Essay competition: Feminist Art in an International Art Curriculum

Deadline for submissions: 1 March 2021.
This competition will be awarding 4 prizes of £230 (to 4 individual authors).

Judges: Katy Deepwell (Middlesex University), Alexandra Kokoli (Middlesex University), Anne Swartz (Savannah College of Art and Design), Kathleen Wentrack (Queensborough, CUNY), Catherine Harrington (Tokyo University of the Arts).

This essay competition is open to anyone working, or recently working (i.e. last two years), in Higher Education, whether or not they are members of Advance HE Connect. This is an international competition, inviting contributions from anywhere in the world. This essay competition is open to lecturers in art and design practices (studio teaching), as well as art theory and art history.

Essays should consider how feminist art is currently taught in art and design, art history, curating/arts admin curricula in Higher Education institutions, including art schools and academies, offering degrees in these subjects.

The content of definitions of “feminist art” or “feminist pedagogies” should be explored in the essay with a view to what kinds of feminism(s) and feminist methodologies are taught, both implicitly and explicitly. Whether the definition of feminist art or feminism is related to gender theory or the practices of women artists should be explored. The definition of what kinds of feminisms should be specified and argued: including the feminist content of approaches taken to multi-culturalism(s), trans-nationalisms, critiques of nationalisms, de-colonizing strategies, queer studies, post-colonial studies, black, indigenous, anti-racist and anti-sexist approaches.

There is no limitation on the subjects taught in the curricula discussed, except that the curricula was taught to art or design students, curating/arts administration or art history students. This may include multi-disciplinary/ inter-disciplinary courses on psychoanalysis, trauma studies, body image, sexuality and representation, sexual, class and racial politics, questions about embodiment, any aesthetics/philosophy or critical social theory, ecological issues, social protest, projects on social issues including against violence against women or participative social projects, or classes in any media including film, video, digital arts, or feminist literatures.

The focus of the essay should be on new or revised curricula for short optional courses or interventions made to improve the presence of feminist art as a subject in mainstream curricula. The content of individual classes, courses, and approaches should be discussed.

Priority will be given to essays where:
- the writer’s own experience of teaching is discussed and student’s reactions
- the essay offers a case study of innovative approaches to teaching ‘Feminist Art in an International Art Curriculum’ or critical assessments of how “Feminist Art” (however defined in content) is taught in their own institution or by national/international comparisons.

Essays must be submitted in English and be of no more than 6,000 words.

They should be sent to : k.deepwellmdx.ac.uk by the deadline.

The judges’ decision is final and no appeals will be considered.

All the prize-winning essays will be published on the Advance HE Connect platform as part of the resource section of the network.
Submitting the essay for the competition means that the author has given permission for the essay to be published on this platform: https://connect.advance-he.ac.uk/topics/14060/media_center.

Feminist Art in an International Art Curriculum
The network, Feminist Art in an International Art Curriculum, started in 2018 with a small grant from the Advance HE Connect online platform, for people working in the HE sector: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/advance-he-connect.

The network aims to examine:
- teaching and learning strategies in art history and art practice for feminism(s)
- disseminate models of good practice and case studies
- discuss and reflect upon strategies for implementing change at curriculum and course levels from BA-MA-PhD

During 2019-2020, several online Zoom meetings of members and participants to this teaching network on feminist art have been held to discuss how feminist art is taught in their respective institutions and graduate and post-graduate courses in art, art theory and art history. Initially members and participants have come from Japan, USA, South Africa, Sweden and UK.

This competition aims to stimulate discussion on this topic and to recognise the work that lecturers are doing to introduce feminism into art curricula.