Discussion

Covering Dissent

Tickets

A video recording of this program is now available on the Explore Content section of this website.


Join us for an evening with curator René de Guzman in conversation with producer Suhad Babaa, curator Catherine Morris and journalist Ramzy Baroud.

How do journalists cover a conflict zone, or an uprising? How do artists view neutrality when staging encounters for audiences in socially engaged art? How do museum curators navigate the complex issue of authorship when reflecting (not representing) multiple voices of dissent? With more vehicles for expression than ever, and with increased connectivity to spread messages around the world, it may be difficult to comprehend the volume of dissent narratives that are accessible to us in newspapers, in museums, and via our own smartphones and personal devices.

This program discusses and offers audiences tools to navigate conflict, dissent and controversy from the perspectives of journalists, filmmakers and curators, and their behind-the-scenes insights including question of best practices in their fields.

[Image: reproduced courtesy of Freidrich Stark/Alamy Stock Photo]

  • Program credits

    René de Guzman

    René de Guzman is Director of Exhibition Strategy and Senior Curator of Art at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA). From 1992–2007, de Guzman was Director of Visual Arts at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a contemporary, multidisciplinary art center in San Francisco. His recent exhibitions at OMCA include All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50 (2016–2017) and RESPECT: Hip-Hop Style and Wisdom (2018). He has served as adjunct professor in the curatorial studies programs at the San Francisco Art Institute, and the California College of the Arts.

    Suhad Babaa

    Suhad Babaa is a media strategist, producer, human rights advocate, and Executive Director of Just Vision, an organization that researches, documents and disseminates the stories of Palestinians and Israelis working to end occupation and build a future of freedom, dignity and equality for all. She leads Just Vision’s journalistic efforts as the co-director of the award-winning Hebrew-language news site Local Call, and was the executive producer of their acclaimed feature-length documentary Naila and the Uprising (2017).

    Ramzy Baroud

    Ramzy Baroud is an American-Palestinian journalist, author, and internationally-syndicated columnist. He is the editor of The Palestine Chronicle, former managing editor of London-based Middle East Eye, and former deputy managing editor of Al Jazeera online. He is the author of four books, including The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (2017), My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (2010), and The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle (2006). He holds a PhD in Palestine Studies from the European Centre for Palestinian Studies at the University of Exeter, UK, was a non-resident scholar at the University of California Santa Barbara (2016–2017), and is currently a non-resident scholar at Istanbul Zaim University’s Center for Islam and Global Affairs. His forthcoming book is These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggles and Defiance in Israeli Prisons.

    Catherine Morris

    Catherine Morris is the Sackler Senior Curator for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum where, since 2009, she has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions including We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-1985; Judith Scott-Bound and Unbound; and Materializing Six Years: Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art. She has worked on projects examining contemporary practices through historical precedents, including the museum wide Sackler Center ten-year anniversary project, The Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism at the Brooklyn Museum and two collection based exhibitions Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection and Half the Picture: A Feminist Look at the Collection. Morris currently serves on the CAPE National Advisory Council, Archives of American Art Journal Advisory Board, and the Art Beyond Sight Board of Advisors.