The Slavery and Visual Culture Working Group is excited to host two events with Nicholas Mirzoeff, Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at NYU.

Professor Mirzoeff will give a public lecture on Thursday, Feb. 6, titled “Whiteness Falls in the Shattered City,” in which he will address visuality via the racialized encounter, and the formation of racial hierarchy and white supremacy, considered as futures of the plantation in the present catastrophe. He will also participate in a seminary on Friday, Feb. 7, with pre-circulated readings of the first chapter of his book The Right to Look: A Counterhistory of Visuality (Duke, 2011). See below for more information on these events.

Nicholas Mirzoeff is a visual activist, working at the intersection of politics and global/digital visual culture. He has published essential books in the field of visual studies, including The Appearance of Black Lives Matter (NAME, 2017), How To See The World (Penguin, 2015), An Introduction to Visual Culture (Routledge, 1999/2009), The Visual Culture Reader (Psychology Press, 1998/2002/2012) and The Right to Look: A Counterhistory of Visuality (2011), which won the Anne Friedberg Award for Innovative Scholarship from the Society of Cinema and Media Studies in 2013.

Mirzoeff’s work has also appeared in The Nation, Hyperallergic, the New York Times, the Guardian, Time and The New Republic.

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Thursday, February 6

Public Lecture: “Whiteness Falls in the Shattered City”

Classics 110, 5pm (1010 E 59th Street, Chicago, IL)

A reception will follow

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Friday, February 7

Seminar on the First Chapter of The Right to Look: A Counterhistory of Visuality (Duke, 2011). The chapter can be downloaded here, and should be read in advance. Please email fraga@uchicago.edu to get the password.

Foster 103, 11:30am-1pm (1130 E 59th St, Chicago, IL)

A light lunch will be served.