Thursday, April 15, 2010, 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Friday, April 16, 2010, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture
38 West 86th Street, New York, NY

Secondhand Culture:Waste, Value, and Materiality explores the ways in which objects ranging from clothing to collectibles to trash have been constructed and experienced. Scholars of Theater, History, Geography, and Art and Design History discuss this vital new area at the intersection of consumerism, material culture studies, cultural geography, and artmaking. Speakers include William Davies King, Professor of Theater, UCSB; Shirley Teresa Wajda, Historian; Alexandra Palmer, Senior Curator, Royal Ontario Museum; Alison Isenberg, Associate Professor, History, Rutgers University; Nicky Gregson, Professor, Geography, University of Sheffield; Marilynn Gelfman Karp
Emeritus Professor of Art, NYU; and Susan Strasser, Professor, University of Delaware.There will also be a screening of "Secondhand (Pepe)", 2007, followed by Q&A with filmmakers Hanna Rose Shell and Vanessa Bertozzi.

This symposium is organized by Catherine Whalen, Amy F. Ogata, Michele Majer, and Pat Kirkham at the Bard Graduate Center. It is free and open to the public. RSVP required to 212.501.3019, academic-events@bgc.bard.edu. For additional information contact Alex Phelan, phelan@bgc.bard.edu.