[Folkfriends] 4/11: Claiming Space: The Aesthetics and Politics of Decorated Mortarboards

[Moriarty, Megan]

[cid:dee53999-f628-4927-bd9b-715ad4af5afd]
[cid:d8b038dd-96ac-46c3-a31b-2985570f6890]
Claiming Space:
The Aesthetics and Politics of Decorated Mortarboards

Friday, April 11, 4 - 5 pm

Faculty Club

181 Oval Dr. S., Columbus, OH 43210


OSU Folklore Alumni Dr. Sheila Bock will explore a genre of folk art that features prominently in the visual landscape of many commencement ceremonies on college campuses. Taking mortarboard displays seriously as public performances of the personal, Bock considers how the forms and meanings of these material displays take shape in relation to broader, ongoing conversations about higher education in the United States, conversations grounded in discourses of belonging, citizenship and the promises of the American Dream.

Sheila Bock received her graduate training as a folklorist at the Ohio State University, earning her MA in Comparative Studies and her PhD in English. She is now Associate Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  She is author of numerous articles and book chapters and the book Claiming Space: Performing the Personal through Decorated Mortarboards (University Press of Colorado, 2023). She is an award-winning teacher and serves as co-editor (with fellow Ohio State alum Elo-Hanna Seljamaa) of the journal Narrative Culture.
This event is free and open to the public. Hosted by the Center for Folklore Studies and the Humanities Institute.


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Megan Moriarty

Marketing and Communications Specialist


The Ohio State University

Humanities Institute

456 Hagerty Hall, 1775 College Road, Columbus, OH 43210


614-247-1650

moriarty.8 at osu.edu<mailto:moriarty.8 at osu.edu> / osu.edu<http://www.osu.edu>


Pronouns: she/her/hers

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