Lecture by Darby English | January 13, 2020, 18.00 for lecture and Q&A (through February 2020 for display) | Oude Lutherse Kerk, Singel 411 | In the final chapter of his new book “To Describe a Life: Notes at the Intersection of Art and Race Terror” (2019), the maverick art historian Darby English sets out “to describe rather than contain” a very curious object: “Lorraine Motel, April 4 1968”. This is a model of the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, produced by the design firm Boym Partners in 1998 as part of the Buildings of Disaster series.

Guest lecture by Dr. Derek Gladwin (UBC) organized by the ASCA Cities Project on Friday 1 Nov., 3-5pm, in the Potgieterzaal, University Library (Singel 425, Amsterdam). A 2016 Report from the World Energy Council titled “Innovating Urban Energy” predicts that by 2030 the global footprint will triple in urban areas. Without an understanding of the spatial effects of energy use and demand, urban populations cannot fully engage in the development of better practices and policies to create a just society. Consequently, there is an urgent need to address the ways cities might produce knowledge about their energy use, impact, and relationships.

Friday November 8, 2019, 13:00-17:00 | ASCA/NICA Symposium organized by Gaston Franssen | VOC-zaal, Bushuis, Kloveniersburgwal 48, Amsterdam | Open to all students and staff members. Register by sending a mail to nica-fgw@uva.nl. Please mention your affiliation.

NICA Masterclass with Patricia Barkaskas (Instructor & Director Indigenous Community Legal Clinic, University of British Columbia) | For: (research) master students / PhD candidates | Date: Friday, November 1, 2019 | Time: 10:00-12:00 | Location: University Library (Potgieterzaal), Singel 425, Amsterdam. | 1 EC | This masterclass considers questions connected to the project of a decolonial resistance pedagogy, and its significance in Canada for the project of decolonizing and Indigenizing justice.

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)