Makers, Identity, and the Lives of Objects: A Triologue

Publication Date

4-29-2021

Abstract

What stories do craft and design objects tell us—and tell about us? In this wide-reaching conversation, authors Glenn Adamson, Parminder Bhachu, and Kristina Wilson explore connections between their recent books on makers and design as an expression of identity. Together, these scholars discuss their circuitous paths of research, the delight of an unexpected archival find, and their reflections on the eloquence of an inanimate thing.

Panelists:

Glenn Adamson is a curator, writer and historian based in New York. His newest book, Craft: An American History (Bloomsbury), reveals the central role of makers in shaping our nation’s identity through artistry, resistance, and adaptation.

Parminder Bhachu is Professor of Sociology at Clark University. Her book, Movers and Makers: Uncertainty, Resilience, and Migrant Creativity in Worlds of Flux (Routledge), interrogates how migrant innovators have translated ancient craft inheritances into sophisticated 21st-century technical capital that is transforming modern science, technology, design, architecture, and the arts.

Kristina Wilson is Professor of Art History and the 2020 Alice and Milton Higgins Faculty Fellow of the Higgins School of Humanities at Clark University. Her recent book, Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design (Princeton University Press), examines how this iconic design sensibility was marketed to the diverse audiences of its era and revealed deep cultural divides.

Co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities; the Department of Sociology; and the Department Visual and Performing Arts at Clark University

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