Canonical Shifting

Led by Christen Garcia

There are 451 Hispanic-Serving (HSI) higher education institutions in the US comprised of 25% or more undergraduate Latinx full-time enrolled students (U.S. Department of Education, 2022 & National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). However, Latinx Serving Institutions often underperform when compared to “white normative standards” of higher education (i.e. SAT/ACT scores, research funding, graduation rates), and Latinx students will continue to be marginalized and underachieve if HSI’s continue to be embedded in whiteness (Garcia, 2019, p.3). US Art Schools are no exception. Historically, US Art Schools have reinforced and perpetuated curricular omissions and monolithic stereotypes that categorize and pigeonhole artists of color, including Latinx artists (Dávila, 2020; Davalos, 2017). To truly be Latinx serving rather than a Latinx enrolling (Garcia, 2019), Art School students must see themselves in the curriculum that is based on Latinx student assets, strengths, and knowledge bases (Rendón et al., 2014), and pedagogies need to shift. bell hooks (1994) insists that engaged pedagogy requires the teacher to be vulnerable and share their lived experiences to de-center the teacher as all-knower. Reflecting on bell hooks’ engaged pedagogy, this paper shares a teaching praxis and practice called Visual Pláticas (García & Sotomayor, 2023). A vulnerable and performative act using text and image to share personal stories and experiences, Visual pláticas are informed by Gloria Anzaldúa’s (2009, 2012, 2015) theories of nepantla (existing in-between two worlds), autohistoria-teoría (theorizing through lived experiences), and curadora (healer).