Maud Lavin
Artist Historian
Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Lavin has published essays and writing on a wide range of subjects, including Hannah Hoch’s Weimar-era photocollages; the role of graphic design in shaping the public sphere—particularly democracy and social issues; and, most recently, being middle-aged. This lecture, a discussion of women’s need for aggression along with the effects of its manifestation and representation, is part of the ongoing work on her next MIT Press publication, Women, Aggression, Images.  In describing the project, Lavin suggests that the subject of female aggression is a way to open a discourse on numerous “delicious, fascinating, crucial, powerful, lustful issues.”

Lavin holds a PhD in art history from the City University of New York, and a MA from the University of Pennsylvania. Lavin has received many awards for her writing, including a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her books include Clean New World: Culture, Politics, and Graphic Design (MIT Press), and, as editor and included co-author, The Oldest We've Ever Been: Seven True Stories of Midlife Transitions (University of Arizona Press).