MANUFACTURING PARADISE

Manufacturing Paradise (200-Level Undergrad) 
Visiting Faculty: Ryan Tacata
San Francisco Art Institute
Department of History and Theory of Contemporary Art
Fall 2015

Hula, mai tais, and beaches: these form our modern imaginaries of Hawai'i and other islands in the South Pacific. In this course, we will uncover how discourses of "paradise found" cover over US settler colonial projects and military intervention in the islands from the 19th century through the present moment. Studying film, television and photography, popular literature, anthropological scholarship, missionary and legal texts on Hawai'i, the Philippines, Guam, and other island outposts to understand how native bodies, labor, and land are produced and consumed, we will denaturalize the exotic islands as a site of pleasure. Satisfies: Social Science Requirement; Liberal Art Elective; Urban Studies Elective; Studies in Global Cultures Requirement.