How can embodied practices reconfigure the public sphere? Can movement, sound and ephemeral gestures offer new ways of engaging with urban space as a site of care, connection, and transformation?

In this seminar, Greek Fulbright Artist Scholar Marita Pappa proposes embodied mapping as a speculative tool for rethinking public space in Athens – a city with a rich history of public discourse and civic engagement. Drawing from her recent body of work in New York, she explores how somatic knowledge can trace urban rhythms and tensions. Both cities have strong traditions of public life and civic activism, though expressed in different ways, offering rich ground for examining how embodied practices can open up new possibilities for collective presence. Pappa’s research is in dialogue with theorists such as Athina Athanasiou, Sara Ahmed, and Hakim Bey, whose writings propose alternative ways of inhabiting public space. Ahmed’s notion of affective economies—the ways emotions circulate to shape spatial and social boundaries—becomes a key reference in Pappa’s approach. Through walking, field-recordings, and site-responsive drawings, she explores what Ahmed calls queer use of space: a practice of reconfiguring the familiar, engaging with overlooked spaces, and introducing moments of spontaneity into the urban landscape.

As public spaces in Athens evolve amid processes of privatization and rapid tourist growth, Pappa’s research foregrounds movement as a means of re-engaging with the city—one that invites encounters, fluidity, and new ways of experiencing shared environments.

This seminar is co-sponsored by the Program in Hellenic Studies. Registration closes at NOON on Wednesday, April 9th. If you do not have a Columbia ID, you will receive a QR code to access Faculty House.