Faculty spotlight

Nancy Brcak

For a number of years I have been researching and writing about parallels between American and Japanese propaganda during the Second World War; political cartoons provided the initial focus for this comparative study. My next project will concentrate on the work of Carey Orr, the renowned Chicago Tribune graphic artist whose World War II work (and pre-war isolationist images) are among the most revealing of all American political images of that era. I intend to uncover the fundamental approach used by Orr in the creation and evolution of his visual communication, examining its relationship to the zeitgeist; analysis of the meaning of these wartime messages will involve examining ideology, purpose, and target audiences. A large number of Orr’s cartoons are easily accessible, as a repository of his work is located at Syracuse University. Most of my research projects have served as a complement to my teaching, and I expect to present my research on Orr in my American Visual Culture course when I return from my sabbatical in 2013.
Speaking of my sabbatical year, I also anticipate traveling abroad to the homeland of my ancestors (now known as the Czech Republic) for the very first time. While this will be a sojourn of a mainly personal nature, seeing the many layers of architecture surviving to this day in Prague and its environs will be useful when I return to teaching a number of my Architectural Studies courses after my sabbatical break.