Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The 2025 Master of Liberal Arts Colloquium at Johns Hopkins University invites faculty, students, alumni, and community members to engage virtually with students emerging from places often dismissed as peripheral—Black performance, queer archives, Bronx slang, military ethics, colonial museums, and generational trauma. Built around the provocation and a title: (re)[public] - with "re" signaling return, resistance, and revision and bracketed “public” meaning uncertain, unstable, and contested -the featured works address what it means to speak into public space when you’ve been excluded from it, misrepresented within it, or silenced entirely. The resulting research speaks to, through, and against institutional power, academic convention, and national mythology and provides proof that the margins are not silent.
Opening Remarks with Dr. Laura DeSisto and Tristan Cabello
Session 1: Reframing the Public Gaze
- "In(the)visible: Performance, the Gaze, and Reclaiming the Visual" (Ashley Johnson)
- "Architecture of Discrimination: The Lavender Scare in Historiography and Public Memory" (Steve Marcantonio)
- “The Black Politics of Michael Jackson: Transcending Boundaries" (Travon Williams)
Session 2: Witnessing the Public After Crisis
- "Describing Holocaust Denialism" (Alan Kauf-Stern)
- "A Decisive Edge: Gaining Military Advantages through Empathy and Literary Studies" (Joshua Chambers)
- "New Museology and Indigenous Representation at a California Mission" (Brian Evans)
Session 3: Sounding Out the Public
- "Thrills and Chills: Michael Jackson’s Racial Influence in the Thriller Era" (Chloe Dolandis)
- "Tracing Korean Historiography" (Hyelynn Koo)
Session 4: Rewriting Nostalgia
- "Political and Social Change, Black Social Identity, and the Lyrics of Michael Jackson: 1972–2001" (Don Rath)
- "An Idealized Past: The Great Gatsby and Post-War American Sentiment" (Allison Sherman)
Keynote Presentation on Black Veteranality (Dr. Bryon Garner)
Dr. Bryon Garner will present Black Veteranality: Military Service and the Illusion of Inclusive Patriotism as the Colloquium’s closing keynote address. Moderated by Associate Program Director Tristan Cabello, Garner will draw from his forthcoming book of the same name which interrogates how Black veterans navigate the racial contradictions of military service in a nation that has long excluded them from the full promise of citizenship. The address will incorporate ethnographic research and interviews to challenge dominant narratives of military belonging and national identity and to urge a rethinking of what loyalty, service, and public recognition mean in a racially stratified republic.
The 2025 Master of Liberal Arts Colloquium at Johns Hopkins University invites faculty, students, alumni, and community members to engage virtually with students emerging from places often dismissed as peripheral—Black performance, queer archives, Bronx slang, military ethics, colonial museums, and generational trauma. Built around the provocation and a title: (re)[public] - with "re" signaling return, resistance, and revision and bracketed “public” meaning uncertain, unstable, and contested -the featured works address what it means to speak into public space when you’ve been excluded from it, misrepresented within it, or silenced entirely. The resulting research speaks to, through, and against institutional power, academic convention, and national mythology and provides proof that the margins are not silent.
Opening Remarks with Dr. Laura DeSisto and Tristan Cabello
Session 1: Reframing the Public Gaze
- "In(the)visible: Performance, the Gaze, and Reclaiming the Visual" (Ashley Johnson)
- "Architecture of Discrimination: The Lavender Scare in Historiography and Public Memory" (Steve Marcantonio)
- “The Black Politics of Michael Jackson: Transcending Boundaries" (Travon Williams)
Session 2: Witnessing the Public After Crisis
- "Describing Holocaust Denialism" (Alan Kauf-Stern)
- "A Decisive Edge: Gaining Military Advantages through Empathy and Literary Studies" (Joshua Chambers)
- "New Museology and Indigenous Representation at a California Mission" (Brian Evans)
Session 3: Sounding Out the Public
- "Thrills and Chills: Michael Jackson’s Racial Influence in the Thriller Era" (Chloe Dolandis)
- "Tracing Korean Historiography" (Hyelynn Koo)
Session 4: Rewriting Nostalgia
- "Political and Social Change, Black Social Identity, and the Lyrics of Michael Jackson: 1972–2001" (Don Rath)
- "An Idealized Past: The Great Gatsby and Post-War American Sentiment" (Allison Sherman)
Keynote Presentation on Black Veteranality (Dr. Bryon Garner)
Dr. Bryon Garner will present Black Veteranality: Military Service and the Illusion of Inclusive Patriotism as the Colloquium’s closing keynote address. Moderated by Associate Program Director Tristan Cabello, Garner will draw from his forthcoming book of the same name which interrogates how Black veterans navigate the racial contradictions of military service in a nation that has long excluded them from the full promise of citizenship. The address will incorporate ethnographic research and interviews to challenge dominant narratives of military belonging and national identity and to urge a rethinking of what loyalty, service, and public recognition mean in a racially stratified republic.
