In Focus II: Entangled Frontiers

This course will continue the themes of the first In Focus class (Frontier Shores), exploring the nature of cross-cultural exchange, power relationships, and the construction of cross-cultural identity in Oceania from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Specifically, Entangled Frontiers will focus on the production of research and written material for the 2016 In Focus exhibition of the same name. This includes curatorial involvement through the production of exhibit labels, the selection of visual elements (such as photographs, sketches, maps), and the creation of essays and other contextual elements for the exhibition. Students who take this course will be very involved in the design and planning of many aspects of the exhibition, taking a practically oriented approach to the material and delivering focused and relevant research on the exhibition themes. This course will also involve some contextual study of the historical practices of museums and empires, the exercise of power through anthropology, and indigenous accommodation, agency, and ways of resistance. 3 credits. Satisfies the non-Western requirement.