A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
SAIC faculty member Karen Morris.

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Karen Morris

Professor

Contact

Professional Site

Bio

Education: BA, Anthropology, 1996, Davidson College, NC; MA, Anthropology, 1998, and PhD, Cultural and Social Anthropology, 2005, Stanford University, CA.

Publications: Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, The Queer Precariat In and Out of Higher Education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Anthropology News, Studies in Art Education, City & Society: Society for Urban, National and Transnational/Global Anthropology.

Awards: Spencer Foundation Large Research Grant on Education, University of Illinois Award for Creative Activity, Innovation 80 CoGen Grant

Karen Morris is a lesbian mother, cultural anthropologist, and co-founder of The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. She is interested in experimental, community-based collaborative research, pedagogy, and social justice work. Earlier in her career, Karen conducted ethnographic research in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa and Washington, D.C. to explore how transnational news media circulation among Ivorian families with diasporic members shaped the country’s political culture during crisis. Karen’s current work explores intergenerational connection between LGBTQ+ people, with a focus on care, kinship, aging, and activism.

Since its founding in 2019, The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project has evolved into a hybrid community/research partnership led by LGBTQ+ faculty and social service providers at SAIC, Center on Halsted (the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ+ community center), University of Illinois-Chicago, and University of Chicago. The project brings together racially, socioeconomically, and gender diverse cohorts of LGBTQ+ college students and older adults (60+) for year-long series of bi-weekly themed dialogues, collaborative art-making, and shared meals.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

The thesis, as the final requirement to be fulfilled for the Masters of Art degree in Visual and Critical Studies, is expected to constitute an original contribution to the current body of research in its field. For the thesis, students are encouraged to use innovative approaches to research and analysis, and the formats with which they disseminate the outcomes of their research. The thesis requirement may be satisfied in a variety of ways incorporating visual, sonic, and verbal media. This seminar assists the student in selecting, researching, analyzing, designing, and, organizing the thesis. During this semester, the student selects her or his thesis advisor and two other faculty committee members and defends the proposal before this panel. The student also completes most of the research and the preliminary work for the thesis. This seminar is required for the Master of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies. Open to MAVCS students only.

Class Number

2046

Credits

3