Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

A video portrait of Jack Halberstam, So We Moved: A Portrait of Jack Halberstam, is one of the works featured in Adam Pendleton's show at MoMA, "Who Is Queen?," opening Sept 18.
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5225

Halberstam comments on Pendleton's art and the process of having his portrait made in the New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/arts/design/adam-pendleton-moma-who-is-queen.html

Adam Pendleton Is Rethinking the Museum “Who Is Queen?” at MoMA is the artist’s most personal and ambitious show yet, exploring how we might live beyond labels in American society. “I want to overwhelm the museum,” he said.

Frances Negrón-Muntaner wrote about the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s "In the Heights" for The New Yorker

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-generic-latinidad-of-in-the-heights?fbclid=IwAR3bL4dVNDXrICE_tl3xF6ARrAcFi1Zy4CUE459WY4RXVaSN_FG2cjnQEWs

The Generic Latinidad of “In the Heights” The big point of this big film is to seek comfort in the small, but the movie misreads the moment.

Frances Negrón-Muntaner was one of a number of Columbia faculty members, students, and staff who spoke about Indigenous Peoples Day in a video interview with Columbia News. She was also featured in Columbia News during Hispanic Heritage Month.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GlCqUQQdCk

What Is the History of Native American and Indigenous Peoples at Columbia University? This Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we’ve gathered Columbia students, faculty, and staff to reflect on the indigenous history of the land on which the University s...

Colm Tóibín's tenth novel, The Magician, is a portrait of the writer Thomas Mann. He discussed the book, among other topics, with Columbia News, as well as The New Yorker. The Magician has been reviewed in a number of outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Magician/Colm-Toibin/9781476785080

https://news.columbia.edu/news/colm-toibin-new-book-the-magician

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/17/the-magician-by-colm-toibin-review-inside-the-mind-of-thomas-mann

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/books/review-magician-colm-toibin.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/colm-toibins-the-magician-imagines-the-adventurous-life-of-a-literary-great/2021/09/13/ed69ce8e-04db-11ec-8c3f-3526f81b233b_story.html

Review | Colm Toibin’s ‘The Magician’ imagines the adventurous life of a literary great Thomas Mann may have written some very heavy books, but this biographical novel offers a more lighthearted portrait of the German writer.

Jennifer Wenzel spoke on a panel w fellow energy humanities scholars Imre Szeman & Matt Huber for the
Humanities Institute at Duke on the topic, "What Can the Humanities Contribute to the Global Energy Transition?" Read more in the Duke Research Blog https://researchblog.duke.edu/2021/11/04/will-the-humanities-save-the-world/

Will the Humanities Save the World? - Research Blog The bad news about the energy transition, according to Dr. Matthew Huber, is that it’s not happening. At least, not at the scale we need it to. A June report stated that the share of fossil fuels in the world’s total energy mix is still about 80%, as it has been for several decades. “We […]

The Center for Jazz Studies, in collaboration with
Columbia University Office of the President, African American and African Diaspora Studies, English and Comparative Literature,
Core Curriculum, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery and the Heyman Center for the Humanities
Presents:
Such Sweet Thunder: Ellington Plays Shakespeare--Love and Power in Adaptation

A series of public events across the arts inspired by the "tone parallel" between Shakespeare and Duke Ellington

Such Sweet Thunder: A Listening Session

with
Courtney Bryan, Tulane University

Brent Hayes Edwards, Columbia University

Nicole Mitchell, University of Pittsburgh

Renowned composers and instrumentalists Courtney Bryan and Nicole Mitchell will join Professor Brent Hayes Edwards for a live listening session featuring the Duke Ellington Orchestra's 1957 recording of Such Sweet Thunder, sharing some of their favorite sections of Ellington's suite and discussing some of the innovative ways Ellington and his collaborator Billy Strayhorn orchestrated their classic "tone parallel" to Shakespeare.

December 2, 2021 7pm
Hybrid Event
Faculty House 64 Morningside Drive
Register for in-person or virtual attendance

Please note that though this is a public event, in accordance with Columbia University's COVID-19 protocols for public health,

in-person attendance is restricted to Columbia Affiliates ONLY. All other attendees can attend via the event livestream.
Please RSVP for a link to the event livestream and instructions for in-person attendance for Columbia affiliates
To Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/such-sweet-thunder-a-listening-session-registration-198905560887

Such Sweet Thunder: A Listening Session Such Sweet Thunder: A Listening Session with Courtney Bryan, Nicole Mitchell, and Brent Hayes Edwards

It Matters Now: Emergencies and Public Writing
Monday, December 13 | 5:30–6:45 p.m. ET
Featuring Viet Thanh Nguyen, University Professor; Aerol Arnold Chair of English; and Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California
Moderated by Denise Cruz, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University; and Sue Mendelsohn, Director of the Writing Center; Associate Director of First Year Writing, Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
Reading: NYT Opinion Guest Essay, “I Can’t Forget the Lessons of Vietnam. Neither Should You."

https://sps.columbia.edu/columbia-public-writing-series

The Columbia Public Writing Series Distinguished writers discuss the craft and strategy of writing to change minds—and the world. In each session, renowned writers join academic…

Writing Friendly Criticism in a Partisan Age
Wednesday, December 8 | 7:00–8:00 p.m. ET
Featuring Paul Sabin, Professor of History and American Studies, Yale University
Moderated by Nicole Wallack, Director of the Undergraduate Writing Program; Senior Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
Reading: NYT Opinion Guest Essay, “How Liberals Can Attack From the Left—and Win”
https://sps.columbia.edu/events/writing-friendly-criticism-partisan-age

Writing Friendly Criticism in a Partisan Age Featuring Paul Sabin, Professor of History and American Studies, Yale University Moderated by Nicole Wallack, Director of the…

In Case You Missed It: watch the 2021 Lionel Trilling Lecture "The Black Studies Project: 50 Years and Counting" by Dr. Hortense Spillers, with respondents Rich Blint and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, from October 6th, 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjZ-lGoDUQM

The Black Studies Project: 50 Years and Counting October 6, 2021https://sofheyman.org/events/the-black-studies-project-50-years-and-countingBorn in the heat of struggle, the Black Studies movement in the Un...

Critical Race Theory and Writing for the General Reader
Thursday, November 11 | 5:30–6:45 p.m. ET
Featuring Jelani Cobb, Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism, Columbia Journalism School
Moderated by Amy E. Hungerford, Executive Vice President for Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Ruth Fulton Benedict Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University; and Fredrick C. Harris, Professor of Political Science; Dean of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University
Reading: The New Yorker, "The Man Behind Critical Race Theory"
The late legal scholar Derrick Bell is considered to be one of the founding scholars of Critical Race Theory. Columbia University Professor of Journalism Jelani Cobb, a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine, recently published a profile of Professor Bell, examining Professor Bell's work and legacy in the context of heightened public discourse on CRT. On November 11, Professor Cobb will speak about his own work, writing on race, politics, history, and culture, and he will discuss his approach to conveying academic ideas – like Critical Race Theory – while writing for a public audience.

All members of the Columbia community are welcome; Columbia email required for registration. To benefit most from each event, read the featured article in advance, linked on the website, or available upon request. For questions, please contact [email protected].

More information about the Columbia Public Writers series and upcoming events is available here: https://sps.columbia.edu/columbia-public-writing-series

The Columbia Public Writing Series Distinguished writers discuss the craft and strategy of writing to change minds—and the world. In each session, renowned writers join academic…

Modern Language Association: Brent Hayes Edwards
in Conversation
Register for a webinar with Brent Hayes Edwards
Thursday, December 4 2021, 2:00 PM EST

Join us for a virtual conversation with Brent Hayes Edwards, Peng Family Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and editor of PMLA, about his work, his career trajectory, and his plans for PMLA.

Writing on literature and jazz, twentieth-century poetry, translation studies, francophone literature, Black internationalism, archive theory, and much more, Edwards brings an amazing record of interdisciplinary scholarship to his new position as editor of the MLA's flagship journal, PMLA. We'll ask Edwards about what it means to study literature in its culture(s), about the literature of the Black diaspora in its many languages, and about why he is drawn to 1920s and '30s Paris.

Edwards will be in conversation with the host, Paula Krebs, the executive director of the Modern Language Association.

https://webinars.mla.org/registration_form/brent-hayes-edwards-in-conversation/?utm_campaign=webinarbheoct21&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mlaoutreach

Brent Hayes Edwards in Conversation - MLA Webinars Webinars from the Modern Language Association

Division of Humanities Dean Sarah Cole hosts the first New Humanities Faculty Salon of 2021-22, a welcome event for faculty who have joined the Division in the past two academic years. Guests are invited to hear short presentations on new faculty's current research projects, and stay for casual conversation with colleagues. All Humanities faculty and graduate students are welcome to attend.

New Humanities Faculty Salon
Wednesday, November 3, 2021 | 5:00-6:30pm
Society of Fellows / Heyman Center for the Humanities, 2nd Floor Common Room
This event will be in-person only.

The event will be moderated by Sarah Cole and features:
Jerónimo Duarte-Riascos, LAIC
Amy Hungerford, English
Mark Lipovetsky, Slavic
Alan Ross, Classics

Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature
NYU: Center for Black Visual Culture
at the Institute for African American Affairs
a Book Talk with Farah Jasmine Griffin

“Read until you understand” is a line the author’s father, who passed away when she was nine years old, wrote in a note to her. That line is central to this book about love of the majestic power of words and love of the magnificence of Black life. Rooted in the culture of Black genius and the legacy of books from the home library that her father left her, Dr. Griffin explores a lifetime of discoveries which include the ideas that inspired the stunning oratory of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X, the inventive artistry of Romare Bearden, the daring literature of Phillis Wheatley and Toni Morrison, and much more.

Date/Time: October 27; 6:30pm

For more information: https://nyu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gJyAifzNRLyoB2Rh6ppAuQ

Black Aliveness or a Poetics of Being
Columbia University: Institute for Research in African American Studies

IRAAS Conversations Lecture with Kevin Quashie, Saidiya Hartman & Robert Gooding-Williams

In Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being, Kevin Quashie imagines a Black world in which one encounters Black being as it is rather than only as it exists in the shadow of anti-Black violence. As such, he makes a case for Black aliveness even in the face of the persistence of death in Black life and Black study.


Date/Time: November 16; 6:30pm

For more information: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4MiYqnjuQWuKq5K1dCJOXA

UCLA Kanner Lecture Series
A Virtual Discussion on Crisis and Intervention

Tuesday, October 26 at 4:00 p.m. PDT

Online via Zoom:
https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIpdeytqjsiGtEL6PmtHsz-bfjXigy3KkNT
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

What is the work of literature and of literary scholars in helping us understand the crises of our times as well as possible forms of intervention? Join a conversation with Saree Makdisi, Bruce Robbins, and Yogita Goyal to discuss activism in the academy, the role of the public intellectual, and the ongoing legacies of colonialism in contemporary geopolitics.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Kanner Lecture Series. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Saree Makdisi in conversation with Bruce Robbins

The Columbia Public Writing Series

A Series of Introductions: Selected Excerpts from Public Writers
Thursday, October 21 | 5:30–6:45 p.m. ET
Featuring Eric Hayot, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Asian Studies, College of the Liberal Arts, Penn State University
Moderated by Sarah Cole, Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature; Dean of Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University
Reading: A Series of Introductions: Selected Excerpts from Public Writers
We know writing for public-facing venues is different from writing an article or a seminar paper. But how? This is a seminar on the craft of introductions: grabbing your audience in those first few sentences, positioning yourself as a writer, and creating a compelling reading experience. We’ll look at thirteen introductions by twelve different writers, paying attention to style and rhythm, storytelling and exposition, structure and form.

All members of the Columbia community are welcome; Columbia email required for registration. To benefit most from each event, read the featured article in advance, linked on the website, or available upon request. For questions, please contact [email protected].

More information about the Columbia Public Writers series and upcoming events is available here.

https://sps.columbia.edu/columbia-public-writing-series

The Columbia Public Writing Series Distinguished writers discuss the craft and strategy of writing to change minds—and the world. In each session, renowned writers join academic…

The Harlem Renaissance: Yesterday and Today
A talk by Robert G. O'Meally

Survey the the Harlem Renaissance (often called the New Negro Movement) and explore when, where, and how it began. Learn about its main proponents and accomplishments; when it ended and what was next in Black cultural history. To emphasize the point that the Renaissance comprised a tidal shift in Black consciousness, not only in poetry and the visual arts, not only among the elite, not only in Harlem or major cities, not only the United States, we will focus on three figures: Josephine Baker, Jack Johnson, and Duke Ellington. We also will consider three important framings of the Harlem Renaissance by modern/contemporary artists: Toni Morrison, August Wilson, and Isabel Wilkerson. Is the earth-shaking Black Lives Matter movement an extension of the early 20th century Harlem Renaissance?

Thursday October 14, 2021 6:30pm

For more information about this event and to purchase tickets, https://hillwoodmuseum.org/livestream-lecture-harlem-renaissance-yesterday-and-today

Livestream Lecture | The Harlem Renaissance: Yesterday and Today | Hillwood Estate, Museum and Garden Survey the the Harlem Renaissance (often called the New Negro Movement) and explore when, where, and how it began. Learn about its main proponents and accomplishments; when it ended and what was next in Black cultural history. To emphasize the point that the Renaissance comprised a tidal shift in Bl...

Black Aliveness or a Poetics of Being
Columbia University: Institute for Research in African American Studies

IRAAS Conversations Lecture with Kevin Quashie, Saidiya Hartman & Robert Gooding-Williams

In Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being, Kevin Quashie imagines a Black world in which one encounters Black being as it is rather than only as it exists in the shadow of anti-Black violence. As such, he makes a case for Black aliveness even in the face of the persistence of death in Black life and Black study.


Date/Time: November 16; 6:30pm

https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4MiYqnjuQWuKq5K1dCJOXA

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: IRAAS Conversations Lecture -Kevin Quashie, Saidiya Hartman & Robert Gooding-Williams. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. in Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being, Kevin Quashie imagines a Black world in which one encounters Black being as it is rather than only as it exists in the shadow of anti-Black violence. As such, he makes a case for Black aliveness even in the face of the persistence of death in Black life and...

Zip Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair Launch: Reparative Memory
PUBLIC HUMANITIES
October 14, 2021 Thursday, 6:30pm EDT
Virtual Event

https://sofheyman.org/events/zip-code-memory-project-practices-of-justice-and-repair-launch-reparative-memory

Michael Arad, Susan Meiselas, Doris Salcedo, Hank Willis Thomas, Mabel O. Wilson, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Introduced by Marianne Hirsch and Diana Taylor, co-directors of the Zip Code Memory Project. Moderated by Carol Becker, Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts.

How can the devastating but radically disproportionate losses caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic be memorialized? While acknowledging the social inequities and injustices the pandemic has exposed, might local memories of loss and neglect be transformed into a practice of justice and collective healing? What aesthetic memorial forms and strategies of engagement best foster the work of Repair?

This roundtable will approach the urgency of such challenges in conversations between noted artists who have responded to histories of violence and loss in vastly different geo-political contexts. Their visionary memorial projects have mobilized painful memories, leaving space both for mourning and for imagining potential futures.

Each of these artists will discuss one project, sharing their process and the challenges faced in creating communities of memory.

This will be the first in a series of conversations on “Reparative Memory” in conjunction with Columbia University School of the Art’s theme of “Repair” and the Zip Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair based at the Center for the Study of Social Difference.

Zip Code Memory Project: Practices of Justice and Repair Launch: Reparative Memory | Event Michael Arad , Susan Meiselas , Doris Salcedo , Hank Willis Thomas , Mabel O. Wilson , Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Introduced by Marianne Hirsch and Diana Taylor , co-directors of the Zip Code Memory Project. Moderated by Carol Becker , Dean of Columbia University…

Please join us Thursday, October 14th, 6:30PM EST for a virtual Roundtable on Reparative Memory featuring Michael Arad, Susan Meiselas, Doris Salcedo, Hank Willis Thomas and Mabel Wilson. Introduced by Marianne Hirsch and Diana Taylor, co-directors of the Zip Code Memory Project. Moderated by Carol Becker, Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts. RSVP at the link here: https://www.showclix.com/event/reparative-memory-roundtable

Reparative Memory Tickets for Reparative Memory from ShowClix.

Please join us!

Emily Sun: Celebrating Barnard Authors
Thursday, October 7th
@ 6:00pm

WEBINAR INFORMATION
https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/s/93313668327
Passcode: CompLit21

Panelists will discuss Emily Sun's new book,
On the Horizon of World Literature: Forms of Modernity in Romantic England and Republican China

Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Online Meetings, Screen Sharing - Zoom Zoom unifies cloud video conferencing, simple online meetings, and cross platform group chat into one easy-to-use platform. Our solution offers the best video, audio, and screen-sharing experience across Zoom Rooms, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and H.323/SIP room systems.

Sarah Cole's Inventing Tomorrow: H.G. Wells and the Twentieth Century was runner-up for the 2021 Distinguished Book Award from Columbia University Press. The award, sponsored by the Office of the Provost, honors books written by Columbia faculty members that bring the most distinction to the Press and the University.

Cole was also a finalist for a 2021 Locus Award in Non-Fiction for Inventing Tomorrow. The Locus Awards are presented by the Locus Science Fiction Foundation to honor excellence in literary science fiction and fantasy publishing.

Cole discussed Wells's The Time Machine on the podcast Writ Large.

Professor Dennis Yi Tenen was featured in WalletHub's recent piece about States that Vaccinate the Most. You can find it here: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-that-vaccinate-the-most/66237 =Dennis_Yi_Tenen

2021's States that Vaccinate the Most 2021's States that Vaccinate the MostAdam McCann, Financial WriterSep 13, 2021Adam McCann, Financial Writer Sep 13, 2021 Vaccinations are some of the most valuable contributions to modern medicine. They have drastically reduced the prevalence of certain diseases, including polio, tetanus, measles an...

Congratulations to Shana Redmond! Everything Man won the Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Award for Criticism, a special citation of the American Book Awards from the Before Columbus Foundation. Read the introduction to the book here: http://ow.ly/7Z6J50FXlnR

www.dukeupress.edu

Antagonistic Cooperation: Romare Bearden's New Paris Blues

Thursday, June 3rd at 6:30 PM (ET), the Wildenstein Plattner Institute will welcome Robert O’Meally, the Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and founder of the Center for Jazz Studies. Professor O’Meally will explore Bearden’s New Paris Blues, an unfinished project that spanned media, cities, and artistic circles.

Join us as we explore this exclusive and elusive series in Romare Bearden’s oeuvre.
https://wpi.art/2021/04/05/antagonistic-collaboration-romare-beardens-new-paris-blues/

Antagonistic Collaboration: Romare Bearden’s New Paris Blues The Wildenstein Plattner Institute is proud to host Robert O’Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and founder of the Center for Jazz Studies. Professor O’Meally, the author of Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, will explore Bearden’s....

Tonight!

White Freedom: the Racial History of an Idea Tyler Stovall, with Brent Edwards, Robert Gooding-Williams, and Madeleine Dobie
The era of the Enlightenment, which gave rise to our modern conceptions of freedom and democracy, was also the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. America, a nation founded on the principle of liberty, is also a nation built on African slavery, Native American genocide, and systematic racial discrimination. White Freedom (Princeton University Press, 2020) traces the complex relationship between freedom and race from the eighteenth century to today, revealing how being free has meant being white.

May 10, 2021 06:30 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Branka Arsiç has been elected a Class of 1932 Princeton Humanities Council Fellow.

Farah Griffin has been named one of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellows of 2021!
https://t.co/m38MWQ7MeK?amp=1

John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Farah Jasmine Griffin Farah Jasmine Griffin has published widely on issues of race and gender, feminism, jazz and cultural politics. She has written or co-edited eight works of criticism and non-fiction including Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War I (2013); If You Can't Be Free, Be a...

Dustin Stewart has won ASECS’ Louis Gottschalk Prize, which recognizes an outstanding historical or critical study on the eighteenth century, for his book Futures of Enlightenment Poetry.

Sarah Cole, current Dean of Humanities, Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature, has been reappointed to the deanship from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2023!