Precarity: Art and the Humanities

5 PM Optional screening of Precarity (45 mins)
5:45 PM Light Hors d’Oeuvres
6 PM Panel Discussion in Lecture Hall
7:15 PM Light Reception
8 PM Optional screening of Precarity (45 mins)
Cash Bar Open 5:30-8 PM

The Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University presents an interdisciplinary panel of humanities faculty—experts in jazz, archives, water, mental illness and art. The panelists will discuss themes in Precarity, the three-channel video by acclaimed British filmmaker John Akomfrah. Precarity is about the life and myth of Charles “Buddy” Bolden, the New Orleans cornet player credited as the first jazz musician. Part documentary, part costume drama, part music video, Precarity addresses history, memory, mythology, cultural identity, health, race—and many other issues facing U.S. society today.

Franklin Humanities Institute Director Ranjana Khanna will moderate a roundtable of panelists:

Laurent Dubois
Professor of Romance Studies and History
Faculty Director of the Forum for Scholars & Publics at Duke University

Michael Hardt
Professor of Literature
Co-Director of the Franklin Humanities Institute Social Movements Lab

Deborah Jenson
Professor of Romance Studies
Co-Director of the Franklin Humanities Institute Health Humanities Lab

Shambhavi Kaul
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Filmmaking, Art, Art History & Visual Studies

Pedro Lasch
Associate Research Professor, Art, Art History & Visual Studies
Director of the Franklin Humanities Institute Social Practice Lab

Mark Anthony Neal
James B. Duke Professor and Chair of African and African American Studies
Director of Duke Council on Race and Ethnicity (DCORE)
Host of Left of Black