Minority groups are often underrepresented in official archives, which has resulted in their continuing marginalization in historiography. Critical archive scholars argue for empowering such groups by developing and investigating archival collections. This symposium intends to expand this approach by demonstrating how the visual practices of underrepresented groups can be studied through underutilized data sources. To this end, the symposium focuses on indigenous, black, and diaspora communities seen through their visual production, with the presumption that the vernacular representations of everyday life can provide substantial insights into evolving minority identities. Therefore, it explores the interplay of vernacular visual practices and the transformations of minority identities by posing two broad research questions: What is the role of vernacular visual practice in shaping minority identities? How does looking at identity through vernacular images challenge pervasive representations of minority groups?
FRIDAY, MAY 9
9:00-11:30 Welcome & Panel 1
VERNACULAR AESTHETICS AND ARTISTIC METHODOLOGIES
Chuck Jackson (University of Houston – Downtown), “Face First: 1970s Black Vernacular Aesthetics on 16mm in the Jessie Maple Collection”
Avery LaFlamme (University of Chicago), “Ramon Williams’ Vernacular Realism”
Megan Tusler (University of Chicago), “Walking, Working: Los Angeles on Foot in ‘Tangerine’”
Chari Glogovac-Smith (University of California, Santa Cruz), “Amplifying Black Cultural Narratives through Immersive Artistic Methodologies”
11:45-1:45 Panel 2
VISUAL PRODUCTION IN COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL CONTEXT
Emmanuel Ortega (University of Illinois Chicago), “Beyond European Palettes: The Overlooked Contributions of Indigenized Artists in Mexico and the Invention of Popular Painting”
Anabelle Suitor (Brown University), “The Reproduction of Minority Autonomy in the Multispecies Caste Economy”
Hadas Zahavi (Columbia University), “Photo Washing: Reclaiming Algerian War Amateur Photography”
2:45-4:15 Panel 3
MEDIA PRACTICES IN ISOLATION
Phi Nguyen (Yale University), “On the Edge of Fate: Vietnamese Refugee Zines in Hong Kong Detention Centers”
Eli Boonin-Vail (University at Albany), “Prison Vernacular: The Incarcerated Visual Culture of San Quentin”
4:30-6:30 Panel 4
MOVING IMAGE AND MINORITY IDENTITIES
Elizabeth Patton (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), “Reframing the Narrative: African American Home Movies and the Reimagining of National Identity”
Dwight Swanson (Independent researcher, archivist for regional film and video collection), “Hidden Reels: Unearthing Finnish-American Identity Through Home Movies”
Ashley Dequilla (Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago), “Nicholas Viernes (1902-1991): Filipino Pioneer of Autonomous Cinema”
SATURDAY, MAY 10
8:30-10:30: Panel 5
GENDER AND MINORITY CULTURAL EXPRESSION
Vince Ha (Queen’s University), “Fading Fragments: The Burden of Counter-Imagery in Gay Asians of Toronto’s Zine, 1983-1990”
Joanna García Cherán (Stanford University), “‘The Good Times and Bad Times’: Homegirls, Embodied Fantasy, and Commercial Photography in 1990s Southern California”
Benjamin Arenstein (University of Chicago), “Pornography, Jewish Masculinity, and the Latvian KGB: The Case of Josef Schneider”
10:45-13:15: Panel 6 & Closing remarks
HOME MEDIA AND FAMILY ARCHIVES
Andrea F. Bohlman (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), “Unhearing Happy Birthday: A Cassette Deck in the Polish American Kitchen”
Madison Brown (Harvard Art Museums), “Homemade Intimacies”
Faime Alpagu (Columbia University), “Vernacular Family Archives and Diasporic Memories: Rethinking Migration through Narratives of People from Turkey in Austria”
Agata Zborowska (University of Chicago/ Katholieke Universiteit Leuven/University of Warsaw), “Negotiating Collective Identity in Vernacular Diaspora Archive”
THE SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZERS
Agata Zborowska, University of Chicago, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and University of Warsaw
Eleonory Gilburd, Department of History, University of Chicago
Allyson Nadia Field, Department of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago