Fall 2026 Colloquium: Todd Cronan

Frauds, Hypocrites, Tricksters, and Corruption: Capitalism as Morality Tale and the End of Judgment

Thursday, October 29, 2026 4:30 PM EDT
The event will be livestreamed by GMU-TV

Todd Cronan is professor of art history at Emory University. Editor-in-chief at nonsite.org, he writes about art, architecture, intention, and Marxism. He is author of Against Affective Formalism: Matisse, Bergson, Modernism (2014); Red Aesthetics: Rodchenko, Brecht, Eisenstein (2021); and Nothing Permanent: Modern Architecture in California (2024).

Trump is corrupt; Fauci is a hypocrite; AI art is fake; Odysseus is a trickster (or not); Arday is a fraud and plagiarist. Capitalism loves to talk about corruption. Capitalism needs corruption. Capitalism needs frauds, phonies, liars, fakes, cosplayers, and hypocrites. But for there to be corruption, one must assume that without it, the system works. This talk is inspired by the contemporary discussions happening around Fauci, Arday, Nolan’s The Odyssey, Trump and AI art. The “debates” around those subjects are arguably identical. What this suggests is that there is a profound aversion today to making judgments about the world (right, wrong, good, bad)—and that in place of judgments there are claims about honesty versus deception. This opposition tacks back to key discussions in the early 60s about authenticity and sincerity. What would an alternative conversation look like?