Atelier

In this episode, Kellie Jones, Hans Hoffman Professor of Modern Art at Columbia University and MacArthur Fellow, and Heather Nickels, independent curator and doctoral candidate at Columbia, discuss Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller's place within African American art history, the structural conditions that shaped her access to sculpture as a medium, and what was lost — in practice and in the historical rec...

At the turn of the twentieth century, Paris drew young American artists with the promise of training unavailable at home. For African American artists, it also promised an escape from the racism that governed their professional lives in the United States, though that promise was not always kept. In this episode, art historian Renée Ater discusses Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller's three formative years in...

When the frameworks built to translate lived injustice into legal and political power come under direct assault, the question of how — and whether — to speak becomes a matter of survival. In this episode, recorded live at Reid Hall, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia University joins Keithley Woolward, associate director of the Columbia M.A. in History an...

While being a universal experience, sleep remains a poorly understood biological necessity whose mechanisms, disruptions, and cultural meanings have occupied scientists, philosophers, and artists for centuries. In this episode, recorded live at Reid Hall during the Nuit de l'imagination, concert pianist and harpsichordist Magdalena Stern‑Baczewska and sleep physician Jordan Stern trace the interse...

What can a drawing do that a photograph cannot? In an era of collapsing newsrooms and widespread distrust of the press, comics journalism has emerged as a form of reporting that slows the reader down, grants access to spaces traditional journalists cannot enter, and protects the anonymity of those whose stories most need telling. In this episode, Aubrey Gabel, assistant professor of French at Colu...

What happens when a physician steps outside the system she knows and begins to observe another, not as a critic, but as a learner? In this episode, Dr. Mirna Giordano reflects on what a visit to Paris's leading children's hospitals has revealed about how pediatric care is organized, communicated, and experienced across two very different healthcare cultures. A pediatric hospitalist and faculty at...

Cross-border journalism has reshaped investigative reporting over the past two decades — but as the model matures, it faces real pressure: inequities between partners, funding strain, and the question of whether collaboration can remain both ambitious and sustainable.  Recorded live at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, this episode brings together three leading practitioners t...

Museums today must reckon with an expanding set of demands—community, spectacle, education, preservation—and their buildings must reckon with them too. In this episode, Chris Dercon, directeur général of the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, reflects on the museum’s new home in the center of Paris, reshaped by Jean Nouvel. The conversation closes with the next exhibition, a project by Gha...

Description: Recorded live at Reid Hall in Paris as part of the annual Saving Journalism Conference, this episode brings together journalists, researchers, legal experts, and content creators to examine one of the most consequential shifts in the modern media landscape: the rise of the influencer. What does it mean when influencers drive more political engagement than journalists? Who is accountab...

Irish composer Finola Merivale’s creative practice sits at the intersection of collaboration and solitude, structure and improvisation. In this episode, she discusses recent compositions shaped by field recordings and environmental research. She also discusses creative collaboration with other artists during her fellowship at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination and exploring the creative proce...

In the high-stakes world of pediatric heart transplantation, every saved life is inseparable from another family’s loss. In this episode, Dr. Teresa Lee reflects on the ethical and emotional dimensions of caring for children with heart failure and guiding families through transplant. Drawing inspiration from Maylis de Kerangal’s novel Réparer les vivants , she explores what it means to honor donor...

As climate change accelerates the unravelling of ecological and social systems, questions of knowledge, care, and responsibility become ever more urgent. In this episode, cultural and environmental anthropologist Paige West reflects on several decades of collaborative research in Papua New Guinea. Through long-term partnerships with local communities—most notably with fisheries expert and Indigeno...

As Venezuela grapples with profound political and economic upheaval, photographer and journalist Fabiola Ferrero turns her lens toward the nation's most enduring symbols: oil and beauty queens. In this episode, she reflects on her long-term research exploring how Venezuela's rapid modernization in the second half of the 20th century—fueled by petroleum wealth—shaped a national identity built on fa...

During the Bengal famine of 1943, three million people perished but left behind few tangible records. In this episode, multidisciplinary artist Sujatro Ghosh discusses bridging the gap between contemporary art and historical archives by engaging with survivors’ memories of food preservation. Ghosh frames his practice not as a search for nostalgia, but as "contemporary archive making," using the me...

The right to information is a pillar of democracy, yet in the face of widespread impunity, maintaining hope is vital. In this episode, Jonathan Dagher, head of the Middle East desk at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), discusses the unprecedented challenges facing press freedom across the region. Drawing on his transition from a Lebanese journalist to a global advocate, Dagher details RSF’s tireless...

Newly discovered archives tell the forgotten story of systematic housing dispossession that fundamentally reshaped post-war Paris. In this episode, Sarah Gensburger discusses Appartements témoins, a microhistory that reconstructs the process by which over 20,000 Jewish tenants were stripped of their rental rights by the City of Paris. This groundbreaking book challenges the pre-existing narrative...

In this episode, French filmmaker and journalist Hélène Lam Trong discusses Inside Gaza , her most recent documentary offering an unprecedented look into the daily lives of AFP journalists working under relentless bombardment. Built entirely from the images they produced while trying to survive, the film confronts the paradox of reporting the news while living inside it. Lam Trong recounts how the...

In this episode, former journalist, and documentary filmmaker Florence Martin-Kessler takes us behind the curtain of Live Magazine , the groundbreaking “journalism on stage” project she founded in Paris after a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard. She shares the eureka moment that sparked its creation, the delicate balance between rigor and magic, and why she believes that facts, when told with wonder, c...

In this episode, Belarusian journalist and political analyst Hanna Liubakova reflects on what it means to live and work in exile. She recalls the closing of her Belarusian-language high school, her trial in absentia, and the path that led her to journalism. Now in residence at Reid Hall, she speaks about her book project, Exiled Voice: Preserving Belarus’s Story (Bloomsbury Academic). Website - gl...

Columbia University’s first new school in 25 years, the Climate School aims to redefine how higher education responds to global challenges. In this episode, Dean Alexis Abramson reflects on building a new academic model that bridges science, policy, technology, and community engagement to drive climate solutions at scale. She discusses the balance between urgency and rigor, the importance of respo...

As the world grapples with energy access and climate responsibility, questions of equity and development take center stage. In this episode, Vijay Modi, Columbia University professor of mechanical engineering, discusses his work on expanding electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa and the global effort known as Mission 300. He highlights how energy can drive not just basic needs but economic grow...

Atelier returns for its second season with a twist: an episode in the style of an old-fashioned call-in radio show. Faculty and fellows, artists and activists, share messages about what Reid Hall means to them—voices of people who have found refuge and inspiration here, who know the magic of Reid Hall, and who hold this place near and dear to their hearts. Guests: Barry Bergdoll, Robert E. Harrist...

What began as a flight from writing led to a deeper understanding of care—not as moral virtue, but as undervalued, essential labor. In this episode, poet and writer Will Harris shares reflections from his time working in East London care homes during the pandemic’s aftermath. Harris discusses the limits of storytelling, the “texture of speech,” and how poetry informs his new project capturing the...

Columbia University’s evolving musicianship curriculum prioritizes musical experience over traditional literacy, using inclusive techniques inspired by blind and deaf communities—such as sound painting, personalized identity melodies, and movement-based instruction. In this episode, Professor Peter Susser explores how these methods challenge conventional ideas about ability and learning, offering...

Lesbian history in France is often framed around the interwar “Paris Lesbos” era and the resurgence of lesbian activism in the 1970s. In this episode, historian Tamara Chaplin discusses how she challenges this gap in her latest book, Becoming Lesbian . Drawing on over a decade of research, Chaplin uncovers overlooked sources—from cabaret and sexology to police archives, the Minitel and private let...