Clark Art Institute to Host Spring Scholarly Lecture Series

08:02AM / Saturday, March 14, 2026Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute has announced its spring schedule for the Research and Academic Program (RAP) lecture series. The events, which are free to the public, will be held in the Manton Research Center auditorium starting at 5:30 p.m. Each presentation is preceded by a reception at 5 p.m. in the Manton Research Center reading room.

The series begins on March 17 with Luis Vargas-Santiago of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His lecture, "Sur Marica, A Mobile Cartography of Art, Sex, Affect, and Collaboration in the Americas," examines case studies of artworks from Latin American capitals during the 1980s and 1990s. Vargas-Santiago will discuss how queer artists challenged traditional formations of sexuality, religion, and authorship to redefine national and racial identities.

On April 10, Rachel Lee Hutcheson from the Rochester Institute of Technology will present "Technical Difficulties: Early Color Photography and Conditioned Viewing." The talk analyzes turn-of-the-twentieth-century photographic technologies, such as lantern projectors and screen-plates, which achieved color through red, green, and blue separations rather than hand-application.

Independent scholar Alice Miceli will speak on April 28 regarding "Cities As Battlegrounds: How Urban Warfare Shapes—and is Shaped by—the Lens of History and Photography." Drawing on research from battles in Stalingrad, Fallujah, and Mosul, Miceli will examine the physical and psychological relationship between urban landscapes and military strategy.

The series concludes on May 5 with Ana Lucia Araujo of Howard University. Her presentation, "Global Slavery: A Visual History," analyzes artworks and images depicting human trafficking and enslavement across several centuries. Araujo's work compares the common elements of the institution of slavery from antiquity to the plantation systems of the Americas.

The Manton Research Center provides accessible seating. Interested parties may contact 413 458 0570 for additional information.

Tags: Clark Art,

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Discrimination Against Muslim Americans Persists 25 Years After 9/11

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
07:00AM / Saturday, September 12, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Dozens of Muslim Americans were among people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Untold numbers of Muslim Americans have suffered countless acts of discrimination in their aftermath.

"Of course, you'll find several accounts of Muslims from all over the U.S. describing how they went from the unknown kids in the school to being stereotyped or ridiculed for their Muslim names," Sidra Mahmood recalled recently. "However, many Americans forget that the victims of 9/11 were also Muslim Americans.

"I can't forget the time when a classmate broke down in sobs when 9/11 came up in our classroom at the Islamic seminary I went to in Texas, because her father's best friend who was like an uncle to her, died on 9/11."

Today, Mahmood is a chaplain at Williams College. In 2001, she was growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists forced two passenger jets into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and another plane into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A third plane, which terrorists hoped to crash into a D.C. landmark, was brought down in western Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.

The attacks, which ultimately claimed 2,976 lives, horrified people around the world, including in Mahmood's native land.

"I remember being aghast like anyone who witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers in real time," she said. "However, even as a child, fear gripped me about the possibility of war, especially once we learned that Afghanistan, right adjacent to Pakistan, would be attacked by the U.S. My mother had told me about the 1971 war between India and Pakistan when she remembered hiding in the dark after bomb sirens would go off in Punjab after intentional blackouts.

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