Darby English, Carl Darling Buck Professor, Dept. of Art History, University of Chicago

Many of the mechanisms that make art history work involve incorporating external material into the body of an analysis, theory, or argument—a terrific way to circumvent problems of difference and otherness our rapidly diversifying discipline remains ill-equipped to address satisfactorily. Could this incapacity, which heralds a terminal failure to ‘meet the moment,' be intentional, a matter of disciplinary design?

Darby English teaches modern and contemporary art and cultural studies at the University of Chicago. His most recent book is Charles Ray: Adam and Eve (New York: Gregory Miller, 2024).