"The Future is Not a Grave" With the NYU Institutes | Masha Kirasirova & Tishani Doshi

"The Future Is Not a Grave" is a three-day workshop happening next week at NYUAD which explores futurisms and futurescapes across the MENA, Gulf, and Indian Ocean regions. In this collaborative episode with NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, conveners Tishani Doshi and Masha Kirasirova delve into challenging despair, fostering collective imagination, and integrating diverse perspectives from artists, scholars, and performers. Discover how this initiative seeks to redefine conversations about the future, moving beyond conventional narratives and embracing a more open-ended, tolerant, and inclusive approach.

November 10-12, 2025 in Abu Dhabi 👉 https://publicprograms.nyuad.nyu.edu/en/the-institute/events/2025/november/the-future-is-not-a-grave.html

0:00 The Future Is Not A Grave: Provocative Title and Imagining Possibilities

2:50 The Role of Imagination and Counteracting Despair

4:01 Future-Oriented Projects Across the Middle East

4:38 Comparing Futurescapes and Broadening the Academic Framework

7:31 Imagining Different Outcomes: A Collective Task

9:19 Futurisms: An Intellectual History of Future-Oriented Projects

11:13 Contextualizing the Present and Artistic Currents

12:31 Is Futurism Decidedly Optimistic?

14:02 The Interconnectedness of Future and Past

15:16 The Role of Language and Performance

17:46 Imagining a Future Tolerant of Darkness

20:00 Creating Space for Conversation, Not Just Conclusions

21:11 Bringing Diverse Disciplines Together

24:06 Gulf Futurism and Connecting Students

26:19 Diverse Panels: From Graphic Novels to Environmental Law

27:11 The Ancient Theater Tradition of Kutiyattam: Emperor Ashoka's Transformation

29:40 The Radical Possibility of Performance and Nonviolence

31:09 The Gulf, South Asia, and the Indian Ocean: A Unique Focus

32:55 Rethinking Historical Space and Eurocentrism

34:06 Prioritizing Local Perspectives and Interdisciplinarity

36:46 Soviet Visions of the Arab World

38:49 Development Schemes and Shifting Conversations

39:56 The Academy's Value of Storytelling and Artists

42:01 Breaking Down Formalized Barriers

43:10 Rethinking Systems and Collective Support

43:54 Fostering Interdisciplinary Collaboration

44:50 Academic Conferences as Art Projects

46:08 Untapped Topics and Intergenerational Knowledge

48:58 Collective Power vs. National Identity

52:42 Workshop Dates and Further Information

Masha Kirasirova is a historian of exchanges between the Soviet Eurasia and the Middle East. Her work approaches modern Middle Eastern history from a “Second World” perspective. It brings together several hitherto separate scholarly domains: Soviet nationalities policy with regard to the USSR’s Muslim populations; social and cultural history of Stalinism in shaping the experience of Arab communists in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s; cultural exchange with Arab leftist intellectuals during the Cold War; and the impacts of these exchanges on artistic, bureaucratic, and political practices inside the USSR and on those exported to Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and Egypt. 

Tishani Doshi FRSL is an Indian poet, journalist and dancer based in Chennai. In 2006 she won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection due to Countries of the Body. Her poetry book "A God at the Door" was later shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Collection. She is widely acclaimed as a creative writer; her first book of poetry, Countries of the Body (2006), won a Forward Prize for Best First Collection. 

Connect with Tishani Doshi 👉 

https://instagram.com/tishanidoshi

Hosted by: 
Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb

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