Launched in September 2023 by the Columbia Global Paris Center and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the newly renamed Reid Hall Residencies (formerly the Displaced Artists Initiative) supports global artists across disciplines—including film, visual art, dance, literature, and performance. This vital program grew out of the 2021 – 2022 Harriman Residency, an initiative dedicated to Ukrainian artists fleeing the war and supported by the Harriman Institute and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination.
In alignment with the Paris Center’s unwavering commitment to a free press and its collaboration with journalists and human rights non-profits, the program proudly welcomes an international symbol of media freedom as its newest resident, while extending its support for two Palestinian artists.
For the academic year 2026 – 2027, Reid Hall will welcome acclaimed Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as Shawkan, as its journalist-in-residence. Shawkan’s career is defined by his commitment to documenting truth through the lens, a dedication that resulted in his unlawful arrest and subsequent five-year imprisonment for covering political protests in Cairo. An internationally recognized figure for press freedom, Shawkan was awarded the prestigious UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2018 while still detained, honors from the National Press Club, and the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
During his time at Reid Hall, Shawkan will focus on visual storytelling projects that explore themes of memory, confinement, and the enduring resilience of the human spirit through photography and journalism.
Demonstrating an ongoing commitment to artists facing prolonged geopolitical crises, the Reid Hall Residencies have been extended for Palestinian artists Maha Al-Daya and Doha Kahlout throughout the 2026 – 2027 academic year, in partnership with the PAUSE program that has made it possible for them to relocate to France, and in collaboration with Sciences-Po Paris for Al-Daya, and the École nationale supérieure d’art de Paris-Cergy for Khalout.
- Since arriving in France in 2025 (and meeting French President Emmanuel Macron shortly after her arrival in France), Maha Al-Daya has shown her work across the country. Over the past academic year, she has deepened her ties with art and academic communities, notably through organizing workshops on traditional Palestinian embroidery and proposing a vibrant array of events at Sciences Po Paris, Reid Hall, and beyond.
- Poet Doha Kahlout has brought her powerful perspective to the global stage, publishing three evocative pieces in The New York Review of Books: The Road from Gaza, Sad Nights of the North, and Elegy for Rafah. In December 2025, she captivated audiences in Reid Hall’s Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc by presenting From Gaza: A Poetic and Visual Testimony. Doha’s vital voice is also featured in Sur cette terre, il y a ce qui mérite vie, an anthology uniting French, Palestinian, and French-Palestinian writers.
