Rethinking Craft in Postindustrial Society
Dec 13, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
IAB 918, Columbia University

Event description:
In industrial society, where people live surrounded by machine-made, mass-produced commodities,
craft has been relegated to the realm of “tradition,” which belongs to the disconnected past. However,
what does craft mean in a postindustrial society like today’s United States? When manufacturing, the
long-time opponent to craft, no longer constitutes a major economic sector, what is the role of craft and
what can we gain from it? These questions become even more critical now when on the one hand,
artificial intelligence threatens to encroach on human territory, and on the other hand, the senses of
localism, ethical consumption, and environmental consequences are higher than ever. This one-day
conference proposes to take advantage of this crucial moment as an opportunity to rethink craft both as
a mode of production and as a way of living. By bringing together practitioners and scholars from Asia
and the United States, it provides a venue for an interdisciplinary conversation about craft, technology,
and the economy.

The conference is co-sponsored by Weatherhead East Asian Institute; Center for Science and Society;
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.

It is open to the public. No registration is required.

Program details:
9:00 – 9:30 Breakfast
9:30 – 9:45 Introduction
Yuan Yi, Columbia University
9:45 – 10:45 “Heavy Metal Weaving”: Between Craft and Mechanization
Chair: Yuan Yi, Columbia University
Speaker: Rabbit Goody, Thistle Hill Weavers
10:45 – 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 – 12:30 Made in USA, Made in Laos: Handwoven Textiles
Chair: Pamela Smith, Columbia University
Speakers: Justin Squizzero, The Burroughs Garret
Carol Cassidy, Lao Textiles

12:30 – 1:30 Lunch Break
1:30 – 3:00 State, Craft, and Intangible Cultural Heritage
Chair: Jacob Eyferth, The University of Chicago
Speakers: Timothy Oakes, University of Colorado Boulder
Karuna Miryam Dietrich Wielenga, Azim Premji University

3:00 – 3:15 Coffee Break
3:15 – 4:30 Roundtable

Moderator: Eugenia Lean, Columbia University

Participants:
Rabbit Goody, Thistle Hill Weavers
Yuan Yi, Columbia University
Justin Squizzero, The Burroughs Garret
Carol Cassidy, Lao Textiles
Pamela Smith, Columbia University
Timothy Oakes, University of Colorado Boulder
Karuna Miryam Dietrich Wielenga, Azim Premji University
Jacob Eyferth, The University of Chicago
Eugenia Lean, Columbia University

Organizing Migrant Asian Sex Workers Across Oceans

In conversation with KK de la Vida • Chanelle Gallant • Elene Lam • Elena Shih • Kate Zen
Moderated by Yin Q
Introduced by Mae Ngai

The Movement & The Middle East: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Divided the American Left
A book talk with Michael R. Fischbach and Rashid Khalidi
12:10PM-1:30PM, Knox Hall 208

Competing Truths: Art and the Objects of History after the Council of Trent

Co-organized by Alessandra Di Croce, Hannah Friedman, and Grace Harpster

November 15th & 16th, 2019

Competing Truths: Art and the Objects of History After the Council of Trent is a two-day symposium to be jointly held at the Italian Academy and the Frick Collection on November 15th & 16th, 2019. The event will bring together scholars and museum professionals in order to investigate how Italian art helped to formulate competing truths in the long aftermath of the Council of Trent, and how the strategies of that era continue to affect our understanding of historical truth today. Italian art of this period is often dismissed as propagandistic and derivative. This symposium instead fosters recent scholarship that shows the potency of art in shaping people’s beliefs during a time of deep political and spiritual divisions. Understanding how images and objects give shape to history and knowledge has never been more urgent. Thus, the aim of the symposium is not merely to advance scholarship, but to meet an acute contemporary need for perspective on how to navigate an era of competing truths.

For additional details and to register, visit this website: https://italianacademy.columbia.edu/event/competing-truths-art-and-objects-history-after-council-trent

If there are questions, please contact Alessandra Di Croce (ad2516@columbia.edu), Hannah Friedman (hf2377@columbia.edu) or Grace Harpster (gharpster@gsu.edu). 

RSVP to: smk2209@columbia.edu

Thursday November 14, 3:00 pm – 6:30 pm

2:30–3:00 pm  REGISTRATION

3:00 pm    WELCOME
Ira Katznelson, Interim Provost & Ruggles Professor of Political Science & History, Columbia University
Lisa Keller, Chair, Seminar on the City, The University Seminars, Columbia University

3:15 pm    KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Introduction: Ann Thornton, Vice Provost and University Librarian, Columbia University
Kenneth T. Jackson, Barzun Professor of History, Columbia University
“The Changing Landscape of Cities and Suburbs in the 21^st Century”

4:15 pm    PANEL 1, Race, Gender & Ethnicity
Chair: Jacqueline Dowd Hall, Julia Cherry Spruill Professor Emerita, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Craig Steven Wilder, Barton L. Weller Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thomas Kessner, Distinguished Professor of History, Graduate Center, City University of New York
Estelle B. Freedman, Edgar E. Robinson Professor in U.S. History, Stanford University
Jeffrey S. Gurock, Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History, Yeshiva University

6:00 pm    RECEPTION

Friday November 15, 9:00 pm – 6:00 pm

8:30-9:00 am    REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST

9:00 am    Panel 2, Assessing Environment & Sustainability
Chair: Vincent J. Cannato, Associate Professor of History, College of Liberal Arts, University of Massachusetts Boston
Ellen Stroud, Associate Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University
Robert Lifset, Associate Professor of History, University of Oklahoma
David Schuyler, Arthur and Katherine Shadek Professor of Humanities and American Studies, Franklin and Marshall College
Becky Nicolaides, Research Affiliate, University of California Los Angeles

10:45 15 MINUTE BREAK

11:00 am    Panel 3, Urban Infrastructure
Chair: Kenneth R. Cobb, Assistant Commissioner, New York City Department of Records
Owen Gutfreund, Associate Professor, Urban Planning & History, Hunter College
Clifton Hood, George E. Paulsen ’49 Professor of American History and Government, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Eugénie L. Birch, Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research & Education, University of Pennsylvania
Gail Radford, Professor of History, University of Buffalo, State University of New York

12:45-1:45    LUNCH BREAK

2:00 pm    Panel 4, The World View
Chair: Valerie Paley, Senior Vice President, New-York Historical Society
Nancy Kwak, Associate Professor of History, University of California San Diego
Robert Beauragard, Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Columbia University
A.K. Sandoval-Strausz, Associate Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University
Graeme Davison, Professor Emeritus of History, Monash University, Australia

3:45-4:00 pm    BREAK

4:00-5:45 pm    Panel 5, Looking to the Future of Cities and Suburbs
Roundtable
Rohit T. Aggarwala, Head of Urban Systems, Sidewalk Labs
Daniel L. Doctoroff, Chairman and CEO, Sidewalk Labs
Walter A. Friedman, Director of the Business History Initiative, Harvard University
Timothy J. Gilfoyle, Professor of History, Loyola University Chicago
Thomas J. Sugrue, Professor of History, New York University

5:45-6:00 pm    CONCLUDING REMARKS: Kenneth T. Jackson

Ottoman Culture and Literature in the Age of the Süleyman the Magnificent
A talk by Mehmet Kalpakli (Bilkent University)

RSVP at bit.ly/ottoman~culture 

This talk will be an overview of Ottoman culture and literature in the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent (1520 – 1566) with numerous visual presentations. Süleyman was not only a sultan and patron of the arts but also an artist (goldsmith) and poet himself. Moreover, his time was not only the zenith of Ottoman power but also “Golden Age” as the Empire reached its height in the arts and culture.

Mehmet Kalpaklı (Professor of Ottoman History) is the Chair of both the Department of History and the Department of Turkish Literature at Bilkent University. He also serves as the Director of the Halil Inalcik Center for Ottoman Studies and the Director of the Center for Turkish Literature. His specialization is in cultural and literary history of the Ottoman Empire. Some of his publications are: The Age of Beloveds: Love and The Beloved in Early Modern Ottoman Turkish and European Literature, Culture, and Society (with Walter G. Andrews), Duke University Press, USA 2005; Ottoman Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, (with Walter Andrews and Najaat Black), The University of Texas Press, 1997, and expanded edition: University of Washington Press in 2006. Osmanlı Divan Şiiri Üzerine Metinler (Texts on Ottoman Divan Poetry), Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Press, 1999; The Complete Works of Halide Edib Adıvar (18 books) Can Press.

Sponsored by The Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies, The Department of History, & The Department of Art History and Archaeology

The Center for the Ancient Mediterranean Invites You to Attend…

DISPLACED COMMUNITIES IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

Speakers:
Denise Demetriou (University of California, San Diego)
Erich Gruen (University of California, Berkeley)
Ellen Morris (Barnard College)
Sailakshmi Ramgopal (Columbia University)
Seth Richardson (University of Chicago)

Friday, November 8th, 2019
10:00AM-6:00PM
807 Schermerhorn Hall
Columbia University

For more information, please visit our website.

To commemorate the centenary of World War I, this workshop will feature presentations on the global spread and the enduring consequences of the war, in order to reframe the relationship between colony and metropole.

The Great War devoured lives, landscapes, and imperial institutions. Global 1919: Remaking Worlds will examine the aftermath of WWI on a global scale. Although experienced differently in different parts of the world, 1919 collectively transformed the conceptual vocabulary and political practice of empires, nations and states worldwide. Indeed, when the old power brokers of Europe gathered to divide the spoils of war they encountered questions and demands they had not anticipated. In the aftermath of the War, disenfranchised colonial subjects revolted in pursuit of independence, formerly marginalized groups demanded new rights, and theorists, visionaries, and artists drew inspiration from this climate of hope and uncertainty. By bringing together local and international historians interested in exploring the events and after-effects of 1919, we aim to attend to the fundamental transformations of world orders and imperial powers that were inaugurated by war and revolution. 

Many studies of global 1919 tend to view the “provincialization” of Europe against the backdrop of anticolonialism. Debates about the future of political communities at this time were critically poised between the alternatives of nation and empire, even as a range of new hybrids—from mandate trusteeship, to dominion colonies, and practices of indirect rule—emerged across Eurasia, the Middle East and sub-continental India, and Africa. Meanwhile, the Russian Revolution of 1917 (and the formation of the Soviet Union) had deeply impacted growing demands for self-determination by colonized peoples, as did new calls for minority rights, political independence, and human emancipation more broadly. Global 1919 follows suit and takes inspiration from a number of new works that have challenged older narratives of internationalism. While many such conventional histories in the past privileged the role of international organizations such as the League of Nations or the United Nations, as a number of new scholarly works have shown, these organizations themselves might best be understood as merely responding to rather than critically  shaping the then global rise of rights discourses and revolutionary international orders. 

By bringing together world regions typically separated by governing distinctions between the history of Europe and those of the “darker nations,” or by post-War regional divisions and disciplines organized around “area studies” we hope to examine the manner in which debates about self determination, political solidarity, minority rights and identity shaped intellectual traditions in decolonizing nations. Exploring a range of popular uprisings, revolutionary claims and political communities, we also aim to ask about the reach and relevance of a variety of global radical movements, from Marxist internationalism, pan-Islamism and pan-Africanism to emerging Afro-Asian solidarity movements. Yet, as we hope to underscore in our workshops too, the aftermath of WWI effected a profound transformation of political as much as social life. As such, we aim to explore the many experiments in rewriting histories of the self as much as the radical futures of communities in the global south that were torn apart by the violence of colonial regimes, imperial institutions and liberal juridical orders.

Professors of History Marwa Elshakry and Anupama Rao will be participating in this conference.

To commemorate the centenary of World War I, this workshop will feature presentations on the global spread and the enduring consequences of the war, in order to reframe the relationship between colony and metropole.

The Great War devoured lives, landscapes, and imperial institutions. Global 1919: Remaking Worlds will examine the aftermath of WWI on a global scale. Although experienced differently in different parts of the world, 1919 collectively transformed the conceptual vocabulary and political practice of empires, nations and states worldwide. Indeed, when the old power brokers of Europe gathered to divide the spoils of war they encountered questions and demands they had not anticipated. In the aftermath of the War, disenfranchised colonial subjects revolted in pursuit of independence, formerly marginalized groups demanded new rights, and theorists, visionaries, and artists drew inspiration from this climate of hope and uncertainty. By bringing together local and international historians interested in exploring the events and after-effects of 1919, we aim to attend to the fundamental transformations of world orders and imperial powers that were inaugurated by war and revolution. 

Many studies of global 1919 tend to view the “provincialization” of Europe against the backdrop of anticolonialism. Debates about the future of political communities at this time were critically poised between the alternatives of nation and empire, even as a range of new hybrids—from mandate trusteeship, to dominion colonies, and practices of indirect rule—emerged across Eurasia, the Middle East and sub-continental India, and Africa. Meanwhile, the Russian Revolution of 1917 (and the formation of the Soviet Union) had deeply impacted growing demands for self-determination by colonized peoples, as did new calls for minority rights, political independence, and human emancipation more broadly. Global 1919 follows suit and takes inspiration from a number of new works that have challenged older narratives of internationalism. While many such conventional histories in the past privileged the role of international organizations such as the League of Nations or the United Nations, as a number of new scholarly works have shown, these organizations themselves might best be understood as merely responding to rather than critically  shaping the then global rise of rights discourses and revolutionary international orders. 

By bringing together world regions typically separated by governing distinctions between the history of Europe and those of the “darker nations,” or by post-War regional divisions and disciplines organized around “area studies” we hope to examine the manner in which debates about self determination, political solidarity, minority rights and identity shaped intellectual traditions in decolonizing nations. Exploring a range of popular uprisings, revolutionary claims and political communities, we also aim to ask about the reach and relevance of a variety of global radical movements, from Marxist internationalism, pan-Islamism and pan-Africanism to emerging Afro-Asian solidarity movements. Yet, as we hope to underscore in our workshops too, the aftermath of WWI effected a profound transformation of political as much as social life. As such, we aim to explore the many experiments in rewriting histories of the self as much as the radical futures of communities in the global south that were torn apart by the violence of colonial regimes, imperial institutions and liberal juridical orders.

Professors of History Marwa Elshakry and Anupama Rao will be participating in this conference.

Book Launch & Discussion
“Splendor, Turbulence, and Dreams: Late Medieval Courts and Culture in the Burgundian North”
Rereading Huizinga: Autumn of the Middle Ages, a Century Later

Featuring Peter Arnade, Marc Boone, Martha Howell, Matt Jones, & Adam Kosto

Wednesday, October 30th, 2019
6:00 – 7:30 PM
Maison Française, Buell Hall

Please RSVP at bit.ly/medieval-culture

Wednesday, October 30th, 2019
New York Premier screening & Panel Discussion of Frances Perkins documentary: Summoned: Frances Perkins and the General Welfare

4PM-7PM, Pulitzer Hall, 2950 Broadway

Event page and registration here.
 

Description and registration info to come.

Speakers:
Katharina Pistor | Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law
Adam Tooze | Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History; Director of the European Institute; Member of the Committee on Global Thought
Jean Cohen | Nell and Herbert M. Singer Professor of Contemporary Civilization in the Core Curriculum

*

Economic Policy: Priorities for Europe in 2020
Featuring

• Marco Buti, Director General for Economic and Financial Affairs, European Commission
• Tano Santos, David L. and Elsie M. Dodd Professor of Finance , Columbia Business School
• Adam Tooze, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History & Director of the European Institute, Columbia University

RSVP for Economic Policy: Priorities for Europe in 2020

This event is made possible thanks to the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Me The People: How Populism Transforms Democracy by Nadia Urbinati
Book Launch & Discussion

Panel:
Nadia Urbinati
Sheri Berman
Federico Finchelstein
Bernard Manin
Adam Tooze

RSVP here.

This talk explores the intersections of politics, philosophy, and radical psychiatry in 20th century France. It focuses on a psychiatric reform movement called “institutional psychotherapy” which had an important influence on many intellectuals and activists, including François Tosquelles, Jean Oury, Felix Guattari, Frantz Fanon, Georges Canguilhem, and Michel Foucault. Anchored in Marxism and in Lacanian psychoanalysis, institutional psychotherapy advocated a fundamental restructuring of the asylum in order to transform the theory and practice of psychiatric care. More broadly, for many of these thinkers, the psychiatric offered a lens to rethink the political in the particular context of postwar France.

Camille Robcis is an Associate Professor of History and French at Columbia Unversity. Camille Robcis specializes in modern European intellectual history, with a focus on nineteenth- and twentieth-century France. Her interests have circled around three issues: the historical construction of norms, the intellectual production of knowledge, and the articulation of universalism and difference in modern French history. Prior to coming to Columbia, she taught at Cornell for ten years.

This event is free and open to the public.

This event is part of the New York History of Science Lecture Series.

Sponsoring Organizations:

• The University Seminars at Columbia University
• Columbia University in the City of New York
• NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study
• The Graduate Center, City University of New York
• The New York Academy of Medicine
• The New York Academy of Sciences

Panel Discussion:
The Resistance in Western Europe, 1940-1945
Olivier Wieviorka, with responses by Robert O. Paxton and Mark Mazower

To RSVP, please click here. 

Olivier Wieviorka talks about his newly translated book, The Resistance in Western Europe, 1940–1945 (Columbia University Press, 2019), a sweeping analytical history of the underground anti-Nazi forces during World War II. Examining clandestine organizations in Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Italy, Olivier Wieviorka sheds new light on the factors that shaped the resistance and its place in the grand scheme of Anglo-American military strategy. While national actors played a leading role in fomenting resistance, British and American intelligence services and propaganda as well as financial, material, and logistical support were crucial to its activities and growth. Wieviorka illuminates the policies of governments in exile and resistance actors regarding cooperation with the British and Americans, pointing to the persistence of national self-interest and long-standing historical tensions. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources and bringing together the political, diplomatic, and military dimensions of the conflict, this book is the first account of the resistance on a continental scale and from a trans-European perspective. 

Olivier Wieviorka is professor of history at the École Normale Supérieure de Paris-Saclay. His books in English include The French Resistance (2016), also translated by Jane Marie Todd. Robert O. Paxton is the Mellon Professor Emeritus of Social Science at Columbia University.  Mark Mazower is the Ira D. Wallach Professor of History at Columbia. 

Event co-sponsored by the Knapp Family Foundation, Department of History, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Alliance Program, and European Institute.

Colloquium on Global Hồ Chí Minh
October 4, 9:30am – 5:45pm

Held on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Hồ Chí Minh, this international colloquium will interrogate Hồ’s role in the formation of modern Vietnam and explore the country’s position in world affairs in the 20th Century. Participants will share their new multi-lingual and multi-archival research and past works on the life, career, and legacy of Hồ Chí Minh. This colloquium also serves to announce a new partnership between Columbia University and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi. 

Schedule

9:30am – 10am:      Comments by Co-Organizers, Professors Pham Quang Minh and Lien-Hang T. Nguyen    

10am – 12pm:   Panel 1: Hồ and the Imperial Powers

• Do Quang Hung, Professor, Department of Political Science at Vietnam National University
• Alec Holcombe, Assistant Professor, Department of History at Ohio University

12pm – 1pm       Lunch break

1pm – 3:30pm:        Panel 2: Hồ in the Global Cold War, 1945-1969

• Pham Quang Minh, Rector and Professor, Historian and Political Scientist, Department of International Studies at Vietnam National University
• Tran Viet Nghia, Associate Professor and Director of the Office for the Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities at Vietnam National University
• Pierre Asselin, Professor and Dwight E. Stanford Chair in American Foreign Relations, Department of History at San Diego State University

3:30pm – 3:45pm:     Coffee break

3:45pm – 5:45pm:     Hồ’s Global Legacy

• Pham Hong Tung, Historian, Professor and Director of the Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Science at Vietnam National University
• Olga Dror, Associate Professor, Department of History, College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University and Fellow at the National Humanities Center

1619 And Its Legacies: Symposium, Roundtable Discussion, & Poetic Reading

Observing the 400th Commemoration of the arrival of Africans in Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English colony in North America. Exploring the ongoing impact and legacy of chattel slavery and anti-Black racism. 

1619 And Its Legacies: Symposium, Roundtable Discussion, & Poetic Reading

Observing the 400th Commemoration of the arrival of Africans in Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English colony in North America. Exploring the ongoing impact and legacy of chattel slavery and anti-Black racism. 

Speakers:
Nara B. Milanich, Barnard College
Dorothy Y. Ko, Barnard College
Maya Jasanoff, Harvard University
Emmanuelle Saada, Columbia University

For most of human history, the notion that paternity was uncertain appeared to be an immutable law of nature. The unknown father provided entertaining plotlines from Shakespeare to the Victorian novelists and lay at the heart of inheritance and child support disputes. But in the 1920s new scientific advances promised to solve the mystery of paternity once and for all. The stakes were high: fatherhood has always been a public relationship as well as a private one. It confers not only patrimony and legitimacy but also a name, nationality, and identity.

The new science of paternity, with methods such as blood typing, fingerprinting, and facial analysis, would bring clarity to the conundrum of fatherhood—or so it appeared. Suddenly, it would be possible to establish family relationships, expose adulterous affairs, locate errant fathers, unravel baby mix-ups, and discover one’s true race and ethnicity. Tracing the scientific quest for the father up to the present, with the advent of seemingly foolproof DNA analysis, Nara Milanich shows that the effort to establish biological truth has not ended the quest for the father. Rather, scientific certainty has revealed the fundamentally social, cultural, and political nature of paternity. As Paternity shows, in the age of modern genetics the answer to the question “Who’s your father?” remains as complicated as ever.

For our first event in the Talks with Professors Series this semester, we’re excited to have Professor Frank Guridy join us for an intimate discussion about “Sports and Politics in a Time of Political Polarization.”

This symposium convenes an interdisciplinary conversation on political and ecological crisis in the Greater Caribbean. In the aftermath of adverse climatic and seismic events, Caribbean states and territorial dependencies are subjected to new regimes of disaster capitalism and political intervention. Meanwhile, crises of sovereign debt and governing legitimacy set off new grassroots mobilizations against austerity and fiscal control. Drawing on historical and ethnographic perspectives, symposium participants will engage the existential crisis of climate changes alongside a crisis in the state form as a vehicle of postcolonial political futures. 

At the Heymen Center for the Humanities at Columbia. 

For more information, or to RSVP please contact statesofcrisis@gmail.com.