W.J.T. Mitchell

University of Chicago

September–December 2012

W. J. T. Mitchell (Beinecke Fellow) is Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago. He was previously a Clark Fellow in 2008. His work is primarily focused on the interplay of vision and language in art, literature, and media. His books include The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon (1998), which was nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He received the MLA's 2006 James Russell Lowell Prize in Language and Literature for What Do Pictures Want? and the CAA's 1996 Morey Prize in Art History for Picture Theory.  His recent books include Cloning Terror: The War of Images, September 11 to Abu Ghraib, and Critical Terms in Media Studies (with Mark Hansen). His newest book, Seeing Through Race, will be published in 2012. At the Clark, he will be doing the research for a book entitled Seeing Madness:  Insanity, Media, and Visual Culture, which will study the history of mental illness in still and moving images.  Photo by Domenico Aronica.