Online
February 2–May 11, 2021, 7pm
The IDS public lecture series, designed as an introduction to some of the most pressing questions driving contemporary thought and practice, consists of lectures by artists, theorists, scientists, activists, writers, and other practitioners involved in the arts from positions that embody an interdisciplinary approach or that imply new uses for disciplinary traditions. Each lecture is part of The Cooper Union’s Intra-Disciplinary Seminar (IDS). The seminar and series are organized by Leslie Hewitt, Omar Berrada, and Nada Ayad.
This year’s IDS lectures are organized along three general directions: “On Land,” where we recognize the continued centrality of the physical environment in the major struggles of our time; “On Embodiment,” where we focus on body politics as a way to engage with contemporary bordering practices and counter-hegemonic circulations; and “On Scale,” where we think about systemic change, asking how, where, for whom and at what pace it can be brought about.
Spring 2021 IDS public lectures
February 2
A. Naomi Paik, Bans, Walls, Raids, Sanctuary: U.S. Immigration “Crises” and Abolitionist Futures
February 9
Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez, Intimacies to Apocalypso: Relationality and Decolonizing Diasporas
February 16
Candice Hopkins, Monuments and the Wounds of History
February 23
Natalie Diaz, Origin and Migration / Freedom & Love
March 2
Navina Khanna, Reclaiming Relationships, Rooting in Resilience
March 27 (Saturday, 12pm EST)
Shahram Khosravi, Listening to X-rays
April 10 (Saturday, 12pm EST)
Malcom Ferdinand, Facing the Colonial Toxicity of the World: the case of the French Caribbean
April 13
Kemi Adeyemi, Ordinary Energy
April 20
Eszter Szakács & Naeem Mohaiemen, In Messy Practice
May 4
Simon Leung, Squatting Towards Hong Kong
May 8 (Saturday, 12pm EST)
Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Black Fires: A Philosophy of African Independences
May 11
Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, After Everything is Extracted
The IDS lectures take place on Tuesdays at 7pm EST unless otherwise specified. They are free and open to the public upon registration. All registration links are available on our website. Closed captioning is available for all lectures. Please contact us directly for any specific accessibility needs.
The Cooper Union School of Art
Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture, and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences. The School of Art is firmly committed to a generalist curriculum that encompasses all the fundamental disciplines and resources of the visual arts. Each student is educated not only in specific disciplines, but also in the complex interrelationships of all the visual vocabularies. This philosophic premise relates to all the objectives of the School of Art and is the foundation upon which all teaching, creative work, service and research are based. The Studio curriculum along with the Art History and General Studies components of the BFA program all have as their goal the acquisition of communication skills, the development of critical perspective, and the mastery of the materials and intellectual premises of the study of societies and people. Throughout eight semesters, students become socially aware, historically grounded, creative practitioners. They are taught to be critical analysts of the world of contemporary visual communications, art, and the culture at large.
General support and funding
The IDS public lecture series is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding from the Robert Lehman Foundation. The IDS public lecture series is also made possible by generous support from the Open Society Foundations.
