In recent decades, scholars from a variety of disciplines have critiqued this kind of approach to ethnicity and representation, and in this seminar, we want to examine and built upon these discussions. Moving beyond readings of ethnicity in representation that seek to find it reflected in objects or images that speak of an “ethnic character,” we will consider ways in which ethnicity is articulated, claimed, performed, resisted, and invented in representations themselves (and in the process of creating them). We also will move beyond thinking about ethnicity in terms of groups, and think about how individuals – artists or viewers – have used representation in negotiating ethnic identity (as they also negotiate identity through other categories of difference as well – i.e., race, class, gender, age). Particular attention will be given to ways in which representation serves as a site through which attitudes to ethnicity are negotiated, and potentially contested.

The first third of the class will be devoted to laying the theoretical groundwork for the course, reading past and current approaches to ethnicity. We will draw from many different fields, but particular attention will be given to readings in the areas of cultural geography, anthropology, and sociology (as opposed to art history and visual culture with which many graduate students in art history have greater familiarity). The second part of the course will explore some of these theoretical ideas through a series of case studies, some (though not all) related to examples of Wisconsin visual and material culture. The final third of the class will be devoted to student research and presentations on an area of their interest – which is relatively open by nationality or artistic medium (though American topics will be encouraged).