The Cerritos College Visual and Cultural Studies Program is a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary AA degree unique in the California Community College system. Building upon such traditional programs as Art History, Film Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Gender Studies, students are free to mix and match across a broad range of areas of specialization. The seven papers and four short narratives assembled in this fifth volume of the self-published journal, WOKE, present just a sampling of the many papers and independent research projects pursued by students enrolled in courses within the program this year.

The past and the present are rarely as far apart as they may seem and the essays collected here make this quite clear, either by examining the historical context of contemporary practices or by looking at the past through a contemporary lens. For example, Cait Cibulsk’s The Farmer Born, the Painter Made and Violet Vos’ The Symbolism of the Femme Fatale, respectively explore nineteenth century examples of gender performativity and male fragility. Brisa Caballero’s Visualizing the Space Sublime links paintings from the era of Manifest Destiny with early extraplanetary representations and Audrey Chua’s Believing in the Supernatural explores traditional Shinto imagery in popular Japanese anime. Various Cultural Studies students imagine a speculative exchange between existentialist Albert Camus and anti-colonial theorist Franz Fanon, while Mary Osborn’s Five Minutes to Midnight frames the historical circumstances surrounding the various iterations of Watchmen. Taping into some of the most current events, Fatima Mirza’s The Ideal and the Real explores the origin of ‘COVID Art’ and Annie Kim’s Minting Conditions compares 90’s Net Art to the latest fad in digital art, NFTs.