Winter Talks

Join us for the inaugural season of Winter Talks, a lecture series with distinguished speakers pushing forward critical discourse. Building on the success of recent high-profile presentations at the museum, including Silvia Federici and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, these evenings invite the public into intimate conversations on cultural issues that are urgent for artists, scholars, and cultural workers. Invited speakers share material in development that bridges art, culture, technology, and economics. These in-person events are free with RSVP.

On March 6, critical theorist Catherine Liu discusses shortcomings of the “trauma script,” the idea of publicizing trauma to engender political expression and action. A prominent critic of liberalism, Liu discusses the value of trauma within the cultural realm and the decomodification of mental health. She is the author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) and The American Idyll: Academic Anti-Elitism as Cultural Critique (University of Iowa Press, 2011). Liu’s scholarship offers a means to critique the ideological frameworks of cultural industries today, addressing elite capture and the obfuscation of political struggle.

The presentation runs approximately 45 minutes, followed by a Q&A session.