Current & Recent

Stitching Protest

Professor Julia Bryan-Wilson

Art History, Columbia University

This talk examines how needlework textile techniques such as embroidery and quilting have been used in the last several decades as a form of protest, both by those who consider themselves artists as well as by anonymous makers. Focusing primarily on mother-taught women of color since the 1970s, it discusses how the stitch can be a tool for puncturing conventional narratives and for mending new art histories

History

Periodically, Beta of Colorado sponsors Colorado College events, including lectures by Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars. Our visiting lecturers have included the following:

• Betty Smocovitis, University of Florida, "Singing His Praises: Darwin and His Theory in Song and Musical Production" (spring 2008)
• Charles Mills, Northwestern University "Racial Liberalism" (spring 2010)
• Jack Goldstone, George Mason University, "Global Population Trends and How They Shape Our Future Well-Being" (fall 2010)
• Nina Rattner Gelbart, Occidental College, "Frenchwomen of Science in the Age of Enlightenment" (spring 2011)
• Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania, "India Ink: Europe's Earliest Views of the Subcontinent" (fall 2015)
• Ana M. Martínez Alemán, Lynch School of Education, Boston College, "Technology, Social Media, and Democratic Community on Campus" (spring 2016)
• Brook Vicke, CC '97, Whitman College, "Ally, Advocate, or Accomplice: Psychological Perspectives on Solidarity and Bias Resistance" (spring 2017)
• José Medina, Villanova University, "Shooting the Racist Imagination" (spring 2017)
• Kathryn Lofton, Yale University, "The Pulpit of Performative Reason: Transphobia as Religious Practice" (fall 2022)
• Julia Bryan-Wilson, Columbia University, "Stitching Protest" (fall 2023)