What is the role of the humanities in “Complex Social Change”?

Approaching this question, you may discuss the role of the humanities in general, or you may use one of the “key questions” from the course to explore the meaning of “complex social change” and/or “Complex Social Change”. Examples of applications of “key questions” are as follows, though you are welcome to pursue your own interpretation and application of course concepts: - Do the kinds of questions raised in humanities education lend themselves to the idea of “complex social change”? Does this method of interrogation and exploration address issues raised in the exhibit “Complex Social Change”, and how or why do you see this represented (or lacking)? - What ideologies are represented in the exhibit “Complex Social Change”, and how do these relate to, resist, critique, or maintain broader, hegemonic ideologies in North American society? - What kinds of discourse are established in the exhibit “Complex Social Change”? What sorts of signs or symbols are used, and how are they employed by the artists? What critiques are made, for example, when domestic appliances are used to recall tongue-incheek tales from the lives of lesbians? How are broomsticks relevant to the recent feminist battle-cry, “Free Pussy Riot!”? - What norms about gender and sexuality are resisted or critiqued in the exhibit “Complex Social Change”? How, for example, does the “Feminist Art Gallery” (FAG) speak to contemporary, intersectional feminism, and how do the works in this gallery use domesticity in creative or rebellious ways? ACMA01 – Final Research Essay – Fall 2015 What is the role of the humanities in “Complex Social Change”? In the first lecture of ACMA01, humanities education was introduced as a “method of interrogation” – a way of raising unfamiliar, unconventional, or uncomfortable questions about the world in which we live, about what it means to be human in such a world, and about “how people have tried to make moral, spiritual, and intellectual sense of a world in which irrationality, despair, loneliness, and death are as conspicuous as birth, friendship, hope, and reason”. 1 The exhibit, “Complex Social Change”, on display at the University of Toronto, Scarborough’s Doris McCarthy Gallery (DMG) from October 21, 2015, to January 23, 2016, also encourages viewers to ask questions about a world in which hope and despair co-exist, in which a drive for justice and equality is necessarily predicated on a society overflowing with injustices and inequalities. As such, the final research essay for ACMA01 asks you to join these two concepts – that of the speculative and potentially subversive nature of humanities education, and the artistically rendered and intentionally subversive works on display at the DMG. What is the role of humanities in “Complex Social Change” (the exhibit) and “complex social change” (the broader movement)? Approaching this question, you may discuss the role of the humanities in general, or you may use one of the “key questions” from the course to explore the meaning of “complex social change” and/or “Complex Social Change”. Examples of applications of “key questions” are as follows, though you are welcome to pursue your own interpretation and application of course concepts: - Do the kinds of questions raised in humanities education lend themselves to the idea of “complex social change”? Does this method of interrogation and exploration address issues raised in the exhibit “Complex Social Change”, and how or why do you see this represented (or lacking)? - What ideologies are represented in the exhibit “Complex Social Change”, and how do these relate to, resist, critique, or maintain broader, hegemonic ideologies in North American society? - What kinds of discourse are established in the exhibit “Complex Social Change”? What sorts of signs or symbols are used, and how are they employed by the artists? What critiques are made, for example, when domestic appliances are used to recall tongue-incheek tales from the lives of lesbians? How are broomsticks relevant to the recent feminist battle-cry, “Free Pussy Riot!”? - What norms about gender and sexuality are resisted or critiqued in the exhibit “Complex Social Change”? How, for example, does the “Feminist Art Gallery” (FAG) speak to contemporary, intersectional feminism, and how do the works in this gallery use domesticity in creative or rebellious ways? 1 Commission on the Humanities. The Humanities in American Life: Report of the Commission on the Humanities. (Berkeley: Univ. of Calif. Press, 1980), 1. This is far from an exhaustive list of potential topics, and you should choose a lens or approach that you find particularly interesting, useful, or engaging. Assignment: Compose a 6-7 page research essay based on a review of the Doris McCarthy Gallery exhibit, “Complex Social Change”, and selected artworks therein. You should focus on one to three individual pieces of art from the exhibit, and you may, if you wish, consider the theme(s) of the exhibit as a whole in light of these examples. You should not attempt to discuss more than three works in a paper of this length. Establish a thesis that clearly illustrates the theoretical lens you will use to examine your chosen artwork(s), and then use this lens to thoroughly engage each piece individually. Your conclusion should weave together these separate treatments in light of the overall claim and purpose of the paper. Do not simply restate your thesis or summarize your paper; offer your reader a sense of closure, and use concluding paragraphs to reflect on the overall repercussions of your argument (the “so what?” or sense of what is at stake). Be sure to draw on all of the writing instruction and resources you’ve been provided in ACMA01, in order to write the best essay you possibly can. In framing your review, you will need to develop your own analytic claim about the exhibit and/or your chosen works. You should focus on a specific theme or issue from (your interpretation of) the exhibit and show your reader how this theme or issue connects to theoretical resources developed in this course. You should research this theme or issue to see what other scholars have had to say about it, and incorporate their analyses into your review of the exhibit/artworks as support for your own claim. The direction of your research will be determined by what kinds of questions you want to raise and/or address. You should use the exhibit and any related material as primary sources, and at least three scholarly books or articles as secondary, supporting sources, discovered through your own research. Please be sure to reference the Library Research Guide for our course, and attend the Library Research Session during tutorial on November 12th, as these will help you find and decide on your secondary sources. Length: 6-7 pages, approximately 2000 words. Do not exceed 7 pages plus a separate Works Cited page. Do not use a title page, but do give your essay a unique and informative title. Your essay must be typed (double-spaced) in Times New Roman, 12 point font. Follow formatting and citation guidelines as outlined in the MLA 7 guide. A link to this resource is available on Blackboard. Bonus: If you bring a rough draft of your essay to tutorial on November 19th for a peer review exercise, you will be awarded 3 bonus points for this assignment.