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Contemporary artist Xavier Tavera practices what French philosopher Roland Barthes called “the impossible science of the unique being.” He invites his subjects to stand or sit, talks to them, is curious about who they are and what they do. He coaxes a glance, elicits a gesture, waits for them to settle into position. Describing the strange and estranging experience of being photographed, Barthes writes, “I decide to ‘let drift’ over my lips and in my eyes a faint smile which I mean to be ‘indefinable,’ in which I might suggest, along with the qualities of my nature, my amused consciousness of the whole photographic ritual.” Tavera works with, rather than against, his sitters’ self-awareness and invites their decisions, all the better to stage their own invention of themselves before the camera.

Jane Blocker reflects on her first year as Associate Dean for Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts. “I am participating in the life of the College in a broader way... I have an even deeper admiration for the amazing research and teaching being done in my own department and across CLA, and I have an opportunity to advocate for the arts and humanities.”

Attracted by the Department of Art History and the amount of opportunities to work in museums, Ashley Cope transferred to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Double majoring in gender women sexuality studies and art history, Cope is combining her passions to explore intersectionality within art history and how they influence one another and engage the community.

Congratulations to our recent alumni who have been accepted to graduate school.

While many students were celebrating the midpoint of the semester by packing swimsuits and flip flops for a tropical vacation, 11 University of Minnesota students prepared to depart for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Rome.

Visual art, art history, and English alumna Megan Murphy now runs an art and literary magazine and works at a community based non-profit in Minneapolis.

Annika Johnson (BA 2011) studies the interaction between indigenous art and representations of indigenous people. She is the Wyeth Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts and is back in Minnesota for a year to finish up her dissertation research.

Please join us in congratulating Nikki Otten who won first prize for the paper she presented at the 43rd Annual Cleveland Symposium.