During my second year at the Center, I have pursued an ambitious publication program aimed at diversifying the audiences for my work. As I venture beyond the field of Byzantine studies, publishing my research in leading journals across a variety of disciplines has been a critical practice for cultivating new colleagues, generating stimulating and constructive feedback, and sharing my work in ways that meaningfully speak to the questions and stakes of these various areas of study, including the history of science and technology, media studies, modern visual culture studies, and architectural history.

These efforts have yielded six publications in prominent journals. In spring 2026, the first two articles from this program appeared: “Cybernetic Amusement: Disneyland, Simulation, and the Logic of Automation” in Grey Room, alongside “The Atom and the Amoeba: The Aesthetics of the Research Report and the Cold War Think Tank” in October, fulfilling a lifelong dream to publish in these two journals. In fall 2026, my essay “Diversification and Exploitation: Amusement Parks, Television Networks, and the Motion Picture Studios in the 1950s” will appear in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. Then, in winter 2027, “Designing in Time: Duration, Vision, and the Conveyed Spectator” is slated for publication in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians as well as “The New Leisure: Amusement Parks and Automation in Postwar America” in Technology and Culture, the flagship journal of the Society for the History of Technology. Additionally, an article that is tentatively titled “From Innovation to Imagineering: Corporate R&D and the Invention of Disneyland” is in revision for Isis, the journal of the History of Science Society.

In addition to these various pieces, several invited works have also occupied my time this year, including “The Poetics of Unsettled Time: The Temporal Vertigo of the Theme Park” for the June 2026 issue of Texte zur Kunst, “The Grounds of the Icon” for West 86th in late spring 2026, and “‘it’s a small world’: Disneyland and the Universalism of the Cold War Child.” Together, these various works capture the diverse breadth of my current scholarship, grounded in rigorous archival research and marked by a distinct intellectual curiosity that has taken me well beyond my work in Byzantine art. 

Amid these shorter publications, I have been stewarding the production and release of my most recent book, Disneyland and the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth (2026), while also shepherding my sixth book, Amusement, Inc.: Disneyland’s Corporate Apparatus and the Making of the Theme Park (2027), through peer review, revisions, and now production. This winter was largely dedicated to establishing the groundwork for the former book’s promotional campaign, including planning a book tour, pitching op-eds to major venues, and ensuring that the book is reviewed by the appropriate parties. As a book on the history of technology and Disneyland, it addresses both academic and popular audiences, a challenge that I have worked to mediate by showing what the book has to offer us in the age of AI and continued automation. These efforts have amounted to a full-time job, which I relish as an opportunity to communicate my work—and the value of art-historical research and methods—to the broadest possible audiences. 

During the summer, my remaining time at the Center will be dedicated to reading through copy edits and proofs for Amusement, Inc., and to completing my monograph on the queer afterlives of Byzantium in the modern world through the lens of the film Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). While these plans feel even more ambitious given the immensity of work on my plate, I am determined to make the most of the precious time I have been gifted by the Center, ensuring that I do justice to the immense honor and privilege of serving as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor.

University of California, Irvine
Andrew W. Mellon Professor, 2024–2026

Roland Betancourt is looking ahead to future projects that bridge his interests in Byzantine art and modern popular culture. One such project, “Made Not by Human Hands,” will be a multi-millennia-long history of the idea of images and things made not through human action, ranging from miraculous icons to the products of automated factories and artificial intelligence.