NYUAD17

I: Teaching. II: collaborative/guest teaching. III. Guest Scholars.

I. Teaching Dignityindignity Fall 2017: Dignity Indignity Course.

The second iteration of the course took advantage of two events in Abu Dhabi to connect students to the living legacies and contemporary implications of the dignity discourse in the arts and in bioethics fields: the opening of Louvre in November, and the preparations for the hosting of Special Olympics. Ten days before the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Daphne Blouet and Louise Delestere presented their work on a)visitor experience, b)audience management, as well as c) arts commissioning process at LouvreAD. They addressed the educational role, ethics of accessibility, and the high anxiety about the functionality of the one billion dollar museum in the middle of a desert island. Students could appreciate the sense of relief experienced by the museum staff in the post-opening days; 16,000 people visited the museum only in the first two days.

daphe — Audience engagement with Daphne and Louise 10 days before LAD opening.

This fall we probed further and deeper into policies and practices relating to bioethics, specifically disability and end of life care. Hobbes and Kant introduced the students to the philosophic grounds of free-choice and autonomy which are the foundations of Euthanasia laws in Belgium and elsewhere, Guest speakers, Ann Neumann, journalist, hospice volunteer, and the author of The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America (2017) joined us from Brooklyn joined us via Skype.

Ann Neuman — Ann Nuemann, Author of “The Good Death” 2017

The discussion of dignity as autonomy as applied in bioethics continued in the next important section on disability. The philosopher of law, Jeremy Waldron attempts to define or approach a definition of ‘human dignity’ from the condition of radically disabled. The profoundly disabled, he concludes guarantee human dignity. We examined the theoretical formulation through case studies in Belgium. A skype presentation by Nilofar Niazi from who is the Founder of Trainm, a foundation/rehat center in Antwerp. Discussing her reasons for and legal challenges in creating Trainm, she addressed the legal framework which ensures equal access to health care, new technologies, and the model of public-private partnership she finally adopted. The case of the disabled Belgian paralympian whose support of Euthanasia laws are controversial (see below) by juxtaposing the two topics, allowed us to discuss the notion of free-will, autonomy in a complex and nuanced way.

Two guest speakers returned to our class after last year’s productive collaboration. Francesca Bizzari, workshopped Baudelaire’s ‘loss of halo’ through a Commedia dell’ Arte exercise.

clown

And John Wooders professor of economics, for a discussion of the difference between the methods of economists and humanities in approaching the question of the moral ‘limits’ of or ‘constraints’ on the market. This section ended the course with a rich discussion on the ways in which the market utilizes inadequate notions of ‘free-choice” and “autonomy.” Students had the opportunity to put to practice their understanding, which is fundamental to mapping out contemporary political discourse. In one exchange, John asked, “how do we know that previous systems, i.e. pre-capitalist societies were coercion-free?” in response to a remark about the ways the ‘free choice’ is often compromised by coercion in the market. A student offered that that question is not germane to the critique of the market, because the market mechanism is the only system that assumes and then grounds itself on the notion of the “free individual choice”. In another exchange, one student (Aya) critiqued Roth’s implicit assumption that the market mechanism is neutral, and that the market does not play a role in changing values, the very “repugnancies” that it wants to measure and bring into its design. Freshman students had become familiar and skilled in the work of ‘critique’: to understand the ‘grounds’ of a discourse, and to critique it on its own terms, during a live discussion with a distinguished economist

John Wooders Dec 2017

II: Collaborative Teaching.

I gave four guest-lectures in colleague’s classes in NYUAD this fall.

Gregor Stemmrich. I presented my current research, Medici Oriental Press at Gregor’s Foundations of Art History. Excerpt from full report Report-mahnaz (2) Gregor: “The invitation was planned at the beginning of the semester (at Core Orientation meeting) and was related to previous discussions in class of Hans Belting’s book Florence and Baghdad as well as discussions of the role of portraits in Islamic cultures. Professor Yousefzadeh’s presentation contributed immensely to enhancing the scope of relevant considerations related to the issues involved. Although Belting had made it clear that Arab science, especially Alhazen’s treatise on the mathematics that relate to rays of light, was known in Florence at the time when the perspective pictorial space was invented, he did little to elucidate the ongoing cross-cultural encounters between Italy (and Europe in general) and – predominantly – Muslim cultures. Professor Yousefzadeh’s intense research (whose results are going to be published in the very near future) made it possible to elucidate such encounters in a very specific way in regard of the Medici Oriental Press and the Library of the Medici in Florence, and to highlight the various, often changing, interests (political; religious; aesthetic) involved. It was then easy to expand the scope of the discussion to comparisons between cultures, especially in regard of the role of the portrait.”
Fiona Kidd, Objects and Identity Core class. Presented “Art and Artifacts in Nation Building” based on my City and Nation: National Festivals of Dante Alighieri (2011). Fiona had assigned texts about the 2500 anniversary celebrations of Persian Empire in Iran in 1971. handout FOR FIONA . My presentation addressed the structural similarities between the 2500 year celebrations of Persian Empire in 1971 Iran, and the 600 anniversary of Dante as the celebration of Italian Unification in 1865. Topics covered: [1. Homage to Cyrus/Dante; 2) Cyrus Mauseleum/Dante’s ashes/bones; 3)Participants, Guests and Galas; 4)Inauguration of Shahyad/Dante Monument in Santa Croce; 5)Criticism Khomeini/Pope. Referring to the aesthetic, cultural and urban policies adopted by the Florentine municipality for the 1865, and 1970s Iran, we discussed the role of the arts and artifacts in creation of national identity. The discussion with Fiona Kidd and students was lively, the comparative and collaborative work enriching.

code class — Politics of Code November 2017

3. Pierre Depaz: Politics of Code. Powerpoint presentation:

My presentation addressed the relevance of genealogies of social codes of behavior, specifically the 16th Century Civilite discussed by Norbert Elias, and 17th century Natural Law Code of Hobbes to contemporary discussions of digital code. My presentation drew from my article “Can Interaction Design Civilize the Experience Economy, in Interactions (2014). I brought in the notion of “interpellation” in Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatus, to show the systemic ways digital design and social media still forms us subjectivities. Prof Depaz observed: “We talked about the history of coded behaviors, why these behaviors emerged and how they translate today in the digital realm. The main question was whether the individual embodiment that enforced social behaviors before the 20th century is still valid today in a world of mostly disembodied interaction.”

4, Cathrine Corey; I read three pieces from my unpublished creative non-fiction in her Migration Stories class. “The Magic Carpet”, “Iranian Leopards”, and “House of Fraser”. My stories trace encounters between traditions through the movement of people, artifacts, and images. The stories are concerned with recovering ethical voices and meanings by revisiting as translator, mediator, and the traveler, my migration from and return to Iran after decades of living in the west. In Catherine’s class, I posed a question which is at the heart of my stories: for whom do we write, when we write? I asked Catherine for feedback on my presentation: “…but about your visit: it was wonderful! thank you! We loved your readings, and you posed such interesting questions, that got us all thinking about for whom we are writing, and why– and in terms of style, your writings opened the door (by example) to creatively written memoir for some students who are already working in that direction. very inspiring, thank you! C.”

III. Visiting Scholars, Brett Levinson and Ilaria Porciani

Brett Levinson November 5-7. Sunday 10:00-11:00 am, Met with Viviana about her Capstone research, viviana Kawas on Levinson. Monday 1.15-2:30: Martin Bowen’s Latin American History. Gave a talk on Mexican Revolution and literature. He covered two stories by Juan Rulfo, “Nos han dado la tierra” and “Luvina.” He illustrated the relation of the tales to the history of the Mexican Revolution, and to the history of Latin American literature; he also explained how “historia” and “relato,” or history and narrative, operate together in Rulfo, and in literature in general. Brett stressed, in addition, just how influential Rulfo, “avant la lettre,” was for the Latin American “Boom” and for so-called “magical realism”; and how, in turn, Latin American magical realism, and the questions that it raises, informs the trajectory of global literature from the 1970s on, including in the works Rushdie, Kundera, Calvino, and Morrison. 4.45 -6:30 pm: He met with the Latin American SIG (was well attended with a couple of student parents in addition to students). .Letter to Cecilia SIG . 11:00 am Tuesday, he was invited to coffee with Martin. 2.40: Presentation to Dignity and Indignity class.

in Dignity Class

With Martin Bowen

Martin’s Latin American Class

Latin American SIG

viviana

2. Ilaria Porciani: 8-15 November. Organized 2 public and well attended events in collaboration with the Heritage Center and History department, on “Museums of Forced Migration,” and “Food as Heritage.”