Past NYU Shanghai Reads Events 2024-2025

The panel discussion, AI and the Future of Reading, brought together faculty members from Interactive Media Arts, Economics, History, and EAP to explore how Artificial Intelligence is transforming our interaction with digital storytelling, historical research, academic and leisure reading.

Panel members illuminated the shortcomings of AI reading summaries and what’s lost when we sacrifice personal interpretation and the reading process for efficiency. In response, they proposed ways to shift from using AI to outsource critical cognitive reading skills to using AI to augment and expand our reading experience and comprehension.

Panelists sparked a lively conversation on the irreplaceable value of human engagement with reading, shared the worthwhileness of cultivating pleasure in things that are effortful, and posed intriguing questions about what counts as reading.

The event was well-received, with an engaging exchange of ideas that left 73 attendees with new perspectives on AI's role in the future of reading.

This past weekend, twenty one members of the NYU Shanghai community traveled to Yungu Farm, a permaculture community in the rural Jinshan District of Shanghai.

Over the course of the day, participants toured the farm and learned about permaculture design practices, the individuals who make up Yungu Farm’s diverse community, and the ways that Yungu Farm promotes symbiotic growth that nurtures both people and the land.

Through group discussions, participants explored the themes of gratitude and reciprocity in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Participants put these practices into action through farmwork, a mindful eating meditation, and a shared vegetarian lunch.

This event was a collaboration between NYUSH Reads and the Office for Community-Engaged Learning that aimed to bring people into nature, foster community, and share wisdom about how we can practice gratitude and reciprocity with the world around us.

This past week, NYU Shanghai’s urban rooftop garden was the setting for collaboration and dance inspired by Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, bringing together 15 participants. Co-hosted by NYU Shanghai Reads and the NYU Shanghai Dance Program, the event offered a unique opportunity for community members to engage in movement and nature within the beautiful space curated by the NYU Shanghai Garden Committee. Led by Yuting Zhao, Assistant Arts Professor of Dance, participants enjoyed a series of improv games inspired by Braiding Sweetgrass, fostering connections with both the plant life in the rooftop garden and each other. The interactive and relaxed atmosphere encouraged attendees to explore creative dance, regardless of prior experience, and make new friends along the way. The event highlighted the synergy between dance, movement, and literature, inviting participants to (re)connect with nature, their peers, and their own bodies. Selected chapters from Braiding Sweetgrass were recommended to deepen participants’ experience. The gathering celebrated creativity, community, and the natural world.

On Friday, participants gathered for presentations from Sirie Peng (‘27), Antonia Chen (‘28), and Yirui Chen (‘28). Co-hosted by NYU Shanghai Reads and the Center for Student Belonging for Ally Week, this event sought to explore the importance of promoting indigenous voices and how we can extend our allyship to non-human species and consider species justice.

Inspired by their EAP and PoH courses—that have been integrating Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants into their syllabus—the students’ presentations span the topics of animal cognition, representations of human and non-human relationships in art, and a comparative analysis of flood narratives that questions bias in anthropology.

18 participants were present to reflect on our relationships with the Earth and the narratives and mythologies that inform them.

Thursday evening’s NYU Shanghai Reads event “Co-Creation with an Animate World” brought together 55 participants to learn from Dr. Rachel Sweeney, Head of Schumacher College Programmes and Programme Lead for MA Movement Mind Ecology, about ecological entanglements and interspecies communication.

Throughout her talk, Dr. Sweeney drew from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants, other contemporary sources, and ancient mythology to explore the transformative role of language, storytelling, and kinship in deepening our relationship with the earth. Dr. Sweeney implored the audience to consider the role of holistic interdisciplinary education in encouraging active citational kinship, imagining resilient futures and supporting students in co-creating new mythologies. She shared her current work at Schumacher College and introduced the ethos and pedagogy of the school’s transformative education and head-heart-hand learning practices.

After the talk, participants enjoyed a dinner reception from the plant-based food restaurant Duli and had the chance to win generous gifts of fresh produce from Yungu Permaculture Farm. Co-hosted by Global China Studies, this event was part of Inclusive Ecology Collective’s “Think-and-Act” series. Funding for the event was provided by a Green Event grant from the NYU Sustainability Office and event funding from NYU Shanghai Global China Studies.

For NYU Shanghai Read’s last event of the semester “Healing Through Nature,” participants gathered at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) for a night of playback theater inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants and centered around fruits and vegetables and the relationships, emotions and memories we tie to them.

Playback Theatre (还原剧) troupe members Yi Ren, Tang Bao, Rachel, Alex, and Xiang brought audience members’ personal stories of nature’s healing properties to life on stage. Five audience members offered their stories and received the gift of having their story interpreted and reflected back to them. The five stories—“Conversations over pickled carrots,” “Mud at home,” “It all started from that strawberry,” “Everything will be fine,” and “Potatoes, Potatoes”—not only explored the uncensorable nature of flavor, demonstrations of care through food, the pride of growing something yourself, and nature’s reminder that life continues, but also revealed the intricate care and tension woven into our relationships with family members and the strangers we connect with through these experiences. These personal narratives offered heartfelt reflections on the complex bonds that food helps nurture, bridging distances and fostering understanding.

A Q&A session followed the performance, inviting the audience and troupe members to discuss the intimacy and trust required for Playback Theater, the challenges of playing in a non-native language, the collective healing that storytelling provides, and the transformative power of being heard.

This event was a collaboration between the Teaching Advancement Grant project led by Professor Yanyue Yuan (Assistant Arts Professor of Interactive Media+Business) and NYU Shanghai Reads, with venue support provided by the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). A total of 34 participants—including students, faculty, staff, and external guests—came together for this impactful and heartfelt gathering.