Ruthann Robson is University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law. Her latest book is Dressing Constitutionally: Hierarchy, Sexuality, and Democracy from our Hairstyles to our Shoes (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Robson’s project is titled “Anonymous.” The internet age has complicated the “anonymous” regarding images, information, political expression, economics, art, and sexuality. The legal construction of anonymity often centers on the First Amendment, protecting against government infringement of free speech and press. Other constitutional provisions providing for ownership of images and information, as well as criminal procedure protections, also govern anonymity, often in contradictory ways. While this constitutional background is important, discussions in the humanities often uncritically adopt the legal landscape, while legal interventions too often occur in isolation from critical work in the humanities. This project is a cross-displinary exploration of the borders between emulation and appropriation, art and culture, capitalist and noncapitalist, and free speech and criminality in the many contexts of the anonymous.
