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A conversation about decolonizing strategies in and outside of art institutions and the academy
Slought is pleased to announce "Practicing Decolonization," a conversation with Marc Lamont Hill, Amin Husain, Nitasha Dhillon, and Felicia Teter about decolonizing strategies in and outside of art institutions and the academy, on Wednesday, March 27, 2019 from 5-8pm. This event has been organized in collaboration with graduate and post-graduate fellows of the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication's (CARGC) at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. It is also the opening plenary of the South X Southeast early career symposium, which will engage the theme of "Popular Culture and Coloniality: Decolonizing Global Media Studies" and continues on March 28, 2019 at the Annenberg School of Communication.
Marc Lamont Hill of Temple University, Amin Husain and Nitasha Dhillon of MTL Collective and Decolonize this Place, and Felicia Teter of Indigenous 215, will draw from their own experiences as scholars, artists, and activists to explore the practice of decolonization, the languages and strategies of critique, and the legibility and visibility of decolonizing strategies in and outside of art institutions, the academy, on mass media platforms, and others. In doing so, they will explore how coloniality is felt, and interrogate how the practice of decolonization works to bring experiences and communities to face each other. The semi-structured conversation will also turn to the question of the formation of allyship and solidarity.
Over the past three decades, intellectual energy in global media studies has also worked to decolonize the field. Building on these legacies and others across the humanities and social sciences, this event also seeks to examine the relationship between popular culture and coloniality. Using popular culture as an avenue through which to examine global geo-politics and communication, the program seeks to critically examine affect, power, representation, and politics in shifting technological landscapes. In doing so, we also ask: how can critical, theoretical, and empirical studies of popular culture push global media studies to further examine the production of knowledge?
Nitasha Dhillon has a B.A. in Mathematics from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi, and attended the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York and School of International Center of Photography. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Media Study - University of Buffalo in New York. Amin Husain has a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science, a J.D. from Indiana University School of Law, and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School. He practiced law for five years before transitioning to art, studying at the School of the International Center of Photography and Whitney Independent Study Program. Together, Amin and Natasha are MTL Collective, a collaboration that joins research, aesthetics, organizing, and action in its art practice.
Marc Lamont Hill is the Steve Charles Professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University. His research focuses on the intersections between culture, politics, and education in the United States and the Middle East. He is a founding board member of My5th, a non-profit organization devoted to educating youth about their legal rights and responsibilities. He is also a board member and organizer of the Philadelphia Student Union. Dr. Hill is the author or co-author of four books: the award-winning Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity; The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black life in America; the New York Times bestseller Nobody: Casualties of America's War on The Vulnerable from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Gentrifier.
Felicia Teter is originally from the Yakama Nation in so-called "Washington state." Felicia now resides in Lenapehoking, in so-called "Philadelphia." She is a diversity & equity consultant working primarily with nonprofits and is a graduate of Dartmouth College. Most of her time is spent organizing for liberation with Indigenous & Black folx as a member of Indigenous 215, Philly for REAL Justice, the United Nation's Indigenous Youth Caucus, and the Indigenous Peoples Caucus of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She is also a frontline organizer for indigenous sovereignty working with communities fighting ecological destruction including communities in Standing Rock, Lea'u est la Vie, and Somi Se'k.