Atelier

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...

A founding principle of the Arts Arena is to make encounters with the arts available to the broadest possible audience. In this episode, founder and artistic director Margery Arent Safir discusses the organization’s many performances, screenings, and conversations, which are always free of charge and open to all. A long-time member of the Reid Hall community, Safir reflects on many years of collab...

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, life and work have changed drastically for Ukrainian academics. A new book edited by Tetiana Kostiuchenko and Tamara Martsenyuk gathers personal reflections from the first three months of the war, featuring voices across disciplines—from sociology and political science to international relations and literature. In this episode, Ko...

Journalist Marguerite Holloway arrived at the Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop as a climbing novice, but with a passion for trees and a deep concern about their future. In this episode, she shares lessons learned from everyday tree lovers and women arborists, which would come to shape her latest book, Take to the Trees (Norton, 2025). Visiting Paris as a Reid Hall faculty visitor, she recounts how P...

Reid Hall has often been the site of serendipitous encounters, perhaps none more so than those leading to the discovery of its fascinating story. In the final episode of this special series, Brunhilde Biebuyck and Marie Doezema reflect on their journey through the stories of two dozen women who helped shape the legacy of 4 rue de Chevreuse. Through archives, digital tools, and historical records,...

The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, based at the Columbia Journalism School, was founded to support ethical, informed reporting on violence, conflict, and tragedy. Executive Director Bruce Shapiro, visiting Reid Hall for a PGIF workshop on forced migration, highlighted Dart’s vital role in equipping journalists to cover trauma with skill and sensitivity. Website - globalcenters.columbia.edu...

Alabama-born Lucille Sinclair Douglass was a globe-trotting artist, etcher, writer, and lecturer whose adventurous spirit defined her career. After exhibiting in Paris’s top Salons, she landed in Shanghai, leading a lantern-slide studio and launching a life of travel through South Asia. Her work—ranging from book illustrations to a French government commission at Angkor Wat—blended artistry with e...

Janet Scudder rose from modest beginnings in Indiana to become a celebrated sculptor, suffragist, and wartime contributor. Splitting her time between New York and Paris, she created whimsical garden sculptures for America’s elite and founded the Studio for Portrait Masks to aid the WWI recovery effort. A regular at the Girls’ Art Club and AWAA exhibits, she earned acclaim at the Paris Salons from...

American universities are in the midst of a crisis, as federal government interference in academic inquiry continues to grow. In this episode, Lee C. Bollinger—former president of Columbia University and this year’s Sidney N. Zubrow Memorial Lecture speaker at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination—explores the mounting threats to free speech and what they mean for the future of higher education...

Angela Gregory, the "doyenne of Louisiana sculpture," broke barriers from New Orleans to Paris. After ditching a scholarship program she found lacking, she talked her way into the studio of Antoine Bourdelle—Rodin’s famed protégé—and spent two formative years under his mentorship. Living at the American University Women’s Club, she exhibited widely before returning home to shape Louisiana’s visual...

New York-born Alice Morgan Wright was a sculptor, writer, suffragist, and early adopter of Cubism and Futurism. Living at the Girls’ Art Club in Paris, she not only exhibited in major Salons but also turned the studio into a hub of feminist activism—inviting Emmeline Pankhurst to speak and joining the militant suffrage movement in London. Throughout her adult life, Wright pursued the twin paths of...

Filmmaker Kamal Aljafari and writer Gil Hochberg explore the intersections of their work in this special conversation at Reid Hall. Aljafari discusses The Museum of Days , an extension of his film trilogy set in post-1948 Jaffa, while Hochberg shares insights from her research based on past exhibitions, including Jews and Muslims: From Colonial France to the Present Day . Website - globalcenters.c...

Cincinnati-born Florence Esté found her artistic voice in France, where she became a celebrated painter and watercolorist. A fixture in the Paris art scene from the late 1800s through the early 20th century, she exhibited widely—from the Paris Salons to women-led art clubs. Finding artistic inspiration in Brittany, particularly St. Briac, she spent summers capturing its coastal beauty. Although he...