In the context of a world that is increasingly challenged by wars, ongoing conditions of coloniality, financialization and environmental destruction, all of which bring about new forms of migration, displacement, dispossession and transition, this seminar for the NYU Kevorkian Spring 2021 Practitioner-in-Residence will investigate the ways in which an archive can function as a space for renegotiating the distribution of power, possessions, and rights.

The spring sessions are conceived in three parts, which will be articulated through lectures, practice-based workshops, and public events. The workshops will be led by three members of the current Board of Directors of the AIF: Vartan Avakian, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh and Kristine Khouri.

As a group, the PIR will question how collective work practices and horizontal governance - combined with critical documentation procedures - as well as creative ways of engaging with collections, can contribute to rethinking society in Lebanon today - and how these issues resonate beyond borders.

Across the spring semester each Practitioner will bring collections, some from the AIF, into the workshop sessions. Participants will learn, explore, and generate new knowledge by working on these collections.

Classes will meet at the following times: 12pm - 2 or 2:30pm on Zoom.

Friday, January 29, 2021
Friday, February 5, 2021
Friday, February 12, 2021
Friday, February 19, 2021
Friday, February 26, 2021
Friday, March 5, 2021
Friday, March 12, 2021
== Spring Break ==
Friday, March 26, 2021
Friday, April 2, 2021
Friday,  April 9, 2021
Friday, April 16, 2021
Friday, April 23, 2021
Friday, April 30, 2020
Friday, May 7, 2020

We will potentially have one more class for a final presentation that will be determined at a later time.

Space is limited, our first priority for registration will be for students enrolled in the MA program in Near Eastern Studies (or GloJo-NEST), second will be to NYU students. If you are a non-NYU student and interested, please submit the google form and depending on space, we will inform you before the beginning of the semester.

There is a required reading list that will be sent to you once you register.

Participants from all disciplines are welcome to join. We are interested in people with the following profiles: creative technologists, researchers interested in arts-based research, multidisciplinary researchers across all disciplines, with the following language skills: Arabic, Farsi, & Armenian. No prerequisite other than your enthusiasm.


The DEADLINE is February 1, 2021