Problematics and Possibilities for a Post-Pandemic World

Organized by Dr. Vishakha Desai
Featured Panelist: Melissa Messina

Covid-19 has laid bare the fissures in our global and national systems and limits of our imagination.  At a time when some dominant voices pit local, national and global priorities against one another, the once-in-a-century, 21st century pandemic reminds us in visceral terms that we must work together across all three platforms to develop a workable solution not only to Covid-19 but also to many of the world’s intractable problems from climate crises to social justice. 

Dr. Vishakha Desai will engage in a wide-ranging conversation on the changing political and cultural  dynamics of the world with a special focus on the rising global power of a confident and mature China  in relation to the U.S. Her observations will also focus on the necessity of intersecting local attitudes with national priorities and global necessities, along with the role of art in developing such relational understanding of the world. The discussion is based on her upcoming memoir, The world as Family: A story of Multi-rooted Belonging. (Columbia University Press, Spring 2021)

Dr. Vishakha N. Desai is Senior Advisor for Global Affairs to the President of Columbia University, Senior Research Scholar in Global Studies at its School of International and Public Affairs, and incoming Chair of the Committee on Global Thought.  From 1990 to 2012 Dr. Desai held a variety of positions at the Asia Society, initially as the Director of the Asia Society Museum and for the last eight years as President and CEO. Under her leadership as President of the Asia Society, she expanded the Society’s reach in Asia through innovative programs and through the establishment of new centers in the region.

Dr. Desai is a Trustee of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Chair of the Board of Trustees for AFS Intercultural Programs.  She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Teach For All, as well as the newly established KREA University, slated to be one of India’s top private Liberal Arts universities, and also serves on the Corporate Board of Mahindra & Mahindra, one of India’s largest global corporations. She has served as Vice Chair of the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center, and as the President of the Association of Art Museum Directors and has been on numerous other boards and advisory committees of not-for-profit organizations nationally and internationally. 

In addition to several publications, Dr. Desai is also a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines in both the US and Asia, and her forthcoming memoir, “World as Family: A story of Multi-rooted Belonging,” will be published by Columbia University press in early 2021. 

Dr. Desai is the recipient of five honorary degrees and holds a B.A. in Political Science from Bombay University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Asian Art History from the University of Michigan.  

Melissa Messina is a nationally recognized arts professional who has developed thought provoking exhibitions, dynamic site-responsive projects, and engaging educational public programming both independently and in leadership positions at museums and non-profit arts organizations. For over 15 years, her work with regional, national, and international artists has been presented in the U.S. in Atlanta, Kansas City, Miami, New York, New Orleans, Richmond, Savannah, and Washington, D.C., as well as in Bermuda, France, and Hong Kong. She has lectured extensively, published widely, and her research has been funded by Creative Time and The Andy Warhol Foundation, as well as by fellowships at the Stuart A. Rose Library at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR.

In 2017, she co-created Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today, an intergenerational exhibition spotlighting 21 Black female abstract practitioners that traveled from Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City to The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. Also in 2017 she served as the first Artistic Director of Flux Projects in Atlanta. Since 2016 she has been a returning guest curator for several group and solo exhibitions at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Messina was the co-curator of the 2018 and 2020 Bermuda Biennials. In addition to serving select public and private clients, she is the curator of the Mildred Thompson Estate.

The Hot Topics Series of The Hudson Eye 2020 was made possible via a Relief Grant from Humanities New York.