CAA News Today

Each week CAA News summarizes eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.

Chicago Professors Fire Back

Last week more than 150 faculty members at the University of Chicago published an open letter to freshmen in which they take a strikingly different approach from the official communication sent by a Chicago dean. Safe spaces and trigger warnings, the letter said, are legitimate topics for discussion and reflect the real needs of many students. (Read more from Inside Higher Ed.)

On Art-Making after Tragedy

Public figures and Facebook users post responses, visual or verbal, immediately after tragedies and disasters occur. These easily created and intrinsically shareable responses raise important questions: Is this art created for social media? Is it created so quickly that its quality suffers? Is there something disingenuous about art making under such forced and mediated circumstances? (Read more from the Creators Project.)

Bill to Shield International Art Loans Gains in Senate

Legislation to safeguard international art loans will be taken up by the full Senate after years of criticism and complaints that the bill amounts to protection for plundered works. Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee, with bipartisan support, approved the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, which would extend added protections to shield works from seizure while on loan for exhibitions in the United States. (Read more from the New York Times.)

Public Opinion on Higher Education Is Waning

Americans are increasingly uncertain about the necessity of college for success in the workforce, according to Public Agenda’s recent survey, funded by the Kresge Foundation. For example, just 42 percent of Americans say college is necessary for workforce success, a 13 percent drop from 2009. (Read more from Public Agenda.)

Strategies to Maintain Focus while Writing Your Dissertation

Today, the internet and Google and social media are flashier and more distracting than ever before. Our professional and personal lives are strewn with interruptions as smart phones enable us to take our distractions with us wherever we go. This makes it incredibly challenging to maintain enough focus to write a book-length dissertation. (Read more from GradHacker.)

Is the Future of Fine Art in Hollywood’s Hands?

We might consider both Wes Anderson and Rashid Johnson to be artists, but traditionally the business dealings of a Hollywood director are handled by a mélange of agents, whereas the career of a fine artist is often managed by gallerists, dealers, and collectors. Josh Roth of United Talent Agency, however, wants to shake up any boundaries between Hollywood and the white cube. (Read more from Vice.)

On Not Reading

The activity of nonreading is something that scholars rarely discuss. When they—or others whose identities are bound up with books—do so, the discussions tend to have a shamefaced quality. Blame “cultural capital”—the sense of superiority associated with laying claim to books that mark one’s high social status. (Read more from the Chronicle Review.)

Is More Recognition the Key to Peer-Review Success?

Two contrasting concepts for peer reviewers are recognition and credit. Credit implies that a benefit is being given. Recognition may lead to a benefit but only passively. The importance of recognition is that others see the effort, and any benefit is happenstance. (Read more from the Scholarly Kitchen.)