Spring/Summer 2008

center for 21st century studies a newsletter from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee spring/summer 2008

SPRING SYMPOSIUM: Picturing the Modern Photography, Film, and Society in Central Europe, 1918-1945 In April, the Center renewed its collaboration with the Milwaukee Art Museum by way of co-hosting a two-day symposium connected to the exhibition Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945. Under the title of Picturing the Modern: Photography, Film, and Society in Central Europe, 1918-1945, the event, organized by Center director Daniel J. Sherman and Lisa Hostetler, Associate Curator of Photographs at the Museum, attracted signiﬁ cant interest from a diverse group of individuals from the greater Milwaukee area.

(l to r) Petr Szczepanik, Anson Rabinbach, and Elizabeth Otto

The symposium began on Thursday, April 3, in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Lubar Auditorium with a keynote address by Anson Rabinbach (History, Princeton): “Antifascism, Photomontage and the Image of Nazism.” Rabinbach focused on the circumstances surrounding the publication of the Braunbuch, which blamed the Nazis for the 1933 Reichstag fi re, as an example of how the correlation of Nazism and anti-fascism was promoted throughout the world. He argued that the Braunbuch, widely distributed in multiple languages, was the prism through which most people saw Nazi Germany for a generation, and that its narrative of Nazi conspiracy, blackmail, sexual deviance, drug addiction and general brutality was at the core of anti-fascism. Only when Der Spiegel ran a fi ve-part series by Fritz Tobias in the early 1960s were the Braunbuch’s conspiracy theories exposed as fabrications, and a consensus emerged that a lone arsonist set the fi re. Rabinbach concluded his presentation by analyzing John Heartfi eld’s photomontages that appeared on the dust jacket of Braunbuch, suggesting that they contributed to the book’s commercial success. The symposium resumed on Friday morning. In his presentation “Circa 1930: Art History and the New Photography,” Matthew Witkovsky (National Gallery of Art), curator of the Foto exhibition, argued that art history’s close entanglement with photography began in the 1930s and that many of the starting suppositions that continued on page 4

SPRING/SUMMER 2008 From the Director At an Open Forum just after I arrived in Milwaukee in 2002, a colleague laid out two principal types of humanities centers and asked me which one I envisioned for the Center. I no longer remember what defi ned these “types,” but though I instinc- tively resisted the idea of having to fi t into one of two models, my main reason for evading the question was that I wanted to hear what faculty already at UWM desired and expected from the Center. Such a discussion had been going on since the previous director’s departure in 2000, and I hoped that my appointment would be an opportunity for continuing the conversation rather than concluding it. It soon became clear to me that the Center served many different roles and constituencies. For UWM and System faculty selected through an open competi- tion, we offer teaching reduction for research and creative work and an intellectual community to nurture and sustain it. To all at and around UWM interested in some aspect of the humanities, we present an extensive program of public events; to self-constituted groups pursuing discussion in more defi ned areas, we provide space, publicity, and logistical support. Through Indiana University Press we pub- lish peer-reviewed books that serve as a window into cutting-edge research and as a calling card for UWM in the wider academic community. For a small group of dedicated staff members, including graduate student assistants whose education we help support, the Center also represents a workplace, with its attendant web of personal relations, physical amenities and discomforts (who could forget the Year of One Elevator), and occasional bureaucratic frustrations. Keeping all these balls in the air has been a challenge, as has adding some new ones: research workshops, fellowships for dissertators, electronic working papers, a curricular program to involve more students in our events, and the appointment of a grants specialist to broaden our reach even further, among others. It has also been immensely rewarding, and it is diffi cult to express how deeply I appreciate the support and interest of innumerable colleagues around UWM, notably those on the Center’s staff, and to many partners on and off campus. With my departure this summer, the discussion of the future of the Center will take a new turn, and it cannot but benefi t from new ideas about its programs and, more generally, about the role of the humanities in the twenty-fi rst century. My own contribution to that discussion—a parting shot, of sorts, based on my six years here—comprises just a few observations. First, whatever direction the Center takes, it should always stand for excellence, which involves, among other things, rigorous and transparent standards of selection not only of fellows but of speakers for public events. Second, if our goal of interdisciplinarity is always elu- sive and subject to confl icting notions of where the boundaries of disciplines lie and how to cross them, as a practical matter it is not diffi cult to achieve multi- or pluridisciplinarity, which simply means encompassing as many different disciplines as fi t within the broad rubric the Center might be exploring at any given time. Multidisciplinarity strikes me, fi nally, as a necessary if not suffi cient condition for what I have always seen as the Center’s chief goal: to stimulate, perpetuate, and record dialogue at a high intellectual level within the humanities, arts, and social sciences. It has been an honor to participate in that dialogue, which I look forward to following in the years to come.

−Daniel Sherman 2 CONTENTS

Message from Dean of the 2 From the Director College of Letters and Science, Richard Meadows

Dear Colleagues: 4 Feature As many of you know, Daniel Picturing the Modern symposium, April 3-4 Sherman is stepping down as Director of the Center for 21st Century Studies to accept appointment (beginning this 5 Report fall) to the Art History faculty at the The Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) University of North Carolina at Chapel annual meeting at Washington University in St. Louis (March 2008) Hill. I am very pleased to announce that Distinguished Professor Merry Wiesner-Hanks has agreed to serve as 6 Events the Interim Director of the Center dur- David Halperin presentation, February 15 ing the coming academic year while we Peter McIsaac seminar, March 14 are engaged in the national search for a new Center director. Although Professor Bruce Holsinger and Gabrielle Spiegel Disciplinary Dialogue, March 28 Wiesner-Hanks will assume her ofﬁ cial Historical Arc of the Commons symposium, December 7, 2007 responsibilities this summer, she is already hard at work in planning Center activities for the coming year (includ- 10 In the News ing an in-depth discussion involving all interested faculty in planning for the Center’s future direction and activities). 12 Calendar We are all very grateful for Daniel Sherman’s devotion to the Center and all that he has been able to accomplish during his tenure as the Director. 13 Event He will be missed. Pablo Boczkowski lecture, February 29 −Richard Meadows May 2008

Closing remarks at the Picturing the Modern symposium, April 4 (l to r): Petr Szczepanik, Anson Rabinbach, Daniel Sherman, David Frey, Elizabeth Otto, Lisa Silverman, and Lisa Hostetler

Center for 21st Century Studies, UWM spring/summer 2008 www.21st.uwm.edu [email protected] 3 FEATURE Picturing the Modern continued from front cover Otto, Brandt’s photomontages can be Hungary in the 1930s to illustrate the inform their relationship have endured. read as a visual dialogue with Moholy- complexities of modernity in interwar As he stated, “The new photography Nagy and his teachings. central Europe. One trend, that of the of 1930 was art history by other means.” The fi nal speaker on Friday morn- urbane, cosmopolitan and internation- He referenced several commercial art ing was Petr Szczepanik (Film Studies, ally fl avored comedy, embraced all history and photography texts from the Masaryk University, Brno, Czech things modern, yet also undermined 1930s, several of which identifi ed pho- Republic). In his paper, “Modernism, the process of modernization by con- tography as a “medium,” a new use for Industry, Film: A Network of Media in structing an ideal that could never exist the term in reference to photography. the Bat’a Corporation and the Town of in the context of actual Hungarian cul- The second speaker on Friday Zlín in the 1930s” he took a different ture and politics of the time. A second morning was Elizabeth Otto (Visual approach from fi lm historians in the type of fi lm, set in traditional, peasant, Culture, SUNY Buffalo), who presented Czech Republic, who present avant and agrarian Hungary, equated these a paper entitled “A ‘Schooling of the garde artists in Zlín, many of whom rural landscapes and activities with Senses’: Visual Experiments, Gender, are included in the Foto exhibition national identity—thereby setting itself and the Photomontages of László catalogue, within a history of the prog- in opposition to an obtrusive and alien Moholy-Nagy and Marianne Brandt.” ress of fi lm and nationalized cinema. modern—yet still managed to undercut Otto examined Bauhaus luminary Instead, Szczepanik looks at the con- its opposition through various common Marianne Brandt’s public work in metal, tributions of the Bat’a shoe company plot lines that ultimately supported her private work with photomontages, and the town of Zlín in relation to modernization efforts. and her personal relationship with avant garde art. What, he asks, do the In the fi nal talk, “Jews, Gender, Moholy-Nagy. Otto chronicled Brandt’s modern organization of work and aes- and Visual Culture in Vienna and Berlin: public career, including her background thetics have in common? Szczepanik Madame D’Ora and Lotte Jacobi” Lisa as a painter, metalsmith, and (for a year) presented detailed original research Silverman (History, UWM) explored head of the male-dominated Bauhaus about the symbiotic development of how the portrait photography of Dora Metal Workshop, but focused on recently Zlín’s city planning and of Bat’a cor- Kallmus (aka Madame D’Ora) and Lotte discovered, never before exhibited, pho- poration’s industrial standardization. Jacobi was informed by their Jewish tomontages (45 to date). According to Szczepanik argued that Bat’a organized backgrounds during a period when the private life and social welfare of its there were few Jewish and few women employees through its media network photographers. In the interwar years, and surveillance, both of which also photography was attractive to Jews played a central role in the creation of wanting to acculturate and to pursue the new Industrial Man. careers in journalism, advertising, and After lunch and a viewing of the fashion, Silverman argued. For women Foto exhibition, the afternoon session like Dora Kallmus and Lotte Jacobi, began with a presentation by David photography became an important pro- Frey (History, West Point) entitled fessional option. Silverman concluded “Dream Cars and Dancing Dandies by presenting the enigma of rare pho- or Peasants Who Feared Tractors? tographs taken by Madame D’Ora at Competing Conceptions of Modernity displaced persons camps in Austria after in 1930s Hungarian Film.” Frey looked World War II. at two opposing fi lm trends from David Frey continued on next page

4 The possibilityforallsymposiumpartici- Matthew Witkovsky continued frompreviouspage Picturing theModern of academics and community members of academicsandcommunitymembers pants tovieworrevisittheFoto exhibition in conjunction with the symposium tion inconjunctionwiththesymposium ing for several animated discussions. ing forseveralanimateddiscussions. eagerly engaged thepresentations,mak- enhanced theexperienceofboth. On both days, a diverse audience audience On bothdays,adiverse

REPORT teams canbecoordinatedthroughtheprojectleader. leader/project team”modelwhereteamshavedifferent rolesandtheworkofall knowledge, ratherthancreatingaproduct,and2)morecorporate “project Workshops—that toward gaining functionsbestifthegoalofgroup skews circumstances: 1)a “strategic workinggroup”—similartotheCenter’s Research for example,presentedtwomodelsofsuccessfulcollaboration, dependingonthe projects,but how.should undertake collaborative Anthony Cascardi(Berkeley), andInstitutes”agreedthatthequestionisnolongerwhy the humanities Centers engagement amongstudents. it—into alesshierarchical modelthatdependsmoreuponcollaborationand createknowledgeandstudentsconsume tion ofknowledgewherebyprofessors of theirefforts toreinvent thetraditionalseminarmodel—a “top-down” dissemina- Pauline Strong,associatedirectoroftheHumanitiesInstituteatUT-Austin, spoke walls, suchversity ashiringapublicistordevelopingblockbuster annualevent. Institutes,” oftheirefforts panelistsspoke todevelopconstituenciesbeyonduni- or Outreach? New Versions and ofanOldChallengeFacing Humanities Centers to themulti-dimensionaltaskofrunningahumanitiescenter. During “Inreach thatsoughtessences. els ofobjectivity toward morepragmaticconcernssuch as “building things”ratherthanoldermod- ular interesttoGalisonwas theuseofvisual,atleastincurrent nano-sciences, fromthemid-18th centurysciencestothepresent.Ofpartic-concept ofobjectivity their epistemologicalopposite,fi and fi tury Britain,MaryPoovey provided away tolookatcontemporaryerosionsoffact economic andliteraryvalueintheemergentcrediteconomy of18th and19th cen- (Harvard), furthered thethemeofconference. onboth Through herperspective director foradvancementandplanning,representedtheCenter. Louis, withthetheme “The Humanitiesinan Age ofScience.” John Blum,associate andInstitutes (CHCI),heldMarchCenters 14-15, at 2008 Washington inSt. University large? To projectsalready intheworks? whatextentarecommonorcollaborative of thecurrent repositioningofthehumanitiesinhighereducationandsocietyat Do ourobjectsormodelsofresearch needtoberedefi research agendasofhighereducation,whatistheplaceandrolehumanities? In anageinwhich scienceisoften andthe thoughttodominatepublicdiscourse Meeting CHCI Annual ction—“truthiness,” YouTube—and howfactsappeartohavedrifted back to Participants intheworkshop “Models ofCollaborative Work inHumanities In thatspiritofpragmatism,twoworkshopsproved particularly germane by MaryPoovey lectures,delivered The twokeynote (NYU)andPeter Galison These questionsinformedtheannualmeetingofConsortium ofHumanities Center for21st CenturyStudies, ction. Peter Galisontracedtheemergenceof www.21st.uwm.edu ned or supplemented in light ned orsupplementedinlight UWM

spring/summer2008 ctr21cs @ uwm.edu 5 6 6 male culturelittle thatistragicoff Halperin notedthatformuch ofgay Frank Perry’s movie Kushner’s work ondragqueens,butalso Tony sociology. DrawingonEstherNewton’s sic methodofanalyzinggenres),not male culturethroughpoetics(aclas- he examinespragmaticfeaturesofgay Halperinalsonotedthat individuals. set ofsharedpractices—notbyway of ora culture asagenreofdiscourse sized thatheapproaches gay male and-answer sessionfollowinghistalk. Halperin mentionedduringthequestion- “the hardestthing”hehaseverdone, he presentedispart ofacurrent project, Culture” onFebruary 15. The material drama: Towards aPoetics ofGayMale a lectureentitled “Tragedy intoMelo- Professor Halperinpresented (2007), recently 09 research themePast Knowing. the Centerinconnectionwithits2007- andaguestof speaker ference keynote ofMichigan,University asboththecon- History and Theory ofSexuality atthe W. H. Auden Collegiate Professor ofthe the Centerinvited DavidHalperin,the nation withtheconferenceorganizers, group ofgraduatestudents.Incoordi- UWM organized byaninterdisciplinary national graduatestudentconferenceat in which theCenterco-sponsoreda 2007-08 wasyear thethirdsuccessive Conference LivingRemains Presentation andKeynote for the by David Halperin, A Center Tragedy into Melodrama “Judy Garlandisnot Antigone.” —DavidHalperin From theoutset,Halperinempha- The authorofmany books,most What DoGayMen Want? Angels in America Mommy Dearest and

, EVENTS much feltasperformed. then, involves apassionthatisnotso of queertragedythroughmelodrama, irreplaceable loss. The representation for ﬁ tobenohope bolism, asthereappears acknowledged ironically, throughsym- demic. The gap, Halperinsuggested,is example inthecaseof AIDS epi- what theycanexpresssocially, asfor confront betweenwhattheyfeeland to beaway toaddressthegap gay men istic ofmuch ofgay malecultureseems self-mocking methodofcampcharacter- which operatesthroughattribution. The appropriation, asopposedtokitsch, preferred method. ment ofseriousissuesseemstobea limits tohumor, andthatacamptreat- closed byarguingthatmelodramanot the Stonewall riotsof1969, Halperin without takingitseriously. Referring to through melodrama,butnot,however, one’sone endsupliving lifeknowingly Halperin, itbecomeswhoyouare,and this,accordingto your ownrolelike their relationships. When yougenerate orself-authorizedprivate validationof love andinresponseresort toamore tofallin do nothaveasocialincentive lematic conceptforgay males,who “cure forromanticism,” anotherprob- drama, performedascamp,isalsoa to whomtheydonotbelong.Butmelo- resist thestraightaspirationsofthose middle classbygay males,isaway to class experience,” thisridiculingofthe form of “high dramaforthemiddle Halperin arguedthattheuseofthis nding adequate compensation for nding adequatecompensationfor Further reﬂ Camp, Halperinexplained,involves ecting onmelodrama, Halperin separatelyduringhisvisit. were alsoabletomeetwithProfessor ect, severalUWMgraduatestudents context oftheCenter’s curricular proj- RemainsLiving conference.Inthe Halperin attended sessionsofthe and after hispresentationProfessor his presentation,andbothpriorto discussion ofseveralelements Professor Halperininaprobing ulty andgraduatestudentsengaged conference participants andUWMfac- andsocialconventions. sory personal oncompul- text asanironicperspective and mightbesummedupinthiscon- only hasaneroticsbutalsoapolitics The audienceofmorethan80

EVENTS Past Anatomy: A Seminar Anatomy: Figures of Salvage and of trends running throughout modern by Peter McIsaac Transformation in the Body Worlds industrial capitalism and culture.” On March 14, the Center welcomed back Exhibitions.” The paper highlights Body Topics in the lively discussion Peter McIsaac (German Studies, York Worlds’ “straddling” nature: it is an ranged from issues of medical ethics University, Toronto). A speaker at the anatomy project, an art project, a busi- to von Hagens’ refusal to acknowledge 2002 Center conference Museums and ness, and it is popular science. No single parallels between his work and Nazi- Difference, McIsaac presented a new framework applies. In an attempt to get era experiments on human subjects paper on Gunther von Hagens’ Body beyond the limits of these familiar cat- and corpses. Center fellow Christina Worlds exhibitions, also the subject egories, McIsaac works from the prem- Maranci picked up on the notion of “past of his essay in the Center’s new book, ise that Body Worlds “relates past and anatomy” in McIsaac’s title, agreeing Museums and Difference. McIsaac’s visit present through operations of salvage with McIsaac that von Hagens’ concep- was planned to coincide with the Body and transformation.” A larger objective tion of Renaissance anatomy is largely Worlds exhibition at the Milwaukee in approaching von Hagens’ project in derived from nineteenth-century recon- Public Museum, and following his this way, McIsaac said, was to “think structions. Other comments focused on seminar with Center fellows, and UWM through processes of cultural recycling.” the tendency of visitors to the exhibi- faculty, graduate, and undergraduate Yet, Body Worlds would rather tion to relate displays to the medical students, he toured the exhibition with not acknowledge certain aspects of problems of people they know, and students and faculty from the medi- the past, for example twentieth-cen- on the tension between Body Worlds’ cal humanities program at the Medical tury German public health exhibi- ostensible goal of making death more College of Wisconsin. In the context tions, according to McIsaac. “Viewed approachable and its implicit proffer of the Center’s curricular project, through the lens of critical salvage, of immortality to those who donate McIsaac was a guest in Anthropology Body Worlds’ brand of ‘past anatomy’ their bodies for plastination. McIsaac 302, Anthropology and Popular appears much less ‘past,’ and much concluded by citing the Adorno essay Culture, taught by Professor William more like an evolving moment of “Valéry Proust Museum” as a caution Washabaugh. WUWM’s Lake Effect pro- modern anatomy’s historical under- against regarding Body Worlds as a gram aired an interview with McIsaac belly (so to speak), than might be project with boundless possibilities. on Thursday, March 20 (http://www. apparent at ﬁ rst glance.” Following wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/). Walter Benjamin’s ideas on exhibitory For his seminar, McIsaac had montage, McIsaac pointed out how, as pre-circulated his paper entitled “Past “mass anatomy,” Body Worlds and its twentieth-century German antecedents “The stakes of Body subtly turn visitors into participants who make small discoveries on their Worlds shift depending own through their interaction with the exhibits. Also in connection with on the history against Benjamin, McIsaac concluded that Body Worlds—depending as it does on which it is viewed.” modern industrial research and produc- tion capacities—should be evaluated —Peter McIsaac as “the twenty-ﬁ rst century expression

Center for 21st Century Studies, UWM spring/summer 2008 www.21st.uwm.edu [email protected] 7 EVENTS

Bruce Holsinger and particular the treatment of “enemy evalism. Spiegel argued that by using Gabrielle Spiegel Disciplinary combatants.” Holsinger pointed out the argument—obvious in the “torture Dialogue: Neomedievalism that the roots of this “neomedievalism” memos”—that the Taliban and Al Qaeda and the Church of Theory stretch back to Cold War modernization can be exempted from treatment under On March 28 the Center brought two theory, which considered the Middle international law, we ultimately take renowned medievalists to UWM for Ages a crucible of modernity. One ourselves down to the same level we the third in its series of disciplinary manifestation has been the justifi cation assign to them. She professed to be dialogues. Part of the current research of the overthrow of allegedly backward extremely skeptical of efforts by medi- theme Past Knowing, disciplinary regimes standing in the way of prog- evalists to underscore their “relevance” dialogues aim to explore practices of ress as defi ned by the Western model. for current policy debates in the “war knowledge gathering, organization, Sovereignty, according to this theory, is on terror,” in part because this kind and dissemination that contemporary both limited and contingent. of thinking is rather anti-critical. “ The disciplines and institutions view as After 9/11, according to Holsinger, place to make a real difference,” she parts of their own past, and the narra- this neomedievalism has permeated concluded, “is in the voting booths and tives through which they construct their think tank literature and neoconserva- on the streets.” relationship to them. Bruce Holsinger tive thinking. As an example, Holsinger In addition to their formal pre- (English and Music, University of pointed to the so-called torture memos sentations, both Professor Holsinger Virginia) began the event with a lecture from the Bush administration, which and Professor Spiegel were gracious entitled “Neomedievalism and the have assigned enemies such as the participants in the Center’s curricular Church of Theory: Academic Prose from Taliban and Al Qaeda to “medieval” project. Holsinger held an animated the Cold War to the War on Terror.” status, and released the United States brown-bag lunch seminar with Modern government from its obligations under Studies graduate students, while international law in its dealings with Spiegel, the current president of the them. American Historical Association, con- In her response, Gabrielle Spiegel ducted a forum on professional issues (History, Johns Hopkins) praised with members of UWM’s Department Holsinger for his pioneering work in of History, as well as meeting with highlighting the affi nities between History faculty over breakfast and pre- and post-modernity through his with graduate students over lunch. reading of French theorists such as Georges Bataille and Pierre Bourdieu— “We’re all medievalists now.” both medievalists by training. She (l to r) Gabrielle Spiegel and Bruce Holsinger warned, however, against making —Bruce Holsinger Based in part on his recent study too much of the similarities, arguing The Premodern Condition: Medievalism that instead of theoretical genealo- and the Making of Theory, Holsinger’s gies, neomedievalism involves chiefl y presentation explored the way medie- analogies. Holsinger’s paper, accord- valists and notions about the Middle ing to Spiegel, effectively shows how Ages have played a role in public analogizing can get out of control, debates and policy discussions after more specifi cally how neoconserva- the attacks of September 11, 2001, in tives have misappropriated neomedi-

8 on the9thfl posium, participants moved from the AGS Library totheCenterconferenceroom realize commonsideasinlocal,national,andglobalcontexts.Following thesym- arranged theirchairs inalargecircleforprobingdiscussionofconcreteways to audience offaculty, ofthewiderMilwaukeecommunity students,andmembers andthe introduced their organizationsers andprojects,symposiumpresenters recorded theentireeventonfi Environmental Advocates), and Vel Willey (MATA CommunityMedia,whoalso Power), Julilly Kohler (Kane CommonsProject), MelissaScanlan (Midwest part oftheafternoon, line-upoflocal activists—Will an impressive Allen (Growing growing threatstotheavailabilityoffresh,cleanwater inparticular. Inthesecond time inapresentationaddressingenvironmental questionsingeneral,andthatof UWM). The latter arguedforthepreservationofaboriginalknowledge fromdeep (TBI), Kathryn Milun(TBI),andBernardPerley (AnthropologyandCenterfellow, under themotto “it’s not aboutwhoownsthething,buthowitismanaged.” principles canworkinlandmanagement,academic,andagriculturalpractice and thenotionofcommonheritagetodiscussspecifi recover fromus.”“things taken Aoki focusedonthelegal “Public Trust Doctrine” political power, maybeaway andempire,arguedthatcommonsactivism to the lossofancientrightsembodiedbyMagnaCarta toforcesofprivatization, Linebaugh (History, Toledo) andKeith Aoki (Law, UC-Davis).Linebaughlamented Center director, theday’s proceedingskicked off withpresentationsbyPeter as theenvironment, publicmediaaccess,andequitable,sustainableurbanrenewal. history ofthecommonsandrelevanceparadigmtocausessuch organizers. The eventsoughttobringscholars togethertodiscussthe andactivists posals fromRachel Buff (History, UWM)andKathryn Milun(TBI),thesymposium’s event originatedinasubmissiontotheCenter’s permanentcallforconferencepro- and the American GeographicalSociety Library(AGS) atUWM. The ideaforthe ism onDecember7, was ajoint effort bytheCenter, the Tomales BayInstitute(TBI), The fi The Historical Arc oftheCommons: A Symposium nal event of the fall 2007 semester,nal eventofthefall2007 aday-long symposiumoncommonsactiv- A scholar/activist roundtableintheearlyafternoon featuredDavidBollier After welcomesbyChristopherBaruth,Curator, AGS, andDanielSherman, oor ofCurtin Hall forananimatedreception. lm)—participated inaroundtable. After thespeak-

EVENTS c ways inwhich commons Center for21st CenturyStudies, Mitchell, ca.1848) fromthe AGS Library, UWM Wisconsin www.21st.uwm.edu , S. Augustus Mitchell (Philadelphia, UWM

spring/summer 2008 spring/summer2008 ctr21cs @ uwm.edu 9 INTHE NEWS

Current Center Fellows and Staff Michelle Bolduc (French, Italian and Comparative Literature) has been awarded a Mellon grant to study paleography of French manuscripts this summer. She will be participating in the Mellon Summer Institute in French Paleography at the Newberry Library.

Diane Canﬁ eld Bywaters (Art and Design, UW-Stevens Point) had a solo exhibition at the Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina in March. Over ﬁ fty oil paintings created in 2007 and 2008 were exhibited. She also had three paintings acquired through the competitive Wisconsin Arts Board Direct Purchase program.

Barrett Kalter (English) has published a review essay: “Shopping, Collecting, and (l to r) Center fellows Michelle Bolduc, Feeling at Home: Recent Work in Eighteenth-Century British Material Culture,” Barrett Kalter, Christina Maranci, Diane Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Spring 2008. He also delivered a paper entitled Canﬁ eld Bywaters, and director Daniel “Gloomth” at the 2008 American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies confer- Sherman take a closer look at Bernard ence in Portland, Oregon in March. Perley’s project during a fellows seminar.

Christina Maranci (Art History) has been named Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel at the American Historical Association Professor of Armenian Art in the Department of Art and Art History at Tufts University. Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. in She also presented papers at the St. Nersess Seminary, New Rochelle, New York in January. He also presented his work at April and the Byzantine Workshop Series at the University of Chicago in May. a meeting of the University of Chicago Study Group on Modern France in May. Bernard Perley (Anthropology) participated in a symposium on “The Future of American Indian Studies” held at UWM in April. In May he presented a paper Ruud van Dijk (Associate Director for at the conference “Endangered Languages: Exploring the Interface between Publications) was a visiting interna- Academia and Native American Communities,” at the University of Pennsylvania. tional scholar at Northern Michigan University, January 22-25. The title Arijit Sen (Architecture) has been awarded the Quadrant residential fellowship at of his lecture was: “The Cold War is the Institute of Advanced Study at University of Minnesota. He presented papers Never Over: Assessing the New Cold at the Annual Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Conference, War History.” On March 14 he gave an Houston, Texas, in March and at the conference “World Making: Art and Politics in invited lecture in the Graduiertenkolleg Global Media,” organized by the Center for International Education, University of at the Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam, Wisconsin-Milwaukee in April. the Netherlands, entitled “The German Question in the Early Cold War: Is There The Center welcomes Gregory J. Carman (Urban Studies) as the 2008 Tennessen Anything Left to Discuss?” Graduate Research Fellow. He will spend the summer at the Center to work on his dissertation entitled “The Third Migration: Milwaukee’s Belated Increase in African American Population.” He is the fourth successive Tennessen Fellow at the Center.

Daniel Sherman (History, Director) delivered the keynote talk, “Circa 1967: French Primitivism and the Ends of Empire” at the Modern European Section Luncheon

10 IN THE NEWS

Former Center Fellows for his project “As Realistic as God: New Center Book Ellen Amster (History, 2005-06) has World-Making in Literature and Media.” Early in 2008 Indiana University Press received a UW System fellowship published a new volume in the Center’s for 2008-09 from the Institute for Tanya Tiffany (Art History, 2006-07) book series 21st Century Studies. Research in the Humanities at the published “Light, Darkness, and Museums and Difference originates University of Wisconsin-Madison. African Salvation: Velázquez’s Supper in the 2003 Center conference of the at Emmaus,” Art History, 31, no. 1 same name and was edited by Center Derek Counts (Art History, 2004-05) has (2008): 33-56. She was also invited to a Director Daniel J. Sherman. David published “The Master of the Lions in conference in Seville in March, where O’Brien (Art History, University of Cyprus: Hybridity, Representation and she presented a related paper: “La Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) offered the Culture within Cypriote Cultures,” luz cristiana y la salvación africana: the following advance praise: “[This American Journal of Archaeology El Cristo en Emaús de Velázquez.” collection] demonstrates both the 112:1 (2008). This article grew out of centrality and rapidly changing signiﬁ - his electronic working paper, pub- Robert Wolensky (Sociology, UW- cance of difference in museum practice lished on the Center website in 2006. Stevens Point, 2002-03, 2006-07) co- and poses a number of critical ques- authored Tragedy at Avondale: The tions for future scholarship, such as Rina Ghose (Geography, 2004-05) has Causes, Consequences, and Legacy whether or not aesthetic distinctions published, with W. Lin, “Complexities of Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal can ever be employed in museums in in Sustainable Provision of GIS for Industry’s Most Deadly Mining Disaster, a manner that does not privilege the Urban Grassroots Organizations,” September 6, 1869, published by the identity of one or another group.” Cartographica 43:1 (2008); and National Canal Museum Press in March. “Politics of Scale and Networks of Association in PPGIS,” Environment Paul Arthur (Curtin University of and Planning A, 39:8 (2007). Technology, Western Australia and Australian National University, Anne Hansen (History and Comparative Canberra), a visiting fellow at the Study of Religion Program, 2000-01, Center and the American Geographical 2006-07) has published “Modernism Society Library in fall 2004, has been and Morality in Colonial Cambodia” awarded an international fellow- in People of Virtue: Reconﬁ guring ship at Rutgers University’s Center Religion, Power and Moral Order in for Cultural Analysis for 2008-09. Cambodia, Alexandra Kent and David Chandler, eds. NIAS Studies in Asian Topics, No. 43 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008).

Peter Paik (French, Italian and Comparative Literature, 2002-03) has been awarded a 2008 UWM RGI grant

Center for 21st Century Studies, UWM spring/summer 2008 www.21st.uwm.edu [email protected] 11 CALENDAR

Fall 2008 Preliminary Calendar FRI SEP 19 2007-08 Fellows Presentations by Michelle Bolduc (French, Italian and Comparative Literature), Barrett Kalter (English), Christina Maranci (Art History), and Caroline Seymour-Jorn (French, Italian and Comparative Literature) 2:30 pm CRT 118 CENTER OPEN HOUSE 4:00 pm CRT 939

FRI SEP 26 George Wilson (Philosophy, USC) a lecture 3:30 pm CRT 118

THU OCT 9 Monique Buzzarté “Here Right Now: Live Processing and Improvisation (Where the Present is the Future and the Future is the Past)” a lecture/recital, trombone and live processing 7:30 pm Recital Hall co-sponsored by Unruly Music Series, PSOA Thank You! We would like to express our thanks FRI OCT 10 to the following people who in OPEN FORUM recent months have made ﬁ nancial 1:00 pm CRT 939 donations to the Center, either in support of the Center’s program- THU-SAT OCT 23-25 ming, or toward our envisioned SINCE 1968 endowment for the Tennessen a Center for 21st Century Studies 40th anniversary conference Graduate Research Fellowship: organized by Jasmine Alinder (UWM), A. Aneesh (UWM), Kumkum Sangari (UWM), Daniel J. Sherman (UNC-Chapel Hill), and Ruud van Dijk (UWM) Ellen S. Ginsberg, Ihab and Sally with keynotes by James Ferguson (Stanford) and Carolee Schneemann Hassan, Cristina Hernandez- (independent artist / ﬁ lmmaker); speakers include Martin Berger (UC- Malaby, Barrett Kalter, Thomas Santa Cruz), Ann Reynolds (UT-Austin), and Kath Weston (UVA) Malaby, Bernard Perley, Caroline co-sponsored by William F. Vilas Trust, Department of Film, and an Seymour-Jorn, Zelma Sherman, anonymous donor Tomales Bay Institute, and Katherine T. Wallingford continued on next page

12 EVENT FRI NOV 7 Jean Comaroff (Anthropology, University of Chicago) a lecture 3:30 pm CRT 118

Please check the calendar page on our website for updates

Past Knowing?: The Practice and Infrastructure of Imitation in Contemporary News Work Center Staff A Lecture by Pablo Boczkowski Daniel J. Sherman A talk given by Pablo Boczkowski (Communication, Northwestern) on February 29 Director suggested a meaning of the current research theme, Past Knowing, the Center had Kate Kramer not yet considered. Boczkowski presented a story of a technology-driven trend in Deputy Director news reporting where the need for constant news updates leads to widespread imi- John C. Blum tation and similarity at the expense of original news gathering and genuine knowl- Associate Director for edge. His lecture analyzed the way news gathering and news reporting in Argentina Advancement and Planning has changed since 1995 as a result of the rise of newspaper websites. Ruud van Dijk After an introduction discussing the mechanics of imitation in news work— Associate Director for Publications through elements such as visibility or “observability”; the importance of technology, Maria Liesegang especially the internet; the interpretation of the preferences of others; and reputation Business Manager and how it tends to promote conformism—Boczkowski turned to the case of the two Scott Canevit major Argentine newspapers, Clarín and La Nación. Project Assistant Boczkowski provided a detailed description of how the frequency of user Kevin Cullen visits to newspaper websites have led journalists at both Argentine papers on an Project Assistant increasingly frantic quest for news updates. In practice, much of this quest takes Renee Pasciak place as the incessant monitoring of other news sites, “surﬁ ng for information,” Project Assistant rather than original news gathering. 96 percent of stories, Boczkowski said, get produced within two hours, and 88 percent of content comes from other news e-mail [email protected] media. Incentives to be different hardly exist, given the newspapers’ main audi- web http://www.21st.uwm.edu ence: people at the ofﬁ ce who check news sites all the time and expect something new every time. If newspapers want to keep their audience, they need to provide Newsletter design constant updates, and they need to make sure that they cover everything the com- Kate Kramer petition covers also. Only the newspapers’ feature writers are rewarded for being original—the others are penalized for being different. In conclusion, Boczkowski pondered the social and political implications of this process of monitoring-imitation-similarity: What will happen to the watchdog Photo credits role of the media in a democratic society or the balance of power there? What will Alan Magayne-Roshak (Visual Imaging, be the long-term consequences for diversity in the public sphere? Could it be that UWM) unless otherwise indicated we’re living in an information revolution where more is actually less?

13 Center for 21st Century Studies Nonproﬁ t ORG University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee US postage PO Box 413 Milwaukee WI 53201 USA PAID Milwaukee WI www.21st.uwm.edu [email protected] Permit NO. 864

center for 21st century studies

Center guest Pablo Boczkowski, February 29