Ideas 2020
These interactive events and conversations bring together vital thinkers and doers to address and engage with national and international issues through the microcosm of the culturally rich, diverse, and complex communities of New Haven.
The Ideas Program is presented in partnership with Connecticut Humanities, a non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional leadership support of The Whitney Center and media sponsor CT Public.
All programming is presented free of charge. Live-streamed content will be available on Facebook, You Tube and here on our homepage. Additionally, All Facebook Live events are also live captioned!
Workshop content will require Zoom registration; info and links will be posted below as available.
Democracy, Refugees, and Asylum
Presented in partnership with IRIS-Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services
Historian Quan Tran, sociologist Jasmina Besirevic-Regan, and Nour Al Zouabi, a Syrian refugee, share their personal stories and professional perspectives on borders, migration, and democracy.
Stories, Sovereignty, and Imagining Forward
A conversation with Native American artists and leaders who offer their perspective on issues of sovereignty, ancestry, and post-pandemic survival, organized in partnership with theater director Madeline Sayet.
Who is Essential? Race, Culture, and Identity in American Democracy
Presented In partnership with The CT Mirror
John Dankosky invites Khalilah Brown-Dean, Political Science Professor at Quinnipiac University, and others to reflect on identity politics at this disorienting time when a new identity has emerged in our society: “essential.”
Voter Rights Workshop, June 18
Presented in partnership with Civic Impact Lab, Mothers & Others for Justice, The Urban League of Southern Connecticut
Learn how structural racism shapes our voting system, imagine how a just and equitable alternative should work, and discuss how we as individuals and institutions can create a voting system rooted in shared liberation.
Slavery & The American Story
Presented In partnership with The Narrative Project
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, talks with the host of The Center For Investigative Reporting’s Reveal podcast, Al Letson, and founder of The Narrative Project, Mercy Quaye, with a special performance by New Haven musician Paul Bryant Hudson.
On Being Good: A Conversation with The Good Place Philosophers
Philosophers Pamela Hieronymi and Todd May, who served as philosophy advisors on the acclaimed television comedy, The Good Place, explore the nature of goodness and its role in society, especially poignant against the backdrop of the current public health crisis.
Constitution Cafe: The Role of Government During Pandemic, June 3
Mayor Justin Elicker, facilitator Eric Rey, your neighbors, and local experts engage in a community dialogue about the role of the government in a pandemic.
Constitution Cafe: The Constitutional Limits of the Police Use of Force, June 10
Join Ekow Yankah, law professor at Cardozo School of Law; freedom fighter Kerry Ellington; facilitator Eric Rey, your neighbors, and local experts in a series of community dialogues the constitutional limits of the police use of force.
Constitution Cafe: The Importance of the Census, June 17
Join Gabriel "Jack" Chin, Edward L. Barrett Jr. Chair of Law, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law, and Director of Clinical Legal Education, your neighbors, and local experts in a community dialogue about the importance of the census.
Constitution Cafe: Constitution & Mass Incarceration, June 24
Presented in partnership with ACLU Connecticut
Join your neighbors and local experts in a series of community dialogues around daily issues that intersect with The Constitution.
