A Night of Philosophy and Ideas

Latasha Alcindor

Latasha Alcindor, also informally addressed as "LA," is an independent artist whose form-free art travels through a wide range of inspiration found in Experimental, Dance, Jazz, Electronic and Hip Hop music. Latasha finds resonance in speaking on political, social and cultural experiences in her music, promoting a much needed agenda for those looking to find inner peace, specifically young women of color. With all of her depth, the beauty in LA's creative style exists due to the juxtaposition of both her thought-provoking, influential messages and her blithe, unbound sound that carries in strong vibration.

Esther S. Artner

Originally from Vienna, Austria, Esther S. Artner grew up in a free-spirited and artistic community. She attended Rudolf Steiner School and started acting at an early age. Artner graduated from the Actors Studio Drama School in 2016 and was since featured in various independent films and pilots. Recent acting credits include Billie in Women of Manhattan , Salome in In or Out and Estelle in 'No Exit'.

Marc Augé

Marc Augé is an anthropologist and Director of Studies at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. He has analyzed the nature and effects of globalization and is the author of many works including Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity and The Future.

Nancy Bauer

Nancy Bauer is Professor of Philosophy, Dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and Dean of Academic Affairs for the Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences. She is interested in thinking about what philosophy is and what role it plays, or should or might play, in everyday human life. Her writing explores these issues, especially as they arise in reflection about gender and philosophy—and almost always with reference to Simone de Beauvoir. She is the author of Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy, and Feminism (Columbia University Press, 2001) and How to Do Things With Pornography (Harvard University Press, 2015).

William Baker

William Baker, PsyD is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. He currently serves as a clinical supervisor for the William Alanson White Institute and as an editor of the book review at The Journal of Analytical Psychology, based in London.

Alyssa Battistoni

Alyssa Battistoni is a doctoral candidate in political theory at Yale University writing a dissertation at the intersection of feminist theory, political economy, and ecological thought. She is an editor at Jacobin magazine, and her writing has also appeared in n+1, Dissent, and Arcade.

Bruce Bégout

Bruce Bégout is the author of the essays Zeropolis: The Experience of Las Vegas; Common Place: The American Motel, as well as novels and short stories collections. He has served on the editorial board of the journal Inculte and is currently maître de conférences at the University of Bordeaux III. A specialist of Edmund Husserl, Bégout studies urban spaces, commonplaces, and every-day life.

Sabine Bode

Sabine Bode's bestselling books on the aftermath of war in the age group of German war children and especially in the next generation, called "war grandchildren", fortifies to ask questions about the Nazi past – a search to reveal family secrets and to work towards individual and societal healing.

Paul Boghossian

Paul Boghossian is Julius Silver Professor of Philosophy at New York University and Director of its Global Institute for Advanced Study. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012, he has written on a wide range of topics including knowledge, meaning, rules, moral relativism, aesthetics and the concept of genocide. He is the author of Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism (OUP, 2006) and Content and Justification: Philosophical Papers (OUP, 2008); and editor, with Christopher Peacocke, ofNew Essays on the A Priori (OUP, 2000). A volume collecting a series of his exchanges with Timothy Williamson on the topics of a priori and analytic truth is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

Roger Bonair-Agard

Roger Bonair-Agard// M is Black Enough (aka Miyamoto is Black Enough) is a collaborative exploration of meaning and conversation; a contemporary band of hard driving rhythms and biting social commentary. It aims to be complex and aggressive, and to involve all elements equally in a bold narrative about people, justice, struggle, joy, and celebration.

Gregg D. Caruso

Gregg D. Caruso is Associate Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Corning and Co-Director of the Justice Without Retribution Network (JWRN) housed at the University of Aberdeen School of Law. He is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including the SUNY Chancellors Award for Excellence in Scholarship (2015) and the Regional Board of Trustees Excellence in Teaching Award (2012). He is the author of Free Will and Consciousness: A Determinist Account of the Illusion of Free Will (2012), and the editor of Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility (ed., 2013), Science and Religion: 5 Questions (ed., 2014), and Neuroexistentialism: Meaning, Morals, and Purpose in the Age of Neuroscience (co-ed. w/Owen Flanagan, 2016). He is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Science, Religion and Culture and a regular contributor to Psychology Today.

David Chalmers

David Chalmers is University Professor of Philosophy and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at New York University. He is well-known for his work on consciousness, including the 1996 book _The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory_, and also works on many other issues in philosophy and the foundations of cognitive science.

Raphaële Chappe

Raphaële Chappe is a core faculty at the Brooklyn Institute For Social Research. She holds a PhD in Economics from The New School for Social Research and an LL.M from New York University School of Law. Her research interests include the link between financial markets and wealth inequality; political economy and the history of economic thought; and the philosophical foundations of microeconomics. She has practiced as an attorney for eight years in the financial services industry and also teaches at NYU Tandon. She enjoys French comic books and mangas, fine chocolates, and classical Spanish guitar. Raphaële lives in Brooklyn with her wife and their twin daughter and son.

Ajay Singh Chaudhary

Ajay Singh Chaudhary is the founding Director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University’s Institute for Comparative Literature and Society through the MESAAS department specializing in comparative philosophy, and an M.Sc. in Culture and Society from the London School of Economics. His research focuses on comparative philosophy, social and political theory, the Frankfurt School, religion, global thought, and visual/media studies. He has written for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Social Text, Dialectical Anthropology, Quartz, The Jewish Daily Forward, Filmmaker Magazine, 3quarksdaily, among other venues.

Vince Colapietro

Vince Colapietro is Liberal Arts Research Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies at Pennsylvania State University. His interests range from jazz and film to political philosophy and psychoanalytic theory. While his main area of historical research is American pragmatism, he is a committed pluralist, devoted to comparative approaches.

Arnaud Colinart

Arnaud Colinart is a producer at AGAT Films & Cie / EX NIHILO and is particularly interested in applying new technologies and interactive mechanisms in the conception of narrative works, whether documentary or fiction. His creations include the prize-winning video game Type:Rider; the transmedia experience ‘Hubot Market’ and ‘Atsugi Robotics’ for the Swedish TV series ‘Real Humans;’ and recently, the graphic tribute to the TV series Peaky Blinders by the American designer Nigel Evans Dennis.

Simon Critchley

Simon Critchley - is Hans Jonas Professor at the New School for Social Research. His books include Very Little…Almost Nothing (1997), Infinitely Demanding (2007), The Book of Dead Philosophers (2009) and The Faith of the Faithless (2012). Recent works include a novella, Memory Theatre, a book-length essay, Notes on Suicide and Bowie. He is series moderator of 'The Stone', a philosophy column in The New York Times and co-editor of The Stone Reader. He has interests in the history of philosophy, phenomenology, the philosophy of literature, music and theatre, and morals and politics. He is also 50% of an obscure musical combo called Critchley & Simmons.

Souleymane Bachir Diagne

Souleymane Bachir Diagne is a professor of Philosophy and Francophone Studies at Columbia University and the current Chair of the French Department. His fields of research include history of philosophy, history of logic and mathematics, Islamic philosophy, African Literature, and Philosophy. His most recent publications include: African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson and the Idea of Negritude and The Ink of the Scholars.

Bryan Doerries

Bryan Doerries is a writer, director, translator, and founder of Theater of War, a project that presents readings of ancient Greek plays to service members, veterans, caregivers, and families to help them initiate conversations about the visible and invisible wounds of war. He is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of the social impact company Outside the Wire. His book, The Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today, was published in 2015 along with a volume of his translations of ancient Greek tragedies, entitled All That You’ve Seen Here is God. His graphic novel, The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan, was published in 2016. Bryan lectures on his work throughout the world and has taught at Princeton University, the Stella Adler School of Acting, and the Bard Prison Initiative. He is a proud board member of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and Friends of the Young Writers Workshop.

Didier Fassin

Didier Fassin is Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. An anthropologist, sociologist and physician, he has conducted research in Latin America, Africa and France. A former vice-president of Doctors Without Borders and current President of the Medical Committee for Exiles, Fassin recently published Prison Worlds. An Ethnography of the Carceral Condition.

Saba Fatima

Saba Fatima is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She has published on social and political issues faced by Muslims in Social Theory and Practice, Hypatia, and Social Philosophy Today. Her research interests include social and political within prescriptive Islam; Muslim/Muslim-American issues within a framework of feminist & race theory.

Peter Frase

Peter Frase is a writer and editor at Jacobin magazine. He is the author of *Four Futures* (2016), which uses the tools of social science and science fiction to consider possible future societies beyond capitalism.

Tamar Gendler

Tamar Gendler is Professor of Philosophy, Psychology and Cognitive Science, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale University. Gendler’s research brings together the techniques of traditional Anglo-American philosophy with empirical work from psychology and other social sciences; her interests include the relation between imagination and belief, the contrast between rational and non-rational persuasion, and the role of habits in shaping behavior and judgment.

Glockabelle

Glockabelle is Annabelle Cazes. She plays two Casio VL-Tones, a lyre-shaped glockenspiel with eight thimbles and sings in both French and English. After being introduced to the sound and styling of the Casio VL-Tones by a neighbor in Paris, Cazes began blending her classical piano techniques with modern synth-pop sounds resulting in beautiful mixture of rhythm and tone. She also developed a unique approach to playing the glockenspiel with eight sewing thimbles.

Anna Gotlib

Anna Gotlib was born in the Soviet Union, and immigrated to the United States with her family. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and a Collegiate Pre-law Adviser at Brooklyn College CUNY. Before joining the faculty at Brooklyn College, she was an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Pell Honors Program at Binghamton University (SUNY). Previous to her academic career, she was employed as an attorney, specializing in international law and labor law, working in the United States and abroad. Professor Gotlib's recent research is in the areas of illness and marginalization, intergenerational justice, motherhood, migration and exile, and nostalgia, memory and identity.

Samir Haddad

Samir Haddad is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University. He is the author of Derrida and the Inheritance of Democracy (Indiana UP, 2013), and co-editor, with Olivia Custer and Penelope Deutscher, of Foucault/Derrida, Fifty Years Later (Columbia UP, 2016). His current research focuses on issues in the philosophy of education, primarily as they arose in France in the period following May ’68.

Bernard E Harcourt

Bernard E Harcourt is a contemporary critical theorist and the author, most recently, of Exposed: Desire and Disobedience in the Digital Age (Harvard University Press 2015) and The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order (Harvard University Press 2011). During 2016-2017, he is visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

Nicole Hassoun

Nicole Hassoun is a residential fellow with the Hope & Optimism Project at Cornell University and an associate professor in philosophy at Binghamton University. She has published more than fifty papers in journals like the American Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Development Economics, The Journal of Applied Ethics, The American Journal of Bioethics, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Public Affairs Quarterly, The European Journal of Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, the Journal of Social Philosophy, Utilitas, and Philosophy and Economics. Her first book Globalization and Global Justice: Shrinking Distance, Expanding Obligations was published with Cambridge University Press in 2012 and her manuscript Global Health Impact: Extending Access on Essential Medicines for the Poor is under contract with Oxford University Press.

Dr. Bernd Heinrich

Dr. Bernd Heinrich, professor emeritus at University of Vermont is a biologist and comparative physiologist as well as the author of 20 books. He has spent a lifetime studying the large and the small from bumblebees to ravens, to how animals survive and thrive in winter and how birds travel the globe as they migrate unfathonable distances. His books include "Bumblebee Economics,” “Why We Run,” “Winter World,” “Mind of the Raven,” “The Snoring Bird,” and “The Homing Instinct.” A life-long runner, Dr. Heinrich lives off the grid on 600 acres in western Maine.

Dr. Javier Hidalgo

Dr. Javier Hidalgo is an assistant professor in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. He is political philosopher whose teaching and research interests center on ethics and international affairs, especially the ethical and public policy questions relating to immigration. Hidalgo earned a bachelor's degree in political science and philosophy from Reed College and a master's and doctorate from the Program in Political Philosophy at Princeton University. He was a visiting scholar at Brown University prior to joining the Jepson School.

Samantha Rose Hill

Samantha Rose Hill received her doctorate in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2014. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and The Humanities at Bard College and Associate Faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Her research and teaching interests include critical theory, the Frankfurt School, aesthetic theory, and the History of Political Thought. Hill is currently finishing a manuscript of Hannah Arendt's poetry, which has been edited and translated into English: Into the Dark: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt. Previously Hill conducted post-doctoral work at the Institut für Philosophie at the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main and served as a visiting lecturer at Amherst College. Her work has appeared in Amor Mundi, The Journal of the Hannah Arendt Center, Theory & Event, and Contemporary Political Theory.

Oceana James

Oceana James is theater artist,writer and actor. Her solo piece, For Gowie: The Deceitful Fellow, will be presented at The Brick this summer and was previously shown in the Virgin Islands and at Dixon Place in the City. James recently worked with Sibyl Kempson on her series at The Whitney Museum.

Anja Jauernig

Anja Jauernig is Associate Professor of Philosophy at New York University. Before joining NYU in 2015, she taught at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Notre Dame. Jauernig was educated at the University of Bonn, the University of Oxford, and Princeton University. Her areas of interest include Modern Philosophy (esp. Kant and Leibniz), 19th century German Philosophy, Aesthetics, Existentialism, and Animal Ethics.

Chad Kautzer

Chad Kautzer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Lehigh University and a Copeland Fellow at Amherst College (Spring 2017). He is the author of Radical Philosophy: An Introduction (Routledge, 2015) and co-editor, with Eduardo Mendieta, of Pragmatism, Nation, and Race: Community in the Age of Empire (Indiana University Press, 2009).

Nadia Yala Kisukidi

Nadia Yala Kisukidi is senior lecturer at the University Paris 8 Vincennes St Denis. She was previously vice-chair of the Collège International de Philosophy in Paris from 2014 to 2016. Her philosophical work concentrates on French continental philosophy, religion and Africana philosophy. Kisukidi is also the author of Henri Bergson ou l’humanité créatrice .

Amaury La Burthe

Amaury La Burthe earned a master’s in acoustics and signal processing at IRCAM in Paris, before working as researcher for Sony-CSL, and as lead audio designer for the video game company Ubisoft. He specializes in both the creative and technical aspects of sound design and interactive experience creation. He is founder of the startup AudioGaming, focusing on creating innovative audio technologies and immersive experiences.

Emilie Lesbros

Emilie Lesbros is a conservatory-trained jazz singer and multi-instrumentalist with eclectic tastes and musical projects (ranging from jazz to pop and beyond).

Elisabeth A. Lloyd

Elisabeth A. Lloyd is Tanis Chair of History and Philosophy of Science, at Indiana University, Bloomington, and author of the award-winning book, The Case of the Female Orgasm (Harvard). She specializes in philosophy of science, particularly in evolutionary biology, climate science, and human sexuality.

Fredéric Lordon

Director of research at CNRS, Fredéric Lordon focuses his work on blending Spinoza's philosophy and approach to social science to create a new theoretical framework called the "structuralism of passions." Lordon recently published Willing Slaves of Capital: Marx and Spinoza and has been instrumental in the Nuit Debout French movement.

Zenon Marko

Zenon Marko is a composer, producer, electronic musician, DJ, and drummer residing in New York City. His music crosses genres, including rock, ambient, electronic, dance, dub, downtempo, world, and neoclassical. Marko is also currently completing a Ph.D. in philosophy at The New School, with a focus on metaphilosophy, especially the possibility of systematic philosophy and the problem of beginnings.

Achille Mbembe

A philosopher and political theorist, Achille Mbembe has held appointments at Columbia University, Brookings Institution, University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, Duke University and at the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. He is the author of On the Postcolony, African Futures, Critique of Black Reason (forthcoming in English) and Politiques de l'inimitié.

Brian Mendes

As an actor and performer with NYC Players, Brian Mendes, has appeared in Henry the IV, Joe, The End of Reality, Ode to the Man Who Kneels, The Darkness of this Reading, Infinite Jest, The Evening, Isolde, People Without History and Saxophone. He has also been featured in Early Plays (Wooster Group), Through the Yellow Hour, Animals and Plants (Adam Rapp) and Last of the Little Hours at Sundance (Annie Baker). Mendes has performed internationally.

Peter Middleton and James Spinney

Peter Middleton and James Spinney have, for the past six years, been working on a range of fiction, documentary and cross-platform projects. They have adapted material from John Hull’s diary into a series of short films: Rainfall, which won Best Short Documentary Award at Hot Docs in 2013; and the 2014 Emmy Award-winning Notes on Blindness, which screened at Sundance Film Festival and won Best Documentary at the Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival.

Lisa Miracchi

Lisa Miracchi is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests focus on foundational theoretical questions about the nature of the mind, knowledge, and rationality. How do natural processes generate minds? How can science explain this? What is it for a belief to be rational? What does this mean for how we should proceed as inquirers?

Philip Moore

Philip Moore is a performer based in New York City. He has performed with the New York City Players, and in ADDS and Neutral Hero with acclaimed director Richard Maxwell; he also performs with the Wooster Group, in The Room, and most recently, in The B-Sides. In 2015, he appeared in New York(s), a video installation by Emmanuelle Huynh and Jocelyn Cottencin, produced by the Centre d'Art Contemporain Passerelle.

Jorge Morales

Jorge Morales is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at Columbia University. His research lies at the intersection of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Through an interdisciplinary approach to introspection, metacognition, and consciousness, he explores novel ways of explaining how we know our own minds.

Laure Murat

Laure Murat is the Director of the Center for European and Russian Studies at UCLA, and professor in the Department of French and Francophone Studies. She specializes in cultural studies, history of psychiatry, and queer theory. She is the author of nine books and is a columnist for the French newspaper Libération.

Frederic Neyrat

Frederic Neyrat is Assistant Professor in Comparative Literature at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a French philosopher with an expertise in environmental humanities and contemporary theory. His latest book, La Part inconstructible de la Terre (2016), offers an analysis of dominant Anthropocene discourses.

Andrew Olendzki

Andrew Olendzki, PhD, is a Buddhist scholar, teacher, and writer living in Amherst, Massachusetts. Trained at Lancaster University (UK), the University of Sri Lanka (Perediniya), and Harvard, he was the first executive director at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and went on to lead and teach at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies for almost twenty-five years. He has also taught at numerous New England colleges (including Amherst, Brandeis, Connecticut, Hampshire, Harvard, Lesley, Montserrat, and Smith colleges), spent two years at the Mind & Life Institute heading up their Mapping the Mind project, and has been a longtime member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. Andrew has contributed chapters to many books on Buddhist psychology, writes regularly for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and is the author of Unlimiting Mind: The radically experiential psychology of Buddhism (Wisdom, 2010) and Untangling Self: A Buddhist Investigation of Who We Really Are (Wisdom, 2016). He is currently creating and teaching a number of online courses as the senior scholar of the Integrated Dharma Institute.

Corine Pelluchon

Professor in Philosophy at the University of Paris-Est-Marne-La-Vallée, Pelluchon is the author of several essays in political philosophy and applied ethics such as Leo Strauss: Another Reason, Another Enlightenment (Suny Press, 2014); L’autonomie brisée. Bioéthique et philosophie (PUF , 2009); Les Nourritures. Philosophie du corps politique (Seuil, 2015); Manifeste animaliste. Politiser la cause animale (Ama, 2017).

Jeanne Proust

Jeanne Proust has studied Philosophy and Visual Arts in Bordeaux, Berlin, and Paris. She has been teaching French Literature, Art History and Philosophy for the last 7 years in the US. While working as a Teaching Assistant at NYU, she is pursuing her PhD. at the Université de Paris 1. Her research focuses on Théodule Ribot’s study on the pathologies of the willpower, both in philosophical and psychological perspectives.

Camille Robcis

Camille Robcis is Associate Professor of History at Cornell University. She is the author of The Law of Kinship: Anthropology, Psychoanalysis, and the Family in France. Her research focuses on three broad issues: the historical construction of norms, the intellectual production of knowledge, and the articulation of universalism and difference in modern France.

Robin Rosendale

Robin Rosendale LMHC, is a licensed psychotherapist with a private practice in New York City’s West Village. His work integrates Jungian depth psychology coupled with contemplative awareness practices. Prior to his training at the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association, Robin trained at Naropa University where his degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy provided an in-depth study of Buddhist psychological principles and western clinical psychology.

James F.W. Rowe

James F.W. Rowe is an adjunct professor of philosophy at Baruch College, City University of New York. The metaphysics of time, the persistence of identity through change, and ethical and political philosophy form the core of his scholarly interest. He is also an internationally published poet and author, with a multitude of works available in print and online, many of which draw inspiration from his philosophical background.

Julie Saada

Julie Saada is a Professor of Philosophy at Sciences Po Paris. Intersecting modern and contemporary legal philosophy and political philosophy, her research focuses on international law, mass crimes, war and its aftermath, and also on critical legal theory. Her publications include Guerre juste, guerre injuste (with C. Nadeau); Juger les crimes de masse (with R. Nollez-Goldbach); Penser la guerre ; and Le souci du droit: Où en est la théorie critique?.

SÅNDL

Simon Bouisson and Ludovic Zuili form the directing duo SÅNDL. Both are native to the digital world and, work as directors, cinematographers, photographers, either together or separately, to create interactive productions (Wei or die, Product, Jour de vote, Stainsbeaupays), and magazines (Standard, Purple). All of their projects show their passion for new forms of storytelling, street culture and the young generation.

Tanya Selvaratnam

Tanya Selvaratnam is an Emmy-nominated and Webby-winning producer, artist, and activist. She is the Senior Producer for Art Not War and co-founder of Humanity for Progress. Selvaratnam has produced projects by many artists such as Carrie Mae Weems and has performed in shows by The Wooster Group, The Builders Association, and recently worked with directors such as Mike Iveson Jr., Sibyl Kempson, Andrew Ondrejcak, among others. She has appeared in films and installations by Carrie Mae Weems, Pedro Reyes, Thomas Dozol, John Malpede... She is the author of The Big Lie.

Jen Shyu (徐秋雁)

Jen Shyu (徐秋雁) is an experimental jazz vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, producer, and 2016 Doris Duke Artist. Widely regarded for her virtuosic singing and riveting stage presence, Shyu will premiere her next solo work at National Sawdust June 29, 2017, and release her next album Song of Silver Geese on Pi, kicking off a 50-state U.S. tour of "Songs of Our World Now / Songs Everyone Writes Now (SOWN/SEWN)."

Céline Spector

Céline Spector is Professor of Philosophy at the University Paris-Sorbonne. Her research interests include the French Enlightenment, Montesquieu, Rousseau and their contemporary legacy. Her last publication is entitled, Eloges de l’injustice. La philosophie face à la déraison.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is University Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. She is an early critical exponent of Cultural Studies. Her activist work takes her to Africa, India, Nepal. She’s a feminist, an ecologist, and a Rosa Luxembourg-style Social Democrat. Latest book: Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization.

Michael Stevenson

Michael Stevenson is a historian of philosophy. He was educated at the University of Pennsylania, Cornell University, and Columbia University. He is currently a Lecturer in the Core Curriculum program at Columbia, and a Core Faculty member of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. He specializes in the German philosophical tradition from Kant to Heidegger.

Bhaskar Sunkara

Bhaskar Sunkara is the founding editor and publisher of Jacobin magazine and the editor of several volumes including The ABCs of Socialism.

Aurelia Thierrée

Aurelia Thierrée started performing in shows by Le Cirque Imaginaire, then Le Cirque Invisible when she was a child. She has worked at a cabaret in Berlin, toured with the Tiger Lillies in their show Tiger Lilies Circus, and appeared in films, working with directors Milos Forman and Jacques Baratier, among others. Her shows, Aurelia’s Oratorio and Murmurs (Murmures des murs), tour internationally.

Dechen Karl Thurman

Dechen Karl Thurman grew up in New England in an environment that harbored counterculture artists and Tibetan political refugees. Educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Columbia University, he has been a member of the Screen Actors Guild since 1995, and has appeared in over 40 stage and screen productions. Thurman has co-produced three seasons of theater with Teleotheater from 1993-1996 and is currently teaching and mentoring at Jivamukti Yoga School New York and abroad.

Lynne Tirrell

Lynne Tirrell, professor of philosophy at U Mass Boston, writes on a range of issues concerning language, power, and social justice, with a special focus on the role of language in preparing, inciting, and executing genocide. Her 2012 paper, “Genocidal Language Games,” is taught all across the country. Professor Tirrell’s work has appeared in top philosophy journals, and she has blogged for NPR and Alternet, among others. She is Chair of the APA Committee on Public Philosophy.

Virginie Tournay

A biologist at the CNRS and Doctor in Political Science, Virginie Tournay’s works focuses on the politics of the living and the future of our institutions. She is the author of Penser le changement institutionnel, La Sociologie des institutions, Vie et mort des agencements sociaux and S’il te plaît, dessine-moi une institution. She received the CNRS bronze medal in 2011 for her research.

Trisha Brown Dance Company (TBDC)

Trisha Brown Dance Company (TBDC) is a post-modern dance company dedicated to the performance, and preservation of the work of Founding Artistic Director and Choreographer, Trisha Brown. Founded in 1970, TBDC has toured throughout the world presenting the work, teaching and building relationships with audiences and artists alike. The dancers performing include Iréne Hultman, Amanda Kmett’Pendry, Mariah Maloney, Leah Morrison, Brandi Norton, and Vicky Shick.

Katja Maria Vogt

Katja Maria Vogt is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. In her books and papers, she focuses on questions that figure both in ancient and in contemporary discussions: What are values? What kind of values are knowledge and truth? What does it mean to want one’s life to go well?

Christy Wampole

Christy Wampole joined the Department of French and Italian at Princeton University as Assistant Professor of French in 2011. She received her Ph.D in both French and Italian from Stanford University. She has published two books, Rootedness: The Ramifications of a Metaphor (University of Chicago Press, 2016), a study of the literalization of the metaphor of rootedness in 20th-century France and Germany, and The Other Serious: Essays for the New American Generation (HarperCollins 2015), a collection of essays on American culture. She has published various articles, translations, and book reviews in MLN, The Modern Language Review, The New York Times, The New Yorker, L’Esprit créateur, Small Axe, The French Review, Magazine littéraire, Quaderni del ‘900, and Yale French Studies. Her next book project focuses on realism in the contemporary French novel.

Jamieson Webster

Jamieson Webster is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York where she works with children, adolescents, and adults. A graduate of IPTAR, she teaches at Eugene Lang College, as well as, supervising graduate students through City University's doctoral program in clinical psychology. She has written for Apology, Cabinet, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Playboy, The New York Times, as well as, for many psychoanalytic publications. The Life and Death of Psychoanalysis is published with Karnac (2011). Stay, Illusion!- written with Simon Critchley- is published with Pantheon Books (2013). She is currently working on The Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Lacan, and a new book, Conversion Disorder (Columbia, 2017).

Ben Williams

Ben Williams is an actor and sound designer based in New York City. He last performed at the Brooklyn Public Library with Elevator Repair Service. He is a founding member of Minor Theater with Julia Jarcho, and has collaborated with many others across the downtown universe such as Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players, Christina Masciotti, Suzanne Bocanegra, Big Dance Theater, Sibyl Kempson, and Kate Benson.

Naomi Zack

Naomi Zack (PhD, Columbia University) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. Zack's recent books are: The Theory of Applicative Justice (2016); White Privilege and Black Rights: The Injustice of US Police Racial Profiling and Homicide (April 2015);The Ethics and Mores of Race,2011/2015); edited Oxford Handbook on Philosophy and Race (2017).