Okinawa Study Abroad Reflections and Creative Projects

Tonight was the last class for our DePaul University Okinawa Study abroad trip. My colleague Kathryn Ibata-Arens and I combined a 300-level political science and a 300-level studio art course together to create our trip - "Okinawa, Art, Politics, and Economy." I was skeptical that this mix would work when it came to creating final art projects with open ended instructions but our interdisciplinary mix of students took us by surprise.

Here is one stunning example from an Animation/Anthropology student, Letitia Longbons, for the final trip creative project. Her stop frame animation has over 200+ drawings done by hand!!!
https://vimeo.com/84831472

Jordan Johnson, an Information Technology major and Global Asian Studies minor student, created a dedicated website for his trip journal (I'll post an interactive map shortly that he just created):
http://www.josamjohn.com/

Sylwia Kusiak, an Intercultural Communications and Art, Media, & Design student, created a Tumblr to reflect on our trip to Okinawa:
http://www.okinawask.tumblr.com/

Even my colleague Kathryn Ibata-Arens got into the creative zone and enlisted the help of her teenage daughter to make a YouTube video about our trip:

I documented the students and our visiting speakers and field trips: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63834915@N03/sets/72157638534311554/

We are looking forward to running this program again in December 2015!

Save the date - February 2014 lectures and panels

Upcoming Lectures and Panels

Threewalls Gallery

Friday, February 14, 2014
119 N. Peoria #2C
Chicago, IL 60607
tracersbookclub@gmail.com
www.tracersbookclub.com
In conjunction with Faith Wilding's Fearful Symmetries Retrospective.
TRACERS TAKES ON FEMINISM: CONVERSATIONS ABOUT MOTHERHOOD, LGBTQ AND RACE.
Panel presentations, 10AM- 5PM
Organized by Jennifer Reeder and Carrie Ruckel, Tracers

Schedule:
10am-12pm - LGBTQ
(12-1pm - lunch)
1-3pm - Motherhood 3-5pm - Race

Panelists:
LGBTQ (10am - 12pm): Latham Zearfoss (moderator), Jillian Soto
, Daviel Shy
, Frederick Moffet
, Malic Amalya
, Silvia Malagrino
, Amina Ross
, NIC Kay

Motherhood (1 – 3pm): Lorelei Stewart (moderator), Christa Donner
, Brittany Southworth Laflamme
, Judy Ledgerwood
, Laura Letinsky
, Romi Crawford
, Julie Rodrigues Widholm
, Christine Tarkowski

Race (3 – 5pm): Isis Ferguson (moderator), Laura Kina
, Maria Gaspar
, Indira Johnson
, Laila Farah
, Alberto Aguilar
, Alexandria Eregbu
, Sima Azadi

 

College Art Association 102nd Annual Conference

"Miscegenating Racial Representations: Critical Mixed Race Strategies and the Visual Arts"

Saturday, February 15, 2:30-5:00 PM
Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605
International South, 2nd Floor

Laura Kina, DePaul University
Margo Machida, University of Connecticut

This session will examine critical mixed race strategies for the miscegenation of racial representation in the visual arts. The 2000 U.S. Census was first to allow individuals to self enumerate as more than one race. Making multiracial populations visible both expanded the borders, blurred and posed a potential threat to existing monoracial categories. Beginning in the early 2000s there was a simultaneous neoliberal and conservative push for a postidentitarian/ postracial moment posed against the putative ossification of multicultural racial identity constructs. Curatorial frameworks and studio practices centered on race as a locus of investigation were challenged if not rendered invisible and seemingly obsolete. And yet race and attendant cultural issues have demonstrably remained pertinent for artistic production and analysis. A double tension has resulted in moves to both recognize the continuing importance of race and the critical push to reframe and disarticulate categories that cannot contain the complexity of increasingly miscegenated peoples, histories, and subjectivities. We will consider how dominant conceptions of race have changed (or not) in the visual arts as a result of the mounting discourses and bodies of artistic production that bring forward mixed race identity in various domestic, transnational and international contexts.

"Beyond the Bronze Venus"
Alison Fraunhar, Saint Xavier University

"Sensory Miscegenations: Representing Multiracial Bodies"

Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, University of California Merced
"Lacuna"
Maya Isabella Mackrandilal, artist

"Liminal Embodiments"
Zavé Martohardjono, artist

"Risky Subjectivity: Select Works by Korean Adoptee Artists"
Eun Jung Park, independent scholar

Macalester College 15th Annual American Studies Conference

February 27-28, 2014
 

Thursday, Feb. 27th Keynote Speakers - Laura Kina and Ralina Joseph Laura Kina "Mixed Race Asian American Art: On Becoming and Unbecoming a 'Happy Hapa'"
 

Friday, Feb 28th panel "Being Mixed Race" - Shannon Gibney, Marcus Gardley, Ralina Joseph, Laura Kina

Critical Mixed Race Studies and Mixed Roots Stories Call for Papers

My DePaul colleague Camilla Fojas and our team of volunteers are gearing up for "Global Mixed Race," the 3rd biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) conference, at DePaul Nov 13-15, 2014. The call for panels, papers, and round table submissions for the conference is due January 15, 2014. Also due on January 15th, the CMRS Mixed Roots Stories cultural programming is looking for short films and  and stand-up comedy, spoken word, dance, short scenes, monologues, vocalists, musicians – or other forms of live performance.

Read more about the conference: http://criticalmixedracestudies.org/wordpress/cmrs-2014/

Study Abroad trip Okinawa, Japan Dec 3-15, 2013

December 3-15, 2013 my colleague Kathryn Ibata-Arens and I led 16 students on a DePaul University College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Short-Term Study Abroad trip to Okinawa, Japan "Okinawa: Art, Politics and Economy." This trip was sponsored in part by the Japan Foundation. Many thanks to all the friends, family, and the international network of scholars, artists, and activist who helped make this dream trip a reality! We plan to run this trip again in Dec 2015 and 2017 so DePaul students stay tuned.

We are pictured here at the dojo of Grand Master Shinzato Katsuhiko sensei after a Shorin-ryu Kishaba Juko karate demonstration and workshop.

View our trip photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63834915@N03/sets/72157638534311554/

War Baby / Love Child: Only two more weeks left!

Hope you can stop by The Wing to see War Baby / Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art, before it closes on Jan. 19. See the website for more information on the exhibit and book curated by Laura Kina and Wei Ming Dariotis: http://www.warbabylovechild.com/exhibition/

Recently added are seven artist interviews, conducted by LeiLani Nishime’s Race and Public Scholarship class. The students created QR codes that link to the audio interviews which are posted in the exhibit near the entry and include Albert Chong, Kip Fulbeck, Jane Jin Kaisen, Lori Kay, Richard Lou, Gina Osterloh and Jennifer Wofford.

Also, on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 2pm there will be a screening of A Lot Like You, Eliaichi Kimaro’s powerful award-winning documentary. Read more about the film: http://alotlikeyoumovie.com/
A discussion with Kimaro will follow the screening. Tickets include general gallery access: $10 general, $8 Museum members. Reserve your tickets by calling 206-623-5124.

Michelle Kumata
Exhibit Director
Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
719 South King St.
Seattle, WA 98104
206.623.5124 Ext. 124
mkumata@wingluke.org
www.wingluke.org