July 2 – Guest Lecture “World War I, New York Dada, and Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven” 🗓

This lecture explores the intersection of World War I, New York Dada, and the impact of German- born Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. An experimental poet, performer, and Dadaist, the Baroness helped shape the New York avant- garde scene between 1913 and 1923. Known for her provocative challenges to American cultural norms, she embodied the radical spirit of Dada through her performances and writings. Severely impoverished, she also embodied Dada’s radical DIY aesthetic and materiality. The Baroness’s legacy and contributions to New York Dada are reevaluated, offering new insights into this transformative period in art history as well as considering the opportunities and challenges of writing an artist’s biography.

Since coming to Toronto Metropolitan University in 2005, Dr. Irene Gammel has held positions as professor of English, Canada Research Chair in Modern Literature and Culture (2005; renewed 2011), and director of the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre. She is the author and editor of fourteen books, including the internationally acclaimed Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada and Everyday Modernity (MIT Press) and Looking for Anne of Green Gables (St. Martin’s Press), as well as over 50 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. Irene Gammel is well- known for her scholarship on gender and modernism. Her research has helped uncover the earliest roots of modern and feminist performance art, contributed to the consolidation of L.M. Montgomery Studies as an academic field, and claimed women‘s confessional discourses as a sub- discipline of autobiographical studies. As the Director of the Modern Literature and Culture (MLC) Research Centre, she has hosted and curated numerous exhibitions, symposia, and workshops; her passion is training students at all levels through experiential methods.