Performance studies professor visits for Society for Humanities lecture

Fred Moten, professor of performance studies at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and professor at the University of California-Riverside, will deliver the 2018 Invited Society Scholar Lecture at 4:30 p.m. March 21 in Lewis Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall. The subject of Moten’s lecture will be “The Gift of Corruption.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

“Fred Moten is a poet and critical theorist who has written extensively on the role of resistance within the black radical tradition,” said Nasrin Olla, doctoral candidate in the Department of English and a 2017-18 Society for the Humanities Graduate Fellow. “His books explore the music, poetry and philosophy of the African diaspora. It is exciting to have Moten at Cornell since his work, particularly his book ‘In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition,’ has been path breaking in the field of black studies.”

At University of Southern California- Riverside, Moten conducts research in black studies, performance studies, poetics, and literary theory. Moten’s other books include “In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition” “Hughson’s Tavern” and “B.Jenkins.” His poetry text, “The Feel Trio”, was a poetry finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the California Book Award for poetry. He is the co-author, with Stefano Harney, of “The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study,” and, with Wu Tsang, of “Who Touched Me.”

He has served on various editorial boards, including Discourse, American Quarterly, and Social Text, and on the board of directors of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York. In 2016, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Stephen E. Henderson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry by the African American Literature and Culture Society.

Moten will also be part of a conversation with Margo Crawford, associate professor of English, at 4:30 p.m. March 20 in the Guerlac Room of the A.D. White House. The Invited Society Scholar Lecture is sponsored by the Society for the Humanities.

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