Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: The alien-ness of an adoptive country triggers multiple reactions among immigrants. No matter how well prepared before undertaking the immigrant trajectory, numerous surprises, wait in ambush in the new land, surprises that range from welcoming to xenophobic. The need for individual expression encounters roadblocks in the form of the imperatives of “fitting in,” especially if the immigrant manages to escape ghettoization. The immigrant’s reaction to the new environment ranges from rejecting to change, to melding the two cultures, and to abandoning the immigrant’s original norms, values and beliefs. Additionally, immigrant settlement encompasses change by phase of life or level of maturity.

Artistic work expresses the extent of the cutting loose, or binding, to one’s country of birth/and or upbringing. This paper will explore the life history of a Pakistani immigrant artist settled in Newport News. It will explore the extent to which his immigration route did, or did not, coincide with his artistic work. The investigation would cover the impact of his absence/presence on his extended family both in Pakistan and in USA as well as the impact of his art in both countries. Since the artist is in his 50s, the paper will treat his art and his life as works-in-progress.

The research would also be located in the context of previous work that I have done on Pakistanis immigrants in Barcelona, Spain. That research was geared towards finding common trends in the immigration itinerary. The present paper would further attempt to profile Pakistani immigrants to Europe and North America, and track their modes of creatively expressing their identities. In short, the paper would lay equal emphasis on the art and the person of the artist, and will trace the interplay of the ties of the home/host countries on the immigrant’s journey towards satisfactory self-expression.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In Cavarero’s (2000) philosophical conceptualization of the narratable self, narration, both biographical and autobiographical, is a political act in its capacity to expose the fragile uniqueness of the self in its constitutive relation with others. Drawing on the notions of the narratable self and the relational character of stories, in this paper I am sketching out a genealogy of relating narratives by focusing on an early twentieth century document of life: Rosa Bonheur’s auto/biography written by her lover Anna Klumpke. This rare blend of biography and autobiography brings forward in a unique way what Cavarero has defined as the desire of the narratable self to listen to her story being told by others. It further highlights the political and ethical responsibility of the listener to retell and rewrite the story disclosed to her. What I suggest is that there is an urgent need for narrative driven sociologists not only to bend over the timely necessity of listening to stories being told by others, but also to problematize their listening and dig deeper into the political and ethical effects of the stories they write and tell.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Background and Aims: Adults appreciate that pictures can be understood through inferring the artist’s intention. However, young children can ignore verbal statements of the artist’s intent when naming pictures, focusing exclusively on appearance. Here we investigate whether 2-year-olds are sensitive to intention when making sense of drawings, which could reflect a general predisposition to reason about artwork and artifacts in terms of intention.
Methods: Two-year-old children sat across from an experimenter and were shown a pair of similarly shaped objects. One object was placed in an open box on the experimenter’s right side, and the other was placed in a closed container on her left. The child could no longer see either object. In Experiment 1, the experimenter looked at the object in the open box on one trial (“Into” condition), and in the direction of the closed container on the other trial (“Away” condition). She then picked up a clipboard, oriented paper on it, and pretended to draw. The paper actually contained a pre-drawn picture which looked equally like both objects. The experimenter named the drawing using a novel word (It’s a ‘spoodle’!). The objects were then removed from the boxes and placed on the table with the picture, and the child was asked to “Find the spoodle”. To test an associative gaze following interpretation, in Experiment 2, an identical paradigm was used except the experimenter discovered the picture instead of ‘drawing’ it.
Key Results: Where the experimenter was looking had a significant effect on how children generalized the picture name. In Experiment 1, children selected the object in the box when the experimenter was looking ‘Into’ it (63%), but not in the ‘Away’ condition, where they instead indicated the picture or object in the closed container over 90% of the time (2=13.8, p<.01, d.f.=2). Children selected the item in the box the experimenter was looking into only when the experimenter was drawing (Experiment 1, 63%), and not when the experimenter simply looked into the box, then discovered a picture (Experiment 2, 17%) (χ2=11.2, p< .01, d.f. =2).
Conclusions: Two-year-old infants are sensitive to intent when interpreting visual representations created by others. This is consistent with demonstrations that young children use intention when naming their own pictures (e.g. insisting an ambiguous scribble is “Mommy”). This intention-based understanding of representations may reflect a more general bias for interpreting both artwork and artifacts according to the creator’s intent.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: My study reads visual representations of the Holocaust as the collective manifestation of our psychoanalytic desire to talk through the traumatic past. I look at the artwork of Holocaust survivors Max Bueno de Mesquita and David Olère, in addition to cinematic images that produce expressions built around absence. I use various psychoanalytic approaches in reading Holocaust images, including: the Lacanian order of the Real; Freudian transference and catharsis; and, Kristeva’s abject and the Freudian uncanny.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper discusses two different types of crime that occur in art museums and galleries: the theft of art objects and the vandalism of works of art. With respect to theft, this paper explores the extent to which stealing may affect our memory of a given piece of art (regardless of whether the object is ultimately recovered), as well as our experience of the museum (especially if efforts are subsequently undertaken to improve security, such as with the Munch Museum following the theft of the Scream). With respect to vandalism, this paper considers whether and how these acts (such as when Russian performance artist Alexander Brener sprayed a green dollar sign over Kazimir Malevich's painting, Suprematisme 1920-1927, or when French artist Rindy Sam kissed one panel of Cy Twombly’s triptych Phaedrus leaving a red lipstick smudge that she claimed was an “artistic act”) subsequently affect the value we place on the assaulted items as cultural icons and the meaning of the paintings as art objects. This paper argues that how we regard such events should be determined not by their criminality, but by the intent and the effect of the acts on the meaning and memory of the works. [199]