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Queering the Campus Gender Landscape Through Visual Arts Praxis

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Mapping Queer Space(s) of Praxis and Pedagogy

Part of the book series: Queer Studies and Education ((QSTED))

Abstract

Libby Balter Blume and Rosemary Weatherston critically analyze the pedagogy and praxis of queering the gender landscape on an urban, Catholic university campus through 12 years of international juried fine arts exhibitions co‐curated by women’s and gender studies faculty. Past exhibition themes have included (re)visioning gender, embodiment, gender politics, gendered space/s, masculinities and feminism, and (trans)ition. These campus interventions have used visual arts, poetry, performance, environmental installation, interdisciplinary lectures, and course work to interrogate gender as a socially constructed, relational category and to deconstruct male/female binaries and dominant/minority discourses in academic space. Blume and Weatherston’s interdisciplinary essay utilizes both social science and humanities frameworks of “queering” and queer pedagogy to examine intersections of artistic practices of “seeing differently” and activist re/productions of visual arts discourses. Finally, they address the limitations and potential of using the curatorial space of the exhibitions to engender change as well as reflection.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The University of Detroit, founded in 1877 by the Society of Jesus, was an all-male school until the 1970s, when female students began being admitted. The presence of women on campus was again increased with the 1990 consolidation of the University of Detroit and Mercy College, founded by the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, creating the University of Detroit Mercy. Negotiations of the gender hierarchies occasioned by the consolidation continue to this day.

  2. 2.

    On the production of The Vagina Monologues on Catholic campuses, see Heather Hathaway, Gregory J. O’Meara, S.J., and Stephanie Quade.

  3. 3.

    Dr. Veronika Mogyorody, Assistant Provost, School of Visual Arts, and Associate Professor and Coordinator, Visual Arts and the Built Environment, University of Windsor, co-curated behind the mask: Women, Men & Masculinities, 2012. Following the UDM biennial, the exhibition toured to the University of Windsor Visual Arts Project Gallery.

  4. 4.

    TRANS, 2014 was co-curated by Peter Beaugard, Director of the Graphic Design, Game Art, and Digital Arts programs, and co-sponsored by Amy Green Deines, Associate Dean of the School of Architecture and Design at Lawrence Technological University. The exhibition was held at LTU’s Studio Couture in downtown Detroit.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, MI, USA

    Libby Balter Blume & Rosemary Weatherston

Authors
  1. Libby Balter Blume
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  2. Rosemary Weatherston
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Languages and Cultures, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

    Elizabeth McNeil

  2. Languages and Cultures, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

    James E. Wermers

  3. Snowflake, Arizona, USA

    Joshua O. Lunn

Appendix: Curators

Appendix: Curators

  • [re]:GENDER: through the eyes of women, 2004

    • Curators, Julie Ju-Youn Kim and Libby Balter Blume

  • Embodiment: gender + culture + action, 2006

    • Curators, Amy Green Deines and Libby Balter Blume

  • Gender Politics, 2008

    • Curators, Amy Green Deines and Libby Balter Blume

  • Gendered Space/s, 2010

    • Curators, Libby Balter Blume and Allegra Pitera

  • behind the mask: Women, Men & Masculinities, 2012

    • Curators, Libby Balter Blume, Allegra Pitera, and Veronika Mogyorody

  • TRANS, 2014

    • Curators, Peter Beaugard, Libby Balter Blume, and Allegra Pitera

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Blume, L.B., Weatherston, R. (2018). Queering the Campus Gender Landscape Through Visual Arts Praxis. In: McNeil, E., Wermers, J., Lunn, J. (eds) Mapping Queer Space(s) of Praxis and Pedagogy. Queer Studies and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64623-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64623-7_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64622-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64623-7

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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