Engaging Latinx Art

Bridging Archival Research and Art History Pedagogy through Chicano Posters

Abstract

This essay examines the integration of object-based learning in a university’s archive into the teaching of Latinx art history through a course assignment centered on the Chicano poster collection at San Diego State University (SDSU). The assignment was inspired by pedagogical approaches encountered at the National Endownment for the Humanities Summer Institute for Higher Education Faculty, titled “Engaging Latinx Art: Methodological and Pedagogical Approaches.” Students conducted firsthand analysis of posters from SDSU’s special collections and archives to produce descriptive, interpretive, and contextual texts for publication on the university library’s website and finding aids. Combining archival research, experiential learning, and community-engaged pedagogy, the project encouraged students to develop visual literacy and primary-source research skills while engaging with the art histories and material culture of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on student work and course evaluations, the essay argues that direct interaction with archival materials can deepen student engagement, expand understandings of Latinx art histories in particular, and reposition the art history classroom as a site of collaborative knowledge production and scholarship.