Generously co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute, The School of Visual Arts, The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University, The Edwin H. Case Chair in American Music at Columbia University, and Oxford University Press.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
9:30 AM-11:30 AM  
“Conceptualism, Conceptual Art, & Aesthetics”
Chair: Edward Dimendberg (UC Irvine)
Jacob Stewart-Halevy (Yale), Eve Meltzer (NYU), Jorge Otero-Pailos (Columbia)

1:00 PM-3:00 PM
“Aesthetic Computing, Digitization, & Data Visualization”
Chair: Daniel Herwitz (Michigan)
Christiane Paul (Whitney Museum), Boris Groys (NYU), Amber Frid-Jimenez (Emily Carr, Carr), Christopher Sula (Pratt)

3:30 PM-5:30 PM    
“Decolonizing Aesthetics, Migratory Aesthetics, & Diaspora Criticism”
Chair: Gregg Horowitz (Pratt)
Miguel Rojas-Sotelo (Duke), Chika Okeke-Agulu (Princeton), Karen Lang (Warwick), Brent Hayes Edwards (Columbia)
    
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
9:30 AM-11:30 AM 
“Participatory Aesthetics, Art, & Social Practice”
Chair: Catherine Soussloff (University of British Columbia)
Tom Huhn (SVA), Michael Kelly (UNC Charlotte), Mel Chin (North Carolina)

1:00 PM-3:00 PM   
“Race, Art, & Aesthetics”
Chair: Whitney Davis (Berkeley)
Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia), Monique Roelofs (Hampshire College), Paul Taylor (Penn State)

3:30 PM-5:30 PM  
“Improvisation, Embodiment, & Experimental Art”
Chair: George Lewis (Columbia)
Eva Diaz (Pratt), Carrie Noland (UC Irvine/Clark), Lydia Goehr (Columbia), Brian Kane (Yale)

Critical and Visual Studies
         the Liberal Arts Major at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y.


This summer brings a new phase in the major with the launching of our revised curriculum.  It also brings a change of Coordinator for the major.  We are delighted to announce that Lisabeth During, Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies is our new Coordinator.  Below are messages from Department Chair Gregg Horowitz and from Ric Brown, who is stepping down announcing the changing of the guard in our B.A. major. Expect more from Lisabeth in this space soon as she settles into her new duties and inaugurates an exciting period in the development of the liberal arts at Pratt Institute!



New Coordinator for Critical and Visual Studies!

Hello All,

I'm writing today to let you know that Ric Brown has decided, in consultation with me, to hand  over the reins of the Critical and Visual Studies BA program. Although I had imagined Ric would continue as Coordinator until the end of next year, he judged that, having shepherded (and at times muscled) the new structure of the program through the many levels of curricular review (in addition to reviews at the departmental, school, and Institute level, the new BA also had to win NY State Education Department approval), the time was ripe for a new coordinator to welcome the first class of students into the new program.

The new Coordinator of Critical and Visual Studies, starting July 1, is Lisabeth During. In conversations with me and Ric, Lisabeth has already proved a fount of new and exciting ideas for enhancing the student experience in the program and the department, as well as at Pratt more generally. I am eager to work with Lisabeth to open doors for our students to take minors in other departments at Pratt, develop a refreshed SSCS speakers series that will be keyed to the needs and interests of our BA students, and enable our students to make effective use of the resources of the Institute, Brooklyn, and New York City. Katie Kelley will continue to serve as the Assistant to the Coordinator, and Ric has graciously volunteered to serve as an informal advisor during Lisabeth's first term in the post. I know that Lisabeth will also be calling on all of you to help her launch the new program smoothly and successfully.

Let's all offer our best wishes to Lisabeth as she takes on her new responsibilities, and thank Ric for his heroic efforts to reinvigorate Critical and Visual Studies, the Liberal Arts BA at Pratt.

Best,
Gregg    

Gregg M. Horowitz, Chair
Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies
Pratt Institute
200 Willoughby Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
718-399-4427



Welcoming Lisabeth During as your new Coordinator of the B.A. in Critical & Visual Studies!

Greetings all,
After much thought, I have decided that this is an auspicious moment to step down as Coordinator of the Critical & Visual Studies major.  I am delighted to tell you that as of July 1st, stepping into the Coordinator position will be Lisabeth During, who many of you may already know from your courses or department events.

In the last 3 years your faculty and Gregg Horowitz, the Chair of the department, have succeeded in reshaping the curriculum so that the major can thrive well into the future.  But now that phase is over, and Lisabeth is the person to lead the major in to the next era.  Katie Kelly, who all of you know, will continue on assisting Lisabeth, which is very nice news for all.  I will also be advising Lisabeth over the Fall as she settles into the position and so the transition should be a smooth one for all concerned.  I should add that it has been a great pleasure working with Gregg these 3.5 years.  Of course, it is only as it should be that we have not always agreed, but our few disagreements were always collegial and ultimately productive and positive.  Much of the success of the major over these past few years results from his being department chair.

Of course, I am simply returning to being a FT faculty member in the department, so actually I might be more accessible than ever before -- well, after the Fall, when my son's high school search is over -- and another plus is I get to shorten my email signature. So no need for farewells, simply have a good summer and see you around in the Fall and after.  In the meantime, feel free to contact me with any questions or welcome Lisabeth yourself at during.lisabeth@gmail.com

Cheers,
Ric

And of course, it is always appropriate to finish with a song about the history of Cultural Studies:
http://youtu.be/j70Bg19AAzU?t=32s

-- -----
B. Ricardo Brown, PhD
Professor of Social Science and Cultural Studies

Coordinator, B. A. in Critical & Visual Studies
Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies,
Pratt Institute
http://www.pratt.edu/academics/liberal_arts_and_sciences/critical_visual_studies/
__________
Twitter: @PrattCVStudies
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrattCriticalAndVisualStudies
Blog: http://pratt-critviz.blogspot.com/
___________
Critical and Visual Studies
         the Liberal Arts Major at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Video from the Social Science and Cultural Studies Speaker Series event: Nona Sheppard in conversation with Gregg Horowitz, held on February 28, 2013.  Sheppard's lively discussion is wide-ranging, from an overview of her own career to the staging of Greek tragedy, accents and performance of Shakespeare, differences between American and British acting, and the power of words to convey the image, and of the image to convey the words.

http://archive.org/details/NonaSheppardGreggHorowitzEdit2282013

On February 28, 2013, The Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies was pleased to welcome Nona Sheppard, Associate Director and Creative Director of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA),for a conversation with Prof. Gregg Horowitz, Chair of the Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies, and the audience. Nona Sheppard and Gregg Horowitz are introduced by Professor Traci Morris of the Department of Humanities and Media Studies

http://archive.org/details/NonaSheppardGreggHorowitzEdit2282013