Students will:
• Explore the role of visual culture studies in art education 
and its significance for various educational contexts, such as 
schools, museums, and communities.
• Investigate critically the role of visual culture in relation 
to issues of diversity in historical and contemporary society.
• Understand the ways power works through visual images to 
construct limited, stereotypical representations of historically 
oppressed and marginalized groups of people in the United 
States.
• Examine the work of contemporary artists who work with and 
through visual culture toward social justice.
• Examine and use appropriately terms central to the course, 
such as diversity, culture, visual culture, race, ethnicity, 
gender, sex, ability, difference, privilege, power, contemporary 
art, activist art, pedagogy, critical pedagogy, and social 
justice.
• Develop the ability to critically analyze visual culture 
artifacts in relation to issues of diversity and relations of 
power in society past and present.
• Examine pedagogical issues related to visual culture, 
diversity, and contemporary art.
• Explore examples of and possibilities for applying visual 
culture studies grounded in critical theories of diversity in 
various educational settings and contexts.
• Generate arts-based responses to issues raised by the course.
• Design and create educative experiences that provoke the 
intersections of visual culture, diversity, and contemporary art 
practice.

Students will explore the following key topics in relation to 
art education: visual culture, diversity, contemporary art 
practice, and pedagogy. The overarching framework for the course 
is grounded in intensive reading, writing, dialogue, and 
artistic response. The course is mainly taught in a seminar 
format involving discussion of course texts, analysis of visual 
culture artifacts in relation to issues of diversity, 
exploration of relevant contemporary artists and art practices, 
and investigation of pedagogical implications of course content. 

Students explore the topics of this course through (for 
example) written reflections, identity mapping, interviews, 
written interpretations/analyses, presentations (digital/video), 
and arts-based responses grounded in contemporary art practices. 
A key, culminating component of the course is designing and 
leading an educative visual culture experience grounded in 
critical theories of diversity and contemporary art practice in 
a context beyond the classroom. Due to the interdisciplinary 
nature of the course and students enrolled, students are 
encouraged to explore and enact connections between this course 
and their area of study.