Michael, a M.A. student in Latin American Studies and recipient of a LAII and Tinker Foundation Field Research Grant  will discuss the research he conducted in Oaxaca, Mexico, on the potential that art has in instigating social change.

Michael's research focuses on the contemporary Mexican artist collective known as Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca (ASARO). His presentation will highlight how ASARO utilizes aesthetic production to diffuse knowledge and thus challenge dominant political paradigms embedded in Mexican society. As a result, the collective of  Mexican youths seeks to open spaces in their community (and Oaxaca’s subculture) by providing a dissenting perspective vis-á-vis  dominant state discourses. ASARO attempts to bring to the fore socio-political issues they deem important to the region, Mexico and the globe that the state tends to overlook.