Art History from Home:
Art and Social Change

Online, via Zoom

Art exists in relation to its particular social moment. Whether representing the current reality or leveraging its power to challenge cultural narratives, it can inspire emotional responses and critical thinking in a way distinct from traditional political methods. Through work in the Whitney’s collection, we will explore the different roles art has played in the United States during the twentieth century, addressing issues from immigration to economic justice to sexism and racism.

Ayanna Dozier is an artist, lecturer, curator, and Ph.D. candidate at McGill University. Her dissertation, Mnemonic Aberrations, examines the formal and narrative aesthetics in Black feminist experimental short films in the United Kingdom and the United States. She is the author of the 33 1/3 book on Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope. She is currently a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney and a lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University.