Guest Speaker Discusses New Book

Anthony Squiers will present “Bertolt Brecht’s Aesthetics of Adaptation” at 4:30 p.m. March 18 in Baldwin Hall 114.

Squiers’ talk will focus on his new book, “Bertolt Brecht’s Adaptations and Anti-capitalist Aesthetics Today,” which argues that the German playwright Brecht’s practices of adaptation occupy a central, yet previously unacknowledged place within his thought. Squiers contends that Brecht allows the audience to think about adaptation as a process of “material transformation,” which is useful for understanding the potential of anti-capitalist aesthetics today.

As a scholar of political science, American studies, philosophy and theater, Squiers has a unique background. He received a Ph.D. in political science from Western Michigan University and a habilitation in American studies from the Universität Passau, Germany. He currently teaches at the AMDA College of the Performing Arts, and has had faculty positions in Germany, Texas and Kurdistan, Iraq.

This event is presented by the Department of Languages and Linguistics.