Atelier Columbia Global Paris Center

What does it mean to be bored, and what is the impact of boredom on creativity, connection, and inspiration? Ursula Kwong-Brown and Daniel Erdberg, in Paris for Reid Hall's annual "Nuit de l'Imagination," discuss their relationships with boredom and introduce listeners to their new composition, Driftscape, an immersive musical performance that attempts to create a space, both personal and collective, where listeners can rest their attention for sixty minutes, be present, and allow their minds to gently wander.
As is mentioned in this interview, an excerpt from Driftsape will be published soon as an Atelier minisode. Subscribe to be notified when it's posted!
Ursula Kwong-Brown is an LA-based pianist/composer/arts technologist. Described as “atmospheric and accomplished” by The New York Times, her work has been performed in diverse venues across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Ursula received her PhD in Music and New Media from UC Berkeley, and her BA in Music and Biology from Columbia University.
Daniel Erdberg is a New York and Los Angeles based sound artist, director, writer and composer chiefly interested in the intersection of technology and presentational aesthetics. His work has been seen (and heard!) in New York on Broadway and at theaters and concert halls around the world.
Find us elsewhere:
Center website
Get our newsletter
Instagram
X (formerly Twitter)
LinkedIn
Facebook
Spotify (playlists)
YouTube
Host: Marie Doezema
Production: Marie Doezema and Charlotte Force
Editing: Chris Knapp
Music: Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne performed by Magdalena Baczewska and Sasha He
With thanks to the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre in Paris
The Columbia Global Paris Center is part of a network of 11 global centers of Columbia University in the City of New York, one of the world's leading academic institutions. The centers serve as knowledge hubs that aim to educate and inspire through research, dialogue, and action. They advance understanding, facilitate partnerships, and build the bridges necessary to tackle our changing world.
Columbia Global brings together major global initiatives from across the university to advance knowledge and foster global engagement. Those initiatives include the Columbia Global Centers, Columbia World Projects, the Committee on Global Thought, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Throughout his multi-disciplinary, international career, Mohamed Elshahed has found that the most apt description of his work is storytelling. In this episode, he guides us through Cairo, London, Mexico City, and Paris, intertwining histories and personal anecdotes to provide context for the book project he's currently undertaking as an Institute Fellow.
Mohamed Elshahed is a writer, curator, and critic of architecture. In 2011 he founded Cairobserver, a fluid project with six printed magazines distributed for free to stimulate public debates around issues of architecture, heritage, and urbanism. He is the curator of the British Museum’s Modern Egypt Project and of Modernist Indignation, Egypt’s winning pavilion at the 2018 London Design Biennale. As a 2023-2024 Fellow of the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, he has worked on a book about this project, envisioned as a companion to his previous book, Cairo Since 1900: An Architectural Guide (AUC Press, 2020).
Learn more about Mohamed’s work: https://mohamed-elshahed.com/
Read about Cairobserver online: https://cairobserver.com/
Find us elsewhere:
Center website
Get our newsletter
Instagram
X (formerly Twitter)
LinkedIn
Facebook
Spotify (playlists)
YouTube
Host: Marie Doezema
Production: Marie Doezema and Charlotte Force
Editing: Chris Knapp
Music: Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne performed by Magdalena Baczewska and Sasha He
With thanks to the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre in Paris
The Columbia Global Paris Center is part of a network of 11 global centers of Columbia University in the City of New York, one of the world's leading academic institutions. The centers serve as knowledge hubs that aim to educate and inspire through research, dialogue, and action. They advance understanding, facilitate partnerships, and build the bridges necessary to tackle our changing world.
Columbia Global brings together major global initiatives from across the university to advance knowledge and foster global engagement. Those initiatives include the Columbia Global Centers, Columbia World Projects, the Committee on Global Thought, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lois Grjebine, Smith class of 1952, first came to Reid Hall as a study-abroad student over seven decades ago. In this episode, she talks about how the experience changed the course of her life, launching a pioneering career in journalism and women’s rights.
In the 1960s, she worked first as editor-in-chief of the French monthly, Réalités, then as editor-in-chief of the weekly English-language edition of Le Monde. She also served on the executive board of the French feminist organization, Choisir, where she was named delegate to the UN International Women’s Year meeting in Paris. An activist in American politics overseas, she was also elected committee woman to the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C.
Find us elsewhere:
Center website
Get our newsletter
Instagram
X (formerly Twitter)
LinkedIn
Facebook
Spotify (playlists)
YouTube
Host: Marie Doezema
Production: Marie Doezema and Charlotte Force
Editing: Chris Knapp
Music: Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne performed by Magdalena Baczewska and Sasha He
With thanks to the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre in Paris
The Columbia Global Paris Center is part of a network of 11 global centers of Columbia University in the City of New York, one of the world's leading academic institutions. The centers serve as knowledge hubs that aim to educate and inspire through research, dialogue, and action. They advance understanding, facilitate partnerships, and build the bridges necessary to tackle our changing world.
Columbia Global brings together major global initiatives from across the university to advance knowledge and foster global engagement. Those initiatives include the Columbia Global Centers, Columbia World Projects, the Committee on Global Thought, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. Our mission is to address complex global challenges through groundbreaking scholarly pursuits, leadership development, cutting-edge research, and projects that aim for social impact. Our long-term goal is to reimagine the university’s role in society as not only a nexus for learning and intellectual exploration but also as a catalyst for creativity and impact locally, regionally, and globally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it mean to train tomorrow's leaders? What does it mean to be politically engaged? Alice Barbe, founder of the Académie Des Futurs Leaders and former Obama Scholar, talks to us about community organizing, civic engagement, and empowering people to effect change.
Alice Barbe is an activist and a co-founder of SINGA, a French association which creates interactions that accelerates the inclusion of newcomers in civil society. She was part of the first cohort of Obama Scholars from 2018-2019, and she is a co-founder of the Académie des Futurs Leaders.
Read more about the Académie des Futurs Leaders and the Paris Center's involvement here.
Find us elsewhere:
Paris Center website
Get our newsletter
Instagram
X (formerly Twitter)
LinkedIn
Facebook
Spotify (playlists)
YouTube
Host: Marie Doezema
Production: Marie Doezema and Charlotte Force
Editing: Chris Knapp
Music: Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne performed by Magdalena Baczewska and Sasha He
With thanks to the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre in Paris
The Columbia Global Paris Center is part of a network of 11 global centers of Columbia University in the City of New York, one of the world's leading academic institutions. The centers serve as knowledge hubs that aim to educate and inspire through research, dialogue, and action. They advance understanding, facilitate partnerships, and build the bridges necessary to tackle our changing world.
Columbia Global brings together major global initiatives from across the university to advance knowledge and foster global engagement. Those initiatives include the Columbia Global Centers, Columbia World Projects, the Committee on Global Thought, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. Our mission is to address complex global challenges through groundbreaking scholarly pursuits, leadership development, cutting-edge research, and projects that aim for social impact. Our long-term goal is to reimagine the university’s role in society as not only a nexus for learning and intellectual exploration but also as a catalyst for creativity and impact locally, regionally, and globally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to respond to human rights abuses in a way that actually has impact? Jack Snyder explores these questions in his book, Human Rights for Pragmatists (Princeton University Press, 2022). 
Jack Snyder is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Relations in the political science department and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University.
Find us elsewhere:
Paris Center website
Get our newsletter
Instagram
X (formerly Twitter)
LinkedIn
Facebook
Spotify (playlists)
YouTube
Host: Marie Doezema
Production: Marie Doezema and Charlotte Force
Editing: Chris Knapp
Music: Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne performed by Magdalena Baczewska and Sasha He
With thanks to the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre in Paris
The Columbia Global Paris Center is part of a network of 11 global centers of Columbia University in the City of New York, one of the world's leading academic institutions. The centers serve as knowledge hubs that aim to educate and inspire through research, dialogue, and action. They advance understanding, facilitate partnerships, and build the bridges necessary to tackle our changing world.
Columbia Global brings together major global initiatives from across the university to advance knowledge and foster global engagement. Those initiatives include the Columbia Global Centers, Columbia World Projects, the Committee on Global Thought, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. Our mission is to address complex global challenges through groundbreaking scholarly pursuits, leadership development, cutting-edge research, and projects that aim for social impact. Our long-term goal is to reimagine the university’s role in society as not only a nexus for learning and intellectual exploration but also as a catalyst for creativity and impact locally, regionally, and globally.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the face of a war aiming to erase Ukrainian national identity, preserving Ukrainian music becomes a pillar of resilience and resistance. In this episode, Anna Stavychenko, a tireless advocate, describes her efforts to safeguard Ukrainian musical legacy and provide refuge for displaced talents.
Anna Stavychenko is a musicologist, music critic, and classical music manager. Last year Anna was a Harriman Resident at Reid Hall, and this year her visionary organization, the 1991 project, is one of the Displaced Artists Initiatives at Reid Hall. 
Previously, Anna served as the Executive Director of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra. Since the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine, she has also been the curator of special projects of the Sinfonia Varsovia, launched to integrate the Ukrainian repertoire into the programs of this prominent Polish orchestra and create special events for Ukrainian refugees and their children. Stavychenko is also the head of a special mission of the Philharmonie de Paris, designed to provide temporary contracts with French national orchestras to Ukrainian musicians who were forced to leave their homeland because of the war.
Listen to Anna’s curated playlist, an introduction to Ukrainian composers: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMCoSCf1qLrwl-CE4Bv56n4AX7nhTirZf&si=gQRPJpoGC2W-LdTn
Follow the 1991 Project on Instagram @1991_project_official
Learn more about the Reid Hall Displaced Artists Initiative: https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/content/displaced-artists-initiative 
Columbia Global Centers | Paris is part of a network of 11 global centers of Columbia University in the City of New York, one of the world's leading academic institutions. The centers serve as knowledge hubs that aim to educate and inspire through research, dialogue, and action. They advance understanding, facilitate partnerships, and build the bridges necessary to tackle our changing world.
Find us elsewhere:
CGC | Paris website
Get our newsletter
Instagram
X (formerly Twitter)
LinkedIn
Facebook
Spotify (playlists)
YouTube
Host: Marie Doezema
Production: Marie Doezema and Charlotte Force
Editing: Chris Knapp
Music: Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne performed by Magdalena Baczewska and Sasha He
With thanks to the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre in Paris

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.