Rhizomatic Forms and Global Black Aesthetics
November 9 at 12:15 pm
Zoom

Monica L. Miller will examine recently published memoirs and fictional accounts of growing up Black and Swedish and argue that the ways in which they experience and navigate Sweden’s racial regime and often, at least rhetorically, describe their way to Swedishness and Blackness, happens by way of an exploration of a sense of diasporic Blackness that is best figured as rhizomatic. This rhizomatic thinking reconfigures the way in which we think about the space/time of Blackness, and opens up theorization and recognition of Black identities in a globally inclusive frame. These identities are related to, but not limited by, experiences of anti-Blackness, and rather serve in the creation of an affiliative Black consciousness.

Majolica Speaks! Verbal Description Tour
November 11 at 6 pm
Zoom

Explore the objects in Majolica Mania: Transatlantic Pottery in England and the United States, 1850–1915 through verbal description and discussion. An experienced guide will describe objects in the exhibition, sharing details of their form, materiality, and aesthetic nature, for the enjoyment of visitors with low vision and blindness. Group discussion takes place throughout the program. Registration is required.

Next Week:

Open House for Prospective Students
November 14 at 11 am
38 West 86th Street — Lecture Hall

Bard Graduate Center Open Houses give prospective students the opportunity to learn much more about our MA and PhD programs. You’ll have the chance to hear from our faculty about their research and teaching, meet students, and see our spaces. The November open house will be hosted by our dean, Peter Miller, and will include faculty members Meredith Linn, Jennifer Mass, Caspar Meyer, and Andrew Morrall.

Majolica Poetry Reading
November 15 at 6 pm
Zoom

Acclaimed poets Wayne Koestenbaum, Sally Wen Mao, S*an D. Henry Smith, and Stacy Szymaszek share the poems they wrote for our Majolica Mania exhibition and the objects that informed their work.

Evening for Educators
November 16 at 4 pm
Bard Graduate Center Gallery –18 West 86th Street

Join us for an in-person evening of object-based learning and teaching specially geared to educators, centered around BGC Gallery’s fall exhibition, Majolica Mania: Transatlantic Pottery in England and the United States, 1850–1915. Participate in an interactive, guided tour of the exhibition, including art and design activities centered on identity, rituals, and notions of privilege. Network with colleagues, and receive priority scheduling for virtual school tours. Educators of all disciplines and grade levels are welcome!

Blackface Harlequins and Other Challenges of New Museology
November 16 at 6 pm
Zoom

How does a small museum specializing in historical European ceramics face the challenges of contemporary socially-engaged museology? The Gardiner Museum in Toronto opened in 1984 featuring historical European ceramics collected by its founders, George and Helen Gardiner. Since then, Toronto has become one of the most diverse, dynamic, and cosmopolitan cities in the world. How do small museums anchored in elite European culture transform to engage more diverse audiences? How do colonial institutions build inclusive practices while staying true to their specific collections? Sequoia Miller will consider the Gardiner Museum as a case study for these and other questions and challenges of contemporary museology.

Objects as Data: Ancient Migration and Beringian Collections in and between the Natural and Human Sciences
November 17 at 12:15 pm
Zoom

At its narrowest point, the Bering Strait separates Asia and North America by just eighty-five kilometers. The name for this region, joined by the mammoth steppe up until the end of the Last Glacial Maxim, is Beringia. During the mid-nineteenth century, the proximity of these continents and new archeological findings galvanized new scientific speculation that humankind had populated the “New World” via the Bering Strait. Proponents of the Beringia migration theory hypothesized that comparative analysis of objects collected from either side of the Strait would help elucidate the relationship between the old and new worlds, and the course of human diffusion and nature of human affinity more generally. Situated at the intersections of scientific practice, material culture studies, economics, and geopolitics, Brooke Penaloza-Patzak uses the history of scientific collection in Beringia as a lens through which to explore the problem of objects as scientific data in theory and practice.