Conflicts Around the World Artsakh/Karabagh: History and Politics
by Professor Barlow DerMugrdechian, Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State University.
Dec. 11, 3 pm – by Professor Barlow DerMugrdechian, Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State University.
The talk will discuss some of the historical aspects of Artsakh but will focus mainly on the 20th c. In particular the status of Artsakh will be discussed, as well as the political events 1988-2020.
Crown Jewels of Russian Literature
by Marina Oborotova, Ph.D. – Plunge into the universe of Russian classical literature with Marina Oborotova. Listen to the stories of life & death, sacrifice & betrayal, passion & obsession, crime and punishment. Read and discuss the masterpieces. Take another step towards understanding “the mysterious Russian soul.”
Dr. Oborotova taught Russian literature as part of her course “Russia’s Legacy” for UNM Honors Program.
This mini seminar on maxi topics is part of AIA’s 2021 fund-raising campaign. All the proceeds will go to support AIA’s programs.
Afghanistan: Peace is at Hand or Alibi for Exit?
Todd Greentree, Ph.D., UNM
March 20, 2020 (Fri), 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Albuquerque Journal Auditorium
7777 Jefferson St. NE
Update as of 3/17: All AIA lectures are on hold until further notice.
This talk will focus on the United States and Afghanistan — What went wrong? What is the significance of the negotiations between the US and the Taliban? Are there parallels with the way the Vietnam War ended? What is the prognosis for peace? Why does Afghanistan matter? +More Info
Bauhaus: Art and Design for the Future
Dr. Susanne Riedel, Associate Professor of Art History, UNM
January 12, 2020
The BAUHAUS is one of the most innovative, interdisciplinary, and influential art schools of the 20th century. Artists from international backgrounds and with broadly diverse views worked together to shape a new way of living, and use art to evoke a new way of thinking for the modern world. Susanne Riedel will take us on a historical journey of BAUHAUS artists and ideas and address how BAUHAUS influenced art, architectural trends and art education in the decades since its demise.
The Demographic Imperative – Growing Old and Loving It: Japan Turns Gray and We, Too
T.R. Reid, Award-winning Journalist
January 24, 2020
With more than a quarter of its population over 65, Japan is making major economic and cultural adjustments to deal with the flood of kōreisha (高齢者)– “upper age persons.” This brings some problems; the nation now has more deaths than births every year. But many kōreisha are having the time of their lives –growing old and loving it. And the economic impact has been minimal. As other wealthy democracies, including the U.S., face the same demographic transition, Japan can teach us how to turn gray with humor and grace.
Jazz Meets Classical Music
Karl Hinterbichler, Ph.D., UNM
February 9, 2020
The Roaring Twenties: jazz meets the classical world or was it the classical world meeting jazz? This was a time of tremendous change both in classical and popular music. In the first few decades of the 20th Century there were a large number of composers such as Strauss, Mahler, Puccini, and Rachmaninoff, still hanging on to 19th century romantic musical ideals. Others argued that those times had passed and a radically new musical language was needed to express a changing world. Radicals such as Schönberg, Berg, Webern, and Varese, wanted to completely do away with the lush romantic language and replace it with completely new concepts. There was also a third way emerging, with many classical composers still clinging to traditional tonal practices but finding inspiration in the idioms of jazz and the new popular dances of the Roaring Twenties. But how can these be incorporated into a classical style?
Breaking Carbon’s Grip: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future for the US, New Mexico and the World
Melanie Kenderdine, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council
February 21, 2020
Continents are on fire. Glaciers are melting. The impact of mankind’s “carbon footprint” is driving climate change with growing and increasingly dire consequences. Deep decarbonization by mid-century is essential but two thirds of the countries that signed on to the Paris Agreement are not meeting their targets. Also, clean energy technologies to enable a low carbon future will use significantly higher amounts of metals and minerals than conventional energy sources; many of these resources are not found in the US, raising a range of new energy security concerns for the planet’s survival. Melanie Kenderdine’s talk will help us better grasp the problem and consider possible solutions.
Women Fashion Designers and the Birth of Modern Dress
Cassidy Zachary, Ph.D. candidate, UNM
March 8, 2020
Lady Lucile Duff Gordon is perhaps most famous for surviving the Titanic, but she was also responsible for revolutionizing fashion at the dawn of the 20th century, one of a handful of pioneering fashion designers such as Madeleine Vionnet, Jeanne Lanvin and Jeanne Paquin who designed corset-optional clothing for the modern woman. Join us as fashion historian Cassidy Zachary chronicles this era of fashion modernization, a time when women designers redefined the shape of fashion and women redefined themselves.
Russian History’s Turning Points: From the Vikings to Gorbachev
Marina Oborotova, Ph.D., CFIS-AIA
March 13, 2020
Riddle, mystery, enigma. The 1200 year history of Russia is a series of questions for which there have never been clear and definitive answers. How could a state and nation arise in the inhospitable environment of the great Eurasian plain, exposed to the constant sweep of peoples, armies, and diverse cultures? How has Russia endured? What can her extraordinary, tumultuous and tragic past tell us about her future?Join Marina Oborotova on an exciting virtual sailing through 1200 years of Russian history; through the ups and downs, sharp turns, great victories and horrible defeats. The talk will be illustrated with images of famous Russian paintings, sculptures and architectural complexes.
Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America
Jonathan Freedman, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
March 20, 2020 (Fri) 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Albuquerque Journal Auditorium
7777 Jefferson Blvd. NE
UPDATE as of 3/13: This lecture has been postponed.
Dancing on the Volcano: The Duplicities of Weimar Cinema
Katrin Schroeter, Ph.D., UNM
April 5, 2020 (Sun) 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
UNM School of Architecture, George Pearl Hall Auditorium
Update as of 3/17: All AIA lectures are on hold until further notice.
The cinema and culture of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) presents, to this day, an opportunity to flaunt one’s assessment of Germany and its “soul”, a way to praise it, condemn it, excuse it, or defend it. As one of the most productive and successful eras of German Cinema, it started the careers of famed directors Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, and G.W. Pabst and addresses questions ranging from the role of urban space and the impact of technology on daily life to the construction of sexual difference and social alternatives. Join Katja Schroeter as she examines developments in Weimar cinema and the long-standing impact of Weimar cinema. +More Info
How Media is Affecting Ukraine and its Role in the World
Martha Dyczok, Ph.D., University of Western Ontario
April 24, 2020 (Fri) 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Albuquerque Journal Auditorium
7777 Jefferson Blvd. NE
Update as of 3/17: All AIA lectures are on hold until further notice.
Ukraine’s 2019 presidential election will likely make it into the textbooks. An actor with no political experience won a landslide victory without campaigning in traditional ways. He did not meet with voters, largely refused to give interviews, and made only two live media appearances at the tail end of the campaign. Volodymyr Zelensky won the presidency by using media in a new way: he played a character in a popular TV series. And he was business partners with one of country’s richest men, who owned one of the country’s most powerful media corporation that aired the show. This talk will look at how a virtual candidate became a real president. It will also provide an analysis of how media is affecting Ukraine and its role in the world. +More Info
Paris, The Ballets Russes and the Avant Garde
Judith Chazin-Bennahum, UNM
May 10, 2020 (Sun), 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
UNM School of Architecture, George Pearl Hall Auditorium
From 1909 to 1929 Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes scandalized, propagandized and revolutionized the performance and practice of ballet throughout Europe and the Western World. They symbolized the Roaring Twenties as their radical stance in music, decors and movement had been established and continued until Diaghilev’s death in 1929. Igor Stravinsky’s scores for Firebird (1910), Petrouchka (1911), and Rite of Spring (1913) helped to pave the way for modern music’s florescence. The brutal energy and powerful dancing of Vaslav Nijinsky as well as his jagged choreography transformed attitudes about ballet performance. Thee Ballets Russes brought contemporary ballet to America in the ‘30s where it has thrived for nearly 100 years. Join Judith Chazen-Bennahum as she chronicles the impact of Ballets Russes not only on dance but in the realms of visual art and stage design. +More Info
Impressionists and Post-Impressionists in Russia
Marina Oborotova, Ph.D., CFIS-AIA
June 14, 2020 (Sun), 3:00 – 5:00 p.m
UNM School of Architecture, George Pearl Hall Auditorium
Russia has one of the world’s best collections of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. It rivals the holdings of French museums especially when it comes to the masterpieces of Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro. Far less well known is the fact that Russia had its own important school of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, painters whose works spanned the late 19th and the first half of the 20th century. How did it happen that Russia accumulated so many great works of the French impressionists and post-impressionists? Where can one see these collections? How does Russian Impressionism and Post-Impressionism differ from the French? What does it tell us about Soviet history? +More Info
The First and Most Accessible Impressionist: Monet & Giverny, Then and Now
Ann Harris Davidson
August 9, 2020 (Sun), 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
UNM School of Architecture, George Pearl Hall Auditorium
Claude Monet, the first Impressionist? Yes, Monet’s 1873 “Impression, Sunrise” painting, now in Paris’s Musée Marmottan Monet, caused critic Louis Leroy to dub (pejoratively) Monet and his fellow artists at their 1874 exhibition as “The Impressionists”. The most accessible Impressionist? Yes, Monet’s paintings are now found in public and private collections on all continents except Antarctica and in national galleries around the world. This presentation will cover Monet’s extraordinary life; his development as a “plein air” artist (and as a gardener); the groundwork he laid for further abstraction in art; his four decades of living at Giverny; his death in 1926 and his legacy of Giverny and the saving of it, making Giverny now one of France’s most visited sites outside Paris. +More Info
