Life on Earth is facing a mass extinction event of our own making. Human activity is changing the biology and the meaning of extinction. What Is Extinction? examines several key moments that have come to define the terms of extinction over the past two centuries, exploring instances of animal and human finitude and the cultural forms used to document and interpret these events. Offering a critical theory for the critically endangered, Joshua Schuster proposes that different discourses of limits and lastness appear in specific extinction events over time as a response to changing attitudes toward species frailty. Understanding these extinction events also involves examining what happens when the conceptual and cultural forms used to account for species finitude are pressed to their limits as well. Schuster provides close readings of several case studies of extinction that bring together environmental humanities and multispecies methods with media-specific analyses at the terminus of life.What Is Extinction? delves into the development of last animal photography, the anthropological and psychoanalytic fascination with human origins and ends, the invention of new literary genres of last fictions, the rise of new extreme biopolitics in the Third Reich that attempted to change the meaning of extinction, and the current pursuit of de-extinction technologies. Schuster offers timely interpretations of how definitions and visions of extinction have changed in the past and continue to change in the present.

The second annual InternationalMusicFestival is on November 19th at 6pm in Aggie Park! This event will feature performances from TAMU organizations, live DJ sets, food trucks, giveaways, cool T-shirts, and MORE!Contact: Govind Narayan (govindnarayan2004@tamu.edu)

Whether it is Flemish still life that highlights the glory of nature, a botanical illustration that chronicles the ideal version of a plant, or a close up view of flowers as graphic abstractions, their intricate shapes, vibrant colors, and delicate qualities make flowers ideal subjects for artists. See works by Beth Van Hoesen, Richard Stout, A.D. Greer, and Grace Kelly, plus many more.

She made a name for herself as a professional artist at a time when the art world was marginalizing women. She was one of the few female faculty members at the Art Institute of Chicago prior to World War II, becoming an innovative teacher known for mentoring her students. During her over 30-year teaching career she influenced generations of art history students, embracing modernism, introducing them to African art, and instilling her constant drive to explore new things into her students. Join us for a Gallery Talk & Reception on Nov. 7, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. in the Stark Galleries with guest speaker Victoria Hennessey Cummins, Ph.D.   This exhibition represents the eighth installation in the Texas Art Project (https://uart.tamu.edu/texasartproject/) series.

The concept of pattern in the arts provides artists with tools that can limit creativity or suggest new avenues for exploration. They can offer a maker innovative options to explore with their accustomed materials and techniques; at times present a designer a means of control; advance a range of new ornaments and motifs to work with; and impart a new understanding of the relation between functional and decorative form. This exhibition will look at the impact of pattern in the arts using the University Art Galleries collections. 

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