Pod: Race and Gender in the Images of American West & Wheel-Thrown Pottery

Enrollment Requirements and Options:

Students in this pod may enroll in online coursework. Race and Gender in Images of the American West will meet for the first 2.5 weeks followed by Wheel-Thrown Pottery.

This pod includes the following courses:

Race and Gender in Images of the American West 2 cr 

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show traveled the country around the turn of the twentieth-century, performing iconic images of the West—from Annie Oakley’s gun tricks to reenactments of Custer’s “last stand” to displays of Native American “warriors.”  In many ways, this show typified the central role that the American West has played in the formation of American cultural identity—frequently through images more mythic than real.

This course explores the ways that popular culture, including fiction and particularly film, has constructed the West as a place where cultural ideologies of race, gender, and the natural world are played out. In examining a range of texts that depict popular images of the American West, we will analyze what different visions of race, gender, and nature suggest about identity and power in American culture.

Wheel-Thrown Pottery 3 cr

A challenging hands-on, wheel throwing class. Students will explore and develop some mastery with a range of pottery forms and techniques. This is an intensive, studio based, skill building workshop in wheel throwing techniques. Students should expect to spend at least 3 hours a day after class in the studio to complete assignments. Through demonstrations and individual instruction, plus plenty of practice time, students will explore and create a variety of primarily functional forms in clay. Students will keep a sketch book/ journal for self reflection, goal setting and exploration in design.

By the end of this course, students will be able to throw a variety of basic pottery forms including bowls, mugs, tumblers, lidded jars, pitchers and candleholders. Students will have some proficiency in a variety of surface decorating techniques including altering, carving, stamping, and glazing. Students will develop a vocabulary to discuss and critique pottery in terms of anatomy, form, craftsmanship, style and functionality. Students will have a good feel for the nature of clay.