Upcoming Events
A visitor exploring Andrea Bowers' Political Ribbons (Brandeis University), 2024, Silkscreen ink on satin ribbons, Dimensions variable, Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco Wrongs & RIGHTS, Curated by Laura Dvorkin and Maynard Monrow, Kniznick Gallery, Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University
Photo Credit: Photo by Sam Brower
January 23, 2025
Join us to hear Andrea Bowers, "one of America's foremost political artists" (NYTimes), in conversation with Peter Kalb, Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Brandeis
when: 4:30pm
where: the Liberman-Miller Lecture Hall at the WSRC, 515 South Street, Waltham, MA 02453
For over thirty years, artist Andrea Bowers (American, b. 1965) has made art across a variety of mediums, from video to colored pencil to installation art, that activates. Her work combines an artistic practice with activism and advocacy, speaking to deeply entrenched social and political inequities as well as the generations of activists working to create a fairer and more just world. "Bowers has built an international reputation as a chronicler of contemporary history, documenting activism as it unfolds and collecting research on the front lines of protest. Her practice contends with issues such as immigration rights, workers' rights, climate justice, and women's rights, illustrating the shared pursuit of justice that connects them." (The Hammer Museum at UCLA)
Peter R. Kalb is the Cynthia L. and Theodore S. Berenson Associate Professor of Contemporary Art and Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Brandeis University where he teaches modern and contemporary art history. He was also recently appointed to the core faculty of the Brandeis Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department. He is the author of Art Since 1980: Charting the Contemporary, (Pearson and Laurence King: New York and London, 2014) which details the expanding contemporary art world from its New York explosion in the early 1980s to its global expanse in the 21st century. Before preparing Art Since 1980, he was the revising author of the Fifth Edition of H.H. Arnason History of Modern Art and the author of High Drama: The New York Cityscapes of Georgia O’Keeffe and Margaret Bourke-White. Current projects include research on artists responses to the Apollo Mission, a series of articles on the politics of representation as evident in the work of Andrea Bowers, writing on the innovative practice of bricolage in the work of Tom Sachs, and the intersection of archeology and art history in the contemporary art world.
A reception with the artist will follow.
February 25, 2025
Join WSRC Scholar Aditi Malik, Associate Professor of Political Science, College of the Holy Cross, as she discusses her most recent work.
Note: This talk discusses sexual violence and contains details some attendees may find distressing.
In societies marked by high levels of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), how do we account for citizens’ varied responses to such incidents? Drawing on comparative case studies of five lethal rapes in India and South Africa, which generated strikingly different reactions from ordinary citizens, this talk will demonstrate how victims’ social locations—that is, their urbanity, class, caste, race, and/or religion—crucially shape the possibilities for one key response to such violence, namely anti-rape protests.
Combining original event data on demonstrations against rape in India with insights from over 80 original and in-depth interviews in the two countries, as well as ethnographic observations of anti-GBV forums in South Africa, the talk will highlight the conditioning impact of women’s intersectional identities on the mobilization of protests against rape.