Hao Zhao, Cinematic Arts 

“LGBTQ+Iowa”  

This presentation will introduce and discuss an ongoing artistic project, “LGBTQ+Iowa.” This project is a dual photographic series and documentary short film centered on LGBTQ+ people in Iowa. To achieve this goal, I will photograph and film verité documentary of individuals in locations across the state, particularly rural regions. Through the participants’ widely varied backgrounds, the project will expand narrow representations by exploring how gender and sexuality are culturally and economically inflected in Iowa. Thus, I seek at once to highlight LGBTQ+ Iowan individualities and bring attention to the ongoing struggles that many face in the state. This project will contribute to the vitality of artistic research in Iowa as a project made by and about LGBTQ+ Iowans. The project’s participants act not merely as passive subjects, but as agents sharing their creative input and on-camera performances. They will also contribute to the descriptions that accompany the photos. In 2021, I will exhibit the photo series at public libraries in Iowa, aiming to provide Iowans the chance to appreciate current queer artwork where they otherwise may rarely encounter it. A brief, anonymous online survey will be available beside the exhibitions to sample the public’s response to this project. The documentary film will be programmed at a nonprofit cinema in Iowa City (FilmScene) and submitted to film festivals in the US and beyond. The Diversity Seminar presentation would give an overview of the project’s phases (development, production, and exhibition) and introduce samples of work in progress. A major focus would be a first-person description of how I developed and carried out this independent project as a foreigner newly arrived in the United States, lacking prior networks and traditional research structures.  

The Center for Diversity and Enrichment (CDE), in collaboration with the Office of Graduate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; the University Libraries; and the Office of the Provost is pleased to announce this semester’s Diversity Seminar. The Diversity Seminar is a series of presentations that provides a safe and supportive space in which scholars may present their research to colleagues and students on campus. As part of its mission to promote student success and enrichment, the CDE seeks to support and promote the scholarship of faculty, staff, and graduate students with historically underrepresented global majority and/or marginalized identities at the University of Iowa. Scholars whose research addresses populations with marginalized identities may also submit proposals. All sessions will held via Zoom.