Jacques-Louis David's 1789 The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of His Sons stages a harrowing scene from Roman history. Consul Brutus, upon discovery of his sons' treasonous plot to restore the monarchy, sanctions their deaths in defense of the Republic. Debuted in the 1789 Paris Salon and shortly after the fall of the Bastille, the political meaning of the colossal painting would have been explicit. In painting the return of the sons' bodies, David's composition reinforces the grave but necessary cost of revolution. Representing an event of classical antiquity as a moral exemplar, Brutus is firmly anchored in period conflict, evincing David's personal revolutionary values. This presentation is a survey of current art historic scholarship surrounding David’s Brutus as a dramatic tableau that synthesizes antiquarian interest and theatricality. The purpose is to understand the aesthetic, social and historic influences of the painting and its presentation as a cathartic, timeless exemplar of nationalistic virtue told through the myth of Brutus.

As it stands today, there is a disconnect between the world of architecture and that of "art" - fine art, outsider art, and similar. This disconnect accounts for the loss of information on a grand scale, as each field continues to analyze itself from an insular perspective, rather than recognizing the interdisciplinary potential inherent in combining these studies. I am developing a foundation for understanding the built environment’s role in shaping society and the world, one that highlights the connective role architecture plays between all the various components of contemporary life. By examining various interdisciplinary examples such as political theory, art scholarship, outsider manifestos, etc., I am synthesizing an understanding of how architecture has historically been approached and interpreted in industrial society, while drafting a manifesto to propose a new methodology for approaching architecture in the contemporary age. In the future, analysis like this could have impact on political or social policy, as well as construction and development, if we utilize this more thorough, interdisciplinary analysis to better understand the implications of what we build and how we will experience it as both art and architecture in contemporary society.

This presentation compares past and present portrayals of Eastern European Romani women in Western media to show an incredible amount of homogeny and misrepresentation within publications. It is no secret that the region of Eastern Europe has been plagued by civil war, political upheaval, racism, and genocide. Due to this climate, there has been a level of mystery and complexity that has wrapped itself around the area, perpetuating mythological and romanticized images of its largest ethnic group: the Romani. The Romani are the most heavily criticized and marginalized group in Eastern Europe, seen as intruders and outcasts to this day. These prejudices have deep roots in Western folklore, which paint similar pictures of Romani men and women consistently throughout. I am examining a specific archetype common in Western media, particularly film: the oversexualized Romani woman. I am using anti-Roma propaganda from The United States and Germany and comparing them to popular films from the 20th century. The films used are Paramount Studios' production of Golden Earrings (1947), the James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963), and Disney's adaption of Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1992). The goal is, by looking at these representations, we can see critical connections between the way Romani women have been cruelly depicted in the last century in order reconstruct misconceptions and establish a framework that illustrates a more accurate and multifaceted story.