Humanities in the Village: A Feminist Practice Of Monumentalizing

Description

Jennifer Stager, from Johns Hopkins, and Leila Easa, from the City College of San Francisco, will jointly present a section from their forthcoming book Public Feminism in Times of Crisis: From Sappho's Fragments to Viral Hashtags for Humanities in the Village (sponsored by the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute).

Abstract:

In "A Feminist Practice of Monumentalizing," we consider the possibilities of a less patriarchal tradition of memorialization—the feminist list. While our contemporary moment invites engagement with fallism—the practice of toppling monuments of symbols of patriarchal power—we identify and narrate a parallel heritage to that of the traditional masculine figural monument critiqued by such practices. We understand this act, which we name overwriting, to represent a feminist project of mourning and memorializing. Our talk will suggest that this parallel feminist tradition, running from ancient Greece to contemporary times, can itself offer new forms of possibility to engage and include a more diverse set of voices while also remaining grounded in historical precedent. Building on Athena Kirk's theory of apodeixis, a practice of making a list visual, we will trace the history of such alternative monuments from the ancient Greek casualty lists set up in Athens in the fifth century BCE to Maya Lin's Washington, DC, Vietnam memorial to the New York Times COVID-19 memorial cover to contemporary feminist poetry, protest, and performance, including #SayHerName. Ultimately, our talk argues that this tradition mobilizes naming and the poetic power of the list to elevate not singular hegemony but instead a plurality of raised voices.

About the Presenters:

Jennifer Stager teaches and researches the art and architecture of the ancient Mediterranean and its afterlives in the Department of History of Art at Johns Hopkins University. Her areas of focus include theories of color, materiality, feminisms, multilingualism, ancient Greek and Roman medicine, and classical receptions.

Leila Easa teaches and researches in the areas of composition, literature, creative writing, and women's and gender studies in the English department at City College of San Francisco. She previously taught English, rhetoric, and composition at colleges that include the University of Pennsylvania, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the University of San Francisco.