A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
Portrait of a person smiling

Allison Yasukawa

Lecturer

Bio

Allison Yasukawa (she/her) is an interdisciplinary maker and deep language nerd. She holds an MFA in Studio Art and an MA in TESOL/Applied Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. As both an artist and educator, she is invested in what communication scholar Joanne Gilbert calls "heckling the status quo.” In her studio practice, Allison investigates asymmetries of power in language and interaction and examines crossings of various kinds, from the personal to the global. She has exhibited nationally and internationally at spaces including the American University Museum (Washington D.C.), High Desert Test Sites (Joshua Tree, CA), and Dak'Art OFF (Saint-Louis, Senegal). Allison has developed arts-based English language programs and taught at the the California Institute of the Arts, California College of the Arts, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and ArtCenter College of Design. She has presented workshops internationally on artmaking and languagemaking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast; and Changsha, China and is working on a book about language and/as creative practice.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

In this course we will focus on the development of artistic research skills for students already engaged in a practice. Students take this required course in order to experience and develop a variety of research methodologies, both conventional and alternative, which include utilizing collections and archives in the School and the extended community. Students will undertake various types of research activities: a) collecting and classification, b) mapping and diagramming, c) systems of measurement, d) social interaction, e) information search systems, f) recording and representation, and g) drawing and other notational systems. Faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary, idea based assignments are designed to help students recognize work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Through this course work students will be able to identify the most productive research methods and making strategies to bolster their emerging studio practice. Critique as an evaluative process used in art and design schools, is a focus in this course. Various methods and models of critique are used in order to give students the tools to discuss their own work and the work of others.

Class Number

1799

Credits

3

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1584

Credits

1.5

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1694

Credits

1.5