This presentation analyzes the immigration 鈥渁rtivism鈥� of various nationally-renowned activists and artists such as Favianna Rodriguez, Ernesto Yerena, and Cesar Maxit. These Latinx artists produce celebrated artwork as part of their activism in immigrant rights movements. I focus on various kinds of work (graphic art, performance) as a sources of visual, aesthetic, and affective invention. In particular, the presentation highlights how these artists materialize migrants and migration through a variety of visual metaphors of alienship. Whether representing migrants as alien species (butterflies, birds), or extraterrestrial aliens, this artivism foregrounds alien affects of mobility and new ways of seeing and experiencing migrant subjectivity. Rather than foregrounding citizenship as the paradigm of migrant activism, alien affects and affect aliens (defined by their insurgent and unsanctioned im/mobilities) challenge sedimented politics of belonging.
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WORKSHOP: DECOLONIZING RHETORICAL PEDAGOGY
Friday April 6, 2018听听11:00am - 1:00pm; Wolf听Law Building; Room 306 -- Registration Required:听REGISTER HERE
Dr. Cisneros will lead a workshop discussion that addresses the following questions: How can we challenge the Eurocentric/Western bias in rhetorical theory courses and textbooks? How can we make space for diverse, transnational, and 鈥減luriversal鈥� ideas of what rhetoric is, what rhetoric looks like, and what rhetoric does? The workshop will discuss models for syllabi, curricula, readings, and assignments.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
J. David Cisneros is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and affiliate faculty in the Department of Latina/Latino Studies and the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on the ways in which social and political identities are rhetorically constructed and contested in the public sphere. He specializes in issues of democracy & citizenship, race/ethnicity, social movements, and immigration. His book听鈥淭he Border Crossed Us鈥�: Rhetorics of Borders, Citizenship, and Latina/o Identity听(University of Alabama Press, 2014) explores efforts to restrict and expand notions of US citizenship as they relate specifically to the US-Mexico border and US Latinx communities. Dr. Cisneros teaches courses in the areas of rhetorical theory and criticism, critical theory, critical race studies, and social movements. He is currently working on a book about contemporary immigration politics tentatively titled听Good Immigrants, Bad Aliens: Alienship, Alienation, and Recognition.
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For more information, email:听eileen.lagman@colorado.edu