This conference examined the status of the object as it relates to the construction of desire at a time when objects have become structurally obsolete. This analysis, based on a reading of Playing and Reality by Donald Winnicott, analyzed the economic, moral, and spiritual crisis created by the obsolescence of objects.
At Columbia, French President Sarkozy
Calls for Cooperation on Global Issues
On the first stop of his two-day trip to the U.S., French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke at Columbia University’s Low Library to a packed audience of students and faculty. The Columbia World Leaders Forum event was co-sponsored by the University’s Maison Française and The Columbia-Paris Alliance Program.
University President Lee C. Bollinger welcomed Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the First Lady of France. “President Sarkozy’s visit to Columbia allows us to celebrate two important relationships—that of Columbia with France and the French language and culture, and that of the U.S. with France,” said Bollinger. Just before Bollinger brought President Sarkozy to the stage, he added, “When you dine tomorrow evening alone with President Obama, extend to him our very best regards from his alma mater.”
Setting aside his prepared remarks, President Sarkozy stressed the need for Europe and the United States to work in concert on multiple fronts: regulating the world economy, fighting the war on terrorism, redesigning the framework of the United Nations Security Council and creating a more cooperative approach to world governance.
“We are in the 21st century. There is not a single country that can direct the world on its own,” said Sarkozy. “If together [Europe and the U.S.] do not come up with fresh ideas then no one else will do it instead of us. That’s the reason why I came to the United States.”
The need for more effective economic regulation was a core theme in Sarkozy’s remarks and responses to student questions. “Europe and the United States together can redesign the rules to stabilize the world economy,” he said. “If Europe is backed by the U.S., then we will win.” When he meets with President Obama on Tuesday, he said he plans to discuss ways to prevent another financial crisis.
Gérald Garutti bridges theory and practice in his research, teaching, and directing at the Théatre National Populaire and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théatre. He also directs the program on Theater and Politics at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.
Marc Levy was interviewed about his writing career. Levey was running a successful architecture firm when he wrote his first book–intended as a story for the man that his son would grow up to be–at age 37. Encouraged by his sister, he went on to publish it in 2000 under the name If Only it Were True (Et si c’etait vrai…) and become an instant success. Before his first book was even published, Steven Spielberg acquired film rights to the novel, and a movie version was released five years later under the title Just Like Heaven. Levy became a bestselling author overnight, writing nine more novels, including most recently Le Premier Jour and La Première Nuit, that all hit the annual bestseller list in France. His novels have been translated into 41 languages and sold more than 20 million copies, making him the most read French author in the world. The discussion will take place in French.
Event organized and co-sponsored by the French-American Alliance, a student-run organization at Columbia University.
Didier Fassin is James Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute of Advanced Study of Princeton and Director of Studies in Anthropology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Trained as a medical doctor, he has been Vice-President of Médecins sans Frontières and is currently president of the Comité Médical pour les Exilés. He specialzies on issues of inequality and discrimination, immigration and racialization, health and humanitarianism, and memory and trauma.
In his talk, Fassin discussed how ecent ethnographic work on psychic trauma shows that victims are not just passive sufferers but can also become active protagonists, using their personal trauma as testimony and proof and turning it into a political resource for change. Didier Fassin’s talk explored trauma as a political resource and discuss its profound ethical implications.
Etienne Balibar, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the Sorbonne and Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at UC Irvine, is one of the most influential interdisciplinary thinkers alive today. A powerful critic, he has written with unique and prophetic eloquence about the links between racism, nationalism, and the plight of non-European immigrants in a newly unified Europe.
Indira Goris, Program Officer, Equality & Citizenship, for the Open Society Justice Initiative.
The Open Society Institute recently published a report on ethnic profiling in France, the first ever to produce quantitative data that supports the longstanding complaints of French minorities. Indira Goris will present findings from the study and discuss its methodology and related advocacy efforts of the OSI Justice Initiative around this issue. Indira Goris is a co-author of the report.
The Maison Française was pleased to partner with the French-American Foundation and the Proust Society of America, a program of the Center for Fiction, to bring you this conversation on the work of Marcel Proust between Antoine Compagnon (Columbia University, Collège de France) and acclaimed journalist, lecturer and author, Adam Gopnik.
Below are some photographs of the conversation on the work of Marcel Proust between Professor Antoine Compagnon and Adam Gopnik that took place on October 28.
Moroccan writer Abdellah Taia. He studied French literature at the University of Rabat before moving to Paris in 1999. He has published 4 autobiographical novels which have been translated into 6 different languages. They include Le Rouge du Tarbouche (Editions Séguier, 2005) and L’Armée du salut (Editions du Seuil, 2006), which has just been released in the United States with an introduction by American writer Edmund White. He co-authored Maroc, un certain regard (Editions Actes Sud, 2007) with Frédéric Mitterrand.
He belongs to the new generation of Moroccan writers and intellectuals who have broken away from a traditional past, a past of alienation and submission. This movement is known as the “Moroccan Movida”.
Moroccan writer Abdellah Taia studied French literature at the University of Rabat before moving to Paris in 1999. He has published 4 autobiographical novels which have been translated into 6 different languages. They include Le Rouge du Tarbouche (Editions Séguier, 2005) and L’Armée du salut (Editions du Seuil, 2006), which has just been released in the United States with an introduction by American writer Edmund White. He co-authored Maroc, un certain regard (Editions Actes Sud, 2007) with Frédéric Mitterrand.
He belongs to the new generation of Moroccan writers and intellectuals who have broken away from a traditional past, a past of alienation and submission. This movement is known as the “Moroccan Movida”.
