CII&I Annual Report 2018-2019

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

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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.

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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,

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International Federation for Human Rights

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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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Unpublished Letters

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

Columbia University

Writer

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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Canada

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

The Speaker Dress Y89?C<;%UC;L>L>

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Multimedia Visual Artist

United States

Columbia University

The Assembly

Barnard College, Columbia University

Architecture

English, Cultural History

Climates of Constructivism: Environment and

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Territory in Soviet Architecture, 1926–1939

France

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Walking: Steps Toward a Visual History

Writer

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A Century and Three Women

France

France

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.