ASCA/NICA workshop | 11 June, 13:00-15:00
To accompany Marwa Al-Sabouni’s lecture “From a Model of Peace to a Model of Conflict: The Effect of Architectural Modernization on the Syrian Urban and Social Make-up” (11 June, 16:00-18:00, University Theater, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16), ASCA and NICA are organizing a seminar focusing on Architecture at Times of War, in which we will read parts of Al-Sabouni’s book The Battle of Home: Memoir of a Syrian Architect and contextualize it by connecting it to other work focused on the role of architecture before, during and after conflict situations by Judith Naeff and Eyal Weizman.

23-25 May 2019, Utrecht (the Netherlands) | Organized by Transmission in Motion (Utrecht University) and SPRING Performing Arts Festival
This conference takes stock of interactions between theatre and robotics so far and looks at possibilities for future collaboration. What do the performing arts have to offer as inspiration, model, and test-case for the development of robots and for human-robot interaction? How might collaboration between the performing arts and robotics contribute to further development of social robots, as well as to critical understanding of what it will mean to be living with them?

Master Class and Lecture by Elleke Boehmer (University of Oxford) | Date/Time/Location: Thursday 16 May 2019. Masterclass at 13.30-15.30 in Vondelzaal, UB. Lecture at 17.00-18.00 in PC Hoofthuis 1.04.

ASCA Cities Public Talk by Dr. Arthur Rose (University of Bristol) | Friday 17 May, 15.00 – 17.00 hrs., room 101A, Universiteitstheater (Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16-18)

Session #6 of Race in Film and Philosophy
Location: BG1 0.16, Turfdraagsterpad 9 | Time: May 3, 15.00-18.00
In this seminar we will discuss some key ways the Anthropocene is inexorably racial. The capitalist system requires racializing populations and environments from early modernity to the present and into the future.

Urban Crisis-Scapes: On Walks and Ruins | Amsterdam Belle van Zuylenzaal, 16-17 May 2019 | 1 EC | The workshop will focus on city-scapes that have recently been radically reconfigured through pervasive frameworks of crisis – financial, political, humanitarian etc. We want to explore alternative experiences of urban space, new artistic imaginaries, and innovative cultural initiatives emerging from such urban crisis-scapes by centering on two distinct but interrelated thematic lines: Walks and Ruins.

University of Amsterdam | 10-12 April 2019 | 3 EC. Organized by Divya Nadkarni, Alex Thinius, and Nadia de Vries. Keynote speakers: Jonathan Culler (Cornell University), Annabelle Dufourcq (RU Nijmegen), Nkiru Nzegwu (SUNY Binghamton), Susanna Paasonen (University of Turku).

Sites of Memory – Emerging Memory is a theatrical boat trip about the colonial and slavery history of Amsterdam. Spoken word artists, dancers and visual artists work together with UvA students, bringing history to live with narratives and performances on board of the boat and on shore. The performance is a mix of past and presence, of what we know and would rather forget. The performance will take place between the 20th of June and 7th of July and will be part of Amsterdam Roots Festival. NICA Research Master Students are invited to contribute to this seminar from April 29th through the end of May.

The Utrecht University Humanities Graduate Conference 2019, What’s the Point? Impact and the Future of the Humanities, will take place on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th April 2019. | Registration is open.