Past Events

Against all Odds: Ten Myths Shattered by the Tunisian Revolution

Against all Odds: Ten Myths Shattered by the Tunisian Revolution

03/21/2012
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
The James Gallery, Ground Floor

A year after the fall of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s government in Tunisia that sparked uprisings all over the Middle East, what is the status of democratic outcomes of the Tunisian revolution? As journalists still fight for freedom of the media and racketeering has erupted in the job market, join Taoufik Ben-Amor (Arabic Studies, Columbia) as he speaks with Peter Hitchcock (Center for Place, Culture and Politics) about the cultural as well as political impact of this historic shift. This conversation finds its home in Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency’s Common Assembly which opens a forum in the James Gallery for discussions of rejuvenation of contested sites […]

“THEY CAN’T STOP THE PUSH”: Lessons from the University of Puerto Rico’s 2010-2011 student strikes

“THEY CAN’T STOP THE PUSH”: Lessons from the University of Puerto Rico’s 2010-2011 student strikes

03/15/2012
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Room 5414

“THEY CAN’T STOP THE PUSH”:
Lessons from the University of Puerto Rico’s 2010-2011 student strikes

Thursday March 15, 2012
6:30-8:30pm

Students at the University of Puerto Rico put together two of the most
resourceful and inspiring student strikes in recent history. Against
austerity policies and the privatization of public education, combining
extensive grassroots organizing with creative tactics, students were able
to outwit the administration while rallying popular support around the
struggle for an accessible, democratic and quality university. Both of
these strikes, with their specific scenarios and outcomes, provide an
instructive repertoire of action for the current student uprising in NYC.

Join a conversation with student activists Marimer Berberena and Alicia M.
Petru, as they share their experiences and the lessons learned throughout
the high and low points of the student struggle in Puerto Rico.

CUNY Graduate Center
Room 5414
365 Fifth Ave, Manhattan

RSVP: www.facebook.com/events/203738009725982

ID required to enter building. Light refreshments served.

Organized by AELLA, OWS Latin@merica, Adjunct Project, Graduate Center General Assembly

The Struggle of Sahrawi Women for Freedom: Fatma El-Mehdi

The Struggle of Sahrawi Women for Freedom: Fatma El-Mehdi

03/09/2012
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Room 5307, CUNY Graduate Center

In 1976, the national liberation movement of El Frente POLISARIO declared a Nation-State in a refugee camp: the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Having colonized the Western Sahara since 1884, Spain abandoned the country in 1975 when the territory was illegitimately handed over to Morocco. While Saharawi men combated the Moroccan army in a 16-year long guerrilla struggle, Saharawi women and children took refuge in Southern Algerian desert territory nearby the city of Tindouf, an inhospitable region of the desert that can reach up to 52ºC in the summer. Notwithstanding, the pains of war, the strict dependency of humanitarian aid for survival, and the environmental harshness of their location the Saharawi national constitution made ‘citizens’ out of ‘refugees’ who today reside in provinces named after towns left behind in the Western Sahara.

White Noise: Vanilla Ice, Grunge, and Stuff White People Like

White Noise: Vanilla Ice, Grunge, and Stuff White People Like

03/08/2012
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Proshansky Auditorium

Titled after Don DeLillo’s White Noise, in which identity politics reaches its reductio ad absurdum in a Hitler Studies department, this evening explores the curious phenomenon of white ethnic identity in the 1990s. Think back to a time when Bill Clinton was called the “first African American President,” when Samuel Huntington claimed we were in a “Clash of Civilizations,” when the militia movement erupted in the Waco shootout and the Oklahoma City bombings–and when Asian Americans were positioned as “honorary whites” in the affirmative action debates.

Allan deSouza: Coffee-Colored People

Allan deSouza: Coffee-Colored People

03/05/2012
4:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Skylight Conference Room, 9th Floor

Titled after the lyrics of a 1969 Blue Mink song, Melting Pot, which advocates obliterating difference as a utopian means of “getting along,” this talk–using examples from deSouza’s own artwork–will examine different artistic strategies of erasure, redaction, translation and recuperation, and will further consider cross-disciplinary solidarities between art practices and other fields of investigation. Whether official or oppositional, the very nature of art doesn’t allow it to be fully disciplined within existing structures and hegemonies, and this talk will consider what, if any, radical solidarities may be generated through art’s undisciplined possibilities.

Land of Destiny with Brett Story

Land of Destiny with Brett Story

03/02/2012
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Martin E. Segal Theatre

A hard-working petrochemical town is rocked by revelations that its workers suffer an epidemic of cancers. But even more terrifying is the looming spectre of deindustrialization and joblessness. A portrait of a working-class city in paralysis and a meditation on work and place in the modern economy, Land of Destiny offers an intimate story about work, struggle, and survival.

Cities within the city: do-it-yourself urbanism and the right to the city

Cities within the city: do-it-yourself urbanism and the right to the city

03/02/2012
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Room 5487, CUNY Graduate Center

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a range of micro-spatial urban practices in many cities around the world that are frequently described as ‘do-it-yourself’ urbanism. These practices include actions such as: guerrilla and community gardening; housing and retail co-operatives; flash mobbing and other shock tactics; social economies and bartering schemes; ’empty spaces’ movements to occupy abandoned buildings for a range of purposes; subcultural practices like graffiti/street art, skateboarding and parkour; and more. This paper asks: to what extent do such practices constitute a new form of urban politics that might give birth to a more just and democratic city?

Prabhat Patnaik: Capitalism at an Impasse

Prabhat Patnaik: Capitalism at an Impasse

02/29/2012
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Skylight Conference Room, 9th Floor

Prabhat Patnaik is a renowned Marxist economist and political writer, vice-chairman of the Kerala State Planning Board, and member of a four-person UN task force on the 2008 financial crisis. He taught economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi for over thirty years.

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