Thirteen Forum

Home Delivery: The Cases of Japan and Scandinavia

witt — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:54:38 +0000

The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, surveys the past, present and future of the prefabricated home. This panel focuses on two quintessential prefab hubs, Japan and the Nordic countries. Ken Tadashi Oshima, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Washington, speaks on the potentials of prefab in Japan, a country where the marketing of homes is similar to the marketing of cars. Rasmus Waern, Swedish architect and architectural historian, speaks on prefab as a model of society in the Nordic countries. A panel discussion is then moderated by Peter Christensen, curatorial assistant in the MoMA Architecture & Design department. This event was held by MoMA and by The Architectural League of New York. The Home Delivery exhibition is up through October 20, 2008.

China’s Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges

witt — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:23:14 +0000

When Beijing first sought to host the Olympics, China was still recovering from the upheavals of Maoist rule and adapting to a market revolution. Today, in a time of rapid transition in China, human rights have emerged as a central concern around the 2008 Beijing Olympics. How are China’s leaders managing the Olympic process and the internal and external pressures for reform? How are protest groups and the government expected to act in August? Panelists include Minky Worden, Media Director, Human Rights Watch; Emily Parker, Assistant Editorial Features Editor, Wall Street Journal; and R. Scott Greathead, CEO, World Monitors Inc. This event was moderated by Jamie Metzl, Executive Vice President, Asia Society, and was held at the Asia Society.

From Soundbites to Solutions Part Two: How the Media Influence and Reflect Political Realities

witt — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:38:08 +0000

The 2008 presidential primaries brought race, gender and age issues to the front page, whether warranted or not. This second of two panels focuses on the roles and responsibilities of both the media and the public, in how they both react to and shape the political climate. Panelists include Christian Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent in New York; William Douglas, White House Correspondent for McClatchy; Juan Gonzalez, staff columnist for the New York Daily News since 1987 and co-host of Democracy Now; Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of Communication and Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania; Pamela Newkirk, associate professor of journalism at New York University and author of Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media (2000) and; Geneva Overholser, director of the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California. This event was held by the Women’s Media Center, in cooperation with The White House Project and the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (MIJE).

From Soundbites to Solutions Part One: Candidates, Campaigns and the Politics of Bias

witt — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:29:28 +0000

The 2008 presidential primaries brought race, gender and age issues to the front page, whether warranted or not. In public and in private, Americans hashed out what an election should and could look like, and in what ways this one fell short. This first of two panels focuses on the problems, realities and conundrums faced by both the candidates and the voters. Panelists include Susan J. Carroll, author of Gender and Elections (2006); Callie Crossley, journalist; Celinda Lake, pollster and strategist for Democrats and progressives; Courtney E. Martin, columnist for The American Prospect; Dr. Ronald Walters, author of Freedom is not Enough: Black Voters, Black Candidates and American Presidential Politics, (2005) and; Patricia J. Williams, law professor at Columbia University and columnist for The Nation. This event was held by the Women’s Media Center, in cooperation with The White House Project and the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (MIJE).

Opposites Attract: Ed Fella & Post Typography

witt — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:52:39 +0000

Ed Fella worked as a commercial graphic designer for thirty years in Detroit, and is famed for his contribution to contemporary typography. Post Typography, consisting of Nolen Strals and Bruce Willen, was founded in 2001 as “an avant garde anti-design movement” specializing in “graphic design, conceptual typography, and custom lettering/illustration with additional forays into art, apparel, music, curatorial work, design theory, and vandalism.” Hear Ed Fella and Post Typography discuss the history of graphic design, the impetus for their works, their differences in style and approach, and, eventually, their similarities. This event was held at ADC Gallery in conjunction with UnderConsideration.

The Impact of Listening and Being Heard

witt — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:57:06 +0000

For some veterans it takes years before they choose to speak about their war experiences. And some veterans never do. What happens when veterans finally share their stories? How does it feel to be heard? And how are we, as listeners, affected? This discussion is moderated by Philip Napoli, curator of the oral history exhibit “In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn’s Vietnam Veterans,” at the Brooklyn Historical Society; and by Amy Starecheski, author of Telling Lives: Oral History Curriculum Guide. Participants include Dr. Herbert H. Stein, Director of the PTSD Clinical Team at the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in Brooklyn; Vietnam nurse Joan Fury, and; Vietnam veterans Neil Kenny, Rudy Thomas, Tony Velez and Tony Wallace. This event was held at the Brooklyn Historical Society, where the exhibit, “In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn’s Vietnam Veterans”, features these panelists and will be up through Spring 2009.

Bums, Slummers and Swells—Social Class And The Birth Of American Popular Culture On The Lower East Side, 1820-1855

witt — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:44:58 +0000

The development of the “underclass” in American life and the simultaneous beginnings of what we now call pop culture both date back to the Lower East Side of nearly two centuries ago. In the early 19th century, the Five Points, a tiny area near today’s Chinatown, became America’s first slum. The pastimes and diversions of Five Pointers — their “flash” talk, music, gang violence, and sensational theatre — became part of America’s social bedrock. Warren Shaw, historian, traces the roots of American pop culture — from slang and comic books to Hollywood action blockbusters, from rap to rock’n roll and tap dancing — back to Five Points, the very location from which he delivers this talk. This event was held by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

FDR and the New Deal

edgertonr — Tue, 27 May 2008 22:09:54 +0000

The late Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the great scholar of the New Deal, liked to talk about how the best historians know that history is “an argument without end.” Now a new generation of authors has taken up that argument, and it’s as controversial as ever.

Join columnists Amity Shlaes and Jonathan Alter as they square off with strikingly different interpretations of the New Deal and its meaning for both Election 2008 and the country’s future.

Shlaes is the author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (2007), and a columnist for Bloomberg; Alter is the author of The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope and a senior editor for Newsweek.

This event was held by the New-York Historical Society.

Reflections on Citizen Movements: Peace and Politics in the U.S and Japan

witt — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:29:12 +0000

Nonviolent citizen movements for peace, environmental change, and social justice in both the U.S. and Japan have caused social and political change in both nations. Leading American social activist and former California State Senator Tom Hayden and James Orr, Chair of the Department of East Asian Studies at Bucknell University and author of The Victim as Hero: Ideologies of Peace and National Identity in Postwar Japan (2001) discuss the manner in which citizens of both nations have utilized strategies of nonviolence to effect social change. Then a conversation between them and the audience is moderated by Amy Goodman co-founder, executive producer and host of Democracy Now! This event was held at the Japan Society as part of a series of Satyagraha Forums.

Janet Browne on Charles Darwin

edgertonr — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:25:26 +0000

Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, speaks about Charles Darwin in the context of his place and time. She focuses particularly on his personal finances and what they tell us about his habits and inclinations.

She is the author of a two-part biography of Darwin, Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, which recently won both the National Book Critics Circle Prize and the Heinemann Award.

This event was presented by the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program as part of the MALS Bioethics, Science, and Society Lecture Series at the CUNY Graduate Center.