In September 2013 I began a thirteen-month personal video project in which I took one second of video per day and published the daily diary at the end of every month, posting a link to each monthly video on my Facebook account. The first installment went from Sept. 1 through Sept. 30. A project like this exposes the creator to the public eye and invites participation from viewers. Particularly in a small community, the subjects of the videos become their viewers and critics. The creator appears vulnerable to scrutiny, but simultaneously she retains control over what her audience sees. A video suggests a sense of veracity, but what does it mean when that portrayal is manipulated by the creator? Is it any less of a true representation? How does the way that a video is shared affect how an audience receives it? To approach these questions, we view the project as a ritual act of communication and apply anthropological observations about the role of social media in creating a community. We find that the creation of the project and its advertisement on social media fostered a community and that the communal aspects of the project shaped the content of the videos themselves.

We look at the works of Barbara Kruger, an artist famous for her aggressive and confrontational images. She often pairs found photographs with ironic captions, challenging the viewer to consider new perspectives on issues such as media imagery and cultural identity. In Not Stupid Enough, Kruger discusses the media’s punitive idolization of actress Marilyn Monroe. We compare Kruger’s images to Diesel Jeans, an international clothing company known for its provocative ad campaigns. Our focus is the company’s 2010 series of advertisements “Be Stupid,” in which Diesel promoted stupidity as a positive and desirable quality in order to sell their jeans. While their “bold” message resonated with many, the United Kingdom banned their campaign. In our talk, we compare Kruger’s Not Stupid Enough to Diesel’s “Be Stupid” ad campaign in order to demonstrate similarities, but also glaring differences. We argue that in contrast to Kruger’s critique of a cultural a dumbing-down, Diesel uses derogatory statements to create taste. Using semiotics and a cultural studies methodological approach, we will convey how Kruger and Diesel respond to power structures and social expectations to achieve their aims.

Associated with folk and having its roots in Jewish, Moorish, and gypsy cultures, flamenco was originally considered the dance of the poor and oppressed. In nineteenth-century Spain, however, a drastic change in the cultural status of flamenco occurred. At the turn of the century entrepreneurs realized the profitability of flamenco performances for the new influx of European, English, and American tourists. Suddenly flamenco was sought after, it became an eroticized attraction that symbolized the nation during the Golden Age of flamenco (1869-1910). The class status of flamenco dancers changed and was reflected in numerous art depictions. Today, both men and women, accompanied by singers, guitarists, and percussionists, dance flamenco. Through their expressive movements and gestures, they convey stories of love, loss, and celebration. In this paper I consider three art works that document the change and rise in status of the dance. These works span the century beginning with Francisco Goya's El Vito Andalusian Dancer (1828), which is the very first depiction of flamenco and is political in its message. I then introduce Gustave Doré's Young Dancers (1870) an early depiction of flameco gypsies and contrast this work to John Singer Sargent's El Jaleo (1882), a painting done during the peak of the Golden Age. My purpose is to examine how the pieces created during the Golden Age depict an artistic appreciation for flamenco rather than a commercialization of the dance form.  

Natsume Soseki is the most important writer of modern Japanese literature. In 1906 he wrote Kusamakura, a work about a painter trained in the Western style who struggles to find the perfect subject for his painting. Soseki states he wrote for the sole purpose of "conveying beauty to the reader." The "beauty" presented in the novel neither fully embraces newly introduced Western aesthetics nor that of traditional Chinese or Japanese aesthetics. However, my study shows that Kusamakura is Soseki's attempt to preserve tradition, which in turn reveals that although twentieth century Japan was in the middle of Westernization, tradition perseveres in the form of literature.

I arrived at my conclusion through close reading of two primary sources: the novel Kusamakura in both the original Japanese and the most recent English translation, as well as Soseki's detailed personal notes. I also referred to a number of secondary sources to support the argument. These secondary sources include books on East Asian aesthetics as well as other scholars' analyses of Kusamakura.

The horse has been recognized as an integral part of the Yakama people's culture for the better part of the last two centuries. However, in recent decades, the wild horse population on Yakama tribal lands has significantly increased, leading to a polarizing debate over their management. The debate over the management of wild horses on Yakama tribal lands provides a useful lens through which to examine the current state of Native-Settler interactions. I draw on the works of scholars Mark Rifkin, Patrick Wolfe, Elizabeth Furness and Renato Rosaldo to examine the complexity of enacting Native sovereignty, especially in the context of challenges posed by animal advocates. Through the analysis of scholarly work and public commentary, I show how animal advocates use ideas about Native authenticity as means to justify the persecution of the Yakama people by imagining themselves as the protagonists in the struggle of civilization vs. savagery. Finally, I weave in my own personal experiences with horses and suggest that we explore multiple perspectives that take seriously the agency of the horse, while considering our relations with non-human others.

A very common ideal is there is no culture without art, and in Eurocentric cultures, that art falls into the standards set by traditions taught throughout Europe over the centuries. So when Europe set its sights on the New World, they made sure to impose their cultures on the indigenous peoples on the "found" continent. One such artistic tradition, or school, started during this time of expanding empires was the Cuzco School. Started in Cuzco, Peru (formerly the capital of the Incan Empire), this Roman Catholic, native people-driven tradition combined the styles of both contemporary Europe and the native arts the Spanish found when arriving in the western lands. Through mapping the influences within Gaspar Miguel de Berrio’s El Patrocinio de San Jose  or The Patronage of Saint Joseph (1737), a later piece from an offshoot school, the influences of Spain, the indigenous peoples who participated in the movement, and the adaption to life under colonial rule are evident. Looking beyond traditional questions regarding the iconography of the painting, I explore the hybrid style of El Patrocinio de San Jose to show how the indigenous people adapted to life under colonial rule by creating a synthetic style that combines the diverse European traditions of such as Baroque and Renaissance, as well as regional variations with the traditional styles of the New World.

My presentation examines how Diana Taylor’s theory of percepticide within Argentina’s “Dirty War” is manifested visually in graphic narratives pertaining to the era of the last dictatorship (1976-1983). Three works are analyzed (Buscavidas, Perramus, and a selection from Parque Chas) both separately and with an eye to the trajectory that can be drawn between them. Percepticide, as carried out by the military dictatorship, entailed public spectacles of violence that witnesses were forced to watch but act as if they did not see. Although percepticide requires a kind of self-blinding, the result of percepticide was auditory, namely silence. My presentation investigates how percepticide is represented visually in these graphic works, particularly the interplay between seeing and speaking and the individual as representative of the larger society, to conclude that narration and shared testimony are what ultimately break down percepticide.

This research project analyzes the ideologies about age and gender behind the Marc Jacobs fragrance for Oh! Lola featuring Dakota Fanning in 2011. Due to the controversy in this ad, the image was banned throughout the United Kingdom after being published in UK magazines such as ES Magazine and the Sunday Times Style. Using an intertextual semiotic analysis, this research observes the references of an earlier text through parody and controversy. This research reveals deeper messages about gender and age that resonate in U.S. popular culture. Fanning herself physically resembles actress Sue Lyon who starred in the 1962 film, "Lolita." Inspired by author, Vladimir Nabakov, this film was based on his 1955 book of a 38-year-old man who longs for his 12-year-old stepdaughter. The name Lolita was given to the young girl as a private nickname and is now a modern reference to a "sexually precocious young girl." With Ferdinand de Saussure's theoretic combination of sound-image and concept, or signifier and signified, this research interprets the positioning, objects, and characters strategically placed in the Jacobs ad Campaign. Applying this analysis, this controversial image predominantly draws attention to the oversexualization of young girls.