Maggie Nelson. Photo: Harry Dodge.
“Nelson bounds across knotty subjects like #MeToo, sex positivity, addiction, queer theory, anxiety and carceral feminism without tiring of the painstaking work of untangling controversies.
—Los Angeles Times
Valencia, Calif. (Jan 11, 2022) – California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) has named writer, poet, and scholar Maggie Nelson as its 2022 Theorist in Residence. Organized by the MA Aesthetics and Politics Program in the School of Critical Studies, CalArts’ Theorist in Residence initiative invites theorists focusing on media, urban, or global studies to spend up to two weeks at CalArts to teach workshops, faculty seminars, and give a public lecture.
Nelson, who spent more than a decade teaching in the CalArts School of Critical Studies, will present a public lecture and Q&A livestreamed by the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) on Monday, Jan. 17 at 8:30 pm.
Nelson will also take part in Care and Repair, a free one-day lineup of reflections and performances on the themes of care and repair, also presented by the MA Aesthetics and Politics Program, virtually through REDCAT on Friday, Jan. 14, starting at 10 am.
Nelson is the author of nine books of poetry and prose, including The New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner The Argonauts (2015), The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (2011; a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Bluets (2009; named by Bookforum as one of the top 10 best books of the past 20 years), The Red Parts (2007; reissued 2016), and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (2007). Her most recent book, a work of cultural criticism titled On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint, was published in September 2021. Her poetry titles include Something Bright, Then Holes (2007) and Jane: A Murder (2005; finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Art of the Memoir).
She has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction, an NEA in Poetry, an Innovative Literature Fellowship from Creative Capital, and an Arts Writers Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation. In 2016 she was awarded a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. She currently teaches at USC and lives in Los Angeles.
CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE:
Maggie Nelson Residency
CalArts MA in Aesthetics and Politics’ Theorist in Residence
Friday, Jan. 14; 10 am PT
Care and Repair
REDCAT Virtual Event
The MA Aesthetics and Politics program (School of Critical Studies, California Institute of the Arts) presents a one-day line-up of reflections and performances on the themes of care and repair. Creative thinkers and critical artists will join forces in a focused but festival-like gathering to experiment with different forms of presentation, attention, and debate. Under pandemic conditions, and with topics ranging from land acknowledgment to architecture and the ethics of care, neoliberalism and the imperative to “take care of yourself,” climate change and the post-critical turn to repair, this event will feature contributions by among others Églantine Colon, Anders Dunker, stephanie mei huang, Jia Yi Gu, Nick Nauman, Manuel Shvartzberg Carrío, Theresa Ambo, Kelly Stewart, Lucinda Trask, Damon Young, Dimitri Chamblas, Amy Howden-Chapman, Mireya Lucio, Adilifu Nama, and Maggie Nelson. Audience participation expected.
Monday, Jan. 17; 8:30 pm PT
Maggie Nelson (Public Lecture)
REDCAT Virtual Event
Maggie Nelson is the author of nine books of poetry and prose, including The New York Times bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner The Argonauts (2015), The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (2011; a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Bluets (2009; named by Bookforum as one of the top 10 best books of the past 20 years), The Red Parts (2007; reissued 2016), and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (2007). Her most recent book, a work of cultural criticism titled On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint, was published in September 2021. Her poetry titles include Something Bright, Then Holes (2007) and Jane: A Murder (2005; finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Art of the Memoir). She has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction, an NEA in Poetry, an Innovative Literature Fellowship from Creative Capital, and an Arts Writers Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation. In 2016 she was awarded a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. She currently teaches at USC and lives in Los Angeles.
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CalArts’ School of Critical Studies brings together internationally recognized writers, poets, scholars, and thinkers working in both new and traditional forms across a wide variety of disciplines, extending from narrative fiction, performance and multimedia to cultural criticism and political theory. The school offers two graduate programs: the Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program and the Master of Arts Aesthetics and Politics Program. In both programs, the expertise of Institute faculty is complemented with an extensive series of readings, lectures, workshops and longer-term residencies by a diverse range of visiting writers, theorists and artists.
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) has set the pace for educating professional artists since 1970. Offering rigorous undergraduate and graduate degree programs through six schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater—CalArts has championed creative excellence, critical reflection, and the development of new forms and expressions. As successive generations of faculty and alumni have helped shape the landscape of contemporary arts, the Institute first envisioned by Walt Disney encompasses a vibrant, eclectic community with global reach, inviting experimentation, independent inquiry, and active collaboration and exchange among artists, artistic disciplines and cultural traditions.
The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), CalArts’ downtown center for contemporary arts, is a multidisciplinary center for innovative visual, performing and media arts founded by CalArts in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown Los Angeles. Through performances, exhibitions, screenings and literary events, REDCAT introduces diverse audiences, students and artists to the most influential developments in the arts from around the world, and gives artists in this region the creative support they need to achieve national and international stature. REDCAT continues the tradition of the California Institute of the Arts, its parent organization, by encouraging experimentation, discovery and lively civic discourse. For current program and exhibition information, visit redcat.org.