Assignment: Accompanying Text
The visual essay should be accompanied by a supporting text of no more than 400 words. This text should be a reflection on the process of making this essay:
- What was your initial research question/topic of interest?
- Write a reflection on the methods that you have used to explore your topic of interest:
- How did you choose to explore your subject audio visually?
- How did that work for you? What worked, and what didn’t work, and why?
- Did you change methods or approaches during the process? Why?
- How did you use your own position in the making process? And in the final narrative? Why?
- What classes and or reading materials were instructive for the development of your audio-visual essay, and why? Use at least one quote from a class or text.
- What new insights did this process bring you about decolonial practices?
- Any other remarks?
Please note: It's possible that some parts of the text may overlap with the material presented in the audio-visual essay, and that's perfectly acceptable. Students should consider the text as an additional method of sharing information, serving as a means to convey details that may not be effectively communicated through audio-visual means.
The aim of the general assignment
The exercise aims to explore questions related to decoloniality through artistic means. There is no "guidebook" for decolonial practices, and this is exciting because it allows us to collectively figure out what decolonial practices and approaches can entail. By working on the audio-visual essays, we practitioners can compare and discuss various approaches in practices, fostering shared wisdom.
Delivery
- The audio-visual essay needs to be delivered as a film-file (mp4, 1920x1080, the file cannot exceed 500 mb.). Add your name at the beginning of the film-file (7 sec).
- Title your visual essay as following: 2024_Elective_Session7_VisualEssay_[YourName].mp4
- The text should be delivered as a word file, not PDF! Doc, docx, or txt.
- Title your text as following: 2024_Elective_Session7_Text_[YourName].docx
Deliver to the Session #7 Canvas-Discussion Page: /courses/78683/discussion_topics/535152?module_item_id=1073142
Assessment
The learning outcomes are assessed through oral presentations and a visual essay.
In case of absence from one of the seminars, there is the possibility to have a written examination.
If a student, who has failed the same examined component twice, wishes to change examiner before the next examination, a written application shall be sent to the department responsible for the course and shall be granted unless there are special reasons to the contrary (Chapter 6, Section 22 of Higher Education Ordinance).
In cases where a course has been discontinued or has undergone major changes, the student shall normally be guaranteed at least three examination occasions (including the ordinary examination) during a period of at least one year from the last time the course was given.
The grading scale comprises: Pass (G) and Fail (U).
Course evaluation
The course is evaluated orally at the end of the course as well as in writing and anonymously on completion of the course. The results of and possible changes to the course will be shared with students who participated in the evaluation and students who are starting the course.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the course the student will be able to:
Knowledge and understanding
- give examples of different artistic practices that explores the questions around colonialism and eurocentrism and its link to knowledge production in general and in the field of art and film
- give examples of critical potential of contemporary art and film in the decolonial project
Competence and skills
- plan, initiate and develop a visual essay that engages critically and reflexively with the idea of decolonial thinking
- demonstrate how global examples of de-colonising artistic and film practices might be used to shed light on regional and national issues and their own artistic practice
Judgement and approach
- explain and reflect on the choice of materials and techniques used in their visual essay
- analyze and critically reflect on the work of own and other practitioners in order to contribute to the development of knowledge in the field of decolonial thinking and art.
Register for your courses
Do not forget to sign up for the course in Ladok, registration period opens one week before course start. You must also be registered to be able access all course material published in Canvas.
If you have problems with the registration or questions about your studies please contact admission@hdk-valand.gu.se.
Student Portal
The University's Student Portal gathers information and services for you as a student, and you will find information at the Student Portal pages by logging in with your student account.
Course Syllabus and Reading List
Find the course syllabus and reading list in the course catalogue, use the course code to search for the course at the University of Gothenburg website.
Reading List
Core Readings
Rufer, M. (2020). "Postcolonialism and Decoloniality". The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas (Routledge Handbooks) (1st ed.). Routledge. Postcolonialism_and_Decoloniality.pdf
Bhambra, G. K. (2014). "Postcolonial and Decolonial Reconstructions". Connected Sociologies. Van Haren Publishing. Connected Sociologies.epub
Canclini, Néstor García. (1995). "Introduction". Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity, University of Minnesota Press. Nestor_Garcia_Canclini_Hybrid_Cultures.pdf
Easthope, A. (1998). HOMI BHABHA, HYBRIDITY AND IDENTITY, OR DERRIDA VERSUS LACAN. Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS), 4(1/2), 145–151. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41273996
Anzaldúa, Gloria. (2015). "Flights of the Imagination: Rereading/Rewriting Realities". Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822375036
. Light in the DarkLuz en lo Oscuro Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality (Gloria E. Anzaldúa AnaLouise Keating).pdf
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai (2008). "Research Through Imperial Eyes". Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Book LTD. Decolonizing methodologies research and indigenous peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith.pdf
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai (2008). "Colonising Knowledges". Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Book LTD. Decolonizing methodologies research and indigenous peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith-1.pdf
Walsh, C. (2012). “Other” Knowledges, “Other” Critiques: Reflections on the Politics and Practices of Philosophy and Decoloniality in the “Other” America. TRANSMODERNITY: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, 1(3). https://doi.org/10.5070/t413012880
Other Knowledges Other Critique.pdf
Further Readings:
Anderson, B. (2016). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Revised ed.). Verso.
Mignolo, W. D., & Walsh, C. E. (2018). On Decoloniality: Concepts, Analytics, Praxis. Duke University Press Books.
Said, E. W. (2014). Orientalism. Van Haren Publishing.
Fanon, F. (2005). The Wretched of the Earth (Reprint ed.). Grove Press.
Fanon, F. (2008). Black Skin, White Masks. Amsterdam University Press.
Fanon, F. (1994). A Dying Colonialism. Amsterdam University Press.
Cheryl McEwan, (2009) Postcolonialism, Decoloniality and Development
Ashcroft, B., G. Griffiths, and H. Tiffin. (1990). The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literature ——, eds. 1998. Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies. London: Routledge
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture.
Chambers, I., and L. Curti, eds. 1996. The Post-Colonial Question. Routledge.
Chatterjee, P. Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton University Press.
Gandhi, Leela. 1998. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. Columbia University Press
Minh-ha, Trinh T. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Indiana University Press.
Nandy, Ashis. 1983. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self Under Colonialism.
Mudimbe, V. Y.The Invention of Africa.
Dean, B., and J. Levi, eds. 2003. At the Risk of Being Heard: Indigenous Rights, Identity, and Postcolonial States. University of Michigan Press.
Hearn, Jeff. (2015). “Men of the World: Gender, Globalization, Transnational Times”. London, Sage Publications, Ltd.
Connell, R.W. (2005). “Masculinities”. Second Edition. Published by Policy Press.
Connell, R.W. & Messerschmidt, James W. (2005) “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept”. Vol. 19, No. 6, pp. 829-859. Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
Berggren, Kalle. (2014) “Sticky Masculinity: Post-structuralism, Phenomenology and Subjectivity in Critical Studies on Men”. Vol. 17(3), pp. 231-252.
Christensen, Ann-Dorte & Jensen, Sune Qvotrup (2014). Combining hegemonic masculinity and intersection
Study Counselling
If you need help with planning your studies or need study support during your studies, you are welcome to contact the Study Counsellors at HDK-Valand, studievagledning@hdk-valand.gu.se.