SEMINAR: Exploring Central Valley Memories: Visual Anthropology: This interactive workshop is anchored in the principles of visual anthropology, a sub-discipline of cultural anthropology where visual elements (photographs and ethnographic films) help clarify, represent and archive cultural knowledge. At the heart of our inquiry is the question: how do we create an infrastructure to visually explore, document, and disseminate diverse cultural knowledge? Key Questions: What histories and memories are consciously important and perhaps unconsciously forgotten among residents of the Central Valley? How do immigrants of the Central Valley narrate the complex mosaic of their lived experience? Are there differences in how the elder gatekeepers and the younger generations tell their stories? Further, how can we invite participatory film-making in documenting local histories? MJC Faculty Organizer: Flora Carter.

YOUTUBE VIDEO: Dr. Steve Arounsack (CSUS)

STEVE AROUSNACK (CSU STANISLAUS) (14 min) – KECK VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY LAB 

CURRICULAR MODULES: Curricular modules including Visual Anthropology

LECTURE:  Lecture with Steve Arounsack, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at California State University, Stanislaus. His is a filmmaker and media developer whose productions have showcased on PBS and at public and private venues across the country.

DISCUSSION:  Seminar Discussion with following readings: Ruby, Jay. Picturing Culture: Explorations of Film and Anthropology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Readings:

Barbash, Ilisa and Lucien Taylor. Cross-Cultural Filmmaking: A Handbook for Making Documentary
and Ethnographic Films and Videos. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, UC Berkeley Press, 1997.
(Excerpts)

Baron, Stephanie, ed. Reading California: Art, Image, and Identity. Los Angeles County  Museum of Art,
UC Press, 2000.  Essays: Blake Allmendinger, “All About Eden,” Sally Stein, “On Location: The
Placement (and Replacement) of California in 1930s Photography.”

Diepeveen, Leonard and Timothy Van Laar. Art with a Difference: Looking at Difficult and Unfamiliar
Art.  Mountain View, CA. Mayfield Publishing 2001.  Excerpts:  from Ch.1, “Art Museums:
Organizers of Culture,” and Ch. 4, “Art and Difficulty.”

Hawkins, Stephanie L. American Iconographic: National Geographic, Global Culture, and the
Visual Imagination. Charlottesville and London, U. Virginia Press, 2010. Excerpt: “The
Icon and Its Readers,” “Savage Visions: Ethnography, Photography, and Local-Color
Fiction in National Geographic.”

Kottak, Conrad Phillip. Mirror for Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology,
McGraw Hill Educ., 2014. Ch1, “What is Anthropology,” Ch2, “Culture,” Ch3, “Doing
Anthropology.”

Ruby, Jay. Picturing Culture: Explorations of Film and Anthropology, Chicago: UChicago Press,
2000.  (Excerpts)