Allison Yasukawa

Associate Professor

Availability:

Education:

MFA Studio Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago
MA, TESOL/Applied Linguistics, University of Illinois at Chicago

Bio

Allison Yasukawa is an interdisciplinary maker, educator and language nerd. She holds an MFA in Studio Arts and an MFA in TESOL/Applied Linguistics from the University of Illinois. Allison investigates asymmetries of power in language and interaction and examines crossings from the personal to the global.

Websites:


Research Interests

Allison is invested in what communication scholar Joanne Gilbert calls "heckling the status quo”. Her work draws from decoloniality, feminist theory, language awareness, art education, Asian American studies and more. She blends arts-based modes of inquiry with methodologies from the humanities and social sciences, like close reading, multimodal discourse analysis and participatory action-research. Allison has exhibited at the American University Museum in Washington D.C., High Desert Test Sites at Joshua Tree and Dak'Art OFF in Senegal. Her writing has been published in several journals. She has presented workshops on art-making and language-making in Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and China. She is working on a book about language and creative practice.

Courses

Course Name Department Course Code Term
Foundation Studio Courses FNDT 108 26/FA

Description

This course explores a range of creative processes to develop ways to connect thinking, making, and writing in an art and design context. Students will learn to contextualize projects in social, political, ecological and personal ways and engage in creative problem solving through iteration, experimentation, improvisation, and adapting to accidental discoveries as a generative part of the creative process. Through process-based learning and practice, students will experiment with interdisciplinary explorations framed by research skill development through collaborative projects, peer reviews, discussions, individual assignments, and critique-based studio sessions. Students will produce multiple versions of ideas from concept to content to creatively solve problems while determining new ways to view art + design practice overall.

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites.

Foundation Studio Courses FNDT 165 26/FA

Description

Foundation Core is an introduction to a breadth of conceptual, technical and disciplinary approaches that includes 2D, 3D and 4D disciplines. Exploring different forms of conceptual and material-based inquiry, this studio course focuses on the understanding and articulation of core values shared across contemporary art, design, and media disciplines. Foundation Core emphasizes practices and concepts that provide a solid platform for any of the degree-focused studio cores offered in the second semester.

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites.

Writing WRTG 301 26/FA

Description

This studio course offers students the opportunity to explore specific genres, themes or topics related to writing creatively in an art and design context. Through experimentation and sustained practice with differing forms of writing, students will have the opportunity to conceptualize and produce a large body of work in a particular area. This course encourages students to consider the social and cultural contexts that drive rhetorical choices.

Each section of this course runs with a different topic. See here .

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites.