Describe Immigration in the 21st Century.

Students will create a visual representation and write a short research paper on a race, gender, etc. and media topic of their choice. For instance, your topic might be about how and why traditional or normative masculinity and/or femininity and/or race is “done” or “performed” in a specific time and place or in relation to a particular field of work, such as healthcare, a critique or celebration of a current or past gender and sexual norm, a transnational analysis of gender and sexual norms, a statement about sexism in corporate America, a statement about racism and white supremacy in the U.S., U.K., Hungary, or elsewhere in the world, a statement about homophobia and anti-LGBTQI+ sentiment or activity in the 1950s or in the present day, a celebration of strength and perseverance of a gender, sexual, racial, or religious minority in a specific period or over a length of time, a celebration of gender, sexual, and/or racial diversity, a visual articulation of a particular person’s voice/politics/aesthetics, etc (like Lizzo).—these are just a few examples, but the options are endless! Using whatever media you choose (painting, drawing, photography, collage, sculpture, hypertext essay, short film, etc.) your project must be a creative expression of or about gender, race, and representation: i.e., you will create your own culture of/about gender and race and media! Regardless of whether or not you are an artist, I expect you to put effort into this; stick figures on notebook paper will not suffice! ☺Accompanying your piece there must be a short 2-3 page research paper on your chosen topic. This will involve applying a minimum of 2 course readings and 2 outside scholarly sources to your topic. Students will analyze their topic in social, historical, and political context. For example, if your piece is about current anti-immigrant racism in the American Southwest, the essay will provide background on that. Your previous work in leading seminar and our discussions about specific media texts have prepared you well for this application of theory: this is your opportunity to delve more deeply into a gender, race, and media topic that really interests you, and put your new media literacy skills to work!For our “Gallery Opening” you also need an “Artist’s Statement” that includes the piece’s title, your name and a short biography, and short explanation of your piece’s visual codes, treatments, and methodology (i.e. why does your piece about X look the way that it does?)