Professor Joshua Shannon's New Book - Humans - Is Published

In a volume published by the University of Chicago Press, Professor Joshua Shannon and Co-Editors Laura Bieger and Jason Weems turn an Art-Historical Eye on Humans

Humans, which Professor Joshua Shannon co-edited with Laura Bieger and Jason Weems, is coming out next month with the Terra Foundation Essays series at University of Chicago Press.

From the publisher's page one finds the following inviting description:

Humans are organisms, but “the human being” is a term referring to a complicated, self-contradictory, and historically evolving set of concepts and practices. Humans explores competing versions, constructs, and ideas of the human being that have figured prominently in the arts of the United States. These essays consider a range of artworks from the colonial period to the present, examining how they have reflected, shaped, and modeled ideas of the human in American culture and politics. The book addresses to what extent artworks have conferred more humanity on some human beings than others, how art has shaped ideas about the relationships between humans and other beings and things, and in what ways different artistic constructions of the human being evolved, clashed, and intermingled over the course of American history. Humans both tells the history of a concept foundational to US civilization and proposes new means for its urgently needed rethinking.

Clearly this work is timely for the present in which we find ourselves, and will prove a title much in demand around the Department.

Congratulations Professor Shannon!