Critical Ethnic Studies Studio introduce students to the interrelations between race/ethnicity, art making and design practices. These courses complement the Critical Ethnic Studies Seminars with their hands-on approach in which themes of ethnic identity are incorporated into studio and community practices.Digging in the World studio researches the garden as an urban site of cultural production. We will look into the ways that artists/designers/architects and citizen’s work in and with gardens as a social form and collective tool for building community, cultural knowledge and economic and social equity. Seeking inspiration from Bay Area garden and farming projects, and some from across the globe, students will learn how cities, schools, neighborhoods, prisons and immigrants garden to build social fabric, reorient human economies, preserve knowledge and heal. Talks on permaculture principles, cooperative mutual aid and social histories of urban farming in the Bay Area will set the stage for the creation of our own visionary models and experiments. We will visit several local garden and farm projects working alongside them to learn the story of their garden and community. Through a series of short performance based activities students will muse and instigate site responsive projects working with human and non human collaborators exploring plants, relationship and place. Students will develop a final proposal and prototype that re-imagines the future of the CCA campus or their own community and neighborhood, whether a backyard or apartment balcony through the lens of "the garden as present and future imaginary".  Emphasizing the skills, craft and ethics of sustainable design and "slowness”, we will consider the practices of place-making and the conceptual skills needed for developing site specific and socially engaged projects in the world that seed the values of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. The societal implications of environmental change, including questions of ecological ethics and environmental justice arising from the disparate effects of that change on human communities and populations will be integral to our inquiry. Case studies, readings and art/design projects include Marjetica Potrc, Fallen Fruit, myvillages.org, future farmers, Planting Justice, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, Edible School Yard, City Slickers Farm, Pie Ranch, Alameda Point Collaborative, Rowen White with Sierra Seeds and Indigenous Seed Keeper Network, Mountain Bounty Farm Land Trust, and one very special secret garden not far from the CCA campus.

Visit Workday to view this information.