Critical Encounters Series
Past Events
A historical reenactment created by and moderated by The Honorable Judge Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, returns to collaborate with Princeton student readers on the re-enactment of a 19th-century immigration case (Chy Lung v. Freeman, 1876) that still resonates with heated issues today about…
Screening of feature film Lovelace, followed by a conversation between co-director Jeffrey Friedman and Prof. Jill Dolan on the fraught relationship and history between pornography and feminism. Co-sponsored by the Committee on Film Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Film…
Conversation between experimental filmmaker Alex Rivera and Prof. Carlos Decena of Rutgers University on borders, film, and politics. Co-sponsored by the Certificate in Latino Studies.
A panel on food, writing, and the intimacies this interaction engenders, featuring Frank Bruni, food writer from the New York Times; Leonard Barkan, professor and food writer; Chef Chris…
A dramatic reading, directed by Prof. Robert Sandberg and featuring Princeton undergraduates, of the new play by master playwright Philip Kan Gotanda. The play explores the extraordinary lives of the Bunker Twins, the original “Siamese Twins.” The reading was followed by a conversation with the playwright himself.
A cross-ethnic dialogue on the challenges of negotiating racial politics in experimental arts between Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, playwrightand the founder and artistic director of the Fulcrum Theater, and Young Jean Lee, playwright, founder and Artistic Director of Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company. Co-sponsored…
Avant-garde filmmaker Silvia Kolbowski converses with feminist/psychoanalytic critic Emily Apter on the confluences of trauma, human rights, and the politics of aesthetics. Co-sponsored by the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Filmmaker Isaac Julien screens two new films: one reflects on the social and political changes of contemporary Shanghai and their impact on the environment; the other on the relation between humanity and nature in an instance of disaster. Followed by a conversation Julien and literary…
A dramatic reenactment of the historic trial, performed by Princeton undergraduates and written by the Honorable Judge Denny Chin, US Court of Appeals. Followed by comments from and conversation with the judge on the legal legacy of the Yasui Trial or constitutional debates today. Co-sponsored by Program in American Studies…
Founder of experimental performance company The Builders Association Marianne Weems and theater scholar Shannon Jackson discuss their collaboration across the divide between art and scholarship. They also discussed the relationship between actor, theater, physical space, and cyber space. Co-sponsored by the…
Editor-in-Chief of Nature magazine Philip Campbell joins bioethics scholar Charis Thompson in a debate about the relationship between the idea of “pure science” and the ethical, racial, and gender politics of scientific inquiry,…
Poet and scholar Anne Carson collaborate with three dancers from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in a performance of words and movements. Co-sponsored by the Program in Theatre and Dance and the Center for Human Values
Historian Joan Scott meets legal scholar Julie Suk to explore how the politics of the veil in French anti-discrimination laws might help American legal and academic systems rethink what constitutes freedom.
Constitutional scholar Kenji Yoshino converses with literature professor Anne A. Cheng about the tension between the desire for individual authenticity and the power of social demand, a tension that continues to highlight the limits and productivity of identity politics and the challenges facing the…
Novelist and poet Yvette Christian meets with literary scholar Saidiya Hartman to discuss how creative writers versus scholars use and confront historical knowledge in the archive, especially when confronted by archives haunted by “missing” peoples. Co-sponsored by the Program in Creative Writing.