Academics | Alumni Hall, 111
Like most contemporary wars, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is enabled by the algorithmic innovations of the day. In armored bases in southern Israel, intelligence soldiers cull through user-friendly interfaces displaying automatically generated recommendations of where and when the bombs should fall. Military heads, emulating Silicon Valley founders, brag innovations in AI have allowed them to build their killing capacities to scale. How did we get here? My talk lays bare a vast algorithmic supply chain undergirding war today. I thread together ethnographic research with Israeli intelligence veterans and Silicon Valley workers to provide an anthropological portrait of the pedestrian labor driving automated warfare: from Google technicians tinkering with facial recognition algorithms determining who is detained at makeshift checkpoints in Gaza City to reservists in Tel Aviv developing the speech to text software informing targeted strikes. In meditating on those bound up in warfare’s catastrophic effects, I emphasize how many more might play a role in demanding otherwise.Sophia Goodfriend is a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. She received her doctorate in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University in June 2024. With years of experience reporting and writing from Israel/Palestine, Sophia’s academic research and journalistic writing have been published across a range of publications, including Foreign Policy, the London Review of Books, the Baffler, the International Journal of Middle East Studies, and the Journal of Palestine Studies. Sophia is a regular contributor to 972 Magazine and is finishing two separate book projects on automated warfare in Israel and Palestine.This lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Computer Science and is part of the 24-25 Digital War speaker series organized by the Peace and Conflict Studies Program.

Academics
April 7-11. Please see the course registration web page for schedule.

Academics | Alumni Hall, 2nd floor
This exhibition, curated by 10 students in the Fall 2024 semester of MUSE 300: Museum Curating, features the themes of textiles and weaving. Showcasing works from the Longyear Museum of Anthropology’s basket and world textile collections, this exhibition explores the incredible amount of labor and skill that goes into creating woven art. The exhibition takes a comparative view of textiles from around the world, introducing the community significance of different designs and individual stylistic choices. The exhibition discusses how fiber art forms have changed as local and global markets develop, as well as the role that clothing can play in displays of nationalism and politics. Ultimately, Unraveled aims to inspire viewers to consider the benefits of hand-crafted works and foster an appreciation for the people behind the woven things we use and love each and every day.The exhibition features several new acquisitions, including three new works acquired from the Jalabil Maya women’s weaving collective during their artist residency last fall. It also features pieces on loan from our student curators, highlighting the significance of weaving and textile arts in their lives.Student Curators:Leila Bekaert ‘25 Oscar Brown ‘26 Kegan Foley ‘26 Emma Herwig ‘25 Bri Liddell ‘25 Gloria Liu ‘26 Meg McClenahan ‘25 Anna Miksis ‘25 Blanca Rivas ‘25 Aleksia Taci ‘25 Professor/Curator: Rebecca Mendelsohn

Academics | Picker Art Gallery, Dana Arts Center, 2nd floor
A Thought Is A Thread: Contemporary Artists Reworking Textile TraditionsMetaphors using the language of textiles are part of everyday idiomatic English: we follow threads on social media; storytellers weave tales or spin fantastic yarns; friend groups might be close-knit and and we might tie ourselves in knots trying to navigate complex situations. The history of textiles is intimately tied to the development of human societies. Weaving is at the same time one of the earliest human technological advancements, the foundation upon which modern industrial nations were built, and the basis for the computing revolution.A Thought Is A Thread brings together works by leading artists who investigate what textiles can still reveal about people and their relationships to each other, to themselves, and to language, land, and the future. Artworks by Faig Ahmed, Sanford Biggers, Diedrick Brackens, Melissa Cody, Suzanne Husky, Joy Ray, and Jordan Nassar present intertwining narratives that both cherish and complicate the web of meanings that emerge when traditional textile arts are given contemporary expression.Debuting at our opening, Picker Art Gallery welcomes members of the Colgate community to partake in Yarnival, a collaborative art experience. Yarnival will be on view and available for participation during the exhibition run of A Thought is a Thread, through May 18, 2025, in the upper atrium of the Dana Arts Center. Please stay tuned to our social media channels and website for more details on how to participate.A Thought Is A Thread is partially supported by funding from The Friends of Picker Art Gallery.

Academics | Center for Women's Studies, The Lounge at East Hall
Dr. Colt, a licensed psychologist and board-certified family medicine physician, will share his experience as an openly transgender doctor as he attempts to take care of the transgender community. This includes having to move out of his home state of Texas due to political oppression. He will answer questions about the care that this community so desperately needs.This event is part of the Center's brown bag series and is co-sponsored by biology, Core Communities, OED, Core Sciences, LGBTQ studies, and chemistry.Lunch will be provided.

Academics | Lawrence Hall, The Robert Ho Lecture Room,105
Jamie Kreiner, Professor and Robert and Dorothy Wellman Chair in Medieval History, University of California, Los Angeles.Minds on Fire: Thinking with Lamps in the Early Middle AgesIf electricity powers our thinking today — as a metaphor for discovery, the energy behind our devices and databases, and the source of our literal illumination — how did people think before the bulb? This talk explores one period in the very long history of artificial lighting, the early Middle Ages, to think about the relationship between lamps and minds and the entanglement of everyday objects and habits of thinking.Refreshments provided.All are welcome.