INSTITUTE FOR IDEAS & IMAGINATION ANNUAL REPORT 2018-19
COLUMBIA INSTITUTE FOR IDEAS & IMAGINATION ANNUAL REPORT 2018—19
& Institute for Ideas & Imagination
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& To bring mind into contact with mind EugË ne Delacroix
Our first year has been a time of celebration, exploration, and creative ! and intellectual ambition.
The Institute for Ideas and Imagination originated seven years ago when Paul
LeClerc, Director of the Columbia Global Center | Paris, invited faculty to help think through how the extraordinary historic environment of Reid Hall could most fully
benefit the University. After long discussion and debate, guided and overseen by President Bollinger, the University and its Trustees backed the idea of creating a new kind of Institute, one worthy of Columbia University and its forward-looking
mission. This would bring together scholars from the University with creative artists from around the world in a single residential community of Fellows. We would put our trust in brilliance and diversity—diversity of origin, of interest, of age—
that would be genuinely global in reach. Fellows would be given the freedom to
pursue whatever they wished and to work in the way that suited them best. In the
course of their year together—over meals and coffee and the seminar table—their interactions would gradually efface the boundaries between academia and the arts, freeing up new possibilities for expression and communication.
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The administrative staff of the Institute was led by the Administrative Director, Marie d’Origny, supported by Eve Grinstead as Operations Coordinator, and Grant Rosenberg, who joined us from the American Library in Paris as Research and Programs Officer. Professor Susan Boynton, a distinguished faculty member of the Department of Music, served as Resident Faculty Director. Columbia University Libraries, our indispensable partner on campus, arranged regular shipments of books from New York: in all, hundreds of books were sent to the Institute over the year to meet Fellows’ requests. We were also fortunate to be able to establish a partnership with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, entitling all Fellows automatically to members’ privileges. With the help of another of our partners, the Cité internationale des arts, several Fellows found affordable housing on the heights of Montmartre or in downtown Paris. Over the year we also forged close and trusted relationships with such leading cultural The renovation of the magnificent garden building at Reid Hall was put in the
institutions as the Musée d’Orsay and with academic powerhouses such as the
hands of Explorations Architecture who studied the building’s past in depth and
École des hautes études en sciences sociales and the Institut d’études avancées.
visited other institutes of advanced study in order to understand the requirements of a space dedicated to thought. The goal was to blend the contemplative
The chief obligation required of each Fellow is to deliver a public lecture and
solitude of a retreat—every Fellow has a quiet wood-lined study looking onto the
to host a closed workshop on their work. These twinned activities comprise
gardens—with light and spacious common areas on the top floor whose windows
the intellectual heart of the Fellowship. Between October 3rd and May 29th,
overlook the rooftops of Montparnasse. By the end of the summer the building
sixteen such public talks were given on Wednesday evenings at the Institute
was ready and we welcomed the 2018-19 class of Fellows shortly after Labor Day.
(including one given by Resident Faculty Director Boynton), attracting diverse and numerous audiences. In addition, the Institute sponsored or co-sponsored
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Novelists mingled with philosophers, composers with cultural theorists, recent
numerous other events throughout the year, most of them open to the public.
PhDs worked next door to figures at the top of their profession. Ten of the fifteen
They included concerts of contemporary music, often—thanks to Boynton—in
Fellows were women. Coming not only from the United States but from Nigeria,
conjunction with Columbia Sounds, academic conferences and workshops,
Malaysia, India, Syria, China, Estonia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France, !
book talks and conversations that took place sometimes with the Columbia
the 2018-19 class of Fellows represented a cohort of exceptional global diversity
Global Center at Reid Hall, and at other venues in Paris and beyond. Columbia
at the highest level of scholarly and artistic achievement. Their individual profiles
College, the Alliance Program, the Society of Fellows in the Humanities, and
are featured later in this report.
other university bodies worked with us.
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Layers of fading wallpaper and old posters revealed in the renovation of the corridors of the Institute building. Overlooking the streets where Gauguin, Modigliani, Whistler, Hemingway, Ford Madox Ford, and others lived and worked, the building’s century-long history dates back to its use in the First World War as a hospital for French and American officers.
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Conversations between Fellow Tash Aw and Columbia historian Carol Gluck led !
baroque musician William Christie and his ensemble, Les Arts Florissants, and listened
the Institute to host an ongoing festival dedicated to the arts from southeast Asia.
to a conversation between the artist William Kentridge and Columbia Professor of
The series, entitled Kembara: Adventures in the Artistic Landscape of Southeast
Anthropology Rosalind C. Morris. Dinner was served in the majestic Salle Labrouste of
Asia, has already brought in artists, writers, and film-makers from the region to !
the Bibliothèque nationale de France in the presence of its president, Laurence Engel.
wide acclaim. An international conference, Modèles noirs, in partnership with the Musée d’Orsay, was organized by our Visiting Scholar, Denise Murrell, the
Meanwhile, the hard creative and intellectual work went on in the privacy of
co-curator of the international exhibition Le modèle noir de Géricault à Matisse.
Fellows’ offices and homes. A few highlights: In the course of 2018-19, Zaid Jabri
We welcomed The Sojourner Project, led by Fellows Tina Campt and Kaiama
completed the opera he was working on. Deborah Levy, while researching her next
L. Glover, which convened two sessions exploring issues of antiblackness
novel, completed a short film entitled Freud’s Lost Lecture which won a prize for
st
generally in the 21 century, and in France in particular. Later in the spring Reid
the best adaptation of Freudian theory in the arts. Emeka Ogboh was awarded the
Hall hosted the launch of Le combat Adama, a book targeting the problem of
2019 Sharjah Biennial Prize, shortlisted for the Boss Prize, and held his first Paris
police racism and violence in France. During their year in Paris, Fellows also
showing. We were especially proud of our own made-at-the-Institute collaboration
discussed the question of narrative, explored the crisis of democracy, debated
between Fellows Xiaolu Guo and Zosha Di Castri: the world premiere of Di Castri’s
the gilets jaunes in a workshop led by philosopher Elsa Dorlin, and along the
Long is the Journey, Short is the Memory took place on the opening night of the
way relaxed in the local brasseries, sampled the beauties of the iconic Maison
BBC London Proms, alongside works by Janáček and Dvorák.
de Verre, attended the contemporary dance classes run in our seminar room by Fellow Hiie Saumaa, and—some at least—managed the pilgrimage to David
The Institute is no ivory tower and it aims to enrich the experience of Columbia’s
Lynch’s exclusive Paris nightclub to hear our own Emeka Ogboh mix.
students through close contact with its members. Fellows Tash Aw and Deborah Levy participated in the undergraduate teaching program at Reid Hall, while Visiting
The Institute for Ideas and Imagination is an undertaking
Scholar Denise Murrell created an entirely new Global Core summer course on the portrayal of the black figure in modern art that allowed students privileged access
worthy of one of the greatest universities in the world.
to the Musée d’Orsay. Two 2018-19 Fellows will come to New York in fall 2019 to teach and carry out research at Columbia. Abigail R. Cohen Fellow!Xiaolu Guo has
óL ee C. Bollinger, President of Columbia University
been appointed Visiting Professor in East Asian Languages and Cultures and Writer in Residence at the Weatherhead Institute for the year: thanks to the support of Arts
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Our inauguration ceremony took place on November 12 with President Bollinger
& Sciences, the School of the Arts, Columbia College, and the Society of Fellows,
in attendance. The distinguished guests included Madame Frédérique Vidal, the
she will teach both graduates and undergraduates and talk about her films and
French Minister for Higher Education, Research, and Innovation, Elizabeth Alexander,
writing. Zaid Jabri will spend the year at the Society of Fellows working on his new
President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Christina Lambropoulou, the
opera. These and other Fellows will be spotlighted on campus in a new lecture
Chief Financial Officer of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Over 150 guests heard
series The Institute at the Maison, to be held at the Maison Française.
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& Our inaugural year has been an unforgettable one. We witnessed a new kind of dialogue, engaged, passionate, complex, and mutually affirming,
between scholars and artists. None of it would have been possible but for the generosity of our remarkable donors and supporters who believed in the Institute from the very start. Let me end therefore by expressing
heartfelt thanks to Daniel Cohen and his family, the Areté Foundation, !
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and to Judith Ginsberg and Paul LeClerc, Mel and Lois Tukman, George and Olga Votis, and the E.H.A. Foundation for their support which has
made the Institute possible. Please come and visit us, and join us for ! the new year’s events: we will be delighted to see you. E="%:'="F(.$% Director
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MALAYSIA
UNITED STATES
JUDITH GINSBERG FELLOW
BARNARD COLLEGE
AFFILIATE FELLOW
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ABIGAIL R. COHEN FELLOW
Tash Aw is the author of the novels !
At the Institute, Tash continued work on
Tina Campt, former Claire Tow and Ann
During her Fellowship at the Institute,
Five Star Billionaire (long listed for the 2013
his new novel about a Chinese merchant
Whitney Olin Professor of Africana and
she completed three chapters of a new
Man Booker Prize), Map of the Invisible
in Senegal today, which rethinks ideas
Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies,
work, A New Black Gaze, convened two
World, and The Harmony Silk Factory!!
of race, migration, and belonging in
and director of the Barnard Center for
sessions of The Sojourner Project which
(long listed for the 2005 Man Booker Prize),
contemporary fiction. In addition, he wrote
Research on Women, is a black feminist
were held at the Institute, and organized
The Face: Strangers on a Pier, a memoir of
two essays, one for Granta and the other
theorist whose work explores gendered,
two conferences in New York. She gave
a Malaysian family (finalist for the LA Times
for the Guardian, gave a keynote speech
racial, and diasporic formation in black
keynote lectures in Vienna and Abu
Book Prize) and We, the Survivors. His work
at the World Summit on Art and Culture
communities in Europe, the United States,
Dhabi, and published “Black Visuality
has been translated into 23 languages.
in Kuala Lumpur, organized the ongoing
and Southern Africa through the oral,
and the Politics of Refusal” in Women
His essays and articles have appeared
Kembara Arts Festival at the Institute
sonic, and visual cultural texts produced
and Performance: A Journal of Feminist
in numerous publications, including The
(which continues into 2019-20), and was
by these communities. She is the author
Theory. Further articles are forthcoming
New Yorker, the Magazine littéraire, the
widely interviewed upon the release !
of three books: Other Germans: Black
as is a co-edited volume to be published
Guardian, the London Review of Books,
of his latest and greatly acclaimed novel,
Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender
by Steidl Verlag, Imagining Everyday Life:
and the New York Times. He has received,
We, the Survivors.
and Memory in the Third Reich, Image
Engagements with Vernacular Photography.
among other distinctions, a Whitbread First
Matters: Archive, Photography and the
Novel Award (2006), a Commonwealth
African Diaspora!in Europe, and Listening
Writers’ Prize for the Asia-Pacific Region
to Images.
(2006), and the O. Henry Prize (2013).
Life at the Institute has felt like a series of privileges piled on top of one another. But the greatest gift of all is the company of the other Fellows. óT ash Aw
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concert in London in July. Such engagement with one
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another’s work was deep and also deeply influential.
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Fellows also created events for the public, including a series introducing Southeast Asian dramatists, filmmakers,
Carol Gluck: Like many good ideas the Institute evolved
and other artists. Hosted by Tash Aw, its title Kembara!
through a process of collaboration. In 2013 Mark Mazower,
means “to adventure” in Malay, and its adventurous
its founding director, proposed “a center of advanced
performances drew crowds from all over Paris. This is a
research, scholarship, and the creative arts.” Paul
small sample of the mutually inspiring and collectively
LeClerc, the director of Columbia’s Global Center in Paris,
creative community that formed within the first few weeks
enthusiastically welcomed the idea. Together the two of
and grew stronger across the year, fostered by a heroic
them led the Global Center’s faculty steering committee
staff and a beautifully renovated building. The success of
and the Mellon Foundation in discussions about what such
the inaugural year suggests further great things to come.
a center might look like. It would bring together scholars and creative artists; half would be Columbia faculty, half
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would come from around the world. All would spend a
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year pursuing their own work in close company with the
think the Institute can play in this in the coming years?
other fellows and in interaction with the wider Parisian community. Why then the name of the Institute? Some
CG: The global university envisioned by Columbia
might think that the ideas pertain to the scholars, and the
President Bollinger when he arrived in 2002 has
imagination to the writers, composers, and artists. Not
become a reality. Global Columbia now encompasses
at all. It is the combination of ideas and imagination that
an array of initiatives intended to help us think, teach,
makes the best scholarship and the highest art. Bringing
research, and act in ways appropriate to the changing
the two together brings greater imagination to the ideas
world in which we live today. This is a tall order which
and more ideas for the imagination. It is a magical mix.
requires new approaches, categories, and habits of mind. Globalization is an abstraction, but we experience
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global interconnectedness concretely in our daily lives.
2018 and had an office at the Institute. What was it like %
Although I am a historian of modern Japan, I now see
to be part of those first few weeks and months?
Japan, and most everything else, in global context. Change in the horizon of knowledge comes in different
CG: I saw the magic happen. A stowaway on the Institute’s
forms, but there is little doubt that working closely
maiden voyage, I traveled with the Fellows and delighted
together with people of diverse backgrounds alters the
in the atmosphere they created with one another.
way we see the world. The Institute is a perfect example
Intellectually provocative and personally warm, they
of a setting in which no one need pursue “the global” to
committed themselves to their own work and to the work
experience an alchemical alteration in perspective. And
of their colleagues. The novelists helped the scholars write
it does not stop at the end of the year; it travels with the
for a wider readership; the scholars helped the artists with
Fellows into the future. It is one way to change the world.
content and context. Xiaolu Guo, a Chinese novelist and filmmaker, provided the text for a new work by Columbia
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composer Zosha Di Castri. In Long is the Journey, Short
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is the Memory, the moon theme took the form of China’s
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moon landings and the resulting piece opened the Proms
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One evening early on in the year, I found myself chatting
Asian artists were so little known outside their region,
in contemporary Southeast Asia. “Kembara” is a Malay word
Grande Salle comprising a predominantly young, Asian-
with Columbia professor Carol Gluck, who was screening
despite the incredible range and depth of work being
for adventure or travel, often with no specific destination.
French audience, many of whom had never attended
a couple of Japanese films and was teaching a class in the
produced today, by people at the cutting edge of their fields?
Our events match Southeast Asian artists with those from
an event that featured writers. In the coming months,
Masters in History and Literature program at Reid Hall. We
Wouldn’t it be great to put together a series of events that
France and further afield in unexpected and surprising
we have an all-female panel representing the best of
soon discovered that we shared a passion for Asian cinema—
showcased not just the many exciting filmmakers from this
combinations, situating artistic and political movements
young Malaysian and Singaporean Writers; film-maker
not just the work of internationally celebrated filmmakers
vast, complex region, but writers, musicians, dancers, and
in Southeast Asia within a global context in a way we
Anthony Chen with his long-awaited second film; and the
like Kurosawa, Zhang Yimou, or Wong Kar-Wai, but that of
visual artists too? And wouldn’t it be even better if they could
hope expands our understanding of the region, both for
Indonesian performance artist Melati Suryodarmo.
contemporary masters from Southeast Asia, which remains
show and speak about their work across disciplinary lines?
international audiences and the artists working there.
a cultural blank to audiences outside the region. Wouldn’t
In conversation with French counterparts, or people who
it be great to have a regular film evening for Fellows and
straddled geographical and cultural boundaries?
would not usually have the chance to meet each other,
brand-new short film on memory and politics by the Thai
Kembara is proof that at the Institute, casual conversations
Before long, we came up with the idea of Kembara, an
filmmaker and novelist Prabda Yoon, which premiered
over drinks in the Salon have the ability to morph into
everyone else at Reid Hall, where we could show the work of Apichatpong Weerasethakul or Kirsten Tan, for example?
As we continue to welcome artists and audiences who In just a few months, the Institute had commissioned a
ongoing series of events that aims to bring the most
at Reid Hall and went on to win numerous awards at
events that transcend boundaries and touch the lives !
By the time we next got together to discuss which films to
interesting selection of Southeast Asian artists to Reid Hall,
festivals all over the world; and the Vietnamese-French
of people far beyond Reid Hall.
show, the conversation had already expanded to include
to introduce their work to an international audience and
playwright/director Caroline Nguyen spoke with Édouard
other art forms in Southeast Asia. Why was it that Southeast
unpack the fascinating layers of art, politics, and culture !
Louis (2019-20 Fellow) before a standing-room only
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INDIA / UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED STATES COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Amit Chaudhuri is a novelist, essayist,
At the Institute, he wrote about the
Jenny Davidson is Professor of English
At the Institute, alongside working on other
poet, a composer in experimental music,
relationship between Indian and classical
and Comparative Literature at Columbia
essays and articles, she wrote and largely
and an Indian classical musician. He is the
music, and held the symposium “Against
University. She has published eight books,
brought to completion a book entitled
author of seven novels, a collection of
storytelling.” His second collection of
four novels and four works of literary
For the Love of Broken Things: My Father,
poetry, and two collections of essays on
poems, Sweet Shop, appeared during the
criticism (the most recent is Reading Jane
Edward Gibbon and the Ruins of Rome!
literature and culture. His debut exhibition
Fellowship, and Friend of My Youth, his
Austen, for the Cambridge University
which is shortly to be published. This book
of artworks, The Sweet Shop Owners
seventh novel, was published in the United
Press series Reading Writers and their
explores how, in the 18th century, historians
of Calcutta and Other Ideas, opened
States by the New York Review of Books.
Work). Distinctions include a Guggenheim
first fell in love with the idea that one of the
in Calcutta in August. His third book of
He gave numerous readings and concerts
Fellowship and Columbia’s Mark Van Doren
best ways of understanding the past would
essays, The Origins of Dislike, appeared
on both sides of the Atlantic and was
teaching award.
involve studying its broken remnants. Ruins
in 2018. He is the recipient of many
interviewed by Andrew Marr on the BBC
and fragments, monuments and traces: a
awards, including the Commonwealth
“Start the Week.”
fascination with broken things has much to
Writers Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book
do with how Edward Gibbon came to write
Prize, the Government of India’s Sahitya
his magisterial History of the Decline and Fall
Akademi Award, and the inaugural Infosys
of the Roman Empire. The book interweaves
Prize in the humanities for outstanding
that story, including the arc of loss and near-
contribution to literary studies. His writes
magical compensation by which Gibbon
essays and articles for, among others,
was able to transform his own difficult
Granta, n+1, the London Review of Books,
relationship with his father into fuel for the
the Guardian, the New Left Review, and
passionate pursuit of knowledge, with the
the Times Literary Supplement.
story of Davidson’s father’s transformation late in life from a mostly broken person with a costly affinity for broken things to someone redeemed by his full embrace of the same hunger for knowledge of the world and how it works that drove Gibbon.
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clockwise from top left: Kaiama L. Glover giving her talk René Depestre, From Haiti to
Moscow with Love; Grant Rosenberg and Karen Van Dyck getting ready for Van Dyck’s talk; Hiie Saumaa, Karen Van Dyck, and Deborah Levy during one of the Fellow’s workshops in the Seminar Room; Elsa Dorlin’s daughter, Judicaëlle, learning to compose music in Zosha Di Castri’s office; Tina Campt with Nellie Hermann’s dog, Baxter. opposite: On April 4th, 2019, the Institute hosted the launch of Le Combat Adama. A packed Grande Salle heard the authors and other speakers, including Assa Traoré—the sister of Adama Traoré—Chantal Mouffe, Danièle Obono and Institute Fellows Tash Aw and Elsa Dorlin. &'
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CANADA
FRANCE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITÉ DE PARIS 8 VINCENNES! —SAINT-DENIS ABIGAIL R. COHEN FELLOW AFFILIATE FELLOW
Zosha Di Castri is a Canadian composer/
At the Institute, Di Castri focused on two
Dorlin is a professor of Social and Political
In 2018-19, Dorlin worked chiefly on
pianist/sound artist living in New York.
major projects. The first was a twelve-minute
Philosophy at the University of Paris 8
her major project, a phenomenological
Her work (which has been performed
piece for orchestra and improvised drummer
Vincennes—Saint-Denis in France. In
investigation into the notion of the “prey,”
in Canada, the United States, South
for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, called
2009, she won the bronze medal of the
via a trans-historical set of reflections
America, Asia, and Europe) extends
Hunger, which is designed to accompany the
CNRS for her work on feminist theory
upon the lived experience of being hunted
beyond purely concert music including
1973 silent film (of the same name) by Peter
and philosophy of gender. Recently, she
down—notably in conjunction with the
projects with electronics, installations, and
Foldes. This work was premiered in Montreal
was Visiting Associate Professor at the
contemporary concern about issues of
collaborations with video and dance. She
with Maestro Kent Nagano and drummer
Critical Theory Program of the University
sexism, racism and European migration
has worked with such ensembles as the
Michel Lambert in February 2019.
of California, Berkeley (2010-2011). A
politics. She carried out archival research
specialist in the philosophy of Michel
elucidating histories of colonialism, public
Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts
The second project was a sixteen-minute
Foucault, Dorlin’s research also focuses
health and the politics of pollution. In the
Centre Orchestra, the L.A. Philharmonic,
work for orchestra and chorus titled Long
on black feminist epistemology and
second half of the year she was also able
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New
Is the Journey, Short Is the Memory, which
Fanonian phenomenology. Her latest book
to begin drafting the book which will be
York Philharmonic, ICE, Wet Ink, Ekmeles,
was premiered at the First Night of the
Self-defense: A philosophy of violence!
published by La Découverte. In addition
the NEM, and the Talea Ensemble among
BBC Proms this July 2019. The text for this
(Paris, Zones éditions, 2017), winner of the
to attending symposia and conferences,
others. Zosha is currently the Francis
work included contributions from Abigail
2018 Frantz Fanon Book Prize from the
she also contributed several articles and
Goelet Assistant Professor of Music at
R. Cohen Fellow, Xiaolu Guo. In addition,
Caribbean Philosophical Association, !
organized in an-house workshop on the
Columbia University.
she revised several works including: “The
is forthcoming in English (Verso).
gilets jaunes.
San Francisco Symphony, the Montreal
Contours of Absence” (for string octet), “Sprung Testament” (for violin and piano), and made substantial revisions to “How many bodies have we to pass through” for solo percussion. She made a music video of this last piece with her collaborator Diego Espinosa Cruz Gonzalez at Reid Hall, which will be released in the Fall 2019. Lastly, she was working on editing and mixing a debut album of her music, to be released on New Focus Recordings in September 2019. &"
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UNITED STATES
CHINA / UNITED KINGDOM
BARNARD COLLEGE
ABIGAIL R. COHEN FELLOW
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
SOCIETY OF FELLOWS 2019-2020
Professor of French and Africana
During 2018-19, Glover made significant
Xiaolu Guo is a Chinese British novelist
A retrospective of Guo’s films was held
Studies at Barnard College, Columbia
progress on her intellectual biography of
and filmmaker. She has published several
at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in
University, Kaiama L. Glover is author
René Depestre and the associated integrally
books in both English and Chinese. !
2019. While at the Institute, Guo finished
of Haiti Unbound: A Spiralist Challenge
related digital platform, “In the Same Boats:
Her memoir Nine Continents won the
her forthcoming novel, which will be
to the Postcolonial Canon (2010); co-
Toward an Intellectual Cartography of the
National Books Critics Circle Award 2017.
published in 2020 by Random House. She
editor of Marie Vieux Chauvet: Paradoxes
Afro-Atlantic.” She was able to make several
I Am China was one of NPR’s Best Books
also delivered several talks and was invited
of the Postcolonial Feminine for Yale
visits to Depestre’s archive in Limoges and
of the Year. Her previous novels include !
to screenings of her films at the American
French Studies (2016); and translator of
identified and digitized a number of other
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary !
Library in Paris and at the Rennes film
Frankétienne’s Ready to Burst (2014),
key sources. She gave a number of lectures,
for Lovers (Orange Fiction Prize Shortlist.)
festival. She participated in several events
Marie Chauvet’s Dance on the Volcano!
and organized three events at the Institute.
She has also directed feature films
at the Institute, served on the jury of the
(2016), and René Depestre’s Hadriana in
She was interviewed on both France Culture
including She, A Chinese and UFO !
Booker Prize, and the Bern International
All My Dreams (2017). She is an awardee
and the BBC.
In Her Eyes.
Journalism Prize/Best True Story Award,
of the PEN/Heim Foundation, the
and prepared several new courses which
National Endowment for the Arts, the
she will teach as a visiting professor at
National Endowment for the Humanities,
the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at
and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Columbia in 2019-20.
She is founding co-editor of the journal
sx archipelagos: a small axe platform for digital practice and co-director of the digital humanities project In the Same
Boats: Toward an Afro-Atlantic Intellectual Cartography. Her most recent monograph, Disorderly Women: On Caribbean Community and the Ethics of Self-Regard, is forthcoming with Duke University Press.
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UNITED STATES
SYRIA / POLAND
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
SOCIETY OF FELLOWS 2019-2020
Nellie Hermann has published two novels,
At the Institute, she worked on a new novel
Zaid Jabri is a Syrian composer who
At the Institute Jabri largely completed
The Cure for Grief and The Season of
with a focus on the plight of the “unwed”
works at the intersection of Western and
a new opera, an hour and a half long,
Migration, a New York Times Editor’s
or single mother in America in the first half
Middle Eastern musical traditions. His
for six characters, with a libretto by
th
Choice. Her non-fiction has appeared
of the 20 century, with specific focus on
awards include a George Evans memorial
Rosalind C. Morris and Yvette Christiansë,
in an anthology about siblings, Freud’s
the stories of a few women who passed
fellowship at the Virginia Centre for the
members of Columbia and Barnard faculty
Blindspot, as well as in Academic Medicine.
through a fictional maternity home in upper
Creative Arts, a residency at the Tactus
respectively, as well as a Morgenland
She is Creative Director of the Program
Manhattan in 1963. She also completed
Young Composers Forum in Belgium, a
commission for oboe, clarinet, bassoon !
in Narrative Medicine at Columbia
a short story and wrote an article for the
residential fellowship at the Rockefeller
and piano. His piece “Gerra and Qasioun”
University, and over the last ten years she
New York Times.
Foundation in Bellagio, and, most recently,
was premiered by the Berlin Philarmonic
has taught fiction and narrative medicine
a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute.
and some of his chamber music was
to undergraduates, medical students,
Zaid Jabri’s work has been performed
premiered by Infuse Ensemble in a concert
graduate students, and clinicians of all
in over fifteen countries across Europe,
organized by the Institute at Reid Hall !
sorts, and has given conference addresses
the Middle East, Canada, and the United
in collaboration with Columbia Sounds.
in Iowa, California, Seoul, Korea, and
States. He has collaborated with Gideon
Jabri will be in residence in 2019-20 at !
elsewhere. She was the recipient of a
Kremer’s Kremerata Baltica, the English
the Society of Fellows at Columbia to work
2016 NEA Literature fellowship and was
Chamber Orchestra, the Ensemble
with Columbia and Barnard faculty !
a 2017-18 Fellow at the Cullman Center
Zerafin, the Orchestra of the Teatro
on the US premiere of his new opera.
for Scholars and Writers at The New York
Communale, Bologna, the Polish National
Public Library.
Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Neue Vocalsolisten in Stuttgart, the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra.
Especially in our times, for scholars and artists who have lived in a much less open society, the diversity of the Fellowsí backgrounds is a great and necessary thing. óZ aid Jabri
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Never has the question of how knowledge is created, shared, and accepted been more pressing. Both the intellectual products of this Institute, whose establishment signals to the world that ideas are to be taken seriously, and the model through which they will come about are much needed. óChri stina Lambropoulou, Chief Financial Officer, Stavros Niarchos Foundation
The Institute bets on the ability of thinkers and artists to capture the worldí s energy only to better reinvent it: it encourages an intellectual flow by confronting the ways of seeing of scholars, opposite: Louis Bona of Ensemble Infuse performing Zaid Jabri’s
30 Articles (for viola and fixed electronics, 2016), in the Grande Salle on
writers, composers, artists, filmmakers, from all over the world. ó Madame FrÈ dÈ rique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation
April 3rd, 2019. above: Emeka Ogboh delivers his talk.
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Marie Laurencin, Apollinaire et ses amis, 1909, oil on canvas, 130 x 194 cm. Paris, MNAM, Centre Georges Pompidou.
me that a new generation of young readers might consequently be encouraged to discover for themselves Apollinaire’s eloquent advocacy for the avant-garde art of his era, including Picasso, Braque, and Duchamp. ! Apollinaire’s actual name was Wilhelm Albert Vladimir Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky. Picasso liked to joke that Apollinaire was the son of the Pope himself because there was speculation that his unknown, Italian father, was a Cardinal in the Church. He was born in Rome, 1880, to a mother of Polish descent. After travelling the world he found himself stateless for a while. He spent his life since adolescence creating an identity by writing himself into French cultural history. In 1914 he signed up to defend his adopted country in World War I. When I first read his writing in my twenties (Alcools and Calligrammes ; Poèmes de la paix de la
guerre) I was astonished by the beauty, simplicity and enigma of his modernist poetry. I was also impressed that it was he who had coined the term “Surrealism,” because it was the aesthetic sensibility of the Surrealist art movement that at the time was an influence on my own writing. The cold day I made my way to Père Lachaise was November 9th, 2018, the centenary of Apollinaire’s death at the age of thirty-eight. I was now three months into the fellowship and my head was buzzing with the various fascinating projects of my colleagues at the Institute. ! I think it was for this reason that I got lost in the vast cemetery, so that when I finally arrived, ! I discovered there was a large international crowd already gathered around Apollinaire’s tomb.
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This was a work of art in itself with its tall, distinguished grey stone in the shape of a menhir, carved with both his name and that of his wife, Jacqueline. An extract from his book of visual poetry Calligrammes (published by Gallimard) had been delicately etched into the gravestone.
A highlight of my inspiring year at the Columbia Institute for Imagination and Ideas was ! the pilgrimage I made to Père Lachaise Cemetery on the North East side of Paris. I had for !
Standing amongst the last of the autumn leaves in the silver light, I spoke to the many people
a long time wanted to see for myself the grave of one of my favourite poets of the early !
who were connected to Apollinaire’s work in various ways: academics, biographers, actors,
20 century, Guillaume Apollinaire, and now, given that I was living and researching in Paris,
writers, composers, philosophers, publishers—also a most convivial ancient aristocrat wearing
(still an incredible thought), all I had to do was step on to the Métro.
a stylish striped linen suit. He told me that the righthand sleeve of his jacket had been feasted
th
upon by famished moths, which was why it was now “an opera of holes.” Of course, there were many other famous writers to whom I could tip my chapeau at the Père Lachaise, not least Proust (two stale madeleines placed on the grave were a clue to his
It was exhilarating to have dipped a toe into French cultural life through the love of a writer
whereabouts), Oscar Wilde (tomb designed by Jacob Epstein) Colette, and Balzac, but it was
and the intellectual values of the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, which had brought me
Apollinaire who was personal to me.
here to Paris, thirty years after I had first read Apollinaire’s 1917 L’esprit nouveau et les poètes on a rainy day in London.
In fact, he was the poet who had walked into my 2011 novel, Swimming Home, via the avatar of a character called Kitty Finch, a fragile young woman who takes it upon herself to ink
It felt right, somehow, because this was a modern art manifesto in which he called for pure
into the hand of a man she admires, the words from Apollinaire’s 1914 poem, Il Pleut. She
invention, new knowledge, a total surrender to inspiration and imagination.
writes, it’s raining, and leaves out the rest of the line—it’s raining women’s voices as if they
had died even in memory. This novel is now widely translated around the world. It pleases
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UNITED KINGDOM
NIGERIA / GERMANY
AFFILIATE FELLOW
Deborah Levy is a novelist and playwright.
During 2018-19, Levy worked on a
Emeka Ogboh connects to places with
At the Institute, Ogboh worked chiefly
The author of six works of literature and
new novel around the theme of the
his senses of hearing and taste. Through
on his Sufferhead Project (Paris edition),
two works of memoir, Things I Don’t Want
doppelgänger, reading widely across
his audio installations and gastronomic
which explores the position of Africans in
to Know, and The Cost of Living, she was
literature, cinema, visual art, anthropology,
works, Ogboh explores how private, public,
contemporary Europe. He completed his
shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for
folklore, mythology, and psychoanalytic
and collective memories and histories are
research for this and began the production
her novels, Swimming Home and Hot Milk.!
theory. She was also able to travel to meet
translated, transformed, and encoded into
process. In the fall 2018 he held a one-
Her plays have been staged by the Royal
with and interview leading psychoanalysts
sound and food. These works contemplate
man show at the Galerie Imane Farès,
Shakespeare Company. Her acclaimed
for this work. She also completed a short
how sound and food capture existential
No Condition is Permanent, and he had
dramatizations of two of Freud’s most
film with director Jane Thorburn, titled
relationships, frame our understanding of
other exhibitions in Frankfurt and Brussels.
iconic case histories on the subject of
Freud’s Lost Lecture, which won an award
the world, and provide a context in which
Together with Otobong Nkanga he won
hysteria and infantile neurosis, “Dora and
for the best adaptation of Freudian theory.
to ask critical questions on immigration,
the 2019 prize of the Sharjah Biennale for
The Wolfman,” were broadcast on BBC
The debut screening of this film took place
globalization, and post-colonialism. Ogboh
their work, Aging Ruins Dreaming only to
Radio 4. She is a Fellow of The Royal
at Reid Hall. She gave a number of other
has participated in numerous international
Recall the Hard Chisel from the Past. His
Society of Literature.
lectures and interviews, notably around the
exhibitions including documenta 14, (2017),
work on Lagos was featured in a special
publication of her latest novel, The Man
Athens and Kassel, Skulptur Projekte
issue on sound of the New York Times, and
Who Saw Everything, which has recently
Münster (2017), the 56 edition of La
a book, Lagos Soundscapes was published
been published in the United Kingdom and
Biennale di Venezia, Italy (2015), and Dakar
by Kerber in 2018. While at the Institute
the United States to great acclaim and was
Biennale (2014). Ogboh is also co-founder
Ogboh also participated in the “Curieuse
longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
of the Video Art Network Lagos, and in
Nocturne” event at the musée d’Orsay
2016 Ogboh was awarded Prize of the
around the exhibition Le modèle noir de
Bottcherstraße in Bremen.
Géricault à Matisse. Major exhibitions are
th
forthcoming in Cleveland and elsewhere, including the Palais de Tokyo and the FIAC Paris art fair, where Obgoh will launch the Paris edition of his Sufferhead beer.
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Emeka Ogboh,'Syntax Error, 2018, Installation of 28 photographs, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Imane Farès. This work was featured in the solo-exhibition No Condition is Permanent curated by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi at the Galerie Imane Farès, September 13th—November 24th, 2018.
For these I believe are urgent times we live in and how we flood our corners of the world with light, beauty, enabling ideas and clarity that come from rigorous thought, matters as much as it has ever mattered. óEl izabeth Alexander, President, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
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UNITED STATES
ESTONIA
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Robert G. O’Meally is the Zora Neale
During his tenure at the Institute, O’Meally
Hiie Saumaa (Ph.D.) is a writer, dancer
At the Institute, Hiie drafted most of the
Hurston Professor of English and
completed much of the writing of his essay
scholar, and a movement educator. Her
manuscript of her forthcoming book on the
Comparative Literature at Columbia
on “Paris Blues.” He also held a number
work explores interconnections between
unpublished writings of the choreographer,
University, where he has served on the
of talks and public presentations on his
dance, movement imagination, and
dancer, and director Jerome Robbins. His
faculty for twenty-five years. A scholar
work, gave a PBS/Newshour interview on
creativity. She is currently working on a
ballets and Broadway shows are famous:
whose work encompasses literature,
the Louis Armstrong House Archive, and
project on the unpublished writings of
less well known is the fact that he was
music, and visual art, O’Meally is the
held planning sessions for a new project
the choreographer Jerome Robbins. Her
also a prolific writer. This book shows that
founder and director of Columbia’s Center
entitled “Such Sweet Thunder.” In addition,
articles have appeared in Dance Chronicle,
Robbins turned to writing to develop and
for Jazz Studies. He is the author of The
he prepared the texts for a forthcoming
Dance Research Journal, The Journal of
deepen his choreographic processes,
Craft of Ralph Ellison, Lady Day: The Many
Smithsonian show on Billy Holiday and his
Dance, Movement & Spiritualities, Somatics
experiment with diverse compositional
Faces of Billie Holiday, The Jazz Singers,!
Romare Bearden Reader appeared with
Magazine/Journal, and Alternative and
methods, and create alternate means
and Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey.
Duke University Press.
Complementary Therapies. She has
for artistic expression. She wrote two
His edited volumes include The Jazz
contributed to Sacred Dance Guild Journal,
articles forthcoming in scholarly journals,
Cadence of American Culture, Living with
The Jerome Robbins Newsletter, Hybrid
organized a roundtable discussion at Reid
Music: Ralph Ellison’s Essays on Jazz, The
Pedagogy, and Movement Research
Hall, taught weekly dance classes, and
Norton Anthology of African American
Performance Journal. In 2017, Saumaa was
began collaboration on several projects !
Literature (co-editor), and the Barnes and
a Dance Fellow at The New York Public
at the Cité internationale des arts.
Noble editions of Mark Twain, Herman
Library for the Performing Arts.
Melville, and Frederick Douglass. For his production of a Smithsonian record set called The Jazz Singers, he was nominated for a Grammy Award.
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=(,-)';()':86= UNITED STATES COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Karen Van Dyck received her
In 2018-19, Van Dyck worked on several
undergraduate and graduate degrees from
fronts. She completed her revised
Wesleyan, Aristotle (Thessaloniki), and
translation of, and introduction to Margarita
Oxford. She directed Hellenic Studies in the
Liberaki’s novel, Three Summers, which
Classics Department at Columbia (1988-
was recently published by the New York
2016) and has also been an active member
Review Books imprint. She also made
of the Institute for Research on Women,
significant progress on her new work,
Sexuality, and Gender (IRWSG), the Institute
A Different Alphabet, which explores
of Comparative Literature and Society
questions of translingualism and translation
(ICLS), the European Institute, and the
through the prism of the modern Greek
Istanbul Global Center. Her books include
diasporic experience. She worked on a
Kassandra and the Censors, The Rehearsal
bilingual edition of her own poetry, Lifted
of Misunderstanding, The Scattered Papers
Poems, gave numerous lectures and
of Penelope, and Austerity Measures:
prepared a new course on translation to
The New Greek Poetry that won the
be taught together with Xiaolu Guo at
London Hellenic Prize (2016). Her essays,
Columbia in fall 2019.
translations and poetry have appeared in LARB, the Guardian, World Literature
Today, and Tender.
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left: Zosha Di Castri giving an interview with the BBC during the interval of the opening night of the Proms on July 19th, 2019, at the Royal Albert hall in London. opposite: Emeka Ogboh mixing at the Musée d’Orsay for the “Curieuse Nocturne” event around Le!modèle noir! exhibition on June 13th, 2019.
Scholarly knowledge too often languishes behind walls of its own making. We believe we must do something about this, and we aim to enlist the power of the arts to help us. óMa rk Mazower !%
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*):-,<,(:*(0-'-)<(<-7-)0'2504'04-'5)3050*0The arrival of the Institute for Ideas and
place at Reid Hall, and the students had !
undergraduate student population. In fall
Imagination has significantly contributed to
the opportunity to meet the author in a
2018, Denise Murrell, a Visiting Scholar at
the academic enhancement of the Columbia
private setting prior to the colloquium. As
the Institute, came to Reid Hall to present
Undergraduate Global Engagement Program
students are more and more committed to
her work as curator of the extraordinary
at Reid Hall. Over the course of the Institute’s
questions of social justice and equity, they
exhibition Posing Modernity: The Black
first year fruitful encounters have already
were eager to meet Mrs. Condé and hear of
Model from Manet to Matisse and !
taken place between students and Fellows,
her own experiences as a black Caribbean
Beyond which took place at Columbia
exposing students to firsthand research, and
woman choosing to write in French. The
University’s Wallach Art Gallery earlier
innovative practices.
encounter was lively and passionate giving
that year. The exhibition was then sent to
students a chance to exchange across
Paris where it was mounted at the Musée
Students enrolled in the Music Humanities
generations and nationality on these issues
d’Orsay as Le modèle noir de Géricault !
core curriculum course taught at Reid Hall
that are still so relevant today.
à Matisse. It was immediately apparent !
(fall 2018) had the opportunity for instance !
to the program that there needed to be !
to meet two of the contemporary
The uniqueness of having scholars and
a way for Denise to present her pioneering
composers in residence at the Institute.
artists in residence for a study abroad
scholarship to undergraduate students.
Speaking directly to these artists, in addition
program is absolutely exceptional and
In partnership with the program, she thus
to hearing their music performed live
sets the Columbia Undergraduate Global
developed a course specifically dedicated
through the Columbia Sounds concert
Engagement Program at Reid Hall apart from
to the exhibition and the importance of
series has been absolutely transformative
any peer institution in Paris. More profound
representations of black models and artists
to students who just a few weeks before
transformations of the student experiences
in 19th-century French art. Dr. Murrell’s
were hearing classical music for the first
at Reid Hall can be expected. Beyond the
course was approved as a Global Core,
time. Seeing the students suddenly able to
possibilities of encounters between students
and she brilliantly delivered her innovative
listen to avant-garde contemporary music
and Fellows for example, other types of
seminar to the program that summer
and then engage in lively discussions with
interactions have started to emerge.
in parallel to her exhibit running at the
their composers marked a tremendous
Musée d’Orsay. Of the many things that her
progression in the students’ receptivity to
In the Spring 2019, the program assigned
students learned that summer, one of the
more experimental art forms. In the case !
a work of fiction by one of the Fellows to
most important lessons was: the need to
of composer Zaid Jabri, students learned
the language curriculum of the program.
develop and create greater diversity within
about the intersections of Western and
Students read The Face by novelist Tash Aw.
the curatorial and academic professions
Middle Eastern musical traditions in a
In this work, Mr. Aw examines what it is like to
of art history, and the possibility of finding
contemporary context; with composer Zosha
be a stranger both at home and in a foreign
overlooked narratives that are of interest !
Di Castri, students discovered a musical
land, an experience that speaks very well to
to new and broader museum audiences.
practice that extends beyond concert music
our students studying abroad and facing the
to projects with electronics, installations, !
challenges of the different stages of cultural
To sum, 2018-2019, was a year rich with
and collaborations with video and dance.
adaptation. This experience of engaging with
fruitful interactions and collaborations
the reading of a text produced by one of the
between the Institute for Ideas and
In another course, entitled “Paris noir” (Black
Fellows has been so enriching that it has
Imagination and the Columbia Undergraduate
Paris), students read an autobiographical
continued this academic year with the writer
Global Engagement Program at Reid Hall,
novel by Alternative Nobel Laureate
Edouard Louis, 2019-20 Fellow.
and we look forward to building in the
in literature Maryse Condé whose life
future on this wonderful start.
and works were celebrated in a full day
But even more fundamentally, the Institute
colloquium organized by two of the Fellows,
is transforming the program’s academic
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Professors Kaiama L. Glover, and Tina
curriculum by creating possibilities for
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Campt of Barnard College. The event took
Fellows to develop new courses for the
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In a time of historical transformation, the creation of the II&I is imperative. óL ee C. Bollinger, President
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opposite from top to bottom: Laurence Engel and Kara Lennon Casanova, Associate Director of Development at the BnF; Host Robert Rubin with Zosha Di Castri; Nellie Hermann, Hiie Sauma, and Xiaolu Guo.
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Tina Campt, Abigail R. Cohen Fellow | !
Emeka Ogboh | Food for Thought: On Food,
Concert: Talea Ensemble plays Zosha !
Concert: Amit Chaudhuri with pianist John
Book Presentation and discussion: Minjian:
Still-Moving-Images
Foodways, and Migration
Di Castri (with Columbia Sounds)
Kamfonas (with Columbia Sounds)
The rise of China’s Grassroots Intellectuals!! by Sebastian Veg, in conversation with !
Jenny Davidson | For the Love of Broken
Karen Van Dyck | Migration, Translingualism,
Conference: The Sojourner Project organized !
Round table and book launch: En guerre !
Things: My Father, Edward Gibbon, and !
Translation
by Tina Campt
pour la paix by Nadine Akhund, co-organized
the Ruins of Rome
Response by Dimitris Christopoulos,
)EFGHIGJ
International Federation for Human Rights
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(FIDH)
Workshop: “The Implications of Image”
Hiie Saumaa | A Dance for Two:
organized by Susan Boynton
Xiaolu Guo
by Columbia Global Centers | Paris and
Symposium: Modèles noirs conference, !
hosted at the Institute
a two-day event organized in collaboration with the Musée d’Orsay, Université PSL !
Symposium: Against Storytelling, organized
and Columbia Global Centers | Paris, and
by Amit Chaudhuri
Denise Murrell, co-curator of the exhibition ! and Visiting Scholar at the Institute
Choreographer Jerome Robbins’s
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Zaid Jabri | in conversation with Rosalind
Institute Inauguration including a performance
C. Morris (Columbia University), followed !
by William Christie and a discussion with
Concert: Urban Inventory, music of Wang Lu!
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by a performance of Jabri’s chamber music
William Kentridge, followed by a reception !
played by Ensemble Recherche (Freiburg)
Nellie Hermann | All the Missing: Exploring the
with Ensemble Infuse
at the Bibliothèque nationale de France
with the participation of Xiaolu Guo !
Symposium: Crises of Democracy, organized
as panelist (with Columbia Sounds)
in collaboration with Columbia University,
Historical Plight of the Unwed Mother in Fiction Robert O’Meally | Music, Text, Image: Duke
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Xiaolu Guo, Abigail R. Cohen Fellow | A Portrait
Ellington’s Paris Blues and Such Sweet
Concert: Improvisations, featuring Amit
of the Artist as a Young Woman
Thunder (Shakespearean Suite)
Chaudhuri (with Columbia Sounds)
Le modèle noir de Géricault à Matisse!!
Columbia Global Centers | Paris, and the Conference: Maryse Condé, a Writer for
Society of Fellows and the Heyman Center for
our Times: A celebration of the work of the
Humanities at Columbia University, with the
acclaimed writer and winner of the 2018
participation of Emeka Ogboh and Tina Campt
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“Alternative Nobel prize in literature” with
Tash Aw, Judith Ginsberg Fellow | Uncharted
Susan Boynton, Resident Faculty Director |
Screening: Prabda Yoon Transmissions !
the participation of Elsa Dorlin and Kaiama
@SRG
Ambition: Retelling the Story of Modern
Liturgy of Empire: The Reception of the
of Unwanted Pasts!"Kembara, founded !
L. Glover, critics, activists, and students.
Conference: Writing on Parchment/Reading
Migration
Mozarabic Rite in Early Modern Europe
by Tash Aw)
Organized by Glover and Columbia’s
Parchment: Reconstructing Historical !
Department of French Kaiama L. Glover | René Depestre, From Haiti
to Moscow with Love
Homage: Jerome Robbins and the Cinema,
a Musical Process followed by a performance
organized by Arts Arena with Hiie Saumaa’s
Conference: L’Im/Possible Visibilité ̂: !
Columbia University’s partnership with !
of her music with Ensemble Cairn
participation
le problème “noir” en France, organized !
the Ville de Provins
Amit Chaudhuri | Music on the Twenty-Fifth
Storey: The Mimetic and the Textual
Practices from Text and Material, organized !
Zosha Di Castri | The Makeup and Mockup of
by Susan Boynton. Presented through
by Kaiama L. Glover Screening: Sacred Mountains: Abrahamic
Conference: Looking across the Atlantic:
Religions and Musical Practices in the
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Mediterranean Area, by Nicolas Scaldaferri !
Concert and discussion: Modern Griot: !
l’Amérique du Nord en art médiéval,
Deborah Levy | The Psychopathology !
in conversation with Susan Boynton
A Conversation with Sona Jobarteh, organized
organized by Susan Boynton, presented in
by Kaiama L. Glover
partnership with Columbia Global Centers |
of the Doppelgänger: Creating a Twinned ! Self in Fiction
Discussion: Édouard Louis and Caroline
Paris, the INHA, and the Université catholique
Nguyen Tout sur nos mères : Saigon (Vietnam)
Book launch: Le Combat Adama Traoré̂ by
Elsa Dorlin, Abigail R. Cohen Fellow |
Hallencourt (Picardie)—une approche croisée
Assa Traoré, with Geoffroy de Lagasgnerie,
Phenomenology of the Prey: On the
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Chantal Mouffe, Édouard Louis, Aïssa Maïga,
Neoliberal Discrimination of Spared Lives v. Stalked Lives
Presentation: Saying Nothing, Signifying All:
circulations d’idées entre la France et
de l’Ouest (at the INHA) Soirée: Curieuse Nocturne, organized !
Elsa Dorlin, Tash Aw, Danièle Obono, Mokobe,
around Le Modèle noir exhibition at !
Chérif Soumano, and others
the Musée d’Orsay. Music mixed by !
The Legacy of Hysteria and Photography !
Emeka Ogboh
at the Salpê̂trière in 19th-Century France,
Symposium: Dancing, Moving, Knowing,
organized by Columbia Global Centers | Paris,
organized by Hiie Saumaa
with the participation of Deborah Levy
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Israel
UK/ Iran
Columbia University
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Religious Studies
Hebrew and Comparative Literature
Problem Stories: When Truth Isn’t Enough
Recreating a Sufi Subject in the Modern
Life of the Non-Living: The Narrative of
Nation State: Public Religion and the New
Language Revival in Modern Hebrew
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Sufism in Northwest Africa
Literature
France
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United States
Barnard College, Columbia University
Columbia University
Pauchi Sasaki Otani
History of Architecture
Physics
Peru
Christianizing Algiers: Reshaping Urban
More Radioactive than Chernobyl
Composer
Film maker, curator, writer
Identity by “Cross and Plow,” 1830-1870
Infinite Lives, Finite Footage: Girls, 2015-2045
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Columbia University
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Barnard College, Columbia University
Architecture
English, Cultural History
Climates of Constructivism: Environment and
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Territory in Soviet Architecture, 1926–1939
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Walking: Steps Toward a Visual History
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A Century and Three Women
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Poet
Film maker
Debashree Muhkerjee
Filming the Gilets Jaunes: How to Express
India
through Cinema the Interior Vibration of a
Columbia University
Popular Movement
South Asian Studies, Media Studies
Poems and Translations
Mediated Ocean: An Audiovisual History of 'A9;<A8%O;LFXB
Colonial Traffic Between Africa and Asia
Guatemala Writer
Bleeding into Fiction: Cultural Identity, Memory, and Language
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PHOTO CREDITS © Michel Denancé: cover, pp. 2-3 © Ferrante Ferranti: pp. 4, 8-9, 13-19, 22-23, 26-27, 30-37, 40-41, 44-49, 54-57, 63 © Victor Tonelli: pp. 20-21 © Marie d’Origny: pp 24-25, 50-51 © Elsa Dorlin: pp.25 © Fondation Foujita / Adagp, Paris, 2019—Photo: Adagp Images: p. 38 © Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Imane Farès: pp. 42-43 © SHK/Hamburger Kunsthalle: p. 53 © Stella Oliver: pp. 56-57 (image on screen) © Mark Lyon: pp. 58-59 DESIGN Louise Brody
Mark Mazower, Director mm2669@columbia.edu Marie d’Origny, Administrative Director md3155@columbia.edu Eve Grinstead, Program Officer eg3000@columbia.edu James Allen, Administrative Assistant ja3430@columbia.edu Institute for Ideas and Imagination Reid Hall 4, rue de Chevreuse 75006 Paris (+33) 1 44 10 24 43 ideasimagination@columbia.edu https://ideasimagination.columbia.edu ! @columbiaideasinstitute @columbiaideas #ideasimagination
The Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination is made possible by the generous support of the Areté Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and Daniel Cohen, and with additional gifts from Judith Ginsberg and Paul LeClerc, Olga and George Votis, the EHA Foundation, and Mel and Lois Tukman.