A Practice of Connection
Contextualizing epistemologies
In my view, education is an act of mediation between the academic and the lived, the institutional and the communal, the local and the global. Across my courses on visual studies, photography, anthropology, and aesthetics, I seek to create dynamic and safe learning environments where critical inquiry, creative production, and ethical reflection intersect.
Aesthetics and Violence
How are questions of aesthetics—of beauty, taste, and the unity of forms—imbricated in the politics of violence? What violence results from strict adherence to a specific aesthetic order? What ethical conundrum arises in the representation of violence in artistic domains? What does it mean to be moved by the perversely beautiful? This advanced and reading-intensive course investigates, through a series of critical debates, the confluence between aesthetic expressions
and the violence set forth by our common experiences of modernity. Class discussions will follow the contour of a thematic inquiry into the triad of rhetoric, epistemology, and aesthetics, as well as their relation to the global histories of violence. Topics for survey include aesthesis, agitprop, museumization, cosmetology, gender dichotomy, and brutalism, among others.
Ethnographic Film: History, Theory, and Practice
This course explores the genre of ethnographic film—its historical emergence, methodological innovations, and theoretical contribution to both anthropology and art. The course charts the evolution of ethnographic films from their initial concerns with representing the “Other” to their shifted attention to reflexivity and the politics of knowledge production across cultural boundaries. Throughout the course, we will be addressing various ethical, formal, and thematic concerns underlying contemporary thinking about
ethnographic filmmaking. A variety of experimental ethnographic film and video makers will be introduced in weekly lectures and screenings. In the course of the semester, students will also be researching, assembling material, interviewing, and editing three short assignments and a final project that responds to the different thematic focuses. The formats utilized to produce these projects may include single-channel video, interactive video, or video installation.
Ethnographic Research Methods
How are questions of aesthetics—of beauty, taste, and the unity of forms—imbricated in the politics of violence? What violence results from strict adherence to a specific aesthetic order? What ethical conundrum arises in the representation of violence in artistic domains? What does it mean to be moved by the perversely beautiful? This advanced and reading-intensive course investigates, through a series of critical debates, the confluence between aesthetic expressions
and the violence set forth by our common experiences of modernity. Class discussions will follow the contour of a thematic inquiry into the triad of rhetoric, epistemology, and aesthetics, as well as their relation to the global histories of violence. Topics for survey include aesthesis, agitprop, museumization, cosmetology, gender dichotomy, and brutalism, among others.
Photography History and Theory
We live today in a world of photographic images. Photography is present in a wide range of practices, from avant-garde arts to mass media, from the convention of photo identification to
the techniques of surveillance, from photojournalism to selfies and Instagram. Photographs saturate all aspects of contemporary lives, demanding constant attention, interpretation, and consumption. This course offers an introductory survey of the diverse and pervasive field of
photography from its origin in the early 19th century to the current digital moment. The course follows a blended learning structure, offering a mix of online and in-person lectures, course readings, and discussion forums to address photography's multiple histories and theorizations.
Students will learn to unpack photography as a multifaceted medium, namely, an artistic experience, a technological frontier, a mode of power, a cultural practice, and a sociohistorical text. Key photographers, movements, and important themes will be explored in tandem with the
cultural contexts in which innovations and developments in photography unfolded. With special attention to the intersection of photography and Vietnamese history, the course will also demonstrate how constellations of power—with regards to class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, economy, and geopolitics - influence the practice, dissemination, and preservation of photography today.
Issues in Contemporary Photography
Issues in Contemporary Photography offers fresh perspectives on existing debates in the field of photography. It aims to deepen students’ understanding of photography—its historical development, aesthetic considerations, and pictorial strategies—through hands-on engagement with styles and concepts. The course provides an opportunity for students to expand their technical and creative range through weekly assignments and critique sessions. Students will learn the basics of digital cameras, image-editing software, and key photographic techniques. Students will examine photographic works from internationally celebrated photographers to arrive at their own understanding of how photographic images are created, reproduced, and valued within both fine art photography and photography-as-art traditions. As such, they will learn to develop conceptual ideas, offer constructive critique to their peers, and locate their work in the broader context of contemporary photographic practice. Topics for discussion include visual ambiguity, objectivity, staging, authenticity, the digital and the analog, and AI influence on photography, among others.