WHAT: |
The New School's Center of Public Scholarship (CPS) presents a two day public conference that will examine the ways the unknowable plays a part in multiple areas of inquiry and scholarship. Experts from a range of academic disciplines will discuss the criteria used to determine what appear to be unanswerable questions. The speakers will examine and address the different ways of establishing truth and knowabiity, using the scientific method and also address ways of knowing associated with the humanities and the arts. The question of what it is we cannot know is not only an important question in its own right, but has taken on additional importance in light of the recent rise of misinformation and alternative facts. What is not knowable in one way may be knowable in another.
The conference will include notable speakers specializing in climate science, mythology, mathematics, cosmology, philosophy, anthropology, and psychology. "Unknowability" will be divided into three sessions focusing on the humanities, mathematics and science, and psychology and the social sciences.
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WHO: |
The discussion will feature a prominent lineup of scholars including:
John D. Barrow, is a Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project. He is the keynote speaker and will be discussing "Unknowable Unknowns."
Gavin Schmidt, is a climate scientist and Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and an adjunct researcher at the Columbia Earth Institute.
Marina Warner,, is a British novelist, short story writer, historian, mythographer, and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London.
James Miller, is a professor of politics and liberal studies and faculty director of the MA in Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism at The New School for Social Research. His latest book, Can Democracy Work? A Short History of a Radical Idea from Ancient Athens to Our World, was published in 2018.
Nicolas Humphrey, emeritus professor of psychology at the London School of Economics and former professor of psychology at the New School for Social Research.
Natalie Wolchover is an award-winning science writer based in Brooklyn, New York. She has covered the physics beat on staff at Quanta Magazine since the magazine's launch in 2013.
Zoë Crossland, is an associate professor of anthropology at Columbia University focusing on historical and forensic archaeology.
Stuart Firestein, is the chair of Columbia University’s Department of Biological Sciences.
Rebecca Goldstein, is an American philosopher, novelist and public intellectual. The recipient of numerous prizes for her fiction and scholarship, including a MacArthur “Genius” prize, in 2012.
William Hirst, is the Malcolm B. Smith professor and co-chair of psychology at the New School for Social Research. |
WHEN |
April 4 2019, 300 p.m.– 7:30 p.m. and April 5, 2019, 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m. |
WHERE |
April 4th at the John L. Tishman Auditorium, University Center, 63 Fifth Avenue Room U100 and April 5th at the Teresa Lang Center, 55 West 13th Street |
| TICKETS |
Members of the public can register for the free event on Eventbrite.
Members of the media should RSVP with David Koeppel at [email protected] or 646 909-3794.5667 |
Founded in 1919, The New School was born out of principles of academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. Committed to social engagement, The New School today remains in the vanguard of innovation in higher education, with more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students challenging the status quo in design and the social sciences, liberal arts, management, the arts, and media. The New School welcomes thousands of adult learners annually for continuing education courses and calendar of lectures, screenings, readings, and concerts. Through its online learning portals, research institutes, and international partnerships, The New School maintains a global presence. Learn more at newschool.edu.
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