Performance studies professor to lecture on corruption

Fred Moten

Fred Moten will deliver the 2018 Invited Society Scholar Lecture at Cornell, March 21 at 4:30 p.m. in Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Society for the Humanities.

The subject of Moten’s lecture is “The Gift of Corruption.” Corruption is the 2017-18 focal theme for the society, with courses and events on the theme.

“Fred Moten is a poet and critical theorist who has written extensively on the role of resistance within the black radical tradition,” said 2017-18 Society for the Humanities Graduate Fellow Nasrin Olla, a doctoral student in English. “His books explore the music, poetry and philosophy of the African diaspora. His work, particularly his book ‘In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition,’ has been pathbreaking in the field of black studies.”

Moten is a professor of performance studies at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he conducts research in black studies, performance studies, poetics, and literary theory. His book “The Feel Trio” was a poetry finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the California Book Award for poetry. Moten’s other poetry collections include “Hughson’s Tavern” and “B Jenkins.” He is the co-author, with Stefano Harney, of “The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study” and, with Wu Tsang, of “Who Touched Me.”

He has served on various editorial boards, including Discourse, American Quarterly and Social Text, and on the board of directors of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York. In 2016 he received a Guggenheim fellowship and the Stephen E. Henderson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry from the African American Literature and Culture Society.

Moten will also be part of a conversation with Margo Crawford, associate professor of English, March 20 at 4:30 p.m. in the Guerlac Room of the A.D. White House.

Spencer DeRoos is a communications assistant for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Media Contact

Jeff Tyson