Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.

Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.

Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.

ORCID

N/A

Access Type

Open Access Thesis

Document Type

thesis

Degree Program

Art

Degree Type

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

Year Degree Awarded

2018

Month Degree Awarded

May

Abstract

The following works are an exploration of the histories of colonization that Indigenous people experienced in North America and how the settler colonial phenomenon continues to exist in the contemporary United States. In this project I am placing “official” history alongside personal narrative in order to represent the overlooked experiences of those impacted by the colonial project in the southwest. Old English Modern Mestizaje acts to deconstruct the ideologies that create common sense notions of Mexico, Mexican American, Xicana/o/x and Mestizaje. With this project I am working to explore the impact of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, capitalism and hetero patriarchy, as they affect the material realities of people whose lives are determined by their relationship to the border. Through the use of sculpture, experimental video, documentary photography, urban sculpture, earthenware, and performance this series means to draw our attention to the ways we uphold and reconstruct institutions of power. I am most compelled by the places where evidence of resistance and survival is made manifest. With Old English Modern Mestizaje my desire is to generate alternative empathies that open paths for a new consciousness.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/12139311

First Advisor

Susan Jahoda

Second Advisor

Kimberlee Perez

Third Advisor

Juana Valdes

Fourth Advisor

Joseph Krupcynski

Download

Share

COinS