Self-portraits taken using smart phones or other consumer-based devices—or “selfies”— have become ubiquitous visual forms that proliferate on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. Popular discourses have largely pit the selfie, which is often thought of as a symptom of a narcissistic society, against the self-portrait, which is more associated with art. Derek Conrad Murray, associate professor in the History of Art and Visual Culture Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of Queering Post-Black Art: Artists Transforming African-American Identity after Civil Rights, will explore this debate in connection with the exhibition This Is Not a Selfie.

Lunchtime Lectures take place on the first Wednesday of the month at noon in the Charlotte Wendel Education Center. Visitors are welcome to bring food and beverages.