Center for the Arts in Society

10/22/2026

A look back at The Screen Novel: Storytelling Through Digital Interfaces, led by writer and researcher Mukhtar Saad Shehata.

Participants explored how everyday digital interfaces—from text messages and emails to notifications and maps—can become powerful tools for creative storytelling.

Thank you to Mukhtar and everyone who joined us for this engaging bilingual English–Arabic workshop!

10/14/2026

Join Haitian poet Bertony Louis for the launch of his new poetry collection, Chroniques d’un pays sans aube.

Presented in French, the evening will bring together Francophone students, educators, and community members for poetry, conversation, and Haitian cuisine.

📅 Thursday, November 12
🕠 5:30–7:00 p.m.
📍 Posner Grand Room (Posner Hall 340)

Space is limited.
Register today:bit.ly/4hX3mRk

10/13/2026

What can wilderness survival teach us about caregiving?

Join the Center for the Arts in Society for Five Lessons on Caregiving from Wilderness Survival, a CAS Repair Initiative book launch with author Virginia Eubanks.

Drawing from her experience as a family caregiver—and lessons from wilderness first aid, lifeguarding, self-rescue and survival—Eubanks explores what it takes to build communities of care that can sustain us through uncertain times.

📅 Wednesday, October 28, 2026
🕔 5:00–7:00 p.m.
📍 Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry (CFA 111)

10/07/2026

Meet Mukhtar Saad Shehata, the writer and researcher leading our upcoming bilingual English–Arabic creative-writing workshop, The Screen Novel: Storytelling Through Digital Interfaces.

Based in Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Languages, Cultures, and Applied Linguistics, Mukhtar is the author of more than fifteen books and the recipient of the 2019 Ibn Battuta Prize for Travel Writing for An Arab’s Diary in the Land of Samba. His work explores the intersections of storytelling, digital media, and everyday social life, including the concept of the “Screen Novel.”

In this interactive workshop, participants will explore how text messages, emails, notifications, maps, and social media can become part of a story—and create a short screen-based narrative of their own.

Wednesday, October 21 | 5:30–7:00 p.m.
Danforth Lounge, 2nd Floor, CUC

No Arabic-language experience is required. Dinner will be provided by Ali Baba.

Register: tinyurl.com/CMU-ScreenNovel

10/07/2026

Meet Mukhtar Saad Shehata, the writer and researcher leading our upcoming bilingual English–Arabic creative-writing workshop, The Screen Novel: Storytelling Through Digital Interfaces.

Based in Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Languages, Cultures, and Applied Linguistics, Mukhtar is the author of more than fifteen books and the recipient of the 2019 Ibn Battuta Prize for Travel Writing for An Arab’s Diary in the Land of Samba. His work explores the intersections of storytelling, digital media, and everyday social life, including the concept of the “Screen Novel.”

In this interactive workshop, participants will explore how text messages, emails, notifications, maps, and social media can become part of a story—and create a short screen-based narrative of their own.

Wednesday, October 21 | 5:30–7:00 p.m.
Danforth Lounge, 2nd Floor, CUC

No Arabic-language experience is required. Dinner will be provided by Ali Baba.

Register: tinyurl.com/CMU-ScreenNovel

10/06/2026

Join us for The Screen Novel: Storytelling Through Digital Interfaces, a bilingual English-Arabic creative-writing workshop exploring how texts, emails, notifications, maps, and social media can become part of a story.
No Arabic, design, programming, or creative-writing experience required.
Wednesday, October 21
5:30–7:00 p.m.
Danforth Lounge, 2nd Floor, CUC
Dinner included, catered by Ali Baba. RSVP today at tinyurl.com/CMU-ScreenNovel

08/24/2026

Dive into capoeira's vibrant world with our workshop! Don't miss out!

Email from Carnegie Mellon-Center for the Arts in Society Free Capoeira Workshops - No Registration Needed!   Join Us Capoeira History and Workshop Dates: Monday, August 31 and Wednesday, September 2,

08/04/2026

Experience Indigenous Arts in Practice!

Join Diné pianist and musicologist Renata Yazzie for a live piano performance and guided listening session featuring works by Indigenous composers and a beading workshop led by Trevor Jones (Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe).

Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026
10:00 a.m.
Alumni Concert Hall, College of Fine Arts

Light refreshments will be provided.

Part of “(Un)Welcome: An (Un)Gathering,” presented by the Center for the Arts in Society and the School of Music.

07/27/2026

Join us Aug. 28–29 for (Un)Welcome: An (Un)Gathering, a two-day symposium exploring the limits, tensions and possibilities of hospitality through the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.

The gathering will feature panel discussions, a book club conversation, a film night, a morning listening session and embodied acts of hospitality—all designed to create opportunities for listening, learning, discussion and connection.

📅 Friday, Aug. 28 | 9 a.m.–9:30 p.m.
📅 Saturday, Aug. 29 | 10 a.m.–noon

Free and open to the CMU and Pittsburgh communities. Register by Aug. 14, 2026.

06/03/2026

A multidisciplinary transnational cohort of scholars convened in Pittsburgh, May 25-27, to explore the ethical, legal, economic, cultural, biological, and environmental issues raised by the accelerating socio-political interest in expanding human presence in outer space. Keynote speaker on the first day of the conference, Octavio A. Chon-Torres, Profesor de la Universidad de Lima, explored the ethical gaps in institutional and corporate planning for space exploration. Keynote speakers on the second day, Bryce Kennedy, Executive Director of the Space Valley Foundation, and Ana Maria Pinta Da Silva, Head of the School of Design at CMU, described how design principles might be used to forge networks of stakeholders to ensure that legal, political, and economic conversations about possible futures in space include diverse voices and perspectives