“Audience(s)” Theme of Humanities’ Spring Lecture Series

“Audience(s)” is the theme of the Center for the Humanities’ Spring 2014 lecture series.

“Audience(s)” asks us to explore the phenomena of the audience from multiple perspectives. How does audience shape the form and function of our work? Is the desire to reach a wider audience consistent with our academic or artistic goals? How should we reflect on the relation of intellectuals to their audience or audiences in general? What can the audience tell us about past or present works of scholarship, theater, music, politics or art?

Speakers also will explore the ways in which audience behavior is changing in the new media environment and the ethical and social ramifications associated with measuring audience behavior on new media platforms.

All lectures begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted, and are held in the Daniel Family Commons. The first lecture, delivered by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, professor of modern culture and media at Brown University, is Feb. 3.

Topics include Habits of Leaking, Politics of Forgivin;, Escape Strategies and the Art of Non-Pragmatic Thinking; Disinterested Interest: Toward A Theory of Political Publics; Empress Jingū’s Magical Conquest of Korea: A Legend of Multiple Uses; The Afterlives of Edgar G. Ulmer: Rediscovering a Filmmaker at the Margins; The Readers’ Eye and the Land of Godlessness: How Atheism Changed the Spiritual Life of Soviet Society; The Black Circuit: Race, Performance, and Spectatorship in Black Popular Theater; Shakespeare’s Audients; and Auto-Tune, The Earth, and the Politics of Frequency.

Several Wesleyan faculty will lead the discussions including Javier Castro-Ibaseta, Jonathan Best, Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock, Rashida Shaw and Natasha Korda.

View the full schedule online here.