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A world of distinction in theory, practice
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“Freud invented a language and a robust theory appropriate to addressing the problems and questions of modernity, and this fact is emphasized in everything the center does.”
Psychoanalysis. Film and film theory. Feminism. Art and architecture. Author. Editor. UB Distinguished Professor. SUNY Distinguished Professor.
The range of work and depth of achievement of Joan Copjec is remarkable. A member of the departments of English and Comparative Literature in UB’s College of Arts and Sciences since 1989, Copjec has achieved the highest honors of teaching.
Her broad sweep of accomplishment appears to be more rooted in happenstance opportunity and willing pursuit. It began when she was doing graduate work in contemporary literature at the University of Wisconsin, where Ph.D. candidates were required to have a minor field. “Because I knew nothing about it, I chose film as my minor,” she says. “I went in believing that cinema was incapable of achievements comparable to the best literature; (Robert) Bresson and (Michelangelo) Antonioni were the first directors to change my mind.”
Copjec was so captivated by the cinema that she eventually left literature to go to London to study film at the Slade School of Fine Art. When she finished the graduate program there, she returned to the U.S. to continue her studies in New York University’s Department of Cinema Studies. One of her professors there offered her a position as editor of October magazine, a very influential journal of art, theory, criticism and politics.
At the same time, she accepted a job running a lecture program at the Institute for Art and Urban Studies, which had a legal tie to the magazine.
“I had been hired by each, independently, because I had acquired in London a strong background in the very types of theory that interested them,” she explains. “I was also quite willing to put this theory to use and open to trying anything. When I was asked to teach a seminar on architecture theory and one on the drawings of (16th-century architect Andrea) Palladio, I did it, even though I knew nothing about either. It was like being in theory boot camp; I learned a lot as I went along. Part of my willingness to comply had to do with naiveté—not yet knowing my limits—but part had a more positive source. The institute was the most innovative place for architecture at the time; it was ambitiously adventurous—as was October—and the atmosphere was such that it invited a positive naiveté.”
Copjec’s arrival at UB was at the invitation of English professors Claire Kahane and Bill Warner, whom she had met at a conference on psychoanalysis a year earlier. “I had known for a long time about UB’s famous media study department. I was a fan particularly of Hollis Frampton. I admired his films enormously. But I was familiar with the new American cinema generally and considered the media study department, which contributed so much to it, a legendary place.
“I came to know about what was called at the time the Center for the Psychological Study of the Arts later, through Claire and Bill, and was very impressed by the fact that it was the first research center for psychoanalysis in the country. I came to Buffalo because of the renown of these two programs. On my arrival, I quickly became acquainted with the outstanding faculty in Comparative Literature, whose work I had of course read, but hadn’t realized they were all gathered in Buffalo. I considered myself very fortunate indeed to be able to work in all three programs, a rare opportunity which I know is available almost nowhere else.”
In 1991, Copjec assumed the directorship of the center—now called the Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Culture. Its mission is to laicize psychoanalytic discourse, “to disperse the perception that psychoanalysis is a private language spoken by parish priests,” as she puts it. “Freud invented a language and a robust theory appropriate to addressing the problems and questions of modernity, and this fact is emphasized in everything the center does. We try to speak to as broad an audience as possible by tackling issues of pressing interest.”
To illustrate, the current issue of the center’s journal, Umbr(a), which she founded and edits alongside a group of graduate students and core faculty of the center, is on the subject of Islam. Contributors from both the Islamic world and the West—psychoanalysts, philosophers, anthropologists, literary and political theorists—were asked to debate whether or not psychoanalysis was a credible discourse for dealing with questions arising in Islam; whether topics such as suicide bombing and the veiling of women could be dealt with by a “science” or discourse developed in the West. “I’m very pleased with the issue, especially since nothing like it has been attempted in the U.S. before this,” says Copjec.
She has authored two books, “Read My Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists” and “Imagine There’s No Woman: Ethics and Sublimation,” and has edited numerous others, including “Shades of Noir,” a collection of essays on the film-noir genre. She currently is finishing a book on acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami and Islamic philosophy.
The Connecticut native has commuted weekly to Buffalo from her home in New York City since joining the UB faculty. “Actually, Buffalo encouraged this type of commute for many years,” she recalls. “It was a way to get New Yorkers, reluctant to leave the city, to teach at Buffalo, and many professors were successfully wooed by UB into becoming jet-fueled peripatetics. Charles Bernstein was hired by the English department the same year I was; he, Andrew Hewitt (and later Elizabeth Grosz) in Comp Lit and I used to commute regularly from New York and often shared cabs to and from the airport. There are still a few people left around campus who make the journey, but it does take a lot of stamina, careful planning and good will on the part of my colleagues and students, with whom I am able to keep in touch constantly thanks to email. This is not as good as face-to-face interaction, but I have the feeling that it does work and that I’m never out of contact.”
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