Freedom Lab Event Report on “The Utopianism called Decolonization: Thinking with Tagore”

By Yue Qiu

Class of 2022

On June 11, 2020, The Freedom Lab invited Professor Sandeep Banerjee from McGill University to lead a discussion on “The Utopianism called Decolonization: Thinking with Tagore“. The Freedom Lab co-directors, Professors Jesse Olsavsky and Selina Lai-Henderson hosted the lecture. Professor Titas Chakraborty and around 20 students attended the conference.

Professor Chakraborty introduced the guest speaker. Professor Banerjee is a literary theorist, cultural critic, and historian who studies the literatures and histories of decolonization, particularly in India. Besides writing on colonialism and liberation, he also writes on a wide range of topics such as travel narrative and photography. He published the book Utopia and Indian Decolonization: Literary Pre-figurations of the Postcolony last year. Continue reading “Freedom Lab Event Report on “The Utopianism called Decolonization: Thinking with Tagore””

Report on Interdisciplinarity and the Future of Life

By Anisha Joshi

Class of 2022

In the fourth installment in the Interdisciplinarity series, Professor Ed Turner from Princeton University discussed astrobiology and interdisciplinarity in science. As an astrophysicist who has published a plethora of papers that also discuss astrobiology, in this conversation Professor Turner discussed the implications the interdisciplinary field of astrobiology has on life on earth, as well as what it means for society and culture.

From Galileo theorizing that the moon might have life on it to the boom of science fiction in the 50s that aroused public interest in astrobiology, Professor Turner stated it has had a long and interesting history. With his sustained interest in big questions, some of which gain their impetus from the more fundamental questions of humanity and existence, Professor Turner was lured into the area of astrobiology after participating in a 2000 NASA study of exoplanets. Finding himself with an increasing interest in exoplanets rather than just cosmology, he ventured into the highly interdisciplinary area of astrobiology. Continue reading “Report on Interdisciplinarity and the Future of Life”

Report on Interdisciplinarity and the Future of Knowledge

By Sinan Farooqui

Class of 2022

Interdisciplinarity lies at the heart of Duke Kunshan University’s innovative curriculum for the 21st century. Building on the work of the Humanities Research Center in Planetary Ethics and Artificial Intelligence (PETAL) and Digital Humanities, the HumanSpace+ Research Group, investigates the goals, values and practices of interdisciplinary integration in the production of knowledge. Thereby, Duke Kunshan University through Professor James Miller (Associate Dean of Interdisciplinary Strategy) and the HumanSpace+ Research Group held a series of conversations with leading theorists and practitioners of interdisciplinarity in the world today to explore how interdisciplinarity is tied to innovation and future of knowledge. Continue reading “Report on Interdisciplinarity and the Future of Knowledge”

Interdisciplinarity and the Future of Life

Thursday 7 May, 10pm Eastern / Friday 8 May, 10am China

Interdisciplinarity lies at the heart of Duke Kunshan University’s innovative curriculum for the 21st century. Recently DKU appointed James Miller, Co-Director of the Humanities Research Center to be its first Associate Dean of Interdisciplinary Strategy. Join Professor Miller and students from the HumanSpace+ research group as they embark on a series of conversations with leading theorists and practitioners of interdisciplinarity in the world today to explore how interdisciplinarity is tied to innovation and future of knowledge.

Ed Turner

The fourth conversation in this series is with Professor Ed Turner from Princeton University and focuses on the future of the life. Working extensively in both theoretical and observational astrophysics, Professor Turner has published more than 240 research papers with particular concentrations on topics including binary galaxies, dark matter, quasars, exoplanets, astrobiology and the origin of life.  Professor Turner is also a leader of the Breakthrough Starshot initative, which aims to develop a light-powered starship to journey to Proxima Centauri b, an exoplanet discovered in August 2016.

Continue reading “Interdisciplinarity and the Future of Life”

Interdisciplinarity and the Future of the Planet

Thursday 30 April, 9am Eastern / 9pm China
Zoom: 695-290-0771

Interdisciplinarity lies at the heart of Duke Kunshan University’s innovative curriculum for the 21st century. Recently DKU appointed James Miller, Co-Director of the Humanities Research Center to be its first Associate Dean of Interdisciplinary Strategy. Join Professor Miller and students from the HumanSpace+ research group as they embark on a series of conversations with leading theorists and practitioners of interdisciplinarity in the world today to explore how interdisciplinarity is tied to innovation and future of knowledge.

Thomas Bruhn

The third conversation in this series is with Dr Thomas Bruhn from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) at Potsdam University. Dr  Bruhn is a physicist who has been working transdisciplinarily at the IASS since 2012. His research initially focused on climate engineering and CO2 utilisation. In 2016 he began to co-lead the AMA (A Mindset for the Anthropocene) project together with Dr Zoe Lüthi on the question how the cultivation of mental qualities like mindfulness and compassion can contribute to sustainability. He has also been engaged in research on collective learning and co-creation in the context of political decision-making for sustainability since 2017. Dr Bruhn’s  ambition is to bring together a variety of stakeholders in reflexive processes that allow for the emergence of truly shared perspectives and action pathways for a context-specific implementation of specific sustainability targets.

Continue reading “Interdisciplinarity and the Future of the Planet”

Interdisciplinarity and the Future of the Mind

Thursday 23 April, 10pm Eastern / Friday 24 April, 10am China
Zoom: 695-290-0771

Interdisciplinarity lies at the heart of Duke Kunshan University’s innovative curriculum for the 21st century. Recently DKU appointed James Miller, Co-Director of the Humanities Research Center to be its first Associate Dean of Interdisciplinary Strategy. Join Professor Miller and students from the HumanSpace+ research group as they embark on a series of conversations with leading theorists and practitioners of interdisciplinarity in the world today to explore how interdisciplinarity is tied to innovation and future of knowledge.

Evan Thompson

The second conversation in this series is with Professor Evan Thompson from the University of British Columbia and focuses on the future of the mind. Evan Thompson is a writer and professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He works on the nature of the mind, the self, and human experience. His work combines cognitive science, philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially Asian philosophical traditions. He is the author of Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy (Columbia University Press, 2015); Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind (Harvard University Press, 2007); and Colour Vision: A Study in Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Perception (Routledge Press, 1995). He is the co-author, with Francisco J. Varela and Eleanor Rosch, of The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (MIT Press, 1991, revised edition 2016). Evan is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

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The Media Art Speaker Series | BioArt and Pan BioArt – With Exhibition Quasi-Nature as Case Study

Friday April 17
9pm China Time/ 9am EST

Zoom Meeting ID: 873-243-562

The second Zoom lecture of bi-weekly Media Art Speaker Series is scheduled on Friday April 17th, 2020 at 9am (US Eastern) / 9pm (China Central) and features Beijing-based curator and researcher Jo Wei. This series is organized and hosted by Prof. Benjamin Bacon and Prof. Vivian Xu, and supported by the Division of Arts and Humanities and the Humanities Research Center at Duke Kunshan University.

This event is open to the public.

媒体艺术系列讲座第二场定于2020年4月17日中国时间晚上9点(美国东部时间早上9点)。这次请到的是策展人、研究者魏颖。媒体艺术系列讲座由Benjamin Bacon教授和Vivian Xu教授策划组织,并由昆山杜克大学艺术与人文学科提供支持,每两周一次在Zoom线上开讲。

活动面向公众开放。

Continue reading “The Media Art Speaker Series | BioArt and Pan BioArt – With Exhibition Quasi-Nature as Case Study”

The Media Art Speaker Series | The Many Facets of Lu Yang’s Work

Friday April 3
9pm China Time/ 9am EST

Zoom Meeting ID: 960-813-811

Prof. Benjamin Bacon and Prof. Vivian Xu from the Media and Arts program are inviting leading Chinese media art practitioners  to speak about their work and practice, and engage with students and faculty. Outside guests are also welcome.

This short series focuses on three artists whose work can give students an understanding of the broader scope of media art and its present-day manifestation within the Chinese context.

The first Zoom lecture of this series is scheduled on Friday April 3 at 9am (US Eastern) / 9pm (China) and features Chinese multimedia artist Lu Yang. Continue reading “The Media Art Speaker Series | The Many Facets of Lu Yang’s Work”