University of Illinois at Chicago - Museum and Exhibition Studies

Surviving the Long Wars! Come see the exhibits at the Chicago Cultural Center, Hyde Park Art Center, and Newberry Library. Photo by Ronak Kapadia!

Campus News | UIC Today Veteran Art Triennial explores the ‘transformative power of art’ The triennial takes place at the Newberry Library, Chicago Cultural Center and Hyde Park Art Center Read more →

Censorship, coverups, and redaction are prevalent within the museum world. We invite museum workers, visitors, and others to use this anonymous platform to share instances of redaction which we may include in a journal exploring the topic, and post online.

[Redacted] Museum Stories The issue of censorship, coverups, and redaction are painfully prevalent within the museum world. We, the Fwd: Museums 2023 Journal publication team, have created this Google Form to invite museum professionals, volunteers, and visitors to use this anonymous platform to share what instances of redac...

would like to recruit YOU to help shape a project on Informal STEM (ISL) Learning Careers.

The project team wants to hear from a wide variety of folks—working at or seeking employment at a range of institutions, a variety of career stages, and across all job roles.

Add your name to our roster of educators, museum staff, and ISL practitioners for this exciting service opportunity to participate in virtual and in-person listening sessions, workshops, focus groups, and more. Selected participants will receive a stipend for their time. You can also opt-in to receive updates when new tools are released.

Azubuike Akunne reading his essay, Pieces of Being, which was published in Fwd: Museums Journal - In Transit 2021.

Bio: Azubuike Akunne {Ah-zoo-b-kay | Ah-koo-nay} is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Houston, Texas. Azubuike's creations focus on expanding cultural awareness by utilizing science and technology. Azubuike's current work captures the relationship of living organisms through metalwork.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cl_0VIGjTvV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Surviving the Long Wars explores the multiple overlapping histories that shape our understanding of warfare, as well as the alternative visions of peace, healing, and justice generated by diverse communities impacted by war. The project begins with a virtual scholarly series hosted by the University of Illinois Chicago at the nexus of critical ethnic studies, native/Indigenous studies, and Middle Eastern Studies on the histories and futures of native rebellion alongside contemporary us militarism and warfare. The seminar series is part of a year-long UIC graduate class and NEH “Dialogues on the Experience of War” discussion program. The project culminates in the second Veteran Art Triennial and Summit, in Spring 2023, at the Chicago Cultural Center, Hyde Park Art Center, and Newberry Library.
Laleh Khalili is a professor of international politics at Queen Mary University of London and the author of Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: The Politics of National Commemoration (Cambridge 2007); Time in the Shadows: Confinement in Counterinsurgencies (Stanford 2013) and Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula (Verso 2020).
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Seats available for fall 2022!

Keywords: Abolition, anti-imperialism, contemporary art, critical ethnic/Indigenous/Middle Eastern studies, resistance, solidarities

How can critical theory and curatorial practice inform our analysis of the connections and contradictions between the 18th and 19th century US “American Indian Wars” and the 21st century “Global War on Terror” (GWOT)?

How can we connect the ongoing legacies of Native rebellion against US settler colonialism and genocide with today’s antiwar activists, artists, and cultural practitioners responding to contemporary US warfare, with a focus on GWOT’s impact in the Greater Middle East?

What unique perspectives do BIPOC veteran artists and war resisters bring to the study of these long wars? How do their experiences outside the dominant/nationalist “veteran” identity shed light on the tangled relationship between race, gender, indigeneity, and citizenship?

What are the ethical and political stakes of bringing BIPOC veterans and war resisters into dialogue with Indigenous descendants of US “Indian wars” and survivors of the GWOT, including Arab, Muslim, and South Asian diasporic communities in Chicago?

The Museum and Exhibition Studies Program, Gender and Women’s Studies Program, and emerging Veteran Art Movement are partnering to offer Surviving the Long Wars. This course is the *first part of a two-semester seminar introducing students to contemporary art and curatorial practices in addition to scholarship in critical ethnic, native/Indigenous, and Middle Eastern studies to reveal contradictions, parallels and relationships that generate opportunities for anti-imperialist solidarities and creative visions for a more just future.

During the course student research teams will be partnered with National Endowment for the Humanities Veteran Fellows to investigate and build public programs that examine the connections and contradictions between the eighteenth and nineteenth-century US “Indian Wars” and the twenty-first-century “Global War on Terror.” This class will create opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of the experience of war by examining the multiple, overlapping histories that inform contemporary US warfare as well as alternative visions of peace, healing, and justice created by diverse communities.

Surviving the Long Wars will incorporate academic study, curatorial research, and focused group discussions in conjunction with a public scholarly seminar series in new directions in comparative ethnic, native/Indigenous, and Middle Eastern studies co-curated by Professor Therese Quinn and Associate Professor Ronak K. Kapadia, featuring leading scholar activists including Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Kyle Mays, Harsha Walia, Nick Estes, and Laleh Khalili. The project examines the conflicting and at times interwoven histories and identities of BIPOC veterans with those of native descendants of US “Indian wars” along with more recent survivors of the GWOT, including Arab, Muslim, and South Asian diasporic communities. The project culminates in the second Veteran Art Triennial and Summit in Chicago in March 2023.

*Students are invited, but not required, to take Part 2 in Spring 2023.

Amazing class at UIC, Fall '22!

Hot fall museum and exhibition studies class at UIC!

Great piece!

Against Artsploitation | Dana Kopel Somehow, the anti-austerity politics of our work didn’t apply to those of us working at the museum. Behind the New Museum’s veneer of social justice was rampant exploitation.

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