Papers by Karen Leader
European Comic Art, 2011
Page 1. French Comics and the Republic Page 2. French Comics and the Republic Page 3. Drawing Fra... more Page 1. French Comics and the Republic Page 2. French Comics and the Republic Page 3. Drawing France Page 4. This page intentionally left blank Page 5. Joel E. Vessels Drawing France French Comics and the Republic University Press of Mississippi/Jackson Page 6. www. ...
Storytelling, Self, Society, Apr 1, 2015
Anthropologist Dr Frances Harwood-a student of Margaret Mead ' s-once asked a Sioux elder why peo... more Anthropologist Dr Frances Harwood-a student of Margaret Mead ' s-once asked a Sioux elder why people tell stories. He answered: "In order to become human beings." She asked, "Aren ' t we human beings already?" He smiled. "Not everyone makes it." LAURA SIMMS 1
The Journal of Somaesthetics, Sep 26, 2017
To consider body modification, in this case tattooing, in the 21st century, opens new paths of in... more To consider body modification, in this case tattooing, in the 21st century, opens new paths of inquiry about body and identity. In the context of Stories on the Skin: Tattoo Culture at FAU, a long-term, multidisciplinary creative and research collaboration, this paper will consider several questions about its scholarly import. First, the phenomenon of the widespread, mainstream popularity of tattoo is occurring at the precise moment when our lives are becoming more virtual. What is the significance of this profoundly bodily performance of self in a world where bodies are being left behind for avatars? If tattooing offers a positive value to individual subjectivity, can this significant embodiment of self offer an ethical model for that affirms our lived experience, on an increasingly endangered planet? Analyses from art history, sociology, anthropology, and pragmatist philosophy offer tattoo culture as a touchstone for 21st-century body politics.
The Eye, the Hand, the Mind, 2020
Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 2015
This paper describes a multidisciplinary creative and research project at a South Florida public ... more This paper describes a multidisciplinary creative and research project at a South Florida public university. “Stories on the Skin: Tattoo Culture at FAU” has explored and presented tattoos as a shared cultural experience, rather than as a symptom, or a fad. Considering relevant scholarship in various disciplines, tattoo emerges as a repository of memories and a site of affirmations, but also a significant form of creative self-expression beyond temporary fashion. Proposing a positive value to connecting mind and body, story and skin, the project offers a model for other universities to engage a diverse student body in the complexities of living an embodied self in a virtual world. It also offers a way to open the minds of those who would discriminate. It is not about promoting, but about understanding, this moment of ink, deploying the arts and humanities for the sake of self-knowledge and tolerance.
Storytelling, Self, Society, 2015
On Why Stories Matter by Clare Hemmings Karen J. Leader Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar... more On Why Stories Matter by Clare Hemmings Karen J. Leader Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory, by Clare Hemmings. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011. 288 pp. ISBN 0822349167."People talk about narratives, but people tell stories" (Arthur W. Frank, qtd. in Neile 263). In Why Stories Matter, a bracing and important contribution to feminist historiography and activism, Clare Hemmings does both. Woven among her meticulous analyses of three narrative types that map the trajectory of Western feminism, the author inserts the storyteller's voice, sometimes her own, to tell the tale. Her premise, stated early, is worth quoting in full: "I seek to flesh out the substance of Western feminist stories and to intervene by experimenting with how we might tell stories differently rather than telling different stories" (16). While Arthur Frank is not cited, his thinking about the agency of stories, discussed recently in an interview in the pages of...
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 01973762 2014 908100, Jun 4, 2014
The future of art history has much to offer and much at stake. Recent references to the disciplin... more The future of art history has much to offer and much at stake. Recent references to the discipline in popular media have encouraged a critical assessment of the so-called Humanities crisis, revealing it to be a red herring for the more systemic ailments that afflict higher education. Art history has a role to play in changing the conversation about the arts and humanities in society as a whole. In an effort to spur this change, this essay describes and contextualizes Art History That, a crowd-sourced manifesto for the future of the discipline. Inspired by Claes Oldenburg's 1961 statement “I Am for an Art. . . . “, Art History That is both a playful literary experiment and an earnest effort to advocate for art history and its future.
Blog post 3: Arts and Humanities as Higher Education
To consider body modification, in this case tattooing, in the 21st century, opens new paths of in... more To consider body modification, in this case tattooing, in the 21st century, opens new paths of inquiry about body and identity. In the context of Stories on the Skin: Tattoo Culture at FAU, a long-term, multi-disciplinary creative and research collaboration, this paper will consider several questions about its scholarly import. First, the phenomenon of the widespread, mainstream popularity of tattoo is occurring at the precise moment when our lives are becoming more virtual. What is the significance of this profoundly bodily performance of self in a world where bodies are being left behind for avatars? If tattooing offers a positive value to individual subjectivity, can this significant embodiment of self offer an ethical model for that affirms our lived experience, on an increasingly endangered planet? Analyses from art history, sociology, anthropology, and pragmatist philosophy offer tattoo culture as a touchstone for 21st-century body politics.
Blog post #1 at Arts and Humanities as Higher Education
Blog post #2 at Arts and Humanities as Higher Education
Catalogue essay for the exhibition Making Space: Beyond a Room, curated by Jeanie Ambrosio, Sofia... more Catalogue essay for the exhibition Making Space: Beyond a Room, curated by Jeanie Ambrosio, Sofia Bastidas, and Sarah Michelle Rupert
In collaboration with Girls’ Club | Contemporary Art by Women
Catalogue essay for Proper Part of the Whole-Three Dimensional Paintings, by Allison Malinsky
This paper describes a multidisciplinary creative and research project at a South Florida public ... more This paper describes a multidisciplinary creative and research project at a South Florida public university. ‘‘Stories on the Skin: Tattoo Culture at FAU’’ has explored and presented tattoos as a shared cultural experience, rather than as a symptom, or a fad.
Considering relevant scholarship in various disciplines, tattoo emerges as a repository of memories and a site of affirmations, but also a significant form of creative self-expression beyond temporary fashion. Proposing a positive value to connecting mind and body, story and skin, the project offers a model for other universities to engage a
diverse student body in the complexities of living an embodied self in a virtual world. It also offers a way to open the minds of those who would discriminate. It is not about promoting, but about understanding, this moment of ink, deploying the arts and humanities for the sake of self-knowledge and tolerance.
Book Reviews by Karen Leader
Book review of Clare Hemmings, "Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory, Duk... more Book review of Clare Hemmings, "Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory, Duke University Press, 2011
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Papers by Karen Leader
In collaboration with Girls’ Club | Contemporary Art by Women
Considering relevant scholarship in various disciplines, tattoo emerges as a repository of memories and a site of affirmations, but also a significant form of creative self-expression beyond temporary fashion. Proposing a positive value to connecting mind and body, story and skin, the project offers a model for other universities to engage a
diverse student body in the complexities of living an embodied self in a virtual world. It also offers a way to open the minds of those who would discriminate. It is not about promoting, but about understanding, this moment of ink, deploying the arts and humanities for the sake of self-knowledge and tolerance.
Book Reviews by Karen Leader
In collaboration with Girls’ Club | Contemporary Art by Women
Considering relevant scholarship in various disciplines, tattoo emerges as a repository of memories and a site of affirmations, but also a significant form of creative self-expression beyond temporary fashion. Proposing a positive value to connecting mind and body, story and skin, the project offers a model for other universities to engage a
diverse student body in the complexities of living an embodied self in a virtual world. It also offers a way to open the minds of those who would discriminate. It is not about promoting, but about understanding, this moment of ink, deploying the arts and humanities for the sake of self-knowledge and tolerance.
We take as our starting point the belief that a "crisis" in art history has been diagnosed, and we are now looking for remedies. The organizers of this workshop have provided the perfect platform for international collaboration in attending to the numerous critical areas of the discipline and the humanities, whereby creative innovation can move the debate in positive directions. Since we believe that change begins with language, we will offer some keywords, introduce our project, and invite the participants to add to our crowd-sourced manifesto, making it a truly international effort.
5th Annual Feminist Art History Conference, American University, Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2014