FACULTY NEWSLETTER Edition 5 - April 2016
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FACULTY NEWSLETTER Edition 5 - April 2016 FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: MICHAEL NEWMAN Michael Newman, War, Peace and World Order, has was prepared to take substantial risks in order to released a new book, Six Authors in Search of Justice: contribute to its overthrow, and survived a transition to a Engaging with Political Transitions. This book seeks to new regime. Each thought deeply about the evolving makes an original and readable contribution to defining situation with viewpoints derived from a combination of the nature of justice in the aftermath of a repressive lived experience and intellectual and artistic creation. regime. While considering transitional justice as conven- Each illuminated key questions with reference to a tionally defined, this work explores broader conceptions particular country, while developing wider insights. The of justice and is distinct in approaching the subject book demonstrates that their writings provide a valuable through a discussion of the lives and works of six writers: addition to academic analysis and external policy advice Victor Serge in Stalinist Russia, Albert Camus in Vichy that too often fails to take sufficient account of reflective France, Jorge Semprún in Spain under Franco, Ngũgĩ wa understanding, social and cultural contexts and the Thiong’o in colonial and post-colonial Kenya, Ariel specificity of each situation. It also highlights the evolving Dorfman in Chile under Pinochet, and Nadine Gordimer in and multi-dimensional nature of justice and injustice in apartheid South Africa. Each lived under a brutal regime, political transitions. GLOBAL FACULTY SYMPOSIUM AT NYU FLORENCE Emily Gee, Seeing London’s Architecture In March 2015, I was honoured to represent NYU London, of colleagues from a number of global sites, including along with Eliya Ribak, Cultural Foundations, at the Global New York. Each faculty member submitted an essay on Faculty Symposium on "The Material Archive: The Politics the wider subject and these were grouped into three of Provenance, Preservation, and Place”, kindly hosted by discussions sessions: Collect, Archive and Display. I led the NYU Florence. The densely-packed two days included a Display session and introduced questions about the role full programme of papers around the subjects of muse- of purpose-built museum architecture or house museums ums, display, archives, preservation and presentation. in representing or shaping the philosophy of museum content; the importance of context in how we understand or engage with a collection; and the risks to the preserva- tion of collections when a museum undergoes a change of fortunes or an unresolved battle of ideologies. The assembled faculty with a wide range of expertise and experiences made each session both fun and thought- provoking. The setting of our discussion was extraordinary and it was a real treat for us to study and enjoy the architecture, landscape and collection at Villa La Pietra. It was also strange to discover that my great grandparents' family name from Florence – Capponi – were the family that owned the house for 300 years! The tiny room of recently restored, ornithologically-correct frescoes of birds dating from the 1740s was a particular delight. We chatted with Brilliantly organized and chaired by archaeologist and NYU London conservation students who were engaged in Gallatin Assistant Professor Hallie Franks and Patrick hands-on work to protect the dresses of the glamorous McCreery, it was a stimulating and productive gathering Hortense Mitchell Acton, who owned the villa in the early of interesting ideas and people. I thoroughly enjoyed twentieth century. meeting and working with the diverse group of faculty and made some good friendships with an excellent group (continued on page 2) FACULTY NEWSLETTER April 2016 02 GLOBAL FACULTY SYMPOSIUM AT NYU FLORENCE (CONT.) (continued from page 1) It was a great symposium that wove together a number of ideas and subjects in an imaginative way. I also found it valuable for gaining a better understanding of NYU and its global sites that will certainly enrich my relationship with NYU London students. At the end, we managed some quick visits to take in the remarkable architectural history of Florence, the cathedral of course, and also Brunelleschi’s Ospedale degli Innocenti (1419-27). The connection of this to the eighteenth century Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury, a minute’s walk from NYU London, was a poignant reminder of the international resonance of social history and museums, which empha- sised the importance of just this sort of symposium. FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: BENEDICT O’LOONEY Benedict O’Looney, Seeing London’s Architecture, is a The building attempts to be as open and welcoming as few weeks away from completing a new project in South possible. Its brickwork comprises banded stripes of yel- London – a women’s and children’s wing for the Croydon low & red bricks from Leicestershire, and the main win- Mosque. It opens during this year’s Ramadan festival in dows have traditional clay tiled arches as in Roman archi- June. tecture. The Croydon Mosque is one of the biggest mosques in The theme of familiar, natural and vernacular materials is Britain and they have developed their site in in Croydon carried on inside by exposing the south wall structure in three phases since the 1980s. In 2011 Benedict was and the underside of the laminated timber roof. Between commissioned to design a new wing and worked up a the main load-bearing timbers, painted timber slats fol- project that attempts to harmonize traditional Islamic low the arcing line of the curved and inclined roof. architecture with London’s familiar brick Victorian and Edwardian public buildings. A particular reference point The next stages of work in Croydon will be to make a long is London’s Victorian Board Schools with their daylight- mosaic frieze to the front elevation with Arabic and Eng- filled interiors and decorative brickwork. lish script, and to build a free-standing minaret to the front of the Croydon Mosque ensemble of buildings. The international spirit of NYU London is echoed in the eclectic influences of this new project for Croydon! This new building will be filled with activity: at the ground level, is the new men’s wudhu (bathing area), loos and a last rites, (janazah) room. Above this are the ladies’ wudhu and meeting spaces. Occupying the top two floors of this building is a bright, day-lit double height prayer room reserved for women and children. FACULTY NEWSLETTER April 2016 03 FACULTY NEWS Peter Cave, Central Problems of Philosophy, released a Vijay Chudasama, Organic Chemistry I, was highlighted by new book in October 2015 (published in November 2015 Chemical Communications as one of their Emerging in the States), The Big Think Book: Discover Philosophy Investigators for 2015, in a recent special issue. He was a Through 99 Perplexing Problems. He has also written a keynote speaker at the ADC Summit, presented at PEGS chapter on 'Death as Annihilation' in The Wiley Blackwell Europe in Lisbon last year, and recently gave invited pres- Handbook of Humanism, edited by Copson and Grayling entations at GSK and Imperial College London. He is now and released in May 2015. part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) in Chemical Biology. Clive Bloom, Gothic Literature and Cultural Foundations, recently published Thatcher's Secret War: Subversion, In 2015 Phillip Drummond, British Cinema, was the Coercion, Secrecy and Government, 1974-90, which has external Panel Member on the Quinquennial Review of been nominated for the Bread and Roses Prize for out- the vibrant School of Film and Media at the University of standing radical book of 2015. He has also been invited to Lincoln. He edited The London Film & Media Reader 3: The become a patron of Searchlight Research Associates, the Pleasures of the Spectacle, a collection of 60 essays from Anti-Fascist magazine, as well as a member of the Interna- The Annual London Film & Media Conference, published tional Conference of Beliefs and Behaviour In Education as an e-book by The London Symposium. In the current and Culture. Later in the year he will be giving Keynote academic year he is speaking at conferences in Britain, addresses at both the University of Timisoara in Romania France and Italy organised by New York University in and Trinity Dublin. fhfhfhf (continued on page 4) FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: VINCE MITCHELL Sabbatical is still an amazing privilege of our profession, ‘Consumer captivity within service contexts; how consum- writes Vince Mitchell, Introduction to Marketing. ers prepare and react to them’, ‘Why should I attend? The value of business networking events’ and ‘The effect of Whilst away from NYU London in Spring 2015 on sabbati- peers vs parents on ethical attitudes towards the internet cal from Cass, I’ve was working hard on earning the privi- of Generation Y consumers’. lege of being allowed to take sabbatical. Although six months isn’t a long time, it is enough time to move big In addition, I engaged in some more practitioner-based projects forward and to gain a wider perspective on the work and chaired two industry conferences on ‘From big daily research and education issues that we all face. My data to smart data’ and a cross-industry conference on main tool gaining psychological perspective was to have a ‘Data analysis to Data Insight’ together with undertaking a different physical perspective by exploring the burgeoning research project for the Marketing Society (the UK’s lead- Asian education market with extensive trips to Taipei, ing practitioner community) looking at over 100 winning Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong and Hanoi to visit establish- case studies over the last 30 years of their awards to ana- ments such as; the University of Shenzhen, Chinese Uni- lyse trends and changes within marketing practice. I was versity of Hong Kong and the British University of Vietnam.