Daniel Herwitz

Languages: I speak a few "foreign" languages very poorly (French, German, Italian) and English very well.

Affiliations: Philosophy, History of Art.

Teaching interests: I teach courses in modern and contemporary art, especially from a global perspective, for History of Art. For Philosophy and Complit I teach a large lecture course called Rights and Races, about the simultaneous articulation of natural rights and of the concept of race during the centuries of modern nation building and colonialism, and its shift to the culture of humanitarianism after WWII. This for philosophy and Complit. I teach Film and Philosophy for Philosophy. I teach a variety of courses on Hollywood for Complit, and one on adaptation. I teach a graduate course for Complit on the Essay. I teach a course called Visualizing Race Comparatively with an architect for History of Art.

Recent courses: All of the above. 

Research interests: In the past decade the four most relevant books for my research have been: Heritage, Culture and Politics in the Postcolony (2012), Aesthetics, Arts and Politics in a Global World (2017), Cosmopolitan Aesthetics (2019), and the Political Power of Visual Art (2021). These books have harped on the themes of rethinking art and aesthetics from the perspective of colonialism, nationalism and decolonization, exploring the whirl of art, culture, politics and law at moments of democratic transition, and thinking through the importance of globalization for both sets of matters. I come at these themes in various ways in my suite of books. Currently I am work on a book in this vein called Cowboys, Voortrekkers and Israelites: Myths of Settler Destiny. It is dedicated to studying settler societies comparatively. Two and a half chapters are drafted.

Book publications: 

Single Authored Books: 

• The Political Power of Visual Art: Liberty, Solidarity, Rights, Bloomsbury, 2021. 
• Cosmopolitan Aesthetics: Art in a Global World, Bloomsbury, 2019. • Aesthetics, Arts and Politics in a Global World, Bloomsbury Press, London 2017.
• Heritage, Culture and Politics in the Postcolony, Columbia Press, Sept. 2012.
• The Star as Icon, about stardom, celebrity, cult icons and their aesthetics, Columbia Press, October, 2008. Named Outstanding Scholarly Book by Choice, 2009. 
• Aesthetics: Key Concepts in Philosophy, Continuum Press, for their new philosophy series. 2008. Portuguese edition Estetica, artmed, Porto Allegre, 2010. 
• Race and Reconciliation: Essays from the New South Africa. World Publics Series, University of Minnesota Press, 2003. 
• Making Theory/Constructing Art: On the Authority of the Avant-Garde, University of Chicago Press, 1993, paperback, Spring 1996. 
• Husain, Tata Press in India, 1987. I have written the text for this art book at the request of the artist and collaborated on its design. The book won the National Book Award of India in the category of art books. 

Edited Books 

• Serious Larks: The Philosophy of Ted Cohen, edited with an introduction of 6000 words by Daniel Herwitz, University of Chicago Press, 2018. 
• Midnight’s Diaspora: Critical Encounters with Salman Rushdie, a book of essays co-edited with Ashutosh Varshney, University of Michigan Press. November 2008. Indian publication with Penguin India, April 2009.
• Action, Art, History: Critical Engagements with Arthur Danto, Columbia University Press, March 2007. Edited with Professor Michael Kelly, Director, American Philosophical Association, new philosophy series at Columbia. I have written one essay for the volume: The Sell-By Date and the Introduction. 
• The Don Giovanni Moment: Essays on the Legacy of an Opera, Columbia University Press. Co-edited with Lydia Goehr. Columbia University Press, 2006, paperback 2008. I have written one essay for the volume: Kierkegaard Writes His Opera.
  

Other publications

Forthcoming Essays and Chapters in Books:

• "Negotiating Offense of Rhodesian Proportion", Third Text, July 2022. 
• "Dreaming the Street", book essay for David Lurie, Street of Dreams, Skira, 2022. 
• “Arthur and Andy”, essay on Arthur Danto and Andy Warhol for the forthcoming Blackwell Companion to Arthur Danto, 2022. 
• "The Muted Animal", invited essay for edited volume Adorno's Rhinoceros: Art, Nature, Critique, forthcoming Bloomsbury, 2022. 
• "Patience Between the Arts", written with Lydia Goehr, Bloomsbury Handbook of Music and Art, 2023. 

Recent Publications:

• "The Jagged Past", Safundi, 2021. 
• "The Role of the Museum", Bloomsbury Encyclopaedia of Modern Aesthetics, 2021. 
• "Untamed Horses", solicited essay for Lightning, a volume on the art of M.F. Husain, Tamarind Art, Mapin Publishers, 2019. 
• "Writer's Writer/Teacher's Teacher", invited essay for special edition of Dalkey Archive Press's Review of Contemporary Fiction on Nicholas Delbanco, 2019. 
• Five Reprinted essays on Indian art in Critical Collective, an online archive of papers about Indian art, 2018: 1) “Maqbool Fida Husain: The Artist as National Hero,” Third Text, 2006. 2) "Through the Eyes of Husain", Aicon Gallery Publication, 2016, 3) "When the Past Becomes Personal: Husain’s Late Biography", in Voyage of Discovery, Tamarind Art, 2016, 4) "Reclaiming the Past in Early Modern Indian Art", Third Text, 2004, 5) "There’s Nothing Abstract About…", Aicon Gallery Publication, 2016. 
• “Nature that Lives in the Past: Xu Bing’s Background Story”, in Timothy Murray and Xu Bing, eds., Critical Essays on Xu Bing's Background Stories and his Oeuvre, Beijing: Life Bookstore Publishing Co, 2016. 
• “Modernist Visual Art”, 7000-word essay for the Cambridge History of Modernism, Cambridge University Press, 2016.