- urbanstudiescircular@lists.qc.cuny.edu

[UrbanStudiesCircular] Feb 5 - May 1: Laura Poitras: Astro Noise
by urbanstudiescircular＠lists.qc.cuny.edu 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

LAURA POITRAS: ASTRO NOISE FEB 5-MAY 1, 2016 Whitney Museum of American Art 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY More info and tickets: http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/LauraPoitras? Laura Poitras: Astro Noise is the first solo museum exhibition by artist, filmmaker, and journalist Laura Poitras. This immersive installation of new work builds on topics important to Poitras, including mass surveillance, the war on terror, the U.S. drone program, Guantánamo Bay Prison, occupation, and torture. Some of these issues have been investigated in her films, including Citizenfour, which won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary, and in her reporting, which was awarded a 2014 Pulitzer Prize. For the exhibition, Poitras is creating an interrelated series of installations in the Whitney's eighth-floor Hurst Family Galleries. The exhibition expands on her project to document post-9/11 America, engaging visitors in formats outside her non-fiction filmmaking. Instead she will create immersive environments that incorporate documentary footage, architectural interventions, primary documents, and narrative structures to invite visitors to interact with the material in strikingly intimate and direct ways. The title, Astro Noise, refers to the faint background disturbance of thermal radiation left over from the Big Bang and is the name Edward Snowden gave to an encrypted file containing evidence of mass surveillance by the National Security Agency that he shared with Poitras in 2013. The Snowden archive partially inspired Poitras's presentation at the Whitney.?

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[UrbanStudiesCircular] Feb 18: Pollutants in Coastal Waters: Inputs, Impacts, and Solutions
by urbanstudiescircular＠lists.qc.cuny.edu 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

Doctoral Program in Earth and Environmental Sciences Presents Spring 2016 Colloquium Series February 18, 2015 5:30 PM Followed by a reception Jennifer Cherrier - Brooklyn College "Pollutants in Coastal Waters: Inputs, Impacts, and Solutions" Graduate Center, Room 4102 | 365 Fifth Avenue

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[UrbanStudiesCircular] Feb 19: The Road From Paris: The Future of Climate Change Adaptation
by urbanstudiescircular＠lists.qc.cuny.edu 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

PSPD Spring 2016 Lecture Series: The Road From Paris: Debrief + Friday, Feb 19, 2016 5:30 PM-8:00 PM Location: Pratt Manhattan, 144 West 14th Street Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development (PSPD) presents the Spring 2016 Lecture Series, "The Road From Paris: The Future of Climate Change Adaptation." Debrief + This session will focus on the outcomes of the Paris talks. What was achieved and what was not achieved? What will the impact be on cities and regions? In particular, what do the agreements mean for communities that are comprised of low-income people, as well as emerging economies and nations struggling to overcome colonialism? Ghislaine Hermanuz, United Nations Huairou Commission; Hermanuz, Ltd. (Planning, Architecture, Urban Design) Jeffrey Raven, Graduate Program in Urban & Regional Design at New York Institute of Technology; AIANY Planning and Urban Design Committee Andrew Revkin, Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies; The New York Times Dot Earth blog Kellie Terry, Sustainable Communities Program at The Surdna Foundation Ron Shiffman, moderator Pratt Institute Professor Emeritus Ronald Shiffman (FAICP, Hon. AIA) hosts academics, planners, policymakers, and activists in a series of public discussions on the outcomes of the Paris 2015 Climate Conference and the implications for grassroots organizations and frontline communities. What were the Conference's accomplishments and failures? How do we implement the Conference's highest aspirations? And how do we move forward to address its shortfalls? The lecture series is by Pratt PSPD, Rebuild by Design, Planners Network, Social Science Research Institute at Farmingdale State College SUNY, The Murphy Institute at CUNY, and is free and open to the public.

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[UrbanStudiesCircular] Feb 17: Speaking Truth to Power: A Panel on Academic Freedoms and the War Against Kurds in Turkey
by urbanstudiescircular＠lists.qc.cuny.edu 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

Speaking Truth to Power: A Panel on Academic Freedoms and the War Against Kurds in Turkey Wednesday, February 17th 6:00-8:00 pm | Room C203/C204/C205 A panel discussion featuring David Harvey (The Graduate Center, CUNY) Nazan Üstündağ (Boğaziçi University),Aslı Iğsız (New York University), and Kamal Soleimani, moderated by Anthony Alessandrini (The Graduate Center, CUNY and Kingsborough Community College. This event will be live streamed. Please visit: http://videostreaming.gc.cuny.edu. *Co-sponsored by Middle Easter Studies Org (MESO); MEMEAC; Department of Anthropology Following the June 2015 general elections, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) renewed the state’s forty-year-long war against Kurds. This move ended the peace negotiations that had been taking place between the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and the government since 2013. The resurgence of the war has led to increasing ultranationalist rhetoric in the media, public shaming of dissidents, and persecution of Kurdish and leftist politicians, further curtailing the already-limited political freedoms and basic rights in the country. Since August 16, 2015, the government has been imposing indefinite curfews in seven Kurdish-populated cities in Turkey. The curfews and clashes have resulted in the deaths of at least 198 civilians, while hundreds of thousands have been forced to migrate. On January 10th, 1,128 academics released a peace petition condemning the Turkish state’s acts and declared that they “will not be a party to this crime.” The statement quickly went viral, mostly due to President Erdogan’s open targeting of the signatories by declaring them “traitors.” In less than two hours following Erdogan’s speech, the Turkish Higher Education Council announced that it would launch an investigation against those signatories who are affiliated with Turkish higher education and research institutions. Since then, academics who signed the petition have been publicly targeted, criminalized, and fired from their positions in universities. Despite increasing pressure from the government, media, and judiciary, the peace petition’s signatures had increased to 2,279 by January 20th. This panel sheds light upon the ongoing attacks against academic freedoms and freedom of speech in Turkey. Perhaps more importantly, it also intends to publicize the current war in Kurdish cities and unmask the atrocities committed by the Turkish state — the original intent of the Turkish academics’ peace petition. Organized by the Middle Eastern Studies Organization (MESO) Co-Sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the Middle East & Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC). Nazan Üstündağ is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Boğaziçi University. She received her PhD from Indiana University. Her interests include theories of modernity and postcoloniality, feminist studies, ethnography of the state, state and violence and resistance. Currently, she is working on a book manuscript on how state violence has been inscribed on the things, spaces, bodies, as well as visual and written documents in and on Kurdistan. Besides her academic interests, she also writes in political journals and newspapers. She is a founding member of the Peace Parliament and Academics for Peace, as well as a member of Women for Peace. David Harvey is a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY); Director of The Center for Place, Culture and Politics; and author of numerous books. Harvey earned his Ph.D. from Cambridge University, was formerly professor of geography at Johns Hopkins, a Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics, and Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at Oxford. His highly influential books include The New Imperialism; Paris, Capital of Modernity; Social Justice and the City; Limits to Capital; The Urbanization of Capital; The Condition of Postmodernity; Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference; Spaces of Hope; and Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. Aslı Iğsız is Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. Iğsız earned her PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan (2007). Her publications span a variety of issues that include the politics of memory; nation branding; liberal multiculturalism; alliance of civilizations and image wars; law, neoliberalism, and the Gezi Park Protests in Turkey. Her current book project, Humanism in Ruins: Liberal Multiculturalism, Memory, and the 1923 Greek-Turkish Population Exchange in Contemporary Turkey, examines the implications of diversity and cultural memory as a mode of humanism in the post-Cold War and the post 1980 military-coup era. Iğsız’s new project explores place branding, image, and discourses of civilization with regards to the Middle East. Kamal Soleimani received his PhD from the department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University (2014). Until recently, he worked as an Assistant Professor at Mardin Artuklu University (MAU), Turkey. Soleimani was one of the 14 international scholars who were fired by the MAU administration. Soleimani’s book on Islam and nationalism in the Middle East will be out in April 2016. Anthony Alessandrini is a Professor of English at Kingsborough Community College and the MA Program in Middle Eastern Studies at The CUNY Graduate Center, where he is also a member of the Committee on Globalization and Social Change. Alessandrini received his Ph.D. in English at Rutgers University (2000). He is the author of Frantz Fanon and the Future of Cultural Politics: Finding Something Different; the editor of Frantz Fanon: Critical Perspectives; and the co-editor of the JadMag special issue “Resistance Everywhere”: The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey. He is a member of the faculty of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, and is a Co-Editor of Jadaliyya E-Zine.??

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[UrbanStudiesCircular] Feb 11: Power and Planning in the Ancient Maya City
by urbanstudiescircular＠lists.qc.cuny.edu 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

The Pre-Columbian Society of New York invites you to join us for our February Lecture: Timothy Pugh (Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, Queens College, CUNY) Power and Planning in the Ancient Maya City Thursday, February 11, 2016 6:00 PM in the Lecture Hall The Institute of Fine Arts 1 East 78th Street Planned city grids, typically associated with strong central (state) control, were rare in ancient Mesoamerica, and, until now, unknown among the lowland Maya. Yet the site of Nixtun-Ch'ich' on the western shore of Lake Petén Itzá, in Petén, northern Guatemala, exhibits a clear grid, which new data suggest was constructed between 400 and 200 BC. During this period, states, kingship, and cities were coming into being in the Maya lowlands, accompanied by complex forms of administration for a growing and increasingly diverse and stratified population. One wonders about the power dynamics necessary to "rationalize" the landscape in such a novel and imposing matter in an area where such organization was unheard of and far from traditional. One might also consider how such overt manipulations of space by elites (strategies) were received by the general population (tactics). This talk traces the organization of Nixtun-Ch'ich' from the implementation of the highly regulated cityscape to its abandonment at the end of the Late Preclassic period (ca. AD 200).? (Please note that seating in the Lecture Hall is on a first-come, first-served basis with RSVP<mailto:info@pcsny.org?subject=RSVP%2C%20Feb.%2011th%20Lecture>. There will be a simulcast in an adjacent room to accommodate overflow. Latecomers are not guaranteed a seat.) Followed by a reception with wine and cheese in the Loeb Room?

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[UrbanStudiesCircular] Marcella Bencivenni: US Anticommunism & Espionage: Case of Carl Marzani
by urbanstudiescircular＠lists.qc.cuny.edu 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

Marcella Bencivenni: US Anticommunism & Espionage: Case of Carl Marzani The Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue, Room 5318 February 25, 4:30 - 6:30 PM Description This paper examines the case of Carl Marzani, one of the first political victims of the Cold War. A former employee of the Office of Strategic Services (wartime precursor to the CIA), Marzani was charged with hiding his past communist affiliations to keep his government job and was sentenced to three years in jail. His case went to the Supreme Court twice, but both times deliberations ended in a tie vote, therefore upholding his conviction. The Marzani case illustrates a highly charged debate about the history of American communism and Soviet espionage that has exploded in the last two decades as a result of recently declassified documents, most notably the "Venona files" and the KGB and CIA archives. Marcella Bencivenni: A native Italian and CUNY Graduate Center alumna, Marcella Bencivenni is Associate Professor of History at Hostos Community College/CUNY, where she has been teaching since 2004. Her research focuses on the histories of im/migration, labor, and social movements in the modern United States, with a particular interest in the Italian American experience. She is the author of Italian Immigrant Radical Culture: The Idealism of the Sovversivi in the United States, 1890-1940 (2011, repr. 2014), and co-editor of Radical Perspectives on Immigration (2008). She has also published over a dozen book chapters, articles and historiographical essays on topics related to the Italian diaspora and American radicalism and was recently featured in the Grammy-nominated TV show "Who Do You Think You Are?" helping Italian American actress Valerie Bertinelli trace her past. Marcella is currently working on two new projects: she is editing the autobiography of leftwing activist Carl Marzani, who became the first political victim of McCarthyism, and has also started a new book tentatively titled Italian Immigration, the Triangle Fire and the Politics of Memory for which she received a Chancellor Research Award for the 2014-2015 academic year and a Distinguished CUNY Fellowship for the Spring 2016. Sponsor: Advanced Research Collaborative More info: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Public-Programming/Calendar/Detail?id=34711

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[UrbanStudiesCircular] Feb 23: Migrant Labour in China: A Post-Socialist Transformation
by urbanstudiescircular＠lists.qc.cuny.edu 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

?Migrant Labor in China: A Post-Socialist Transformation Join us for an important discussion with Pun Ngai, author ofMigrant Labor in China, forthcoming in 2016 from Polity Press, moderated by Ruth Milkman, Research Director, Murphy Institute. February 23, 6:30 - 8:30 PM The Murphy Institute 25 West 43rd Street, 18th floor RSVP and more info: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/migrant-labour-in-china-a-post-socialist-trans… Long known as the world's factory, China is the largest manufacturing economy ever seen, accounting for more than 10% of global exports. China is also, of course, home to the largest workforce on the planet, the crucial element behind its staggering economic success. But who are China's workers who keep the machine running, and how is the labour process changing under economic reform? Pun Ngai received a PhD from the School of Oriental and African studies at the University of London in 1998. She is currently a professor in the social science department at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She has written extensively about labor and gender issues in China. Her book MADE IN CHINA: WOMEN FACTORY WORKERS IN A GLOBAL WORKPLACE was the winner of the C. Wright Mills Award in 2006.

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[UrbanStudiesCircular] Feb 18: Charlotte Brooks: Chinese American Citizens in China's Treaty Ports
by urbanstudiescircular＠lists.qc.cuny.edu 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

Charlotte Brooks: Chinese American Citizens in China's Treaty Ports The Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue, Room 5318 February 18, 4:30 - 6:30 PM? Description The tension between formal citizenship status and actual "belonging" shaped the lives of Chinese American citizens in Republican China. In the most basic sense, legal complications abounded for people of Chinese ancestry who "returned" to China. US law recognized ethnic Chinese born on American soil as citizens, but the status of Chinese Americans who left the United States sparked intense debates within the US State Department about the degree of assistance and protection they, and all American citizens abroad, merited. Many US officials for racial reasons discounted Chinese American citizens' demands on the state, while Chinese governments after the turn of the 20th century contended that all children of Chinese fathers were themselves Chinese citizens. Until World War II, American citizens also enjoyed extraterritoriality in China, and Chinese Americans often sought refuge in their US citizenship at times of political and social upheaval. The legal status of Chinese Americans thus provoked constant disputes among American officials and between the US and China, reflecting not just different citizenship laws but also the growing anti-imperialist movement in Asia. Charlotte Brooks is Professor of History and Chair of the Program in Asian and Asian American Studies at Baruch College, CUNY. Her research interests include 20th century America, Republican China, Sino-American relations, transnationalism, urban history, immigration, race, and politics. She is the author of Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends: Asian Americans, Housing, and the Transformation of Urban California and Between Mao and McCarthy: Chinese American Politics in the Cold War Years, as well as numerous articles. Currently, she is writing a book about the thousands of Chinese American citizens who left the United States to settle in China in the first of the 20th century. She received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2002. Sponsor: Advanced Research Collaborative More info: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Public-Programming/Calendar/Detail?id=34710

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[UrbanStudiesCircular] Feb 11: ICE-FREE NYC meeting
by urbanstudiescircular＠lists.qc.cuny.edu 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

ICE-FREE NYC - A Campaign to End All Collaboration with ICE Dear Friends, Join ICE-FREE NYC at our next meeting, on Thursday, February 11th at 7PM at Families for Freedom (35 W. 31st Street, #702, New York, 10001). After two great mobilizations, we are developing a rapid response system to protect New Yorkers and our families caught in home raids and supporting efforts in local boroughs. We will be selecting individuals who would like to be part of the coordinating committee and representatives of work going on in the outer boroughs. Join us to plan our next steps! Please be on time. In Solidarity, ICE-FREE NYC More info: http://us8.campaign-archive2.com/?u=b5082bf0b99490377ff58bb9e&id=e6f79a355b…

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[UrbanStudiesCircular] Documentary Series on Urban Studies and Film Screening at Van Alen, 2/17
by urbanstudiescircular＠lists.qc.cuny.edu 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

From: "Van Alen Institute" <vai(a)vanalen.org<mailto:vai@vanalen.org>> Date: February 3, 2016 at 10:29:52 PM GMT+1 To: <brian.t.rosa(a)gmail.com<mailto:brian.t.rosa@gmail.com>> Subject: Van Alen Institute, The Atlantic, and CityLab Launch Van Alen Sessions Reply-To: vai(a)vanalen.org<mailto:vai@vanalen.org> [https://staticapp.icpsc.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/1459655/aceb91c3b2a2bf…] Van Alen Institute, The Atlantic, and CityLab Launch Van Alen Sessions [https://www.vanalen.org/content/uploads/2016/02/VanAlenSessions-Intro-webv2…] We're thrilled to share the launch of Van Alen Sessions, a short-documentary series presented with The Atlantic<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=25663144&msgid=165419&act=ZJZD&c=…> and CityLab<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=25663144&msgid=165419&act=ZJZD&c=…>! Season One: "Tunnel Vision," directed by Kelly Loudenberg, takes viewers on revealing trips through the internal workings of three cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Each episode explores what it takes to create the transit networks that shape our routines and relationships, and presents expert analysis alongside the experiences of ordinary people. Watch the first episode<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=25663144&msgid=165419&act=ZJZD&c=…> on the $20 billion Gateway Project now. The video offers new vantage points into ongoing tunnel construction, offset with first-hand accounts from New Jersey Transit and Amtrak commuters. Interviews with Petra Messick (Amtrak) and Tom Wright (Regional Plan Association) provide insight into the current transportation crisis' roots in outdated infrastructure and the deterioration caused by Hurricane Sandy. Join Us! | Screening | Feb. 17[https://staticapp.icpsc.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/1459655/e4144203323… Come raise a glass at Van Alen's Flatiron hub, where we'll project all three episodes from Season One of Van Alen Sessions on loop, so attendees are welcome to drop in, catch an episode, and meet the team behind the project. REGISTER<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=25663144&msgid=165419&act=ZJZD&c=…> Van Alen Sessions is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Van Alen Institute 30 West 22nd St. New York, NY 10010 212 924 7000<tel:212%20924%207000> vanalen.org Support Van Alen<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=25663144&msgid=165419&act=ZJZD&c=…> [Twitter]<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=25663144&msgid=165419&act=ZJZD&c=…> [Facebook] <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=25663144&msgid=165419&act=ZJZD&c=…> [Instagram] <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=25663144&msgid=165419&act=ZJZD&c=…> [https://staticapp.icpsc.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/1459655/e80d4be4be896b…]

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