BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:13292-7bb82ed8248a5b35d6e8c4420d05d185@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260809T082508Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240408T123000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240408T133000 SUMMARY:“Hew Locke\'s Ruined Persons: From Corporations to Racial Persons and Be yond” DESCRIPTION:\nThe Comparative Literature Luncheon Series presents:\n\n“H ew Locke’s Ruined Persons: From Corporations to Racial Persons and Beyon d”\n\nLisa Siraganian (John Hopkins University)\n\nSponsored by:\n\nDepa rtment of Comparative Literature\n\nCenter for Humanities and Informatio n\n\nCenter for Global Studies\n\nDepartment of English\n\nCollege of th e Liberal Arts\n\nSee the event flyer\n\nIn law\, an “artificial person” is a non-human legal entity—not a single human being\, but an organizat ion\, such as a corporation\, that the law recognizes as a “fictitious p erson.” But what exactly is that? This talk begins to address that quest ion and its history\, taking the acclaimed work of contemporary British- Guyanese artist\, Hew Locke\, as an occasion to illustrate a set of leg al historical\, cultural\, and aesthetic claims. Locke’s multimedia work helps us explore theories of artificial\, expansive personhood—for tree s\, fetuses\, elephants\, and AI—and we will see how those theories emer ged out of corporate personhood\, the original model of artificial perso nhood. More surprisingly\, these ideas developed from a combination of t heories of business enterprise\, the state\, and legal thinking about th e status of free African Americans. The talk thus develops the argument\ , first\, that current understandings of artificial\, expansive personho od retain that historical origin\, albeit obscured\; and\, second\, that both the origin and its obscuring support a natural-seeming process tha t removes power from government and the public and onto property and cap ital. The historical development of expansive personhood continues to im pact the way artificial personhood functions\, while also obscuring its failures from view.\n\nLisa Siraganian is the J. R. Herbert Boone Chair in Humanities and Professor of Comparative Thought and Literature at Joh ns Hopkins University in Baltimore\, Maryland. She is the author of Mode rnism and the Meaning of Corporate Persons (Oxford 2020)\, winner of the Modernist Studies Association Book Prize and the Modern Language Associ ation’s Matei Calinescu Book Prize\, and Modernism's Other Work: The Art Object's Political Life (Oxford 2012)\, shortlisted for the Modernist S tudies Association Book Prize. Her scholarship has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities\, the American Academy of Arts an d Sciences\, and the American Council of Learned Societies\, and she was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellowsh ip that funded the completion of her law degree (J.D.) in 2019. She is a lso the Editor of Volume D (1914-1945)\, one of the five volumes of The Norton Anthology of American Literature\, Tenth Edition (2022).\n\nFor m ore details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/hew-lockes-ruined-person/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

The Comparative Literature Luncheon Series presents:
“Hew Locke’s Ruined Persons: From Corporations to Racial Persons and Beyond”

Lisa Siraganian (J ohn Hopkins University)

Sponsored by:

Department of Comparat ive Literature
Center for Humanities and Information
Center fo r Global Studies
Department of English
College of the Liberal Arts

See the event flyer

In law, an “artificial person” is a non-human legal entity—not a sin gle human being, but an organization, such as a corporation, that the la w recognizes as a “fictitious person.” But what exactly is that? This ta lk begins to address that question and its history, taking the acclaimed work of contemporary British- Guyanese artist, Hew Locke, as an occasio n to illustrate a set of legal historical, cultural, and aesthetic claim s. Locke’s multimedia work helps us explore theories of artificial, expa nsive personhood—for trees, fetuses, elephants, and AI—and we will see h ow those theories emerged out of corporate personhood, the original mode l of artificial personhood. More surprisingly, these ideas developed fro m a combination of theories of business enterprise, the state, and legal thinking about the status of free African Americans. The talk thus deve lops the argument, first, that current understandings of artificial, exp ansive personhood retain that historical origin, albeit obscured; and, s econd, that both the origin and its obscuring support a natural-seeming process that removes power from government and the public and onto prope rty and capital. The historical development of expansive personhood cont inues to impact the way artificial personhood functions, while also obsc uring its failures from view.

Lisa Siraganian is the J. R. Herbert Boone Chair in Humanities and Professor of Comparative Thought and Lite rature at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the au thor of Modernism and the Meaning of Corporate Persons (Oxford 2020), winner of the Modernist Studies Association Book Prize and the Mo dern Language Association’s Matei Calinescu Book Prize, and Modernis m's Other Work: The Art Object's Political Life (Oxford 2012), shor tlisted for the Modernist Studies Association Book Prize. Her scholarshi p has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the A merican Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Council of Learne d Societies, and she was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellowship that funded the completion of her law degree (J.D.) in 2019. She is also the Editor of Volume D (1914-1945), one of the five volumes of The Norton Anthology of American Literat ure, Tenth Edition (2022).

For more details: https://events.la.ps u.edu/event/hew-lockes-ruined-person/

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