Annual Report
2016-2017
Our Team ULRICH BAER Faculty Director
GWYNNETH MALIN Director
CAROLINE OSSE Media & Communications Coordinator
DENI VALENTIN Administrative Aide
Student Staff SARIAH BUNKER Undergraduate Assistant 2016-2017
ROSANNE CHEN Social Media Assistant Fall 2016
ALEXANDRIA MARTINEZ Graduate Assistant Fall 2016
JANINA SORIANO Events Technical Assistant 2016-2017
FROM THE FACULTY DIRECTOR
The humanities ought to be in the public eye, and at NYU we work hard to put research and teaching in the humanities onto real and metaphoric stages to provide such exposure. We convene conferences and panel discussions, bring together fellows and research collaboratives, support the publication of print and online materials as well as digital projects with considerable reach, and host traditional academic lectures that provide depth and clarity on complex issues. The content of our programming reflects our faculty and students’ interests, some of which have a horizon of years dedicated to research and reflection. We also address topics of contemporary concern and have been able to mount significant panels with strong audiences at short notice.
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
1
All of this work advances two interlocking goals, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the NYU Office of the Provost. We convene and support the large community of scholars and students producing work in the humanities at the highest level. We are justly proud of this work, which places NYU among the leading institutions in the world in several humanistic fields. We also produce programming that informs, educates, and challenges audiences beyond NYU to engage deeply with our faculty’s work and ideas. It is the particular strength of our humanities faculty to lend nuance and perspective to pressing issues, but also to create new questions to reflect and improve upon the human condition.
2
We invite you to peruse this report to learn more about the work done over the past year, and to become inspired to attend our events, participate in them, or – and we mean it – contact us with ideas on how to do things better. Engaging the public, engaging the mind, and inspiring our students and audiences in their desire to use knowledge for positive change: these are our objectives. It is a high standard, and we invite you to join us for the plethora of events supported by the Center in close collaboration with other units at NYU, in the city of New York, and around the world. — ULRICH BAER Faculty Director NYU Center for the Humanities
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Annual Report 2016-2017 Research 4
Public Engagement 22
Pedagogy 38
Partners 48
Acknowledgments + Awardees 54
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
3
4
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Research Being positioned within NYU and charged with championing the humanities, the NYU Center for the Humanities is able to take advantage of NYU’s talent and resources to better serve the NYU community, while extending our reach across New York City and the globe. The Center, in bringing together humanists from across the University, provides time and space for researchers to develop unexpected relationships, to apply new methodological approaches, to present their work, and to discover innovative connections across research areas.
Inside Working Research Groups • Fellowships •
Undergraduate Summer Research Program & Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative • Grants-in-Aid
WORKING RESEARCH GROUPS
More engaged minds, better outcomes These groups intentionally connect faculty and students who share an interest about a salient research area to create new knowledge with an interdisciplinary approach.
6
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Symposium Launch Event and Exhibition of “State Goods: Procured Materials, Expropriated Space, and Clandestine Art Making in Prison,� hosted by Unworking Dark Matters: Afro-Pessimism, Black Feminism, and Poststructuralism
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
7
WORKING RESEARCH GROUP HIGHLIGHT
Unworking Dark Matters: Afro-Pessimism, Black Feminism, and Poststructuralism 2016-2018 This group aims to examine the scholarly and activist areas of Afro-pessimist, Black feminist, and poststructuralistposthumanist thinking on embodiment, (de)subjectification, violence, human and inhuman development, and liberal demography. The group this year hosted a public lecture, two workshops, and a two-day conference. At their symposium, Rutgers Professor Nicole Fleetwood joined the launch event for her exhibition, “State Goods: Procured Materials, Expropriated Space, and Clandestine Art Making in Prison,� which explores various practices of incarcerated artists and activists to use carceral space, penal matter, and juridical papers to produce art about the U.S. prison state and its various techniques of violence. Co-Directors
MANTHIA DIAWARA Professor, Comparative Literature Faculty of Arts & Science
ALLEN FELDMAN Professor, Media, Culture, and Communication Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
KELLI MOORE Assistant Professor, Media, Culture, and Communication Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
8
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
“The screenings and artist talks consider the representation of Black women in the visual arts, while examining how the conceptual and technical strategies used by these millennial artists unwork the seemingly fixed categories of dark matter and maters.” — Professor Allen Feldman
FELLOWSHIPS
A cohort of humanistic explorers Each year, we host a cohort of faculty members, doctoral students, and one post-doctoral fellow who dedicate their academic year primarily to their humanities-based individual research projects, while building an intellectual community with their colleagues.
10
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
NYU Center for the Humanities Fellows 2016-2017
From left to right: Ulrich Baer, Elisha RussFishbane, Gwynneth Malin, George Shulman, Emma Otheguy, Yaelle Frohlich, Marita Sturken, Alaina Morgan, Ben Davidson, Blevin Shelnutt, Xiaochang Li, Nicole Starosielski, Chanda Laine Carey, Sebastiรกn Calderรณn Bentin, Toby Lee, Zoe Graham
“It was in conversation with other fellows, as well as in presentations and discussions of both my work and theirs, that I was able to elaborate a theoretical basis and articulate a new critical language for reframing my project.” — Assistant Professor Toby Lee
FACULTY FELLOW HIGHLIGHTS
Nicole Starosielski Assistant Professor, Media, Culture, and Communication Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Media Hot and Cold Faculty Fellow Nicole Starosielski worked on her next book about media, temperature, and heat. “As we inhabit an increasingly volatile climate, and the language of hot and cold filters ever more extensively into descriptions of media and culture, the stakes for reflecting on these metaphoric transfers and their material implications are raised.” In reflecting on her fellowship experience, Professor Starosielski particularly appreciated the weekly lunch discussions with our community of researchers. She said, “These conversations inflected the book project and my work more broadly, bringing it into an interdisciplinary humanities context.”
Toby Lee Assistant Professor, Cinema Studies Tisch School of the Arts
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival: State, Citizen, and Public Culture in Contemporary Greece Faculty Fellow Toby Lee’s priority for this past year was to “reframe the project, from an ethnographic and historical study of an international film festival, to a broader reconsideration of the political function of the arts and public culture.” Her project aimed to involve the context of the recent Greek and Eurozone crises. Professor Lee found that discussing her topic in both informal and formal settings was constructive. “The feedback that I received on my work, both in group meetings and in one-onone conversations with other fellows, has been invaluable,” she said. Professor Lee also deeply appreciated time to focus on her research and writing during the academic year.
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
13
DOCTORAL STUDENT FELLOW HIGHLIGHT
Xiaochang Li Doctoral Student, Media, Culture, and Communication Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Divination Engines: A Media History of Text Prediction Doctoral Student Fellow Xiaochang Li used this past year to focus on completing her dissertation, which looks at the history and impact of text prediction, particularly in how it relates to “data-driven” analytics. She also co-authored an article with a faculty member in Technology & Culture. She found this community of scholars invaluable in preparing for the job market and determining how to further her research after earning her degree.
“The wonderful group of doctoral student and faculty fellows were an amazing source of support, feedback, and fresh perspectives that helped me develop my work in new ways.” — Xiaochang Li
Diversity Post-Doctoral Fellow Highlight
Chanda Laine Carey Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow, Art History Faculty of Arts & Science
Embodying the Sacred: Marina Abramovic, Transcultural Aesthetics and the Global Geography of Art The Center’s inaugural Diversity Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr. Chanda Laine Carey joined the group of fellows this year. During her fellowship year, Dr. Carey — who received her doctorate in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the University of California, San Diego — worked on revising her dissertation into a book manuscript and taught two courses, one in the art history department and one On Being Human firstyear seminar. Her work focuses on the transcultural aesthetics of Contemporary art in a global context, with an emphasis on artists whose practices reflect the diversity of transnational cultural geographies.
With support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Center appoints one Diversity PostDoctoral Fellow each year in an effort to diversify the professoriate for the next generation. After completing her fellowship at the Center, Dr. Carey moved to Franklin & Marshall College as a Central Pennsylvania Consortium (CPC) Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Emerging Scholar.
PUBLIC HUMANITIES FELLOW HIGHLIGHTS
Emma Otheguy Doctoral Student, History Graduate School of Arts & Science
Appealing Peru: Basque Identity and the Potosí Mines Public Humanities Fellow Emma Otheguy’s dissertation explores ethnogenesis among Basquespeakers in Spain and colonial Latin America. Through this fellowship, Emma sought to combine her scholarly work with community engagement in the Latinx children’s literature world. “When I started graduate school, I had these two very separate worlds,” Emma reflected. “[The fellowship] has really encouraged me to think about how my dissertation and my other work relate to one another.”
Yaelle Frohlich Doctoral Student, History; Hebrew & Judaic Studies Graduate School of Arts & Science
As part of the Humanities Center Initiative of Humanities New York, the Center sponsors two doctoral students each year who are specially trained as public humanities scholars. As a children book’s author with a strong Latinx focus, Emma published her debut children’s book Martí’s Song for Freedom in 2017. Yaelle is the fourth generation of women in her family to have immigrated, independent of their families.
Homeland in the Mind’s Eye Public Humanities Fellow Yaelle Frohlich’s work focuses on the circulation of information about Palestine in the nineteenth-century Jewish press, engaging with questions of mass migration, ideological movements, identity formation, and the emergence of a transnational Jewish public sphere. Her Public Humanities project examines how people perceive and understand home and what a homeland means to them. Yaelle’s inspiration comes from her own experiences: “I’m an immigrant here […] I’ve been thinking a lot more about what it means to leave home behind and to build a new one in a different place.”
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
15
UNDERGRADUATE SUMMER RESEARCH PROGRAM & LEADERSHIP ALLIANCE MELLON INITIATIVE
Mentoring the next generation of diverse humanities scholars The Center sponsors a nine-week summer program for students from historically underrepresented groups to pursue individualized research projects with the guidance of a faculty mentor. Students worked with faculty and program staff to refine their research projects and to present their work at the Leadership Alliance National Symposium.
16
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
2017 Program Participants and Faculty Mentors
From left to right, first row: Crystal Parikh, Arlene Dávila, Alaina Morgan, Marcelo Yáñez, Breanna Byrd, Eniola Kolawole, Michael Ralph; second row: Elijah Porter, Anna McCarthy, Marvin Taylor, Gwynneth Malin, Paige Hutton, Ami Nanavaty, Aman Williams, Javier Porras Madero; third row: Benjamin Stewart, Nicolás Juárez, Nikhil Pal Singh, Emma Otheguy, Joshua Bender, Janet Ibarra
Summer 2017 Students JOSHUA BENDER English and American Literature, NYU ‘18
Inside the Balikbayan: Accessing Filipina/o Americanness, Subjectivity, and Mystification in Contemporary Filipina/o American Literature Faculty Mentor: Crystal Parikh, Associate Professor, English, Social and Cultural Analysis, Faculty of Arts & Science
BREANNA BYRD Social and Cultural Analysis and Anthropology, NYU ‘19
Aftermath Revisited: The Slum Phenomenon, Postcolonial Urban Initiatives, and ‘Assistance’ Refusal in Accra Faculty Mentor: Awam Ampka, Associate Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis, Faculty of Arts & Science; Drama, Tisch School of the Arts
PAIGE HUTTON
Integrated with our long-standing Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative (LAMI) for visiting students, this year we hosted our inaugural class of NYU undergraduates. "By conducting their own research, crafting a scholarly intervention into their field, and presenting their findings to faculty and colleagues, students in this program build the required skills for doctoral study in the humanities." – Gwynneth Malin, Director, NYU Center for the Humanities
American Studies, Wesleyan University ‘18
JANET IBARRA
Whitewashing the Universe: Representations of, and Threats to, Racialized Queerness in Steven Universe
Chicana/o Studies, California State University Dominguez Hills ‘18
Faculty Mentor: Michael Ralph, Associate Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis, Faculty of Arts & Science
Xingonas con Curvas: Conceptualizing the Body Fetishization and Body Appropriation of women of Color by Mainstream Culture Faculty Mentor: Arlene Dávila, Professor, Anthropology, Social and Cultural Analysis, Faculty of Arts & Science
NICOLÁS JUÁREZ Native American Studies, University of Oklahoma ‘19
IndiansXXX: Pornography, Native American Women, and Settler Sexual Violence Faculty Mentor: Maria Montoya, Associate Professor, History, Faculty of Arts & Science; Dean of Arts and Science, NYU Shanghai
18
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
ENIOLA KOLAWOLE
AMAN WILLIAMS
Global Liberal Studies, NYU ‘19
African-American Studies, University of California Los Angeles ‘18
The Growth of an Identity: How the Emergence of Salons for Muslim Women and Natural Haired Women of African Descent Affects Their Identities in a Eurocentric and Islamophobic America Faculty Mentor: Arlene Dávila, Professor, Anthropology, Social and Cultural Analysis, Faculty of Arts & Science
For the Culture: Black Girls and Black Power, 1966-1986 Faculty Mentor: Michael Ralph, Associate Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis, Faculty of Arts & Science
MARCELO YÁÑEZ Art History, NYU ‘18
AMI NANAVATY American Studies and Microbiology, University of Kansas ‘18
Ab Ki Baar Trump Sarkar: Conceptualizing Hindu American Support for Trump through Hindu Whiteness and Nationalism Faculty Mentor: Nikhil Pal Singh, Associate Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis, History, Faculty of Arts & Science
Continuance of Life: Aesthetic Transmission Between Peter Hujar and David Wojnarowicz Faculty Mentor: Marvin Taylor, Head, Special Collections & Fales Library
2017 Program Staff GWYNNETH MALIN Director
JAVIER PORRAS MADERO Latin American Studies and Economics, NYU ‘18
(An)Other Campaign? Reckoning with Ruptures in Zapatistas’ Perception of Dignity after the Sixth Declaration Faculty Mentor: Maria Josefina SaldañaPortillo, Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis, Faculty of Arts & Science
ELIJAH PORTER
ZAKIYA COLLIER Graduate Assistant
ALAINA MORGAN Academic Coordinator
EMMA OTHEGUY Graduate Assistant
BENJAMIN STEWART Writing Instructor
English, Fisk University ‘18
Pixelating Rainbows: Examining Reactions to Queer Suppression in Children’s Cartoons Faculty Mentor: Anna McCarthy, Professor, Cinema Studies, Tisch School of the Arts
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
19
GRANTS-IN-AID
From idea to published work Grants-in-Aid for Book Publication Subventions: To support our faculty with meeting the costs involved in publishing a new monograph or edited collection, the Center offers competitive funding for book publication subventions twice a year.
Congregating humanistic perspectives across disciplines Grants-in-Aid for Conferences: The Center supports faculty and staff in hosting and participating in conferences with a humanistic focus held at NYU or at one of NYU’s global sites.
Faculty Book Highlight
Larry Wolff Silver Professor, History Faculty of Arts & Science
The Singing Turk: Ottoman Power and Operatic Emotions on the European Stage from the Siege of Vienna to the Age of Napoleon Professor Larry Wolff’s recent book “explores the huge cultural phenomenon of European operas about Turks,
Every year, the Center hosts Cocktails for Authors in the Humanities at NYU, a reception to celebrate the faculty’s accomplishments in publishing their work in the previous academic year. In 2016, NYU faculty contributed to 150+ published books.
flourishing especially during the eighteenth century, in the European age of Enlightenment.” The grant-in-aid defrayed the cost of publishing the necessary visual and musical illustrations that complemented the text. To celebrate the book’s publication in Fall 2016, the Center hosted a performance and discussion in collaboration with the Center for Ballet and the Arts. “The musicians performed selections of the "singing Turk" repertory, [including] an aria which had, as far as I know, not been performed since the 18th century!” Professor Wolff described. “The academic panelists then discussed the performance of these pieces with the musicians.”
Conference Guests Candice Lin Artist Xandra Ibarra Artist Mel Chen UC Berkeley C. Riley Snorton Cornell Aimee Bahng Dartmouth
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHT
New World Orders: Coloniality, Racial Intimacies, and Disability
Jasbir Puar Rutgers Mark Rifkin UNC Greensboro Ivan Ramos UC Riverside
January 2017 Hentyle Yapp, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Public Policy at the Tisch School of the Arts, along with colleagues and co-sponsors, organized a symposium marrying recent work in critical indigenous and race studies with disability and queer theories. The event invited eight outside guests, including artists and scholars, to discuss racial logics, colonization, enslavement, resource extraction, the policing of intimacy, and the disablement of bodies/communities.
22
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Public Engagement Located within the cultural, political, and economic hub of New York City, the Center is remarkably situated to foster conversations about local and global events, which contemplate our shared humanity. Studying and redefining the humanities is critical in our increasingly interconnected world. The Center draws energy and inspiration from the faculty and students at NYU to host conferences, panel discussions, book launches, and film screenings which are open to the public and free of charge. We make a point of hosting discussions on topics that tend to provoke strong and occasionally polarizing responses in order to deepen our thinking, challenge what we know, and create new knowledge.
Inside Proactive Discussions • Global Humanities
Event Series • Environmental Humanities Event Series • Digital Humanities Event Series
PROACTIVE DISCUSSIONS
A closer look at today’s issues Given our faculty and students’ active lives and widely varied interests, the Center addresses issues that prove relevant to a larger public who do not spend their daily lives in academic debates. These events offer a closer look and deeper analysis on topics roiling our country, and the world.
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHT
Race, Racism, and Xenophobia in a Global Context II October 2016 Location affects the way in which we think about the social constructions of race and race relations. This conference brought together scholars, artists, and activists to discuss how racism and discrimination operate in different geographical contexts. The event echoed a previous symposium hosted by La Pietra Dialogues at NYU in Florence. Given the great relevance of such debates for our contemporary moment in the U.S., the Center presented this related conference in NYC, coordinated by Ellyn Toscano, Executive Director of NYU Florence, and Gwynneth Malin, Director of the NYU Center for the Humanities. NYU students moderated panels and shared personal testimonials.
Members of the NYU Native American and Indigenous Students Group presenting at Race, Racism, and Xenophobia in a Global Context II
By taking both a historical and contemporary approach, these proactive discussions allow us to think more deeply about our responsibilities in the world, and how our various identities, backgrounds, beliefs, values, and nationalities impact our actions and our understanding.
Conference Keynote Speaker
CĂŠcile Kyenge Member of European Parliament; Co-President, European Parliament Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
Politics on Campus: From the 2015 Protests to the Trump Presidency April 2017 The publication of UPenn Professor Jonathan Zimmerman’s recent book “Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know” was the impetus for us to host “Politics on Campus: From the 2015 Protests to the Trump Presidency,” where a panel of students, faculty, and administrators discussed diversity, sexual assault, content warnings, free speech, and a range of other issues that have sparked campus controversy in recent years. Moderated by Ulrich Baer and featuring Jonathan Zimmerman, the panel included various NYU community members.
“As someone situated in the humanities, and particularly in critical race and ethnic studies in the United States, I think it’s worth pondering […] whether we wouldn’t be better served by replacing all this language of diversity with that of democratic and anti-racist norms.” — Professor Crystal Parikh, Panelist, Politics on Campus
Visit our YouTube channel to experience the 'Politics on Campus' event youtube.com/nyuhumanities
Trigger Warnings! October 2016 The Center co-hosted a forum with colleagues at Tisch School of the Arts to discuss the benefits and constraints of content warnings in teaching environments. As part of the event, audience members shared related practices and experiences.
26
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Freedom of Expression in the Age of Trump February 2016 A large audience of students, faculty, staff, and community members gathered to discuss First Amendment rights, its history and constitutional intention, and the role of the press in today’s society. This panel discussion, featuring renowned First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams, provided a platform to get the conversation started, and used NYU Professor Stephen Solomon’s new book “Revolutionary Dissent: How the Founding Generation Created the Freedom of Speech” as contextual ground for a contemporary conversation.
Floyd Abrams, First Amendment Attorney at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, and Thomas Healy, Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School, discussing free speech at Freedom of Expression in the Age of Trump
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
There are merely 45 words in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
27
GLOBAL HUMANITIES EVENT SERIES
Connection, conflict, cooperation: the humanities in a shared world In our highly connected world, it has become imperative to engage in conversations relevant to those beyond our local communities. As part of a global university with three portal campuses and over a dozen study away sites across the globe, the Center strives to support humanistic research in a global context. Through the Global Humanities Event Series, the Center sponsors evenings of conversation centered on an exploration of global humanities scholarship and humanistic knowledge creation in an international context.
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
Japan, North Korea, and Abduction February 2017 NYU Professor Robert S. Boynton’s recent book, "The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea’s Abduction Project," recounts the story of the abduction project and explores how it shaped Japanese-Korean relations. At the event, Professor Boynton revealed citizens' untold stories and engaged in conversation about the impact of these abductions on international relations. Professor Boynton and faculty panelists discussed this crucial event, where human rights and global politics, but ultimately also the irreducibly human dimension of an individual life, intersect.
Ports, Foods, and Connectivities Across the Indian Ocean
North Korea’s Abduction Project In the late nineteenseventies, North Korea abducted dozens of Japanese citizens and held them, in secret, for decades. In 2002, after years of denying any role in the abductions, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and confessed the state's role in the hope that doing so would bring economic aid from Japan. Today, the abductions remain one of the most pressing issues in Japan and Northeast Asia.
February 2017 This Global Humanities event examined two aspects of Indian Ocean connections: the environmental, political, and economic reasons for the emergence of new ports, and the circulations and mixing of food ingredients, food habits, and culinary tastes as examples of connectivities across maritime spaces. Each panelist presented research that tempted our palates with narratives about food and tastes as we worked to understand maritime connections.
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
29
ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES EVENT SERIES
Living in the anthropocene Scholars, scientists, writers, faculty, students, filmmakers, and others active in environmental humanities are deeply invested in the public’s input on issues ranging from environmental justice to climate change, sound science-based policies, food security, economic sustainability, and animal welfare and rights. Sponsored in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Environmental Humanities Event Series has deepened conversations about the environment by fostering meaningful and University-wide collaboration between faculty and student initiatives. 30
Environmental Humanities A quickly evolving interdisciplinary movement that combines research from the social and natural sciences with the humanities.
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Series Events Hosted by the Center
Vegan Living: Fashion, Food, and Fitness
Human Futures Sparks of Life: Electricity, Animality, and Film An Inquiry into the Metaphysics of Others Love and Death in the Anthropocene Captured at Sea: Trafficking, Slavery, and Illegal Fishing on the Open Ocean
Joshua Katcher, a featured panelist for the Center's "Vegan Living: Fashion, Food, and Fitness" event
“There are some things you just can’t tell people to do based on your own will. But you can help educate them to make that choice for themselves.” — Chloe Coscarelli
Visit our YouTube channel to experience the 'Vegan Living' event — and more! youtube.com/nyuhumanities
EVENT HIGHLIGHT
Vegan Living: Fashion, Food, and Fitness April 2017 Often, the word “vegan” immediately triggers ideas of food. But being vegan encapsulates much more than just what you consume — it’s how you live. The Center invited four powerful figures in the vegan spotlight for an event focused on all dimensions of their lives as professionals, activists, and humanists in a full sense of that world. Panelists
DAVID CARTER Former NFL Player; Animal Rights Activist @300poundvegan on Instagram
CHLOE COSCARELLI Vegan Chef; Cookbook Author @ChloeCoscarelli on Twitter
JOSHUA KATCHER Instructor of Fashion at Parsons; Founder & Creative Director, Brave Gentleman; Founder & Editor, TheDiscerningBrute.com @DiscerningBrute on Twitter
DOMINICK THOMPSON Healthcare Executive, Multi-Sport Athlete, Animal Rights Activist; Founder & Creative Director, Crazies & Weirdos @DomzThompson on Twitter
Moderators
YANOULA ATHANASSAKIS Co-Founder of the Environmental Humanities Event Series; Assistant Vice Provost, NYU
ULRICH BAER Co-Founder of the Environmental Humanities Event Series; Vice Provost, NYU
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
33
DIGITAL HUMANITIES EVENT SERIES
The new frontier‌ which has already been crossed The Center promotes, supports, and connects work within the digital humanities through resources, grants, and interdisciplinary events. This year, the Center hosted five digital humanities events, including two conferences.
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHT
Queer Encoding: Encoding Diverse Identities April 2017 At NYU, and among our larger community, the issue of inclusion and equity across all identities has become a prevalent topic. The Center hosted an all-day conference to showcase new methods and humanities projects with somewhat unconventional and untraditional sources. Approaching these topics within the lens of the digital humanities, keynote speakers, panelists, and graduate students brought to light their unique challenges and opportunities in encoding queerness as experienced in developing their own projects.
Series Events Hosted by the Center Distracted Reading: Acts of Attention in the Age of the Internet Digital Humanities Internship Project Showcase Inscription, Digitization, and the Shape of Knowledge When Digital Humanities Meets Art Galleries Queer Encoding: Encoding Diverse Identities
Conference Keynote Speakers
Marcus Bingenheimer Assistant Professor, Department of Religion Temple University
Julia Flanders Digital Scholarship Group Director and Professor of the Practice of English Northeastern University
“In the overall narrative of this history, the crucial role played by queer men and women in the development of computing technologies suggests that queerness was completely consistent with the form those technologies have taken.” — Julia Flanders
Digital Humanities at NYU An interactive space — where a heterogeneous and dynamic network of scholars, teachers, staff members, and students, spread throughout our departments, schools, and global sites and campuses — combine the relatively recently unleashed powers of the digital with the formidable strengths of humanistic inquiry.
“What the Center for the Humanities does is provide a meeting point for us to gather: through its series of DH events, but also virtually, through the DH@NYU webpages.” — Marion Thain, Associate Director of Digital Humanities, NYU “Digital Humanities is not so much a matter of presenting findings in new ways but of asking new questions, and of asking questions in new settings.” — Ulrich Baer , Faculty Director, NYU Center for the Humanities
EVENT HIGHLIGHT
When Digital Humanities Meets Art Galleries March 2017 NYU scholars actively seek out and design collaborations with local institutions and artists on a wide range of projects that advance knowledge, serve as teaching opportunities, and educate the public at large. This event highlighted several of these innovative digital projects — including a unique partnership between NYU’s Department of Computer Science and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum — in order to share with a wider audience and to inspire new ways to document and archive art using tools from the digital humanities. Presenters
GLENN WHARTON Clinical Associate Professor of Museum Studies NYU
JONATHAN HAY Ailsa Mellon Bruce Professor of Fine Arts NYU
SARAH DEMOTT Data Services Specialist NYU Libraries
DEENA ENGEL Clinical Professor, Computer Science NYU
JOANNA PHILLIPS Senior Conservator, Time-Based Media Guggenheim Museum
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
37
38
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Pedagogy Our faculty and students teach and study the humanities in widely different contexts, from the literature departments to the medical school, and from NYU Shanghai to the Tandon School of Engineering in downtown Brooklyn. NYU’s renowned liberal arts education is steeped in the humanities. While curricula are adapted to the needs of NYU’s many departments and schools, the Center aims to enhance humanistic scholarship, both within and outside of the classroom, through initiatives focused on pedagogy.
Inside Team-Teaching Stipends • On Being Human
First-Year Seminars • Prison Education Program
TEAM-TEACHING STIPENDS
Learning from the best: the benefit of multiple perspectives The Center’s Team-Teaching Stipends program fosters new pedagogical approaches by funding interdisciplinary courses taught by two faculty members.
40
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Professors Joyce Apsel and Michael Dinwiddie discuss their team-teaching experience
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
41
“Our idea was to let students know how people their age had impacted different social movements.” — Professor Michael Dinwiddie
“What this gave me was an opportunity to rethink all kinds of ways that I do things and to open up to new approaches. And that’s the great thing about team-teaching.” — Professor Joyce Apsel
42
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
COURSE HIGHLIGHT
Justice and Rights Movements: “Let Them Lead the Way� Fall 2016 Together, as teachers, Professors Apsel and Dinwiddie used a range of pedagogical approaches from musical selections linked with class themes to working with students to create an online Peace Trail of major sites in New York City. In addition to other co-curricular excursions, students visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture and, back on campus, met Reverend Jim Lawson. By teaching this engaged, diverse group of students about social movements at a remarkably relevant moment in history, both professors felt that the course was truly unparalleled to any of their previous experiences. Instructors
JOYCE APSEL Clinical Professor, Liberal Studies Faculty of Arts & Science
MICHAEL DINWIDDIE Associate Professor Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Learn more about their course and the team-teaching experience youtube.com/nyuhumanities
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
43
ON BEING HUMAN FIRST-YEAR SEMINARS
The building blocks of humanistic discourse for first-year students Through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Center supports faculty in developing first-year seminars in the College of Arts & Science by integrating digital tools, covering speakers fees, and paying for co-curricular excursions.
COURSE HIGHLIGHTS
Saving Africa? Critical Perspectives on Humanitarianism Fall 2016 Professor D’Avignon took her class on field trips to organizations that assist African refugees in New York and invited two guests — Jehanne Henry, a senior researcher for the Africa desk at Human Rights Watch, and Kate Lord, a humanitarian photographer — to speak with her students.
ROBYN D’AVIGNON Assistant Professor, History Faculty of Arts & Science
Decolonizing Representation: Human Stories of the War on Terror Spring 2017 Professor Pierce invited two writers — Mariam Bazeed, a performer from Egypt, and Jerad Alexander, a former U.S. marine — to speak to her class, and took her students to the 9/11 Memorial to complement classroom discussions and readings on the War on Terror.
On Being Human seminars explore how knowledge about the human condition is produced and how students can contribute to its evolving conception from different perspectives. “[This funding] allowed me to implement more creative approaches to teaching both in and beyond the classroom” – Professor Robyn D’Avignon “In short, we busted some stereotypes by talking with some real, in-theflesh people about how their writing intersects with what they have experienced of the War on Terror.” – Professor Amira Pierce
AMIRA PIERCE Language Lecturer, Expository Writing Program Faculty of Arts & Science
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
45
PRISON EDUCATION PROGRAM
Creating a more just and humane society Through The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s grant, the Center complements the work of the NYU Prison Education Program through providing teaching stipends to course instructors. This program began in the Spring 2015 semester, funded in part by the Ford Foundation, and offers for-credit courses for incarcerated individuals at the Wallkill Correctional Facility. Besides leading to an Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Studies, the program also provides additional higher education support to students after release.
46
“By expanding access to a university education to incarcerated students, the NYU Prison Education Program aims to help redress inequities that result from the fact that the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world — over two million — the great majority of whom are poor, African American, and Latino.” — Professor Nikhil Pal Singh, Faculty Director, Prison Education Program
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
A class in session with Julia Mendoza at the Wallkill Correctional Facility
Courses
Writing I: Stories of Racial Formations Fall 2016 Instructor: Julia Mendoza, Doctoral Candidate, Social and Cultural Analysis, Graduate School of Arts & Science
Social Foundations II: Introduction to Media Studies Summer 2017 Instructor: Aurora Wallace, Clinical Associate Professor, Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
48
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Partners The Center has always been eager to create impactful relationships that foster humanistic research and showcase the creation of new knowledge with key partners in the humanities. This past year, we continued and augmented our deep connections with local, national, and global organizations that support humanistic inquiry.
Inside The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation • Leadership
Alliance • Humanities New York • National Endowment for the Humanities • Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation remains one the most indispensable institutions that support the humanities in the United States. With the Mellon Foundation’s generous grant to the Center of $400,000 over four years, the Center has been able to achieve greater momentum in furthering humanities research and innovation.
50
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
Initiatives with funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Prison Education Program
On Being Human First-Year Seminars Diversity Post-Doctoral Fellow Environmental Humanities Event Series
Leadership Alliance Housed at Brown University, the Leadership Alliance is a consortium of institutions that provides research experiences for underrepresented students. The Alliance supports students within a variety of disciplines through the Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP) and its sub-program the Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative (LAMI), a summer research experience for underrepresented students who are interested in pursuing doctorate degrees within the humanities.
This was the sixth summer that the Center hosted LAMI. Where are some of our past fellows pursuing graduate work in the humanities? Georgia State University Harvard University New York University University of Maryland University of Miami University of Texas at Austin
Humanities New York Humanities New York, previously the New York Council for the Humanities, is New York state’s dedicated humanities organization, headquartered in New York City, which provides grants, trainings, fellowships, and public programming in the humanities. At the core of the Center’s collaboration with Humanities New York is the Public Humanities Fellowship. The Center is particularly enthusiastic about continuing initiatives that empower us to engage with and give back to communities in innovative and meaningful ways.
52
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) NEH Summer Stipends is a national program that provides awards for individuals to pursue scholarly work in the humanities during the summer.
“NEH serves and strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans.” — neh.gov
2017 Summer Stipend Recipient Leif Weatherby Assistant Professor of German Faculty of Arts & Science Early Digital Humanities: German Idealism and the Development of Cybernetics in the mid 20th Century
Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes The Center is an active member of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI), a network of interdisciplinary organizations across the globe. Faculty Director Ulrich Baer attended the annual meeting in Cape Town, South Africa in August 2017 to discuss how improvisation facilitates the humanities in a global society that is constantly adapting to unpredictable social, political, and economic changes.
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
53
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS + AWARDEES
Thank You Without our faculty, students, and staff, we would not be what we are today. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to and participated in the Center's activities this year, especially the faculty who served on our selection committees in 2016-2017. A special thanks goes out to Professor Jane Tylus, our founding faculty director, whose vision created the Humanities Initiative in 2007, now called the NYU Center for the Humanities. We would also like to extend our gratitude to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and to NYU Provost Katherine Fleming for their continued support.
2016-2017 Advisory Board THOMAS AUGST Associate Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts & Science
ULRICH BAER Chair, Advisory Board; Vice Provost for Faculty, Arts, Humanities & Diversity; Professor, Departments of German; Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts & Science
ERIC BANKS Director, New York Institute for the Humanities
GEORGINA DOPICO Dean for the Humanities, Faculty of Arts & Science; Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, Faculty of Arts & Science
AISHA KHAN Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology; Associated Faculty, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
PERRI KLASS Professor and Academic Director, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute; Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine
CHRISTOPHER LESLIE Lecturer; Co-Director, Science and Technology Studies Program, Tandon School of Engineering
GWYNNETH MALIN Director, Center for the Humanities; Adjunct Instructor, Department of History
ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017
JUDITH MILLER Professor, Department of French, Faculty of Arts & Science
SUSAN MURRAY Associate Professor, Department of Media, Culture & Communication, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
CRYSTAL PARIKH Associate Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts & Science
SHELLEY RICE Professor, Department of Photography and Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts
LAURA SLATKIN Professor, Gallatin School of Individualized Study
MICHAEL STOLLER Associate Curator; Academic Associate Dean, Office of the Dean, Division of Libraries
THELMA THOMAS Associate Professor, Institute of Fine Arts
JANE TYLUS Founding Faculty Director, NYU Center for the Humanities; Professor, Departments of Italian Studies and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts & Science
JEROME WAKEFIELD University Professor; Professor of Social Work, Silver School of Social Work; Professor of the Conceptual Foundations of Psychiatry, School of Medicine
55
2016-2017 Fellows SEBASTIÁN CALDERÓN BENTIN Faculty Fellow Assistant Professor, Department of Drama, Tisch School of the Arts
States of Illusion: Performance, Media, and Politics in Contemporary Latin America CHANDA LAINE CAREY Diversity Post-Doctoral Fellow Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts & Science
Embodying the Sacred: Marina Abramovic, Transcultural Aesthetics, and the Global Geography of Art BEN DAVIDSON Doctoral Student Fellow Department of History, Graduate School of Arts & Science
TOBY LEE Faculty Fellow Assistant Professor, Department of Cinema Studies, Tisch School of the Arts
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival: State, Citizen, and Public Culture in Contemporary Greece XIAOCHANG LI Doctoral Student Fellow Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Divination Engines: A Media History of Text Prediction ALAINA MORGAN Doctoral Student Fellow Department of History, Graduate School of Arts & Science
Freedom's Generation: Coming of Age in the Era of Emancipation
Atlantic Crescent: Afro: Muslim Internationalism, Anti-Colonialism and Transnational Community Formation, 1955-2005
YAELLE FROHLICH
EMMA OTHEGUY
Public Humanities Fellow Department of History, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Graduate School of Arts & Science
Holy Land in the Mind's Eye: Diaspora Jewish Perceptions of Palestine, 1830-1882 ZOE GRAHAM Doctoral Student Fellow Department of Cinema Studies, Graduate School of Arts & Science
Reclaiming Rouch: the Transnational Legacy of the Ateliers Varan Documentary Film School
56
Public Humanities Fellow Department of History, Graduate School of Arts & Science
Appealing Peru: Basque Identity and the Potosí Mines ELISHA RUSS-FISHBANE Faculty Fellow Assistant Professor, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
Cultures of Aging in the Medieval Jewish Mediterranean
NYU CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
BLEVIN SHELNUTT Doctoral Student Fellow Department of English, Graduate School of Arts & Science
Print Capital: Broadway and the Making of Mass Culture, 1836-1860 GEORGE SHULMAN Faculty Fellow Professor, Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Genres of Crisis and the Crisis of Genre NICOLE STAROSIELSKI Faculty Fellow Assistant Professor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Media Hot and Cold MARITA STURKEN Faculty Fellow Professor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Architectures of Memory and Defense: American Empire and Post-9/11 Visual Culture
2016-2017 Award Recipients WORKING RESEARCH GROUPS
Interdisciplinary Working Group on Islamic Studies ISMAIL FAJRIE ALATAS Assistant Professor, Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
MARION KATZ Professor, Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
S.J. PEARCE Assistant Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, Faculty of Arts & Science
Artist Archives Initiative — Joan Jonas DEENA ENGEL Clinical Professor, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Arts & Science
GLENN WHARTON Clinical Associate Professor, Program in Museum Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
57
2016-2017 Award Recipients CONTINUED
Print Culture PATRICIA CRAIN
CONFERENCES
Festival Irene GWENDOLYN ALKER Teacher of Theatre Studies, Department of Drama, Tisch School of the Arts
Associate Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts & Science
Global Dante Project — Symposium MARIA LUISA ARDIZZONE
ANNE DEWITT
Professor, Department of Italian Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
Clinical Assistant Professor, Writing Program, Gallatin School of Individualized Study
CHARLOTTE PRIDDLE Librarian, Printed Books; Assistant Curator, Fales Library & Special Collections
GREG VARGO Assistant Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts & Science; Gallatin School of Individualized Study
TEAM-TEACHING STIPENDS
Decolonizing Vision GAYATRI GOPINATH Associate Professor, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, Faculty of Arts & Science
DEBORAH WILLIS Professor, Department of Photography and Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts
Islamic Spain in a Global Context ALMUDENA ARIZA ARMADA Instructor, Humanities, NYU Madrid
S.J. PEARCE Assistant Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, Faculty of Arts & Science
JUSTIN STEARNS Associate Professor, Arts & Humanities Arab Crossroads, NYU Abu Dhabi
The Scribal Mind: Textual Criticism in Antiquity ROGER BAGNALL Professor, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
Celebrating Hélène Cixous at Eighty TOM BISHOP Florence Gould Professor of French, Department of French, Faculty of Arts & Science
AVITAL RONELL University Professor of the Humanities, Departments of Comparative Literature and German, Faculty of Arts & Science
Sovereignty: The Indigenous Present JESSE BRANSFORD Clinical Associate Professor; Chair, Department of Art and Art Professions, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Africa and the Soviet Union: Technology, Ideology, and Culture ROBYN D'AVIGNON Assistant Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Arts & Science
Curating Performance & Performance Studies MALIK GAINES Assistant Professor, Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts
Rouch in the USA FAYE GINSBURG Kriser Professor, Department of Anthropology; Director, Center for Media, Culture and History, Faculty of Arts & Science
Anthologizing American Jewish Thought: A Scholars Workshop MICHAH GOTTLIEB Associate Professor, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
5th Ancient Judaism Regional Seminar ALEX JASSEN Associate Professor, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
The Dead Sea Scrolls at 70, The Lewent Colloquium on Ancient Studies ALEX JASSEN
Global Histories of Capital: A Conference on Political Economy and Historical Change DAVID LUDDEN Professor; Chair, Department of History, Faculty of Arts & Science
Scenes of Subjection at 20 MYISHA PRIEST Associate Professor, Gallatin School of Individualized Study
CityFood, NYC: A Political and Cultural History of Street Vending KRISHNENDU RAY Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Anachronisms KRISTIN ROSS Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts & Science
The 50th Anniversary of Silver Apples of the Moon: Remembering the NYU Bleecker St. Studio ROBERT ROWE
& Science
Professor, Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Plein Air: Aesthetic Inquiry in New Landscapes DANA KARWAS
Historical Sociolinguistics Network Conference NICHOLAS WOLF
Associate Professor, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Faculty of Arts
Lecturer, Integrated Digital Media, Department of Technology, Culture, and Society, Tandon School of Engineering
The Bestiary or Procession of Orpheus (1911) SARAH KAY Professor; Chair, Department of French; Director, Center for French Civilization and Culture, Faculty of Arts & Science
Assistant Curator, Data Services, Division of Libraries
New World Orders: Colonial Intimacies & Crip Exigencies HENTYLE YAPP Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Public Policy, Tisch School of the Arts
2016-2017 Award Recipients CONTINUED
BOOKS
Treatise on Imaginary Explosions, Vol. I CAITLIN BERRIGAN Teacher, Department of Photography and Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts
The Hidden History of American Fashion: Women Designers in the 20th Century NANCY DEIHL Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Art Professions, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
An Anthology on the History and Theory of Secularization CHRISTIANE FREY Associate Professor, Department of German, Faculty of Arts & Science
Walaycho Qorilazo. Memoria oral Quechua en los Andes ODI GONZALES Senior Language Lecturer, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science
In the Presence of Power: Court and Performance in the Pre-modern Middle East MAURICE POMERANTZ Assistant Professor, Arts & Humanities Literature, NYU Abu Dhabi
Authentic Replicas: Buddhist Art in Medieval China HSUEH-MAN SHEN Associate Professor; Ehrenkranz Chair in World Art, Institute of Fine Arts
Blacks of the Land: Indians, Expeditionaries, and Slavery in Early Portuguese America BARBARA WEINSTEIN Silver Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Arts & Science
Image Credits Pg. 7: Courtesy of Allen Feldman. Pg. 20: Soliman II ou Les Trois Sultanes, print (1825). Engraving by Mauduit Frères. Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and Larry Wolff. Pg. 25: Photo of Cécile Kyenge by Gabriel Buoys/AFP. Pg. 31: Courtesy of Joshua Katcher. Pgs. 47 and 51: Photos by Raechel Bosch, Courtesy of the NYU Prison Education Program.
NYU Center for the Humanities Created in 2007, the NYU Center for the Humanities draws on the talents and energies of our faculty and students across the University to provide a forum for cross-disciplinary discussion and collaboration in the humanities and arts. To foster and enhance the humanities community at NYU, the Center sponsors a number of endeavors aimed at promoting interdisciplinary dialogue, teaching, and research. Funding for the NYU Center for the Humanities is provided by the NYU Office of the Provost and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. nyuhumanities.org 212-998-2190 20 Cooper Square, Fifth Floor New York, NY 10003