Lester Spence
Jan. 27-28

Dorit Naaman
Feb. 17-18

Andrea Tone
Mar. 24-25

Johan Grimonprez
Apr. 14-15

Crisis—  • noun (pl. crises) 1 a time of intense difficulty or danger. 2 the turning point of a disease, when it becomes clear whether the patient will recover or not.

ORIGIN Greek krisis ‘decision’, from krinein ‘decide’.
(Oxford English Dictionary)

Crisis refers to both the temporal condition of social calamity and in its original Greek usage, a moment of decisive intervention. This series will explore the construction of crisis in popular discourse. Who gets to name and define the nature of crisis within a given historical juncture? How is crisis engendered? How are gendered lives and identities transformed by and through crisis? How do prevailing discourses of epidemiology shape societal responses to crisis? In this age where terrorism, disaster, pandemic, peak-oil apocalypse and ecological frailty have stirred public fears, are we beginning a unique historical epoch of meta-crises— an era of permanent states of emergency and chronic “hysteria”? Are we entering a cultural and historical moment where the pursuit of social justice and the defense of the public good require ever-constant vigilance? We will examine the political uses of crisis. In other words, we will think through how progressive and reactionary social forces create opportunity amidst crises. As well, this series will contemplate the relative value of those decisive interventions undertaken by artists, activists, politicians and citizens during times of social uncertainty and danger. The lectures and other events in this series will explore the deeply personal and collective costs of environmental, social and market crises. The events in this series will consider these and other questions of crisis in global, domestic and local contexts.