Last month, a team of six staff from the Civic Initiative (a business group of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Donahue Institute) were in Islamabad. They held a three-day follow-up conference for alumni from recent cohorts of the Study of the U.S. Institutes Comparative Public Policymaking program that has been held annually by the Civic Initiative since 2010. The SUSI program is funded by the US Department of State Education and Cultural Affairs Office.
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Naila Mahmood Participated in the Pakistan Lecture Series!
Naila Mahmood
Naila Mahmood is a highly regarded visual artist, writer and documentary photographer from Karachi whose work on the complexities of urban space has been widely featured in gallery shows, museum exhibitions, and in print. Her work includes visuals, statistics and poetry; some of her projects actually constitute research projects, while others are more broad-ranging. She is also the founder and Director of the Vasl Artists Association, and a member of the Executive Council and adjunct faculty at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture.
- September 19-22: North Carolina State University
Naila featured her work on women and food security as part of its Rabb Symposium on urban sustainability in five events with 164 participants. She also met with faculty units at the university to explore possible collaborations with Vasl around faculty and student exchanges.
- September 24-25: Cornell University
Cornell University hosted her presentation in their weekly seminar series, focusing on specific visual projects she has completed.
- September 25-26: Brown University
Naila presented her work as part of Brown University’s series “Art History form the South 2018-19.” She then joined the graduate seminar of the same name, co-taught by Vazira Zamindar and Tapati Guha-Thakurta.
Final Report
The AIPS Lecture Series was a professionally enriching experience. Naila presented her work, “The inner kitchens in Karachi: a microcosm of the crowded city" at three University campuses. The RABB Symposium at North Carolina State University brought together scientists, scholars, photographers and architects. Sharing her work and talking about possible collaborations opens up new avenues and directions in Naila’s work. The lectures at Cornell and Brown/RISD brought about valuable feedback. Brown/RISD talk was well attended by students and professors from architecture, design, photography, social sciences amongst others. The lecture was followed by an hour long question and answer session where technique, approach, theory and outcomes were discussed in detail. The feedback and experience will have a significant impact on Naila’s future projects and her teaching, allowing her to integrate different viewpoints from various disciplines into her work. Naila is grateful to AIPS for this opportunity.