COMPACT's Upcoming Events & Calendar
COMPACT's Official Google Calendar (includes events and application deadlines)
AY 2024-25
COMPACT's monthly coffee hour series for community partners featuring a 10-minute turbotalk to connect them to resources at Brandeis and each other. Hosted every 3rd Friday of the month from 10 - 11 AM at community partners sites or Cafe on the Common located at 677 Main St, Waltham, MA 02451.
October 18, 2024
- You’re invited to attend an open/drop-in Coffee Connect Series on Friday, October 18th at 10 AM at Cafe on the Common. Come to connect with COMPACT, Brandeis University, and fellow community partners in Greater Waltham! There will be free coffee and/or tea for anyone who attends. Hope to see you there!
Stay tuned for our full 2024-25 schedule!
Tuesday October 1, 2024
Hosted by COMPACT and ENACT in Celebration of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life
The new Justice Brandeis Practitioner-in-Residence Limited Series highlights the knowledge and experience developed by the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, and exposes the Brandeis campus community to spheres of activity that have only become more critical to our interconnected world over recent years.
We are excited to announce that Claudia Bernardi has been selected as the Inaugural Justice Brandeis Practitioner-In-Residence! Claudia Bernardi is an installation artist, painter and printmaker whose artwork reflects the impact of war and its legacies. She will be on the Brandeis campus in November 2024.
Read more about Claudia Bernardi and her 2024 residency at Brandeis University.
On or around Justice Brandeis’ birthday of November 13, from the 2024-25 academic year through the 2027-28 academic year, COMPACT and ENACT will host a practitioner whose life and work exemplifies Justice Louis Brandeis’ values of justice and truth as applied to community engagement activities, global or local.
During the one-day residency, the visiting practitioner will interact with students, faculty and staff through class visits, workshops, lectures, and other opportunities. Each residency will produce an output which can be shared afterwards, for example a written document, short documentary film, a podcast, or an exhibit.
A Residency Featuring World renowned Malian musicians Wassa Kouyaté and Balla Kouyaté with Professor Cherif Keita
Class visits: October 7-8, 2024
Performance: Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Time: 6:00pm
Slosberg Concert Hall
The residency features Wassa Kouyaté and Balla Kouyaté, internationally renowned Malian traditional musicians. These musicians are part of a Mande jaliw (generally known as the griots) who are oral historians, musicians, and performers who keep alive and celebrate the history of the Mandé people of Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and other West African countries. They are descendents of musicians who took an oath to continue the family’s oral tradition and musical heritage which dates back to the 13th century, the time of Sunjata Keita, founder of the Mali empire. The residency will consist of class visits as well as a live performance of the Sundiata fasa (epic) of the Mande people, with an English translation by Professor and descendent of Sundiata, Cherif Keita.
Tuesday, October 8th, 2024
4:30 – 6:00 p.m.
Rapaporte Treasure Hall
Doors open at 4 p.m.
Free and open to the public
In this public lecture, Danielle Allen will review key dimensions of the current challenges facing U.S. democracy—including polarization, institutional dysfunction, and an unstable information environment—and then propose a strategy for reversing those dynamics and restoring the health of American democracy.
Signed Copies of Dr. Danielle Allen's book Justice by Means of Democracy will be available to all students who attend.
A Panel Discussion
Monday, November 4th, 2024
12:00 PM - Lunch
Program from 12:15 - 1:30 PM
Mandel Center for the Humanities Reading Room (303)
Presented by both the Mandel Center for the Humanities “Humanities for Global Affairs” initiative and the Global Community Engagement program of COMPACT.
The past few years have seen the global expansion of debates and action regarding the return of ‘art’ that was forthrightly looted or acquired in colonial contexts in which consent is in question. A stellar panel featuring individuals with expertise in museums and provenance, the history of art, and law and philosophy, will discuss processes, policies, and promises and pitfalls related to the restitution of 'art' all over the world. Panelists will talk about how research on the origins and history of looted or otherwise unethically acquired objects is conducted, and how the objects’ return might contribute to the reweaving of social fabrics torn apart by violence. Conversely, they will also ask how restitution might feed into problematic nationalisms and other systems of division and inequity.
Please join us for an informal lunch at noon, before the program gets underway at 12:15 PM.
A Presentation by Ukrainian Artist Daria Pugachova
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
2:20-3:40
Zinner Forum, Heller School
Daria Pugachova is an interdisciplinary artist and art activist from Ukraine. Her artistic approach prioritizes the presence of the artist and direct interaction with audiences in public spaces. Daria studied architecture at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, and played drums for many years in the band Panivalkova.
Daria’s work has been featured in exhibitions in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the United States. Her latest projects are based on her experiences of war, exploring topics of freedom and limitation, and this is what she’ll focus on in her artist talk here.
Daria was one of five finalists for the 2024 INSPIRE Art Award of the Peace Research Institute Oslo – selected from among artists from around the world who have responded to the lived experience of violent conflict and/or displacement in their art, in any and all media.
An Artist Visit
Open dance class hosted by Adagio Dance Club: Sunday, November 17, 2024 at 4:00 pm | Location TBD
Class visit: Monday, November 18, 2024
Dancer and choreographer Raka Maitra is the founder and artistic director of Chowk Productions, based in Singapore. Defying the conventional dichotomy of 'classical' and 'contemporary,' the basis of her movement is in both the martial arts (Chhau) and Odissi, a classical Indian dance.
Raka Maitra founded Chowk Productions in 2014. Her works have been regularly commissioned by The Esplanade, in Singapore, and have traveled extensively, including to Amsterdam, Avignon, and Washington D.C.
Principal dancer Caroline Chin graduated from Singapore’s Intercultural Theatre Institute in 2018 with a professional diploma in Acting and has been training with Chowk since 2016. Prior to that, she trained in contemporary dance and Butoh.
The word Chowk, in Hindi, refers to a plaza -- a square where people gather; an intersection where cultures cross. In Odissi, Chowk is also one of the two basic stances of the dance form. “To us, CHOWK is all of that and more,” they say on their ensemble’s website. “It is a home, a place to encounter new people; a base to explore new cultures and ideas, and a foundation to always return.”
At Brandeis, Raka and Caroline will teach a dance class on Sunday, November 17, hosted by Adagio Dance Club, and give a guest lecture-presentation on Monday, November 18, in the anthropology class, “Contemporary South Asia,” taught by Professor Brian Horton.