The Council on Middle East Studies Colloquium presents
Beth Derderian, assistant professor of anthropology and museum studies, College of Wooster:
“Margins of Freedom: Censorship, Critique, and Contemporary Art in the UAE.”
Hosted by Vish Sakthivel.
Register here.
Beth Derderian’s work focuses on politics of representation in art worlds. Her first project focused on changes in aesthetic, linguistic and social hierarchies in the Emirati art community after the announcement of plans for the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Her current work examines on traveling exhibitions of Arab and Muslim artists to the US as modes of cultural diplomacy, in particular focusing on discourses that equate the presence of art with proof of civilization and absence of terrorism. She holds a PhD in anthropology from Northwestern University, and a master’s degree in Near Eastern Studies and Museum Studies from New York University.