This daylong symposium questions how the legacy of identity politics might be reconsidered in light of our present culture, where making oneself visible is de rigueur and yet can also carry threatening connotations: being captured, tracked, or dangerously overexposed. Through a series of discussions, “VISIBLE/INVISIBLE” examines how the underlying goals of movements that demanded representation (both in art and in culture at large) remain urgent and yet require significant rethinking amid a transformed social and existential landscape. Invited speakers will provocatively consider how power is mapped and at the same time hijacked in society today—not just between centers and margins, but also between subcultures and across shifting alliances. In addition, they will reflect on and present arguments for and against identity politics, attempting to consider its accomplishments while simultaneously restating, refuting, or reconfiguring its terms in the present.

Organized by Lauren Cornell and Johanna Burton

Featuring Claire Barliant, Nav Haq in Conversation, Alicia Ritson, Katherine Hubbard, Steffani Jemison, Carlos Motta, and Luke Willis Thompson, Karen Archey, Zach Blas, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, and Jacolby Satterwhite