Institute for Ideas and Imagination Public Humanities Initiative

The Czernecki Educational Foundation @fundacja.efc awards a fellowship annually to an artist, writer, or researcher from Central and Eastern Europe to spend a year as a Fellow of the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination @iii_snfphi in Paris. Through this partnership, we are proud to support independent thought, artistic practice, and intellectual exchange across borders. The Institute for Ideas and Imagination is a fellowship program based at Reid Hall in Paris that brings together fourteen academics and artists from around the world for a year of creation and conversation. • culture-shaping • civic • humanistic • education • fellowship •

ON WAR 📚 Book Launch On April 16, we welcomed philosophers Étienne Balibar, Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, and former Fellow Jana Ndiaye Berankova for a conversation reflecting on war, crisis, and the political challenges shaping our present moment. 👏🏼👏🏼 The event celebrated the publication of Étienne Balibar’s "Sur la guerre", the inaugural volume in Suture Press’s new series of small theory books, published in English and French and accompanied by illustrations by Nela Klímová. The book brings together three essays examining the notion of war — from Simone Weil’s reading of Homer’s Iliad to the connections between Carl von Clausewitz and Karl Marx, as well as reflections on today’s geopolitical landscape and the war in Ukraine. This event was organized by the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination @iii_snfphi and Suture Press @suturepress , with the support of the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Culture Moves Europe program of the European Union. This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union. #OnWar #war #EtienneBalibar

🗣 On April 9, we were honored to close the SNF Rendez-Vous de l’Institut of the academic year with our dear Fellow, filmmaker and artist Maryam Tafakory @maryamtafakory Through a performative iteration of her research-based project, Maryam Tafakory shared archival documents, including declassified files from the final years of imperial Iran and the early post-revolution period, offering powerful glimpses into the role of women within a popular leftist movement that was suppressed on all fronts. 🎞 Born and raised in Iran, Maryam Tafakory works across film and performance. During the evening, audiences discovered the depth of her artistic and research practice, shaped by themes of memory, censorship, gender, and political history. 👏 We warmly thank Maryam Tafakory for this amazing presentation, and all those who joined us at Reid Hall for all the SNF Rendez-Vous de l’Institut of the academic year. ✨ The Rendez-Vous de l’Institut series is generously supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Thank you for your continued support! 🎙 This event was recorded and may be broadcast as part of our SNF Rendez-vous de l’Institut podcast series. #SNFRendezVous #MaryamTafakory #ReidHall #ParisEvents #Film #IranianCinema #humanityatthecore

Le 26 mars, nous avons eu le plaisir d’accueillir une performance cartographiée à Reid Hall, dans la Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc. 🗣 Sur scène, Karen Akoka @akokakaren et Philippe Rekacewicz @phillipe.rekacewicz ont croisé leurs regards pour déconstruire les idées reçues sur les migrations. À travers une narration à deux voix, enrichie de sons, d’images, de vidéos, d’objets et de cartes, la performance propose une autre lecture des représentations dominantes. 🗺 Entre cartes “classiques” et cartes sensibles dessinées à la main, ils renversent les perspectives habituelles — loin des récits de l’invasion ou du fardeau — pour ouvrir un espace de réflexion fondé sur la complexité des expériences migratoires. 🎭 La mise en scène et les objets scénographiques créés par les artistes designers Pénélope de Bozzi @penelopedebozzi et Matthieu Lemarié @mathieulemarie prolongent cette inversion du regard, en installant un univers visuel immersif et critique. 📚 Une rencontre entre sociologie, géographie et création, portée par des recherches engagées sur l’exil, les politiques d’asile et la cartographie radicale. Programmé avec @adilazoum dans le cadre de sa Fellowship au Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination @iii_snfphi 🙏 Cet événement a été rendu possible grâce au soutien de la MSH Mondes. #Cartographie #Migrations #SciencesSociales #Géographie #Sociologie #Performance #ReidHall #RechercheEtCréation

🎙️On February 19, 2026, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination had the pleasure of welcoming acclaimed soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan @hannigan.barbara to Reid Hall to deliver the fourth annual Sidney N. Zubrow Memorial Lecture. In the Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc, Hannigan presented Resonance, Flow and Surrender in the Creative Process, offering an in-depth reflection on artistic collaboration and the creative journey behind new music for the operatic and concert stage. Her presentation was followed by a discussion with Nicholas Spice, fiction writer, critic, and consulting publisher to the London Review of Books. The Institute is deeply grateful to Edward, Betsy, and Daniel Cohen for making this lecture possible.

📣We’re proud to announce our 2026–27 Fellows! 📣 🙌🏻Bringing together innovative scholars with some of the world’s most exciting young film-makers and photographers, writers and poets, visual artists and composers, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination is proud to announce the Fellowship cohort which will be joining us in Paris in September 2026. 💫Working on a range of topics from environmental crisis seen through the fading senses of touch and sound to the American civil war and the jurisprudence of authoritarianism, from the ambiguities of so-called peacekeeping in the borderlands of the old Soviet Union to empire and exile in southeastern Asia, Institute Fellows will present their work throughout the year in the SNF Rendez-Vous lecture series (opened to the public). 🗓️ The calendar will be published soon. The Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination is made possible by the generous support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)  @snforg , the Areté Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Daniel Cohen, with additional gifts from the EHA Foundation, Pierre-Alexis Dumas and Sophie Bouilhet-Dumas, the Getty @gettymuseum , the Czernecki Educational Foundation @fundacja.efc , Judith Ginsberg and Paul LeClerc; Tom and Maarit Glocer, James Leitner and Tracy Higgins, Gerald Rosberg, Olga and George Votis; Lee C. and Jean Magnano Bollinger, Fondation Louis Roederer, and Mel and Lois Tukman. We thank you all for your generous support. ✨

An evening to pause and listen 📘 Looking back at an intimate poetry reading with Alice Oswald, one of Britain’s most distinctive contemporary poets. Oswald has published three anthologies and seven poetry collections, including Dart, Memorial, and Falling Awake, and among her distinctions are the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. In partnership with the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. 🔗 Browse our upcoming events: /for-adults/calendar/

💤 The evening program centers on a conversation and performance led by Magdalena Stern Baczewska, a current Fellow of the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. 📍 Reid Hall, 4 rue de Chevreuse (Paris 75006) ℹ️ Free + Open to all 📆 May 30 from 7 to 10 p.m. This year’s Nuit de l’Imagination brings together artists and thinkers to approach dreams through performance, discussion, and participatory activities. The event invites audiences of all ages to consider how dreams function in both individual experience and collective life. Magdalena Stern Baczewska will perform a selection of lullabies at the piano. A discussion with Jordan Stern of BLUESLEEP™ will follow, examining the bridges between music, sleep science, and wellbeing. Guests are welcome to register for either the afternoon or evening program, or attend the full event. 🔗 Register at the link in bio.

🪁 Among the highlights of this edition, the art exhibition will feature a watercolor showcase by painter and illustrator Brigitte Lannaud Levy. 📍 Reid Hall, 4 rue de Chevreuse (Paris 75006) ℹ️ Free + Open to all 📆 May 30 from 4 to 7 p.m. This year’s Nuit de l’Imagination brings together artists and thinkers to approach dreams through performance, discussion, and participatory activities. The event invites audiences of all ages to consider how dreams function in both individual experience and collective life. Blending literary inspiration with scenes of everyday contemplation, Brigitte Lannaud Levy's work moves from renditions of vintage paperbacks to the intimate "À ma fenêtre" series, offering visitors a poetic journey through books, travel, and imagination within the warm setting of La Caféothèque Reid Hall. Guests are welcome to register for either the afternoon or evening program, or attend the full event. 🔗 Register at the link in bio.

💭 An afternoon of activities, performances, and discussion exploring dreams. 📍 Reid Hall, 4 rue de Chevreuse (Paris 75006) ℹ️ Free + Open to all 📆 May 30 from 3 to 6 p.m. This year’s Nuit de l’Imagination brings together artists and thinkers to approach dreams through performance, discussion, and participatory activities. The event invites audiences of all ages to consider how dreams function in both individual experience and collective life. The afternoon is designed primarily for children and families, with participatory workshops and performances. Guests are welcome to register for either the afternoon or evening program, or attend the full event. 🔗 Register at the link in bio.

📝Poetry Day! 📅 May 18, 2026 | From 2 p.m. 📍 Reid Hall | 4, rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris 🎟️ Free | Registration required 🔗 Link to register on our bio Join us for a day where poetry moves across bodies, voices, and the city itself. Poetry in Motion brings together acclaimed poets and collectives for an immersive gathering of writing, performance, and shared experience. Come write, listen, create, and wander alongside Jason Allen-Paisant, Jay Bernard, Will Harris, Alice Oswald, Habib Tengour, Lynn Xu, and the collectives La Chaise and Loose Associations. @jallenpaisant @cmmn_stance #WillHarris #AliceOswald #HabibTengour #LynnXu @leseditionslachaise @looseassociations 👉 The full program is available on our website. #Paris #Poetry #LiveLiterature #Writers

What draws African American artists, writers, and intellectuals to Paris and Europe? What do they discover here, and what do they leave behind? 📍 Reid Hall, 4 rue de Chevreuse (Paris 75006) ℹ️ Free + Open to all 📆 May 5 at 7 p.m. From Henry Ossawa Tanner to Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, from James Baldwin to countless scholars and creators who have traveled to Paris, Paris has long been a city where Black Americans have sought freedom, community, and creative space. This public conversation brings together two leading voices on the history of African Americans abroad. Tamara Walker, professor of Africana Studies at Columbia University and author of Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad, will be in conversation with Maboula Soumahoro, Associate Professor at Tours University and founder of Black History Month France. Together they will explore the long history of this transatlantic journey, its promises, its contradictions, and its enduring resonance — with ample time for questions from the audience. This event will be livestreamed. 🔗 Register at the link in bio.