Robert Weston

Academic Program Affiliation(s): First-Year Seminar, Human Rights

Academic Expertise: Human Rights

Area of Specialization: 18th-century European literature and cultural history

Biography:

Robert Weston’s research interests include the European Enlightenment, the history of education, social mediation, visual criticism, animality, and posthumanism; his teaching interests range from women’s, lesbian, gay, and trans rights, Queer Theory, and histories of sexuality, to philosophical anthropology, gift theory, and post-structuralism. Recipient of DAAD Research Fellowship (2000–01); Günther-Findel Research Fellowship, Herzog August Bibliothek (2004–05); Presidential Teaching Award, Columbia University (2005); and Ottaway International Fellowship, Al-Quds Bard, Palestine (2009-2012). At Al-Quds, he served as director of faculty and curricular development (2009–10); assistant dean (2010–11); and associate academic dean (2011–12). At Bard, Professor Weston has served as codirector of First-Year Seminar (2013–16) and coordinator of Gender and Sexuality Studies (2008–09; 2012– ). He was coeditor of Convolution: Journal of Experimental Criticism (2010–11) and has published in Semiotext(e), Social Text, Rethinking Marxism, and n/or. His work has been shown at New York’s Guggenheim Museum (2009) and Baxter Street Gallery (2015).

 BA, University of Florida; MA, MPhil, PhD, Columbia University. At Bard since 2005.

Interests:

• Research Interests: the European Enlightenment, popular enlightenment, and social reform; history of education. Secondary fields: visual criticism; philosophical anthropology; posthumanism; Walter Benjamin; the Frankfurt School; theories of gift and sacrifice; women’s rights; feminist thought; history of sexuality
• Teaching Interests: Women’s rights; LGBT rights; gender theory; queer theory; histories of sexuality; Enlightenment cultural history; 18th-century intellectual history; the history of education; the culture and politics of modernity; philosophical anthropology
• Other Interests: Religious experience (Pietism, Quietism, Mysticism); Modernism; German Expressionism; the historical avant-garde; general economy/globalization/world systems analysis; the consumer society; philosophical anthropology; poststructuralism; 18th-century literature

Contact:

Phone: 845-758-7325
Website: http://www.hardwickweston.com
Email:
Location: Hopson
Office: 203