public activities, media commentaries, and lectures
2020
Co-host of Chatting the Pictures, a webcast that analyzes news photos of the week. (Multiple episodes' video at link.)
Co-facilitator with Laurie Gries, "Visual Rhetoric: Past, Present, and Future," mini-institute sponsored by Rhetoric Society of America, Portland, OR, May 21.
"The Candid Camera Presidents: Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt," University of Southern California Visual Studies Institute, March 10-12.
"Scholarly Writing as Creative Work," keynote address, Midwest Winter Workshop, University of Illinois, Feb. 8.
2019
Co-host of Chatting the Pictures, a webcast that analyzes news photos of the week. (Multiple episodes' video at link.)
"From Daguerreotype to Digital Revolution: Presidents and Photography from Washington to Obama." DePauw Undergraduate Honors Conference, April 5, 2019.
"Barack Obama and the Age of Social Media." Brock Lecture, Wayne State University, March 28, 2019.
"The Last Photographs of William McKinley." Visual Rhetoric symposium, Northwestern University, Feb. 14, 2019.
2018
Co-host of Chatting the Pictures, a weekly webcast that analyzes news photos of the week. (Multiple episodes' video at link.)
"Painter Brushes Trump Into Seat at Exclusive Club," New York Times, Oct. 17, 2018.
Producer and co-host of Chatting the Pictures, a weekly webcast that analyzes news photos of the week, in conjunction with the non-profit media literacy site Reading the Pictures. (Multiple episodes' video at link.)
"What Studying Presidents Can Teach Us About the History of Photography," presentation to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees meeting, Sept. 26, 2018.
"Barack Obama's Visual Archive," Penn State Information and Humanities Conference, Sept. 2018.
"Photographic Archives for Our Times: Barack Obama in the Age of Social Media," J. Jeffrey Auer Lecture at Indiana University, April 5, 2018.
2017
"The Timeless Lessons of Photography." LAS News, November 2017.
"The Candid Camera and the Changing Visual Values of Political Space." International Society for the History of Rhetoric conference, London, July 2017.
"Visual Politics of Refugee Photography." Workshop for United Minority Relief (Univ. Illinois Student Group)'s Refugee Awareness Week, April 25, 2017.
"Key Pictures from Trump's First 100 Days." Reading the Pictures Salon. April 7, 2017. (Video archived at link.)
"What Melania Trump's Portrait Says About Her, as petitions call for her to move to the White House." News.Com Australia. April 5, 2017.
"Melania Trump's Official White House Portrait Was Released. And people are talking." Boston Globe. April 4, 2017.
"What Melania Trump's Official Portrait Says About the First Lady." BBC Newsbeat. April 4, 2017.
Interviewed for article about visual politics of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's photos. Le Monde. March 2, 2017.
"Presidential Art." WCIA-TV. Feb. 21, 2017. (Video archived at link.)
Interviewed on WDWS radio about presidents and photography. Feb. 7, 2017. Audio here.
"What's So Strange about Trump's White House Portrait? Experts Explain." Vox.com. Jan. 26, 2017.
2016
"Will the White House Continue to Use Photos as a Social Media Tool?" Illinois News Bureau feature, Dec. 20, 2016.
"The Camera Politic: American Presidents and the History of Photography from the Daguerreotype to the Digital Revolution." Keynote address for the University of St. Thomas Undergraduate Communication Research Conference, St. Paul, MN, April 22, 2016. (Here's a nice story about the conference.)
"Fortune Magazine and the New Visual Politics of the Candid Camera." Print Matters: Histories of Photography and Illustrated Magazines workshop, CUNY/Rutgers/New York Public Library, April 9, 2016.
"Photographing George Washington: Presidents, Portrait Photography, and the Building of National Memory." Center for Advanced Study fellows' symposium, April 5, 2016.
"A Look at Early Campaign 2016." Reading the Pictures Salon, March 20, 2016. (Video archived at link.)
"The Fleeting Visual Politics of the Candid Camera." Bruce Gronbeck Lecture, University of Iowa, Feb. 16, 2016.
"The Visual Framing of the Migrant Crisis." Reading the Pictures Salon, Jan. 10, 2016. (Video archived at link.)
2015
Interviewed about Making Photography Matter, WORT's "A Public Affair," (Madison, WI), Dec. 2, 2015. (Audio at link.)
"A Presidency in Pictures." Chicago Humanities Festival, Nov. 1, 2015. Rubloff Auditorium, Art Institute of Chicago.
"Herbert Hoover and the Fleeting Visual Politics of the Candid Camera." Texas A&M University, Sept. 18, 2015.
"How We View Lincoln May Say More About Us Than About Him." University of Illinois News Bureau Feature, April 2, 2015.
"The Lens in the Mirror: How Surveillance is Pictured in Media and Public Culture." BagNews Salon, March 2015.
2014
"The Presidential Camera: Histories of Photography Through the Executive Lens." Georgia State University, Oct. 2014.
"The Visual Framing of Kiev and the Battle for Independence Square." BagNews Salon, May 2014.
2013
"How Photography Has Changed in the Last 25 Years." Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University, Sept. 2013.
"Civil War Photos Gave Carnage a Wide View." Inside Illinois multimedia feature, June 2013.
"Picturing the Presidents: Authorizing Obama through White House Art." University of Richmond, April 2013.
2012
"'Photography Good, but Hell of a Subject for a Salon': Reading Photography's Viewers." Penn State University, Feb. 2012.
"Campaign Mania 2012." BagNews Salon, Jan. 2012.
2011
"The Visual Politics of Occupy Wall Street." BagNews Salon, Dec. 2011.
"'Photography Good, but Hell of a Subject for a Salon': Reading Photography's Viewers." University of Wisconsin, Dec. 2011.
"The Visual Framing of the Great Recession." BagNews Salon, Oct. 2011.
"Reading Photography's Viewers: Public Reception of Photographs from the Civil War to the Great Depression." Carnegie Mellon University, Oct. 2011.
"The Flickr President: The Visual Politics of the Obama White House." Vanderbilt University, Sept. 2011.
"The Fall of Bin Laden." BagNews Salon, May 2011.
2010
"The Great Oil Spill." BagNews Salon, July 2010.
"Inside View of White House is Not What it Seems." Inside Illinois multimedia feature, March 2010.
"Images of Art/the Art of the Image: Visual Politics in the Obama White House." Texas A&M University, March 2010.
"Haiti Aftermath." BagNews Salon, Feb. 2010.
Co-host of Chatting the Pictures, a webcast that analyzes news photos of the week. (Multiple episodes' video at link.)
Co-facilitator with Laurie Gries, "Visual Rhetoric: Past, Present, and Future," mini-institute sponsored by Rhetoric Society of America, Portland, OR, May 21.
"The Candid Camera Presidents: Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt," University of Southern California Visual Studies Institute, March 10-12.
"Scholarly Writing as Creative Work," keynote address, Midwest Winter Workshop, University of Illinois, Feb. 8.
2019
Co-host of Chatting the Pictures, a webcast that analyzes news photos of the week. (Multiple episodes' video at link.)
"From Daguerreotype to Digital Revolution: Presidents and Photography from Washington to Obama." DePauw Undergraduate Honors Conference, April 5, 2019.
"Barack Obama and the Age of Social Media." Brock Lecture, Wayne State University, March 28, 2019.
"The Last Photographs of William McKinley." Visual Rhetoric symposium, Northwestern University, Feb. 14, 2019.
2018
Co-host of Chatting the Pictures, a weekly webcast that analyzes news photos of the week. (Multiple episodes' video at link.)
"Painter Brushes Trump Into Seat at Exclusive Club," New York Times, Oct. 17, 2018.
Producer and co-host of Chatting the Pictures, a weekly webcast that analyzes news photos of the week, in conjunction with the non-profit media literacy site Reading the Pictures. (Multiple episodes' video at link.)
"What Studying Presidents Can Teach Us About the History of Photography," presentation to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees meeting, Sept. 26, 2018.
"Barack Obama's Visual Archive," Penn State Information and Humanities Conference, Sept. 2018.
"Photographic Archives for Our Times: Barack Obama in the Age of Social Media," J. Jeffrey Auer Lecture at Indiana University, April 5, 2018.
2017
"The Timeless Lessons of Photography." LAS News, November 2017.
"The Candid Camera and the Changing Visual Values of Political Space." International Society for the History of Rhetoric conference, London, July 2017.
"Visual Politics of Refugee Photography." Workshop for United Minority Relief (Univ. Illinois Student Group)'s Refugee Awareness Week, April 25, 2017.
"Key Pictures from Trump's First 100 Days." Reading the Pictures Salon. April 7, 2017. (Video archived at link.)
"What Melania Trump's Portrait Says About Her, as petitions call for her to move to the White House." News.Com Australia. April 5, 2017.
"Melania Trump's Official White House Portrait Was Released. And people are talking." Boston Globe. April 4, 2017.
"What Melania Trump's Official Portrait Says About the First Lady." BBC Newsbeat. April 4, 2017.
Interviewed for article about visual politics of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's photos. Le Monde. March 2, 2017.
"Presidential Art." WCIA-TV. Feb. 21, 2017. (Video archived at link.)
Interviewed on WDWS radio about presidents and photography. Feb. 7, 2017. Audio here.
"What's So Strange about Trump's White House Portrait? Experts Explain." Vox.com. Jan. 26, 2017.
2016
"Will the White House Continue to Use Photos as a Social Media Tool?" Illinois News Bureau feature, Dec. 20, 2016.
"The Camera Politic: American Presidents and the History of Photography from the Daguerreotype to the Digital Revolution." Keynote address for the University of St. Thomas Undergraduate Communication Research Conference, St. Paul, MN, April 22, 2016. (Here's a nice story about the conference.)
"Fortune Magazine and the New Visual Politics of the Candid Camera." Print Matters: Histories of Photography and Illustrated Magazines workshop, CUNY/Rutgers/New York Public Library, April 9, 2016.
"Photographing George Washington: Presidents, Portrait Photography, and the Building of National Memory." Center for Advanced Study fellows' symposium, April 5, 2016.
"A Look at Early Campaign 2016." Reading the Pictures Salon, March 20, 2016. (Video archived at link.)
"The Fleeting Visual Politics of the Candid Camera." Bruce Gronbeck Lecture, University of Iowa, Feb. 16, 2016.
"The Visual Framing of the Migrant Crisis." Reading the Pictures Salon, Jan. 10, 2016. (Video archived at link.)
2015
Interviewed about Making Photography Matter, WORT's "A Public Affair," (Madison, WI), Dec. 2, 2015. (Audio at link.)
"A Presidency in Pictures." Chicago Humanities Festival, Nov. 1, 2015. Rubloff Auditorium, Art Institute of Chicago.
"Herbert Hoover and the Fleeting Visual Politics of the Candid Camera." Texas A&M University, Sept. 18, 2015.
"How We View Lincoln May Say More About Us Than About Him." University of Illinois News Bureau Feature, April 2, 2015.
"The Lens in the Mirror: How Surveillance is Pictured in Media and Public Culture." BagNews Salon, March 2015.
2014
"The Presidential Camera: Histories of Photography Through the Executive Lens." Georgia State University, Oct. 2014.
"The Visual Framing of Kiev and the Battle for Independence Square." BagNews Salon, May 2014.
2013
"How Photography Has Changed in the Last 25 Years." Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University, Sept. 2013.
"Civil War Photos Gave Carnage a Wide View." Inside Illinois multimedia feature, June 2013.
"Picturing the Presidents: Authorizing Obama through White House Art." University of Richmond, April 2013.
2012
"'Photography Good, but Hell of a Subject for a Salon': Reading Photography's Viewers." Penn State University, Feb. 2012.
"Campaign Mania 2012." BagNews Salon, Jan. 2012.
2011
"The Visual Politics of Occupy Wall Street." BagNews Salon, Dec. 2011.
"'Photography Good, but Hell of a Subject for a Salon': Reading Photography's Viewers." University of Wisconsin, Dec. 2011.
"The Visual Framing of the Great Recession." BagNews Salon, Oct. 2011.
"Reading Photography's Viewers: Public Reception of Photographs from the Civil War to the Great Depression." Carnegie Mellon University, Oct. 2011.
"The Flickr President: The Visual Politics of the Obama White House." Vanderbilt University, Sept. 2011.
"The Fall of Bin Laden." BagNews Salon, May 2011.
2010
"The Great Oil Spill." BagNews Salon, July 2010.
"Inside View of White House is Not What it Seems." Inside Illinois multimedia feature, March 2010.
"Images of Art/the Art of the Image: Visual Politics in the Obama White House." Texas A&M University, March 2010.
"Haiti Aftermath." BagNews Salon, Feb. 2010.
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