In Dialogue: Artist as Citizen

In Dialogue is an occasional series of interdisciplinary, discussion-based seminars that explore art on view at the Museum in relation to works in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. During the 2017–18 program year, we will investigate the idea of artist as citizen. How do artists participate in our social and political world through their artwork? Taking inspiration from Associate Professor of Music Darrell Grant and other PSU faculty, we will consider how “artists from a variety of disciplines intersect with institutions, social movements, and power structures; engage with communities; and connect with place.”

Dr. Priya Kapoor will facilitate the May 13 seminar,“Human Resilience in Mobility: Politics of the Image and the Global South,” in conjunction with the special exhibition Common Ground: Photographs by Fazal Sheikh, 1989 – 2013. We will look at certain images from Sheikh’s exhibition alongside an excerpt from Deepa Mehta’s film, Water, to discuss the localized caste-specific treatment of widows in the ancient cities of Varanasi (Benaras) and Vrindavan, India. Recommended readings on the concepts of globalization and transnationalism offer a lens through which we can understand our world in vignettes and through photos.

Dr. Priya Kapoor is a faculty member in the Department of International and Global studies at Portland State University. Social justice, Intersectionality and Multiculturalism are frames for her research, teaching and community outreach work. Her research interests span grassroots movements, particularly in South Asia; critical and cultural studies with emphasis on feminism, transnationalism and post-colonialism; and new, social and community media. Her most recent research project is a study of the community radio movement in India and Nepal. Over a span of more than two decades, Dr. Kapoor has taught courses in the Communication and International/Global Studies departments, such as Foundations of Global Studies, Intercultural Communication, Critical and Cultural Theory, and Gender, Race and Class in the Media.

The In Dialogue series is cosponsored by Portland State University–University Studies.

Space is limited. Registration required. Free with museum admission. Students and educators use discount code EDUCATOR18.

Recommended Reading

In this essay I show the relevance of traversing multiple borders, religion, and migration:
Kapoor, P. (2018). Transnationalism. Encyclopedia of International and Intercultural Communication. Blackwell-Wiley Publishers.

I show how local (minority, refugee community) and global (displacement, mobility) are connected, while critiquing media, in the following paper:
Kapoor P., Brehm A., Testerman A. (2016). Entrapment as a Threat to Community Peace in the Global War on Terror: An Analysis of Discourse in Local Press. Journal of International and Global Studies, 7(2), 40-65.

Ritzer, G. (2011). “Imperialism, Colonialism” (pages 29-32). Globalization: The Essentials. Wiley-Blackwell.

Ritzer, G. (2011). “Neoliberalism” (pages 37-42). Globalization: The Essentials. Wiley-Blackwell.