WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Saturday, Nov. 16 at 3 pm, the Clark Art Institute hosts a lecture by Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and bestselling author and public intellectual, writing for the New York Times and The New Yorker, among others. 

 

This free event takes place in the Manton Research Center auditorium.

 

According to a press release:

 

In this presentation, Lewis reads from her new book, "The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America," which explores how the fight for independence in the Caucasus that coincided with the end of the U.S. Civil War revealed the instability of the entire regime of racial hierarchy and domination. Images of the Caucasus region and peoples captivated the American public but also showed that the place from which we derive "Caucasian" for whiteness was not white at all. In tracing these fault lines, The Unseen Truth illuminates how visual culture—from paintings to photographs to maps—was used to mask the fictions in the formation of race itself. Ultimately, a new regime of visual literacy came to obscure the specious grounds that legitimated racial hierarchy in America. Lewis discusses what this critical moment in the history of race and sight can tell us, and offers the tools to critically examine the silences in visual culture of all kinds.

 

Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. A book signing follows the talk. Copies of "Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America" will be available for purchase at the talk and in the Museum Store.