Why linger in the wrong ways of thinking? Sianne Ngai, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English at the University of Chicago, will explore this question and others in the upcoming annual Culler Theory Lecture for the Society for the Humanities.

Ngai’s talk “Inhabiting Error: From ‘Last Christmas’ to ‘Senior’s Last Hour,’” will take place on Wednesday, March 9 at 4:45pm in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall. The event will be open to the Cornell community members (attendees will be required to show CU ID).

“It’s hard to think of a more influential or widely discussed cultural theorist than Sianne Ngai,” said Liz Anker, Professor of Law and associate professor of Literatures in English. Ngai uses “highly innovative” ways to study what might appear to be a minor affect – what is “cute” or “zany” or, more recently, a gimmick – revealing deep uncertainties and larger cultural crises regarding things like labor, time, and value, Anker said.

Ngai is the author of "Ugly Feelings" (Harvard UP, 2005), "Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting" (Harvard UP, 2012), and "Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form" (Belknap, 2020).

Kina Viola is program coordinator for the Society for the Humanities.

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.