From Prof. Bonnie Cheng:
This year’s Jesse Floyd Mack lecturer is W. J. T. Mitchell, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago and editor of Critical Inquiry. Professor Mitchell’s work is primarily focused on the interplay of vision and language in art, literature, and media. The subjects of his articles range from general problems in the theory of representation to specific issues in cultural politics and political culture. Among his most recent prize-winning books are Picture Theory (Chicago, 1994), The Last Dinosaur Book (Chicago, 1998), and What Do Pictures Want? (Chicago, 2005), which was awarded the MLA’s 2006 James Russell Lowell Prize in Language and Literature. He is currently working on two projects, Medium Theory, Cloning Terror: The War of Images, September 11 to Abu Ghraib, and Critical Terms in Media Studies (with Mark Hansen). His lecture, “The Future of the Image,” will take place on Thursday, February 12 at 4:30 in Craig Auditorium.