WGS Visiting Distinguished Professor 2021: Dr. Fred Moten

WGS Visiting Distinguished Professor 2021: Dr. Fred Moten

Every spring the Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality invites a prominent scholar to be a Visiting Distinguished Professor at JHU. As we arrive at the spring 2021 semester, we’re thrilled to announce this year’s WGS Visiting Distinguished Professor, Dr. Fred Moten. Professor Moten will be joining us for a series of seminars during the first weeks of February, details below.

Professor Moten is the author of numerous works which bridge performance studies, black studies, critical theory, and poetics, and has emerged as a vital commentator on contemporary arts, politics, and social struggles. His critical trilogy, consent not to be a single being, was published in 2017/2018 by Duke University Press, and comprises Black and BlurThe Universal Machine, and Stolen Life. His ground-breaking book on the political & philosophical acoustic aesthetics of improvisation in the Black Radical Tradition, In The Break, was published in 2003 by University of Minnesota Press. The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study (Minor Compositions, 2013), written with Stefano Harney, has become a crucial reference point for the study of debt, education, and planning; a follow up volume, A Poetics of the Undercommons, appeared from Sputnik & Fizzle in 2016. In 2018 he was recipient of the inaugural Roy Lichenstein award, and in 2020 he was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Professor Moten has published numerous volumes of poetry, including Arkansas (Pressed Wafer, 2000), I ran from it but was still in it (Cusp, 2007), Hughson’s Tavern (Leon Works, 2009), B. Jenkins (Duke, 2010), The Feel Trio (Letter Machine, 2014), The Little Edges (Wesleyan, 2015), The Service Porch (Letter Machine, 2017), and All That Beauty (Letter Machine, 2019). In deep engagement with scholars, musicians, activists, writers, thinkers, commoners, & noise makers, these volumes extend the collaborative investigations of Moten’s critical practice, such that “things start to blur toward the point of a disappearance that makes it possible to see through them.”

Professor Moten will be convening three seminars, each oriented around an essay to be circulated in advance.

  • Thursday, February 4th, 4:15pm: “Fast Life (Speed, Weight)”
  • Thursday, February 11th, 4:15pm: “Black Topographical Existence”
  • Thursday, February 18th, 4:15pm: “This Unholding’s Long Nite Lounge”

Each of these seminars will take place over Zoom. We ask that those planning to attend to email [email protected]; we will then circulate the access link for the seminars, and the advance essays. We ask that you respect Professor Moten’s wishes, and avoid circulating this writing, or quoting from it, outside the context of these seminars. A week prior to each seminar, selected pdfs of work relevant to Professor Moten’s papers will also be circulated. These seminars are open to all, but access may be limited by the technological medium.

On each of those Thursday afternoons, starting at 2:00pm, Professor Moten will available for appointments. We regret that these will only be open to those with JHU affiliation. Further details on these office hours will be available soon.