Speaker Series
Current series
2021-2022 Online Speaker Series
Identity and Belonging in a Global Age
With the rise of tribalism and nationalism throughout the world, questions of collective identity and belonging have surged to prominence in recent years. Across numerous disciplines and discourses, a key dilemma has taken shape: how to reconcile the legitimate yearning for rootedness and locality, with the fluidity and porousness of an increasingly global age. This series brings together leading thinkers from a variety of perspectives to examine and reframe the crises of identity that confront us in a rapidly changing global age, and to think deeply about how humanity might resolve them. Sponsored by the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University, and COMIT.
Featured speakers in this series
Cornel West, Achille Mbembe, Barbara J. Fields, Craig Calhoun, Juliet Hooker, Akeel Bilgrami, Arturo Escobar, Inés Valdez, Glen Coulthard, Or Rosenboim, Derik Smith, Samuel Moyn, David A. Palmer

Akeel Bilgrami and Cornel West
Identity, Spirituality, and Social Change

Or Rosenboim and Inés Valdez
Identity and Alternative Visions of World Order

Glen Coulthard and Arturo Escobar
Beyond "Recognition": Self, Other, and the Making of Collective Identities in Colonial Contexts

Barbara Fields and Derik Smith
Identity, Justice, and the Future of “Race”
2021-2022 Online Speaker Series
On the Spiritual in Contemporary Architecture

Joan Soranno: Lakewood Cemetery Mausoleum in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Panel discussion featuring Karla Britton Thomas Fisher Frances Halsband Jay M. Price

Siamak Hariri: Baha'i House of Worship in Santiago, Chile
Panel discussion featuring Hossein Amanat Roberto Chiotti Susan Jones Phillip Tabb

Brigitte Shim: Congregation Bet Ha'am Synagogue in South Portland, Maine
Panel discussion featuring Vanessa Avery Michael Benedikt David Leatherbarrow

Nader Ardalan: Shams-i-Tabrizi Mausoleum in Khoy, Iran
Panel discussion featuring Maryam Eskandari Tammy Gaber Bruce Lawrence Gary J. Coates
Past series
2020-2021 Online Speaker Series
The Liberal Imaginary and Beyond

Akeel Bilgrami and Charles Taylor
Secularism and the Political Culture of Modern Societies

Seyla Benhabib and Kwame Anthony Appiah
The Future of Cosmopolitanism

Joseph Chan and David Wong
Confucianism and Modern Political Thought

Lawrence Blum and Derik Smith