On March 17th, at 6:30 pm, Dr. Lauren Fournier will give a talk on Autotheory, a topic connected to her recent work of criticism published by the MIT Press, Autotheory as Feminist Practice in Art, Writing, and Criticism. This talk is hosted by PNCA’s Critical Studies program and a part of the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies Lecture Series.

In 2015 the “autotheory” trend boomed with Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts. This trend meshes personal narrative with theory and philosophy to situate oneself inside a larger world and melds different ways of thinking in creative, unexpected ways. Lauren Fournier’s Autotheory as Feminist Practice in Art, Writing, and Criticism traces this practice through early feminist conceptual art, video art, body art, and performance— especially in those feminist, queer, and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) scenes that live on the edges of art and the academe. Autotheory describes a way of engaging with and practicing theory alongside lived experience and subjective embodiment. It challenges dominant approaches while enabling new ways to critically reflect on our lives.

Lauren Fournier is a writer, curator, and filmmaker. She teaches artists’ writing, autotheory and autofiction, and other experimental genres at the University of Toronto, where she is a postdoctoral fellow in visual studies. Her debut novella, an autofictional riffing on Chris Kraus’s I Love Dick set in late-2000s east Vancouver, is forthcoming through Fiction Advocate (2021). Her book Autotheory as Feminist Practice in Art, Writing, and Criticism was recently published by The MIT Press (2021). She has written features and reviews for venues like C Magazine, Canadian Art, and Public Parking, and has edited the artist-led collections Fermenting Feminism and Critical Booch. Her projects have been featured and reviewed in such venues as T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Artsy, The Brooklyn Rail, Kunstkritikk, A*desk: Critical Thinking, Art the Science, and Dazed. www.laurenfournier.net

Work by Lauren Fournier: Autotheory as Feminist Practice in Art, Writing, and Criticism. The MIT Press. 2021. All My Dicks. San Francisco: Fiction Advocate. 2021. Discussion with McKenzie Wark about autotheory for The MIT Press Podcast Critical Booch was mentioned in T: The New York Times style magazine