Author: hectorro

Check out some of the great events GSA has to offer this month!

The Department of Art at the University at Buffalo seeks submissions of short writing in two categories. Our Call for Writers requests 1500 word essays engaging the work of one of our graduating MFA candidates. The Open Submissions requests short essays, literature, or poetry that relates to one of the four thematic categories featured in the catalog. Please see details below.

Call for Writers:
Each year, the graduating MFA candidates team up with a writer who critically responds to their thesis work. The writers receive samples of the MFA candidate’s past and current artwork and are asked to engage with the artist either through studio visits, email or Skype. This will be the eighth year of the Graduate Catalog publication. The catalog will showcase images from each thesis exhibition along with the accompanying article about the work. The Department of Art conceives of the Graduate Catalog as an opportunity for producing a collaborative project between artists and writers, offering a platform for both to share their practice with the arts community at large. This year, the Editorial Board is looking for writers who have a MA/PhD or are currently enrolled in a MA/PhD program with a focus on critical writing (e.g. visual or cultural studies, women’s studies).

If interested in participating, please visit our catalog website where you will find links to the MFA candidates’ sample work and artist statements: https://ubartgrads2015.wordpress.com. For more information, please contact us at ubartgrads@gmail.com. We will be making decisions on writer/artist teams February 20th so please reach out prior to this date if interested in writing about an artist’s work.

Open Submissions:
The 2015 Graduate Catalogue will feature four themes culled from the MFA thesis work. As such, the Editorial Board is looking for scholarly essays, creative writing or poetry under 1500 words relating to one of the following themes. Deadline for Submissions: March 15th

• Abjection and Mortality: What are abjections of the self? Is it ever possible for the self or society to reconcile these abjections? In what space are abjection and mortality imbricated? When do they diverge? Is the act of abjection always a form of mortality? In this section of the catalog we are looking for submissions that deal with the interconnected relationship between abjection and mortality. As a disruption of social and cultural constructs, abjection and mortality are methods that the artists in this section utilize to question issues around queerness and blackness in contemporary society. In addition to working with the aforementioned themes, we also seek submissions concurrently investigating: Afro Futurism, the body, poststructuralism, phenomenology, imperialism and a wide range of sex organs (including, but not limited to, dicks, vaginas and boobs).
• Defacement and Opacity: In the Opacity & Defacement section, we welcome submissions that offer variations interpretations and extensions of these themes. Possible topics include portraiture in an expanded field; the face and faciality (in the Deleuzian sense: face as emergent machine or assemblage); masks and masking; various forms of visibility and invisibility, readability and illegibility, especially in relation to ontology; perceptual distortion; mediation; obscurantism (political, academic, artistic, etc); surface and depth; the inaccessibility of memory; the aesthetics of blur and the hazy or unfocused image; beauty/symmetry and its discontents. What is the political function of defacement, and how does it function in realms like protest culture or religious veiling? What is the relationship between the face and the “interface” of digital media? Is the face a necessary component of communication? Of humanity? Is there a non-human face? What philosophies of the face have emerged from contemporary art?
• Presence and Mediation: The artists in this section are interested in phenomenologies of sense and presence. How are entities – material or immaterial – felt and communicated with? How does the body impress and interface with its digital or concrete surroundings? How is material, digital or ethereal presence sensed and perceived? What role does mediation play in communication? What are the effects of imagined, desired, ghostly spaces to our corporeal selves? Topics nested under this theme may include, but are not limited to: consciousness, perception, the body/self, the unknown, interfaces, transcendent spaces, communication, biofeedback, relationality, distance and proximity, intimacy, presence/absence, phenomenology, ontology, hauntology, synaptic stutters, chance encounters, connection/disconnection and digital beings.
• Intervention and Environment: What types of meanings are acquired through interventions into natural and cultural environments? If cultural, is the intervention an inquiry into why a contemporary societal construct exists? If natural, does the intervention examine forms or patterns found in a specific geographic location? The interventions by the artists in this section, pose questions regarding the symbiotic relationships between people as a means for fostering critical dialog about cultural or natural constructs. In the Intervention & Environment section, these artists are considering topics such as: social practice, conversations about identity, femininity, representation, authenticity, visual literacy, social justice, site-specific, the sensorial, public engagement, revitalization, cross cultural dialog.

Distribution:
The 2015 Graduate Catalogue will be disseminated in its final form to public museums, universities, arts non-profits and other applicable arts institutions, both nationally and internationally. Additionally, this catalogue will build upon previous years through the development of a PDF format, thus making the publication digitally distributable across broader networks of the art world.

Graduate Students,

You may be unaware that at Michael Hall Student Health Center (South Campus) you have free chiropractic available Monday 1-5 pm, Wednesday 9-12 pm, 1- 5 pm abd Friday 9-12 pm.

Chiropractic can help with back pain, neck pain, headaches and other joint issues you may have.

Please call 716-685-9631 today for an appointment as we usually fill up fast.

Gerald Stevens DC,MS,MPH

Dear University Community:

On behalf of the School of Management, I am pleased to announce that our IRS-certified accounting students will again offer free tax preparation services to individuals and families with an annual income below $53,000. UB employees and students are encouraged to take advantage of this service and to invite their families and neighbors to do the same.

The service will be offered at South Campus, North Campus and, for the first time, Downtown Campus. Dates, times, locations, maps and other important details can be found at the link below:
http://mgt.buffalo.edu/freetaxprep

Tax preparation for nonresident aliens requires special processing that is beyond the scope of the services provided by Beta Alpha Psi volunteers. F-1 or J-1 students who have been in the U.S. for five years or less and J-1 scholars who have been in the U.S. for two years or less should contact International Student and Scholar Services for income tax filing assistance, or click here to find out if you are eligible to use Glacier Tax Prep, which will be available mid-February.

Sincerely,

Arjang A. Assad
Professor and Dean
School of Management

Please note the GSA Office’s Schedule for the Winter Break:

December 8th – 12th: Regular Business Hours (Monday – Friday 8:30am – 4:30pm)

December 15th – 18th: Summer Hours (Monday – Thursday 8:30am – 4:00pm)

GSA Office will be closed from December 19th until January 12th

January 12th – 22nd: Summer Hours (Monday – Thursday 8:30am – 4:00pm)

GSA Office will be closed on Monday, January 19th for Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance

Regular Business Hours resume on January 26th

11th Annual Jingle Jangle Jam Semi-Formal

WHEN: Friday, December 5th from 8pm to 12am

WHERE: Embassy Suites Hotel (200 Delaware Ave. in Downtown Buffalo)

OPEN BAR, FOOD, DJ AND PRIZES!!!

Tickets on sale now at the SBI Ticket Offices (221 Student Union and 350 Harriman Hall) for $25 each/$30 at the door (if tickets are still available). 2 per UB ID. Limited quantity available. First come, first served

The first 50 people to buy tickets will be entered into a raffle for a chance to win two Sabres tickets! Additional prizes will be raffled off throughout the night.

*Please remember to bring photo ID as proof of age to the event. EVERYONE WILL BE CARDED AT THE DOOR!

Fellow students,

Please note that the Graduate Student Association office will be closed until Monday due both to the University closing today and concerns for the safety and well-being of our staff members who are currently snowed in. We will reassess the situation over the weekend as needed and keep you updated on any more delays or closings for the office should they be deemed necessary.

We understand that our closing has been inconvenient to many of you, but your officers continue to remain reachable via email. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at gsa-president@buffalo.edu. I will answer as I am able.

Thank you for all your love and support at this time. Please keep yourselves safe and warm, and we hope to see you next week.

-President Gorman