Director’s Letter

Dear Seminars Community,

The final major event of The Seminars year as a whole was the 79th Annual Dinner held on April 29, 2026, where David Johnston (Professor of Political Science, Columbia University) received the Tannenbaum-Warner Award. Lynn Garafola (Professor Emerita of Dance, Barnard College) gave the Tannenbaum Lecture, “Arthur Mitchell: The Extraordinary Life of Harlem’s Ballet Visionary” (also the title of the biography that will be published this fall by Yale University Press). Professor Garafola is the founding chair of The University Seminar on Studies in Dance, which has fostered the intellectual community and multidisciplinary practice of dance history and dance studies since 2011. Drawing on years of archival research (carried out both before and after her major exhibition on Mitchell at Columbia’s Wallach Gallery), Garafola’s riveting account was revelatory and richly illustrated, concluding with some rare video footage. After guiding the audience expertly through the life story of the founder of Dance Theater of Harlem with all its brilliance as well as its contradictions, during the question and answer period Garafola welcomed the perspectives of those present who had known Mitchell (including his former dancers, friends, and relatives). The subsequent discussion ranged widely from teaching and relationships to geopolitics and the dancer’s time in Brazil (of particular interest to the members of The University Seminar on Brazil present at the event).

Now that the academic year has come to a close, seminar chairs are planning for next year’s meetings and The Seminars office is preparing for the work over the summer that enables operations to run smoothly in the following cycle. Next year there will be a new seminar on Sleep and Circadian Rhythms founded by Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Professor of Nutritional Medicine at Columbia University Medical School. The work of the seminar will encompass animal/basic science models and research on clinical and human subjects as well as public health and policy. Among the subjects to be addressed are multidimensional sleep health (such as duration, disorders, quality, architecture, and regularity) and circadian biology (including genetics and chronobiology). It is fitting that The University Seminars will provide a forum for discussion of a phenomenon that is central to all of our lives and of particular interest to our society at time when a good night’s sleep can seem ever more elusive.

Best wishes for the summer; may it bring both respite and welcome change.

Sincerely,

Susan Boynton
Director, The University Seminars