Night of Ideas: Common Ground

Organized by Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education, the Night of Ideas (La nuit des idées) is a dynamic event happening in cities across the US aimed at fostering dialogue on urgent global issues. This year’s theme, Common Ground, guides an evening of incisive talks, discussions, and performances hosted by the French Center of Excellence at Ohio State in partnership with the Wexner Center for the Arts. This interdisciplinary gathering of Ohio State scholars and artists includes a keynote from Department of History Professor Bart Elmore.  

Join a community of action-oriented peers and mentors for an evening of thought-provoking discussions and creative insights. 

Program Schedule 

• Remarks and Keynote Presentation 
  Keynote: Confronting Climate Change: Lessons from the Past That Can Help Us Protect This Blue Planet 
  5 PM | Film/Video Theater 
  Recently, environmental historian Bart Elmore has taken Ohio State students to the front lines of the climate battle: the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. At this year’s Night of Ideas event, Elmore offers some of the key lessons he has learned from both the journey to the COP and his historical studies that can help us solve one of the biggest challenges we face as a global community.  
• On Board(hers)— A Performance 
  6 PM | Location TBA 
  Started in 2018 in Ohio by Lucille Toth, who teaches French and Francophone studies and is affiliated with the dance department, On Board(hers) is a dance project that explores the experiences and testimonies of women from diverse countries of origin. For the Night of Ideas, they perform a new iteration of the project. 
• Flash Talk Presentations 
  6:30 PM | Performance Space 
  Featuring Ohio State faculty Maurice Stevens, Ryan Joyce, Dorothy Noyes, Jonathan Mullins, Joyce Chen, and Lucille Toth 

• Audience Conversation and Q&A  
  7:30 PM | Performance Space 
  Facilitated by Ohio State faculty Benjamin Hoffmann and Fabienne Münch  

   

Flash Talk Descriptions 

Navigating the Possibilities and Constraints in Creating Mutually Beneficial Community Collaborations 
Maurice Stevens discusses the productive relationship between their work in critical trauma theory and as associate dean for engagement in the College of Arts and Sciences supporting regenerative engagement with collaborators to cocreate large-scale partnerships that center community-determined priorities. 

Why Haiti Matters: Freedom, Action, and the Limits of Universalism  
What lessons can we learn from the Haitian Revolution about the possibility of action? Ryan Joyce, who teaches in the Department of French and Italian, uses Haiti’s revolutionary history to show that symbolic freedoms alone are insufficient. He argues that historical and contemporary systems of inequality shape the relationship between action and the conditions necessary for true revolutionary change. By reflecting on Haiti’s legacy, he explores the limitations of universal ideals and challenges us to rethink how freedom can be transformed from a theoretical right into a material, achievable reality. 

The Limits of Performance: How the Attention Economy is Reshaping Political Agency 
Dorothy Noyes, who teaches folklore, discusses the rise and fall of performance as a mode of political agency from the late 20th century to the present. While the effectiveness of political performance has arguably diminished with the transition from mass media to social media, the contemporary attention economy has opened up space for quieter types of cooperation. 

The Speed of Thought, The Time of Action: Or, What I Have Learned from French and Italian Theory 
Jonathan Mullins, who teaches in the Department of French and Italian, presents and discusses the question: How do we understand and respond to the calamities of our time, and how might we rethink our notion of time in order to do so?  

Reimagining Labor Mobility 
Globalization has facilitated the free—and increasingly fast—flow of goods, services, and capital across national borders. Yet workers have remained largely immobile, with respect to both geography and socioeconomic status. Joyce Chen, a development economist, asks, how can we reimagine immigration policy to encourage equitable growth both within and across countries? 

Learn More 

Villa Albertine: Night of Ideas 2025  

Maria Hupfield, Natalie Diaz, Lisa Le Feuvre, and Mininaak Migwans