9/03/19
NORTH ADAMS, MASS. —The Mind’s Eye, the much-loved faculty published journal that has been a part of academic life at MCLA for years, expands to a one-day symposium on November 1, 2019 at MASS MoCA. This inaugural symposium will engage scholarly and creative communities within and beyond the Berkshires. It represents an innovative collaboration between higher education and a cultural institution, with programs that strengthen the ties between the humanities and the arts.
Through their dynamic partnership, both MCLA and MASS MoCA are poised to make visible the cross-disciplinary nature of academia and museums, bringing new voices to the discourse on contemporary social concerns such as climate, race, technology, and gender.
This year’s theme centers on “slowness,” and the symposium brings together scholars, critics, visual artists, creative writers, activists, curators, and other cultural practitioners to explore critical questions related to the speed of modern life. At a time of urgent socio-political, environmental, and economic threats, the symposium examines how slowness offers not a remedy but an alternative to our fast-paced living.
Organized by MCLA's Dr. Victoria Papa, Assistant Professor of English, and Dr. Guangzhi Huang, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, along with MASS MoCA’s Dr. Laura Thompson, Director of Education, and Amanda Tobin, Associate Director for School and Community Engagement, the symposium features more than 40 speakers from a range of disciplines including keynote lecturer Dr. Tina Campt, the Claire Tow and Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Africana and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College and author of Listening to Images (Duke University Press, 2017) and Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the African Diaspora in Europe (Duke University Press, 2012). Speakers will explore other topics including incremental forms of oppression and contemplative approaches in art and design, scholarship, and medicine. The symposium also includes experiential opportunities such as Slow Looking tours of the museum, guided meditation sessions, and slow writing and movement workshops.
Registration for the symposium is open to the public; registration fees include access to all symposium events including a keynote luncheon and evening reception. Those who attend will also receive two-day admission to MASS MoCA.
The cost to attend is $75 for non-presenters; attendants are encouraged to register by September 30. More information and a link to register are available at www.mindseye.mcla.edu. Questions about the symposium can be directed to mindseye@mcla.edu.
About The Mind’s Eye:
The Mind’s Eye is a symposium initiative and online journal of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts that explores a wide range of cultural topics, socio-political inquiries, theoretical concerns, and creative practices from within an interdisciplinary framework. The Mind’s Eye aims to stand as a model of the civic engagement and critical thinking constitutive of a liberal arts education by engaging in scholarly and creative pursuits that transcend disciplinary boundaries.
