Theories&MethodsPaigeHyatt

Park McArthur Ramps January 12 - February 23, 2014 "Wanna Be with You Everywhere (And I Am): Disability Justice – Art as Freedom Portal" Chapter 9 talks about disability justice and art. It discusses how art can be a tool for empowerment and change for disabled people. The chapter starts out by discussing disability justice and the fact that it goes beyond medical ways. It is a shift in focus from trying to fix disabled people to changing the system around us to work better for those people. We should not be living in a world where there are barriers that prevent disabled people from living their daily lives. Disability justice is about intersectionality and the connections it has to race, gender and class. If you are not disabled and white, you might face even more oppression. In the reading, art is explained as a tool to serve as a "freedom portal" where disabled people can express their experiences. It can give a voice to groups of people that may be missing in ...

Kiss and Tell Drawing the Line 1988 The article "Framing the Questions: Positive Imaging and Scarcity in Lesbian Photographs," by Jan Zita Grover explores the representation of lesbians in photography, specifically focusing on how lesbian images have been marginalized or underrepresented in mainstream media in the past and present. Grover discusses "positive imaging," which is the intention to create something empowering or affirming to the lesbian identity through photography. She then discusses the fact that these are scarce things which has led to a misrepresentation in art and culture for this group of people. We talked in class about how scarcity of images of this kind is validated, because groups of people do not want to be stereotyped for their identities. Grover explains that images that show lesbians in diverse and positive ways help resist those negative stereotypes. With the scarcity of these images, positive representation creates a form of resistance ag...

Anna Atkins "Dictyota dichotoma, in the young state; and in fruit" from Part XI of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions 1849 To understand this week's reading, one must fully understand the word epistemology. In short terms it is "the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge." In "Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts" by Dr. Margaret Kovach, she looks into her indigenous roots to question individuals' epistemological foundations in order to find out one's biases and approach to research depending on their prior experiences. Kovach describes Indigenous epistemologies as knowledge that things are rooted in relationships between people, their land, and the communities that are built around those things. Indigenous epistemologies shine a light on the connections people have, holistic approaches, and traditions. Indigenous people's knowledge includes an understandin...