MUSE Welcomes New Faculty Jeffreen Hayes and Paul Durica

9.29.2015
We are delighted to announce two new additions to the MUSE faculty at UIC—Jeffreen Hayes, and Paul Durica.
 
Jeffreen Hayes is a curator, researcher and educator and the founder of bridge/arts, which she describes as, "a socially conscious organization dedicated to creating opportunities of access to art and culture, particularly in communities of color and the underclass. Our mission is to connect artists, cultural organizers and communities through socially and civic-oriented community engagement." She has a PhD in American Studies and this is her dissertation title: "Real Talk: Blackness and Whiteness in the Works of Jefferson Pinder, Dave Chappelle, and Aaron McGruder.” Here's an interview with her from a couple years ago: http://bombmagazine.org/article/7363/jeffreen-hayes
 
Paul Durica is the founder of Pocket Guide to Hell Tours and Renactments, an organization/project focused on "true crime, social justice, labor history, [and] peanuts": http://pocketguidetohell.com/ And he is the current Director of Programs at Illinois Humanities. Paul has both a PhD (English Language and Literature) and an MFA (Creative Writing), and is a scholar/artist/activist. Here's a recent article about him: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-08/entertainment/chi-kogan-paul-durica-20130308_1_first-ward-ball-hobo-ben-reitman And here's an essay he wrote about Gwendolyn Brooks for the Poetry Foundation: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/244466
 
These faculty will be connected to some of the Spring 2016 offerings including:
 
AH 542: Material and Display Practices for Exhibitions (aka Exhibition Planning, Tuesday 1-4, Jeffreen Hayes (Faculty)
 
AH 544: Public Engagement, Monday 6-9 PM, Paul Durica (Faculty)
 
AH 596: Readings in Art and Architecture - Museums and Exhibition Studies Publication, Wednesday, 6-9, Therese Quinn (Faculty)
 
In addition Therese Quinn will be teaching the MUSE Publication course this Spring! This class focuses on the production of a journal that will provide UIC MUSE graduate students with a platform for sharing their research, participating in and advancing the growing discourse on radical museum studies, and stimulating conversation among colleagues in the field. The publication will reflect MUSE’s identity and perspective as an M.A. program that questions the role and structure of museums and encourages students to reimagine and remake them. Sarita Hernandez is the Coordination for this publication. When registering make sure to sign up for 4 graduate credits. 
 
Email Therese Quinn (thereseq@uic.edu) or Anthony Stepter (astepter@uic.edu) with any questions!