Karen Fiss

Karen Fiss's research examines the history of "nation branding" in the production of visual culture, from the rise of the nation-state to its current role in shaping the social, artistic, and built environment of emerging economies.

Her most recent book is Grand Illusion: The Third Reich, the Paris Exposition, and the Cultural Seduction of France published by the University of Chicago Press (2010). The study examines related developments across fine arts, film, architecture, and mass pageantry in order to illuminate the role of National Socialist propaganda in the French decision to ignore Hitler's war preparations and pursue an untenable policy of appeasement. By examining how cultural exchange shifted toward political collaboration, Grand Illusion casts new light on the power of art to influence history.

She is currently serving as film curator for the international exhibition Encounters with the 1930s, conceived by Jordana Mendelson, which will open at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, in October 2012.

Fiss is also co-writing a book with historians of science associated with Johns Hopkins University titled Modernity on Display, which examines discourses around nationalism and technology in relation to the visual culture of world's fairs held in the US, Japan, France, Italy, and Germany around the time of World War II.

She also coedited with Hazel Clark a special volume of the journal Design Issues on globalization, postcolonialism, and design (MIT Press, Summer 2009). Fiss is coeditor of the anthology Discourses: Conversations in Postmodern Art and Culture (MIT Press, 1992) and has contributed to Art, Culture and Media under the Third Reich (ed. Richard Etlin, University of Chicago Press), in addition to other scholarly publications and catalogues. Fiss has also published articles for the magazines and websites of Print, CMYK, and Metropolis.

Fiss's writing and research has been supported by grants from the Graham Foundation, Getty Grant Program, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art.

Recent and upcoming public presentations:

"National Socialism on Display: Technology, Design, and the Four-Year Plan at Schaffendes Volk," ICOHTEC (International Committee for the History of Technology) Symposium on Technology, the Arts and Industrial Culture, Barcelona, July 2012.

Haus der Kunst, Munich: "75/20," June 9 - 10, 2012 (Symposium marking the 75th year of the opening of the Haus der deutschen Kunst by the Nazi regime with the "Great German Art" exhibition, as well as its 20th year serving as a modern and contemporary art museum). The conference interrogates the international dimension of the Haus der Kunst's history, contextualizing the building's architecture against the backdrop of the political and social democratization of West Germany.
http://www.hausderkunst.de/index.php?id=724

College Art Association, Los Angeles: "The Challenge of Nazi Art," 2012. Panel organized by James van Dyke, University of Missouri, Columbia, and Christian Fuhrmeister, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich.

Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid: ""From Nation Building to Nation Branding," Encounters with the 1930s," March 2011

College Art Association, New York City: "Nation Building: Politics of Space and the African City," co-chair with Mabel O. Wilson, Columbia University, February 2011.

"Parametri-Cities: Jo-burg," GSAPP Architecture, Columbia University, Advanced Studio Global Topologies with Mario Gooden and Mokena Makeka, Makeka Design Laboratory. New York City, February 2011.

"Mbeki’s Pan-Africanism:Tradition, Heritage, and National Identity at Pretoria's Freedom Park." African Diaspora and Diasporas in Africa, Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, San Francisco, November 2010.

"Beyond Product: The Problem of HCD Design Ethnography and Postcolonial Anthropological Frameworks," The State of Design Research, symposium at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, December 2010.