Vassar College Libraries hosted their inaugural event for the revival of the Featuring Faculty series on March 26. Associate Professor of Music Justin Patch kicked off the series with a lecture titled “Populist Art or Propaganda? Investigating Citizen Made Pro-Trump Works Large and Small,” discussing topics in his forthcoming book “The Art of Populism in US Politics” which is slated to be published this summer by Taylor & Francis.
The series is presented by Vassar College Libraries and is designed to showcase faculty research, scholarship and projects. It was a hallmark of the College before it was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, the series focuses on expanding the network of communication between faculty, students and community members, as well as uplifting their work and scholarship. With the election year and timely publication of his book, Patch was chosen as the first faculty member to begin the revival of the series, which will continue with one event per semester.
The presentation was guided by three animating questions: “What is propaganda?,” “Is all political art propaganda?” and “Why Populist art?”
Patch recalled he first heard the term “populist” when his parents were discussing Jimmy Carter. Populism has had many iterations and consists of varying political functions, but has been a permanent fixture of American politics. Part of Patch’s project is understanding each of the definitions populism carries and how they have changed over time. Propaganda is essential to this project, particularly the notion of participatory propaganda, laid out by Patch as both univocal and polysemic. Additionally, he notes the work exists uniquely in the post-industrial age. The lecture focused on the importance of collective expressive culture and the subsequent uses of DIY-based expression. It also covered the topic of identity building, and how identity building is informed by political ideology—specifically political ideology that blurs the lines between partisan propaganda and political expression.
In addition to a general outline of his work and upcoming book, Patch highlighted three examples of participatory propaganda: one large, one small and one abstract. The largest piece is the Rossi “Trump House” located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The exterior of the house was repainted in 2016 to showcase an expansive American flag design and features a 19-foot statue of former President Donald Trump. The second piece was a Jack Daniels-inspired Trump woodcarving found on the Instagram account @jab_patriotic_designs_. The final example was taken from the Instagram account @trump_burgers and represents Trump as Ares, the Greek god of war and courage, seemingly an AI image based on an erotic goddess book titled “The Golden God.”
Patch explained the research process for gathering the pro-Trump works of art to The Miscellany News. While he split the work with two research assistants, it was still hard to consume some of the intense pro-Trump art. “We did a lot of looking … Honestly, it’s easier to look at the art than it is to look at the videos,” he said. “That’s the main thing for me, and part of it is just the way that the news is edited, to show the wildest things. I found art a lot easier to stomach just looking at it, because I can take a more sympathetic view.” In the lecture, Patch emphasized the need for compassion and empathy in his research and writing in order to understand how people found belonging in the participatory propaganda he studied.
The three art pieces—art being used as shorthand for politically expressive culture objects—varied dramatically in medium and form, but all speak to the ever-changing relationship between the self, politics and creative expression. Lecture attendee Lucy Gundel ’25 spoke about this relationship concerning the third example and a more general conversation on the aligning of Trump and other populists with superheroes saying, “I thought it was an interesting comparison. It makes sense in a political moral desert that people would want to find a heroic morally driven character or leader.”
The impact that new forms of media have on political relationships was also investigated at length. For individuals, information, both true and false, is now readily available and accessible, as are the tools to create the AI-based images at the heart of some Trump pages. Patch explained how it has also changed the positionality of politicians. “Just the way Twitter has changed, I mean to think about Twitter was mostly text and then made way to pictures and videos,” he said. “Instagram, like the Instagram story thing, is a relatively new tool for politicians, not for just regular users, but for politicians to have really figured out how to make the most of that.”
Patch further explored how new media landscapes allow for bits and pieces of ideology to be separated and found in groups with contradictions, expressing only the ideologies that fit. Kwabena Adae ’26 noted, “I was interested in the idea that with participatory media different sects of people supporting populism can celebrate the same figure with our new technology, while not having to reckon with irreconcilable differences between the sects.”
In contemporary political campaigns, Patch stressed that there must be an idea that people can make in their own image, but that is not the only requirement. Looking forward to the upcoming presidential election, Patch remarked, “My principle, just from the research in 2008, 2012 and 2016 is what is it that matters? More than anything? And this, again, this is not my original thesis, this is Ted Brader’s work and George Marcus’s work. Enthusiasm really matters. And there’s enthusiasm on one side and fear and anxiety on the other.” Although enthusiasm is a key factor, especially in the upcoming presidential election, Patch stressed the difficulty of judging any election based on the past because new formations and media landscapes are constantly in flux. He added, “It’s very difficult to think about what the new rules are. And I think what I’m grappling with most is trying to figure out if there are new rules at all. What are they? And what is going to appeal to voters, and perhaps one of the most diverse electorates in 2024. It’s really hard to anticipate that.”
The Featuring Faculty series will continue next semester in the Fall of 2024. Librarian Elizabeth Salmon noted in written communication to The Miscellany News, “While it might take the form of a lecture, we plan to leave the format open to how the faculty member would like to represent their work, be it a discussion, activity, panel or something else all together!”Additionally, Professor Justin Patch’s “The Art of Populism in US Politics” will be available from Taylor & Francis press this summer.