facebookpixel
Select Page

2018-2019 Creative Thought Forum Lecture Series Addresses Tradition and Innovation

Aug 23, 2018

How do traditional practices interact with innovative thinking? This question will be the focus of the School for Advanced Research’s upcoming Creative Thought Forum lecture series. Starting this September, SAR hosts five significant scholars whose projects, approaches, and research examine this intersection. Experts explore topics ranging from the social and cognitive impact of digital communication to biologists’ design of new organisms.

Talks are held at the James A. Little Theater at the School for the Deaf in Santa Fe on a Thursday evening and followed the next day with a speaker-led salon discussion with a deeper exploration of the topics raised in the lecture. The salons, hosted at SAR, offer lively face-to-face engagement with these influential writers and scholars. Thursday lectures are free for SAR members and $10 for not-yet-members. Friday salons, for which advanced registration required, are free and open to SAR members.

Launched in September 2017, SAR’s Creative Thought Forum brings exciting, cutting-edge thinkers to Santa Fe to present topics of broad social concern. Last year, the Creative Thought Forum series addressed the theme of Designing the Future and included Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, among other noted scholars.

  2018 -2019 Lectures 2018 -2019 Salons
Locations James A. Little Theater at the New Mexico School for the Deaf

1060 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

School for Advanced Research

660 Garcia Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

Times 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Costs Free for SAR members, $10 for not-yet-members Free for SAR members
Registration Register online at the links below or purchase a ticket at the door. Advanced registration required with priority registration given to Chaco level members and above. Call 505-954-7223.

 

Christina Agapakis: The Real World of Synthetic Biology
Lecture: Thursday, September 20
Salon: Friday, September 21

What is synthetic biology? How will it influence communities and cultures? Christina Agapakis, Harvard-trained creative director at Ginkgo Bioworks, discusses the journey to create engineered living cells. Agapakis explores how this method in biological design developed and where it will take us going forward. Learn more and register here.

 

Leah Buechley: Connecting Science, Technology, and Culture in Education
Lecture: Thursday, October 11
Salon: Friday, October 12

Computer scientist and former science director of MIT’s High-Low Tech research group, Leah Buechley, explores gender equity in makerspaces. From e-textiles to paper circuits, Buechley shows how tech, using traditional cultural practices such as weaving or papermaking, can invite new questions about authority and accessibility. Learn more and register here. 

 

Anna Sofaer: Chacoan Astronomy, Cosmography, Roads, and Ritual Power: Insights into the Chaco World Using New Technologies
Lecture: Thursday, January 24
Salon: Friday, January 25

Anna Sofaer and her colleagues Robert Weiner and Richard Friedman present their work on the Solstice Project, a nonprofit dedicated to the study of astronomical heritage in Chaco Canyon culture. Using traditional approaches and emerging technologies (LIDAR and 3D modeling), their work reveals new ways of exploring this history. Learn more and register here. 

 

Elizabeth Hoover: From Garden Warriors to Good Seeds; Indigenizing the Local Food Movement
Lecture: Thursday, March 21
Salon: Friday, March 22

Elizabeth Hoover explores traditional food practices in Native American communities and the impact of environmental studies on modern food production. Hoover’s community-engaged research at Brown University examines issues of environmental justice, indigenous farming, and subsistence revival movements. Learn more and register here. 

 

Nicholas Carr: Minds in the Net: The Journey from Page to Screen

Annual President’s Lecture
Lecture: Thursday, May 23
Salon: Friday, May 24

New York Times best-selling author Nicholas Carr explores the development of the internet and the role it has played in shaping how we think, work, and live.

“We have never been so intimately involved with a media technology as we are with the smartphone. We consult it every few minutes throughout the day, and check it one last time before going to bed. What is this technological dependency doing to our minds?”

Upcoming Events

2018 – 2019 Creative Thought Forum Series Sponsors

AMBASSADOR

DIGNITARIES

Michelle Cook
& John Camp

LEADERS

UNDERWRITERS

SUPPORTERS

Daniels Insurance, Inc.
Walter Burke Catering
New Mexico Bank & Trust
Bank of Albuquerque
Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery

MEDIA SPONSORS

KUNM 89.9 FM
KSFR 101.1 FM