Graduation Year

2020

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Politics and International Relations

Second Department

Dance

Reader 1

Mark Golub

Reader 2

Kevin Williamson

Reader 3

Suchi Branfman

Rights Information

2020KPaz

Abstract

In order to obtain a B.A from Scripps College in Politics and Dance in the Spring of 2020, I have developed a dual thesis that merges the concentrations of political theory and choreography/ performance studies, respectively. This thesis will investigate practices and embodiments of freedom within spaces of racial enclosure. After spending the last two years studying at Scripps College and volunteering at the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium security level men’s prison in Norco, CA, I began to realize the boundaries of separation, liminality, and overlap between these different spaces in my life. I was studying political theory and dance in silloughs; yet, so often after a movement session inside the CRC, incarcerated folks would share that they felt “free” again for two hours. Clearly, there was a missing link for me. These experiences served as the impetus for this project, which explores embodied knowledge production and its political uses. I recount my personal lived experiences of navigating Scripps as a first-generation, working-class student and the California Rehabilitation Center as a volunteer while weaving in self-reflexive analysis. By engaging with various political theory texts throughout the choreographic development and writing process, I craft a choreographic project intent on exploring the notions of memory; sustenance; and the revolutionary potential of being, healing, and carrying on. which I investigated the embodiment and praxis of notions. Thus, the following is a collection of reflections with an ultimately self-serving purpose. I use Scrips College’s thesis requirement as an opportunity to engage in a process of critical inquiry, self-reclamation, creation, and deep, complex growth--for myself, and for all those who cannot.

Download

This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

Share

COinS