MassArt Tower Auditorium

6:30-8:30pm

This year’s program features a public talk and conversation with Dr. Jack Halberstam, Professor of English and Gender Studies at Columbia University,  and author of Trans*A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variability (2018)

In this talk, I want to think with you about the new politics of trans* as opposed to the new inclusion of transgender bodies. The category of trans* takes the prefix for transitivity and couples it with the asterisk that indicates a wildcard in internet searches; it is a diacritical mark that poses a question to its prefix and stands in for what exceeds the politics of naming. 

The talk is in three parts and is drawn from my book Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Guide to Gender Variance. In the first part of the talk, I address where we have been in terms of the history of cinematic representations of gender variant bodies; in the second I address histories of representation drawn from photography archives; and finally, I turn to contemporary popular film and TV to see how we might think differently about gender, trans* politics, and popular and unpopular culture.

Lecture Hall, MassArt Design Media Center

6:30 - 8:00pm

This year’s event is an evening of artist talks on the theme of translation across linguistic, cultural and mediatic forms, as it manifests in these artists’ lives and in their work. This program is intended as a space where recent alumni share with current students the ways in which experiences of foreignness and difference not only inform their creative practice but are also shaping their current career paths. Whether as freelance film directors, art educators, or ceramic artists, the alumni featured in Creative Counterpoints engage intentionally with their defining experience of difference in this country, and “translate” this experience in their professional and personal lives.

4:00 - 4:20pm

Coffee break

4:20 - 6:20pm

Counterpoint #2: Women, Representation and Cultural Markets

6:20 - 7:00pm

Roundtable and Closing Remarks

Arnheim Gallery

7:15 - 8:30pm