The NYU Abu Dhabi Institute is pleased to announce an exceptional program of talks, conferences, and film screenings free of charge and open to the public throughout the month of November.
Kicking off tomorrow, the program will cover a range of topics including arts, film, science and environment-related research, photography, and history.
Notable speakers include President Emeritus of NYU and author of Standing for Reason: The University in a Dogmatic Age John Sexton; Theater Director, Filmmaker, and Playwright Michael Mayer; and London-based artist Marysia Lewandowska, alongside other distinguished local and international guests.
Established in 2008 as a center of advanced research, scholarly, and creative activity in Abu Dhabi, The NYU Abu Dhabi Institute assembles academics, professionals, and leaders from around the world to its academic conferences and public program to discuss research areas and topics of local and global significance.
Public events throughout the month of November include:
Talk
November 3, 2019
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
Our national discourse has become increasingly toxic, irrational, self-absorbed; our leaders and our citizens suffer from an allergy to nuance and complexity. In his new book, Standing for Reason: The University in a Dogmatic Age, John Sexton, NYU president from 2002 to 2015, argues that universities must make the fight against this “secular dogmatism” central to their missions. In conversation with journalist, author, and NYU teacher James Traub, Sexton speaks about the “secular ecumenism” for which the university has long stood, and about the need for a new model of the “global network university” to serve an increasingly interconnected world.
Speakers
John Sexton, Author of Standing for Reason: The University in a Dogmatic Age (Yale University Press, 2019); President Emeritus, NYU
James Traub, Instructor at NYU and NYUAD; Columnist at foreignpolicy.com; Author of What Was Liberalism? (Basic Books, 2019)
(2) Staging Public Memory: A Conversation with Artist Marysia Lewandowska
Talk
November 6, 2019
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
Marysia Lewandowska’s Cinema Island project explores archives, memory, and history and highlights the important role of arts institutions in bringing attention to these topics. Through this collaboration with members of the UAE community, oil-company documentaries are intercut with home movies by Emiratis, which are narrated by women whose voices point to what cameras cannot capture. Whereas professional images produce orientalist narratives of modernization, often including only Emirati and British men, private film footage allows more complex stories to emerge. This way, as Lewandowska notes, “all the members of the family are included.”
Speakers
Marysia Lewandowska, London-based Artist | Hind Mezaina, Emirati Artist | Woodman Taylor, Professor of Art History, Zayed University
Moderator
Dale Hudson, Associate Teaching Professor of Film and New Media and Curator of Film and New Media, NYUAD
(3) Arabian Coral Reefs Conference
Conference
November 11-13, 2019
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
The purpose of this conference is to bring together leading regional and international coral reef scientists to discuss recent research, and to open opportunities for dialogue and collaboration among participants. The geographic scope of this conference includes reefs in the Persian/Arabian Gulf, the northwestern Indian Ocean (e.g., Arabian Sea, Sea of Oman), and the Red Sea. This three day conference will include themed symposium sessions, each opened by a keynote address from a renowned expert in the field. Themed topics will include biogeography and evolution, coral community structure and dynamics, reef fish community structure and dynamics, microbial ecology, physiology, and biophysical processes, as well as a session on reef conservation and management.
Organizer
John A. Burt, Head of the Marine Biology Lab and Assistant Professor of Biology, NYUAD
(4) Building from the Sea: The Coral Masonry of Jezirat Al Hamra, Ras Al Khaimah
Talk
November 11, 2019
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
A mysterious cluster of over 500 buildings constructed almost entirely from coral, Jezirat Al Hamra, Ras Al Khaimah is a coastal village that was abandoned over half a century ago. This talk traces the evolution of this community, which represents a unique archaeological and architectural asset for the Emirates, into the future, and examines the practice of coral masonry. Using geochemical dating techniques, we can understand the history of the coral structures and calculate the type and volume of corals that were mined from the sea to support the expansion of this early urban setting.
Speaker
John Burt, Head of the Marine Biology Lab and Assistant Professor of Biology, NYUAD
(5) The Director’s Craft: Michael Mayer on Theater, Film, TV, and Opera
Talk
November 13, 2019
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
International director Michael Mayer creates art across performance fields that demand unique skill sets. Very much an actor’s director, Mayer brings to each project innovation that enlivens actors within singularly impressive set design, lighting, costumes, soundscapes, and movement. The Tony Award-winning director discusses the essentials in craft that inspire and materialize a director’s vision in each of the art forms in which he has received critical acclaim: theatre, film, television, and opera.
Speaker
Michael Mayer, Theater Director, Filmmaker, and Playwright
Robert Vorlicky, Associate Professor of Drama, NYU Tisch School of the Arts
(6) The Seagull
Screening
November 14, 2019
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
Based on the play of the same name by Anton Chekhov, an aging actress named Irina Arkadina pays summer visits to her brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin and her son Konstantin at a country estate. On one occasion she brings her lover Boris Trigorin, a successful novelist. Nina, a free and innocent girl on a neighboring estate who is in a relationship with Konstantin, falls in love with Boris.
Screening followed by Q&A with the film director Michael Mayer.
Director
Michael Mayer | USA | 2017 | 98 mins | English
(7) Zero Distance | المسافة صفر
Screening
November 19, 2019
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
In early 2000s Riyadh, passionate photographer Majid questions his memory when he finds a picture of a dead body on his apartment floor and his gun missing a bullet. Confronting his past, Majid faces his fears and the most trusted people in his life.
Screening followed by Q&A with the film director Abdulaziz Alshlahei.
Director
Abdulaziz Alshlahei | Saudi Arabia | 2019 | 75 mins | Arabic w/ English Subtitles
(8) Collisions of the Semi-Great Powers: Western, Chinese, and Islamic
Talk
November 20, 2019
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
Irresistible demographic and social trends are undermining entrenched authorities everywhere, creating a world in which no single power or coalition can impose its will on the rest of the global community. As Western hegemony dwindles, there is a growing need for power sharing and collective management of global commons, but transnational collaboration is likely to be obstructed by precisely the societies that are most indispensable to future progress—by Western nations trying to prolong past dominance and by Chinese and Islamic leaders who are eager to assert decisive influence in their own right.
Speaker
Robert R. Bianchi, Advisor and Visiting Professor, Middle East Studies Institute, Shanghai International Studies University
