Romancing Native Americans

Requirements

This assignment was my capstone project, required for my BA in Art History. This capstone was intended to guide students through the process of writing an original research paper on the topic of “representations of race.”  Intentionally vague, the 2019 capstone was designed to provoke students to think broadly and critically about the category of race itself, as well as the various ways in which high art and visual culture have performed the cultural work of creating, enforcing, and naturalizing this man-made concept. This project required students to (1) write an extended original research paper and (2) present this paper orally to my colleagues and professors.

To complete this capstone, I performed a formal analysis of my selected work, followed by an annotated bibliography on the subject before drafting a 15-20 page research paper and giving a 25-30 minute presentation synthesizing my research and findings.

Description

For this assignment, I chose to integrate my interest in romance tropes and analyze the visual and written imagery on the front and back cover of Georgina Gentry’s Warrior’s Honor. Warrior’s Honor is but one example in the large niche of Native American Romances that engage the stereotypes surrounding Native Americans while simultaneously disregarding and erasing the tragic and harsh history of Native Americans at the hands of the United States Government and their critical depiction in American popular culture in order to create a profitable form of indigenous sex appeal.

This assignment illustrates my skills and competencies in Art History Critique and Academic Research.