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an immigrant woman holding a gun pointed at the viewer

A course about subverting various forms of oppression that perpetuate patriarchal domination, xenophobia, and national exclusion in film.

4 units

Students enrolled in this course will earn credit for the US Diversity AND Fine Arts Core requirements.

Taught by Prof. Marciniak

In this course, students will be introduced to diverse representations of fights for migrant justice and migrant rights through an exploration of contemporary feminist transnational cinema in the United States. Taking an intersectional, historical, and multidimensional theoretical approaches, we will engage films highlighting a variety of communities such as African, African American, Arab, Asian, and Latinx, allowing us to develop nuanced perspectives.

The select case studies—including, Amreeka, Dirt, Entre Nos, Daughters of the Dust, Maid in America, Mississippi Masala, Nanny—will push us to consider complex questions around citizenship, belonging, national legitimacy, and what I call ‘alienhood’ – discursive modes of stigmatizing those who are deemed ‘foreign.’ Yet, we will also analyze diverse representations of provocation in cinema: calls for subverting various systems of oppression that perpetuate patriarchal domination, xenophobia, and national exclusion while studying theories of transnationality, feminist visuality, film theory, queer theory, and theories of difference. In a historical moment when border walls and refugee camps are once again proliferating, ethnonationalism and white supremacy are on the rise, and women’s rights, queer rights, and immigrant rights are being violated, such feminist provocations can serve as a guide for our own social justice interventions.

Complementing course work, students will engage in creative projects, take field trips to local immigration museums, learn from filmmakers, and collaborate with local organizations.

Contact Humanities for Just Communities