SEASON HIGHLIGHTS 2020-2021
In a year when the world was in crisis, audiences from around the world tuned in to our online events for inspiration and insight on the important issues affecting their lives.
Revisit highlights of the season below, or catch up on events in our Video Archive.
As people demanded change, we responded with the CHANGE series, exploring ways to create a more equal and democratic society. The series took on highly relevant topics such as prison abolition, labor in the post-pandemic economy, climate action after COVID-19, how to make education more equitable, and how artists lead the way toward social justice.
Watch Change Events
On September 30, “CHANGE: Making Education More Equitable” featured (clockwise from top left) Professor Cathy N. Davidson, director of the Futures Initiative; Carla Shedd, professor of sociology and urban education; and Tressie McMillan Cottom, acclaimed author, sociologist, and 2021 MacArthur “genius award” winner.
Our major spring series, RETHINKING NYC, addressed key issues while New York City was re-opening, rebuilding, and electing a new mayor. Experts from a variety of backgrounds provided innovative ideas on reforming the NYPD, ensuring economic recovery for all, transforming the arts and public spaces, and how to effectively govern such a diverse city.
Watch Rethinking NYC Events
On March 17, “Rethinking Cultural and Public Life” featured (clockwise from top left) Gonzalo Casals, commissioner of NYC Cultural Affairs; Professor Setha Low, director of the Public Space Research Group; Kamila Forbes, executive producer of the Apollo Theater; and Wendy Whelan, associate artistic director of NYC Ballet.
As inequality became an even more pressing concern in the world, leading thinkers shed light on crucial questions such as, who will benefit from economic recovery, and what will the future of globalization look like?
Watch Stone Center Events
On April 14, “Is Globalization Over?” featured (clockwise from top left) Paul Krugman, distinguished professor of economics; Marc Levinson, author of The Box; Soumaya Keynes, trade and globalization editor at The Economist; and Chad P. Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. Presented with the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality.
Our City of Science series continued with fascinating discussions on the ethics of artificial intelligence, the challenges of reporting on COVID-19 in an age of misinformation, and the science of superheroes.
Watch City of Science Events
On February 24, “Truth and Lies: Covering COVID-19” featured (clockwise from top left) Roxanne Khamsi of WIRED, Lauren Friedman of Consumer Reports, Apoorva Mandavilli of The New York Times, and Emily Laber-Warren of the Newmark J-School.
Over 30 events featured leading thinkers, artists, activists, scientists, scholars, best-selling authors (such as poet and novelist Jacqueline Woodson), and award-winning biographers (such as Tamara Payne, 2021 Pulitzer Prize for The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X).
On March 9, Jacqueline Woodson read from her book Another Brooklyn in an event presented with the Center for the Study of Women and Society.
On February 2, Robert Weill, editor-in-chief of Liveright Publishing, interviewed Tamara Payne, co-author of a new biography of Malcolm X, in an event presented with the Leon Levy Center for Biography.
Closing out the year, the fourth annual Dissertation Showcase featured 10 students presenting their amazing research in three-minute talks on topics from cannabis to robots to Virginia Woolf to immigration.
Watch Dissertation Showcase
On May 19, participants in the Dissertation Showcase joined in a Q&A: (top row, from left) President Robin L. Garrell, Jojo Karlin, Emily Weiss, Guillermo Yrizar Barbosa, (middle row, from left) Virginia Diaz-Mendoza, Natalie Gordon, Roxana Piotrowska, Melanie Blair Thies, (bottom row, from left) Serena Wang, Raj Korpan, and Jasmine Bayron.
Stay tuned for the new lineup of fall 2021 events, to be announced soon.