MAVCS: 2022

The Future is Camp

essays on queer disillusionment and possible futures

Abstract:

This thesis reimagines camp as a dynamic, participatory practice of care, rooted in queer and Jewish intellectual traditions. Drawing from Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s notion of reparative reading, I argue that camp transcends its often-dismissed frivolity to serve as a vital expression of community and self-care. Through the lens of queer narratives, particularly those surrounding the concept of home, I explore how camp can both critique and celebrate domestic ideals, offering joy and resilience amid societal crises. By examining the works of Howard Ashman and the camp classic Yentl, I illustrate the intersections of camp, care, and identity, reflecting on the complexities of belonging and the legacy of my Jewish heritage. Ultimately, this analysis seeks to illuminate the radical potential of camp in fostering queer futurity and challenging normative paradigms of domesticity.

MArch: 2019

A People’s Museum

reframing public histories through spaces of multiple truths

Abstract:

Museums, monuments, and memorials, as sites of public memory, are inherently political spaces. These institutions hold educational and cultural value and are significant for their ability to manufacture collective or shared histories. At the same time, however, these institutions represent a specific form of the dissemination of knowledge that is highly-controlled. Their narratives are full of embodied biases of those who curate them. These monuments tend primarily to serve only the agendas of the governing or wealthy private benefactors who patronize them. Public histories uphold certain narratives over others and can contribute to the further marginalization of underrepresented identities. By questioning the relationship between museum and memory space, and systems of power, architecture can subvert and challenge the conventions of this particular spatialization of public memory. Components of the museum’s experience such as the use of light and path can be leveraged to create moments of pause in the urban experience. A historiographic approach that is critical in nature reveals the multifaceted and nuanced relationships at play in our cities. This involves problematizing existing monuments and introducing multitudes of — often conflicting — narratives of a place.

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