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Presented By: Slavic Languages & Literatures

From Frederick Douglass to Leo Tolstoy: Race and the Thought Pictures of the Caucasus

Sarah Lewis, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture and African American Studies at Harvard University

Sarah Lewis lecture infographic Sarah Lewis lecture infographic
Sarah Lewis lecture infographic
In her forthcoming book Black Sea, Black Atlantic: Frederick Douglass, the Circassian Beauties, and American Racial Formation in the Wake of the Civil War (Harvard University Press), Sarah Lewis explores the Caucasus mountain range in Russia and how the emerging technology of photography was used to develop myths of Caucasian racial identity (and by extension racial purity) in the nineteenth century. The project works at a unique intersection of African American Studies, Art History, and Slavic Studies to explore the enduring power of these Black Sea-related photographs of Circassia. These “thought pictures” about race as Frederick Douglass might have called them underscore the tenuousness, a nervousness even at the heart of the racial project throughout the twentieth century.

Sarah Lewis received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, an M. Phil from Oxford University, and her Ph.D. from Yale University. Before joining the faculty at Harvard, she held curatorial positions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tate Modern, London. She has served on President Obama’s Arts Policy Committee and currently serves on the advisory council of the International Review of African-American Art and the board of the Andy Warhol Foundation of the Visual Arts, Creative Time, and The CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Master, a widely acclaimed exploration of human creative experience.

If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation to attend this event, please email slavic@umich.edu or call 734-764-5355 by 3/1/2017. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the University to arrange.

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