Tag: Author features

Black sexuality, the glass closet, and how the "down low" can never be one specific thing.

April 23, 2014

Since the early 2000s, the phenomenon of the “down low”—black men whohave sex with men as well as women and do not identify as gay, queer, or bisexual—has exploded in media and popular culture. Wordle image source. BY C. RILEY SNORTONNorthwestern University Many of the ideas in Nobody is Supposed to Know emerged from hours … More Black sexuality, the glass closet, and how the "down low" can never be one specific thing.

The definition of academic freedom, for many, does not accommodate dissent.

April 16, 2014

BY STEVEN SALAITAAssociate professor of English at Virginia Tech Academic freedom is often a diversion from the free practices of academic labor. It does not yet fully accommodate dissent. In many ways, as the essays in the collection The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent illustrate, academic freedom is a byproduct (and progenitor) of deeply … More The definition of academic freedom, for many, does not accommodate dissent.

The BDS movement and the front lines of the war on academic freedom.

April 9, 2014

BY SUNAINA MAIRA Professor of Asian American studies at the University of California, Davis In December 2013, the American Studies Association announced that it had endorsed an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions, following two years of discussion in the association and based on a majority vote by the membership in support of the boycott … More The BDS movement and the front lines of the war on academic freedom.

On the challenge of co-existence.

March 25, 2014

Paul Carter writes about his book Meeting Place, in which waiting, meeting, non-meeting, and communication have possibilities in unexpected manifestations. BY PAUL CARTERRMIT University in Melbourne, Australia Meeting Place is like its subject: where people meet, there are always many voices and views. So Meeting Place brings together stories, insights, beliefs and experiences from many … More On the challenge of co-existence.

Who cares if you look? Participatory art and the act of interpretation. (Part III of III)

March 19, 2014

Portrait of Tristan Tzara, 1927. Participatory aestheticsloom large in Tzara’s infamous “Dada Poem” from the “1918 Manifesto.” Part IPart II—BY TODD CRONANEmory University Consider, finally, the case of Dada more generally. Tristan Tzara, for instance, another presumed progenitor of participatory aesthetics, in his 1916 “Note for the Bourgeois” describes “a poem based on new principles.” … More Who cares if you look? Participatory art and the act of interpretation. (Part III of III)

Who cares if you look? On the artist and the spectator. (Part II of III)

March 19, 2014

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, Marcel Duchamp.Duchamp famously declared that the artist decided what was art, not the public. BY TODD CRONANEmory University <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; … More Who cares if you look? On the artist and the spectator. (Part II of III)

Who cares if you look? On internal and external relationships with art. (Part I of III)

March 19, 2014

Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership. —Lawrence Weiner, “Declaration of Intent” (1968) Shepard Fairey’s OBEY sticker craze captures the core terms of any viewer-driven aesthetic. BY TODD CRONANEmory University “The OBEY sticker attempts to stimulate curiosity … More Who cares if you look? On internal and external relationships with art. (Part I of III)

Olympic architecture and a lost opportunity in Sochi

March 6, 2014

Fireworks over the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, Russia, during the 2014 Winter Olympics. BY KATHLEEN JAMES-CHAKRABORTYProfessor of art history at University College Dublin After last week’s closing ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics, many of the athletic performances will be remembered for a long time; not so the architecture. The Winter Olympics seldom produce … More Olympic architecture and a lost opportunity in Sochi