George Orwel is currently a PhD candidate in art theory, philosophy and aesthetics at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts in Portland, Me. His research is on new phenomenology, with special focus on ambiance.
Specifically, he probes the poetics and aesthetics of space, theorizing a symmetrically structured human body and a relational philosophy of beings and their spaces, or sculptural experiences in atmospheric contexts, outside of museums. He has written essays on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of perception, Walter Benjamin’s concept of aura and Lorenzetti’s political frescos.
Professor Orwel also teaches African Art and Modern Literature at New York City College of Technology, and has previously taught a course of Modern African History. He has been an award-winning journalist and author, reporting news across three continents for more than 20 years. He has conducted interviews with political and business leaders, including past presidents of Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He’s the author of Black Gold (Wiley, 1996) and editor of African and African American Art and Culture (Cognella, 2018). He is also writes for The Journalist, a South African website that is part of a project to rewrite the history of that country. Orwel graduated from the University of Nairobi with a BA in Linguistics and Literature in 1992, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism with a masters’ degree in journalism in 1996 and from Brooklyn Law School with a J.D. degree in 2002. He also trained in global media law and policy at Oxford University in England.
