Photo courtesy of Jonathan Michael Square.
Jonathan Michael Square, above, talked to Sandra Russell’s gender studies and art class on Zoom.
By Jesse Hausknecht-Brown ’25
Managing Editor of Layout & Features Editor
Content warning: This article mentions slavery.
Jonathan Michael Square, an assistant professor of Black visual culture at Parsons School of Design, believes in “democratizing higher education.” His avenue of doing so was to turn one of his classes, Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom, into an ever-evolving social media-based project. He uses social media platforms — including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube — to share the work he has done around slavery and fashion, which he believes allows for more engagement than traditional styles of teaching. Square visited Professor Sandra Russell’s class Art, Public Space and Social Justice Activism via Zoom on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
As described on its website, “Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom predominately explores the intersections between slavery and fashion. This digital humanities project is also an entry point for exploring larger questions of race, identity and equity.” During the talk, Square defined digital humanities as “the use of the internet or digital platforms as an educational tool,” although he stated that the kind of work he does is “a little more dynamic” than traditional digital humanities practices.
“Sometimes you have to use terms to make yourself legible to academics, so sometimes we find ourselves using the term digital humanities even though it’s more social media,” Square said.
Russell has wanted to have Square talk to one of her classes for some time, but the timing never worked out. She has been inspired by Square’s work for years and was grateful that he was able to visit.
“One of my goals in designing this course was to foreground artists, academics and activists’ utilization of public spaces — be they brick and mortar, digital or otherwise — to engage audiences’ political, social and historical imaginations,” Russell said. “Jonathan’s work across digital platforms, as well as his curatorial work, does exactly this, and I think this is a real way to build solidarity and resistance.”
In an interview with Mount Holyoke News, Square explained that he is usually asked to present research from his upcoming book and doesn’t often get to give a talk about his methodologies. “I love presenting my work to new audiences because it forces me to clarify my thinking on my own practice,” Square said. “It was a real treat to be able to stand back and reflect on how I use social media as an educational tool.”
Square was also a 2021-2022 Curatorial fellow at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and formerly instructed at Harvard University, where he taught versions of the Fashioning the Self course.
“Fashioning the Self” also exists in the format of two zines, one of which can be viewed online. The other is available for purchase in print. “I also have a bone to pick with academia. I think academic writing is a bit dry and sometimes inaccessible and many academics aren’t really interested in engaging with larger audiences,” Square said. “I wanted to create content that to me felt academically rigorous but was also interesting and readable and even fun.”
Madeline Greenberg ’26, a student in Russell’s class, enjoyed the content of Square’s talk and described his work as “incredible.”
“Square also has his course syllabi available on his website, so anyone is able to almost take the class themself,” Greenberg said. “This aspect of his work is incredibly interesting to me as it feels like we learn right alongside him and that his work is pushing against traditional and elitist ideas of higher education.”
Siobhan Meï ’11, a lecturer at Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, also visited the class during Square’s talk. She and Square co-founded a digital humanities project called “Rendering Revolution: Sartorial Approaches to Haitian History,” which is, as described on its website, “a queer, bilingual, feminist experiment in digital interdisciplinary scholarship that uses the lens of fashion and material culture to trace the aesthetic, social and political reverberations of the Haitian Revolution as a world-historical moment.”
Meï first conceptualized “Rendering Revolution” and then shared her idea with Square when she invited him to give a talk at UMass. They then began to work together to create the project which launched in summer 2020.
In his interview with Mount Holyoke News, Square described “Rendering Revolution” and “Fashioning the Self” as “sister projects,” with three important differences. “‘Rendering Revolution’ is focused on Haiti and, to a certain degree, the wider Francophone world. Secondly, ‘Rendering Revolution’ is supported by a transnational team of scholars that includes Siobhan, me, and a number of other Haitian and Haitianist academics and translators. Thirdly, ‘Rendering Revolution’ is a bilingual project. We publish all of our content in English and Haitian Kreyòl,” Square said.
During the talk, Square discussed the curatorial work he does, focusing specifically on an exhibit called “Slavery in the Hands of Harvard” which was housed in the Center for Government and International Studies at Harvard. Square talked about how using a non-traditional space forced people to engage with the work between activities or on their way to class.
“The show used contemporary art to explore Harvard’s connection to slavery. … The exhibition was in the hallway of a public building on Harvard’s campus … so it had a wider reach than a show in a traditional gallery space,” Square said.
Toward the end of the talk, students and participants joining on Zoom were invited to ask questions. One person on the Zoom call, who identified themself as a professor based in Florida, asked Square about the trend of race-related scholarship being politically repressed. “The study of Black history is underfunded and under assault, which certainly makes my work feel more necessary,” Square said in his interview.
Greenberg had an interest in fashion and social justice prior to the talk but hadn’t been sure how they could work together. “I had actually been discussing with my parents how on earth I plan to combine those interests. It seemed that I was trying to bridge an impossible gap but once I started learning about Jonathan Michael Square I realized that there is a world of possibility for the combination of fashion and social justice,” Greenberg said. “I am thrilled that the gender studies department hosted his visit and I look forward to following his work in the future through Instagram and Facebook.”
“Once I started learning about Jonathan Michael Square I realized that there is a world of possibility for the combination of fashion and social justice.
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Russell’s only wish was for more time, given that not all the participant’s questions got answered. She was also grateful for the hybrid model which allows for people to visit a classroom space who may not otherwise be able to.
“I see Jonathan’s work as such a generous and hopeful way of reimagining and re-rendering ideas and histories. Part of the challenge of doing transformative intellectual work involves telling better, more accurate — and thus more liberatory — stories. This means finding ways to decenter hegemonic narratives and center the experiences of those who have been historically marginalized, silenced and erased. Jonathan’s work does exactly this,” Russell said. “By bringing it to wider audiences, I see him creating and co-creating powerful spaces for community, liberation and worldmaking.”
