Magicians of the Earth, A Legendary Exhibition in Paris and its Global Implications

On 10/27/14, the Schemel Forum at The University of Scranton hosted a lecture by Annie Cohen-Solal, Ph.D., cultural historian, writer and professor of American Studies at the Université de Caen. Dr. Cohen-Solal explores the 1989 Paris exhibition, Magicians of the Earth. She explains how its massive size and unusual goal initiated considerable debate in France and around the world — but in the end was seen as a landmark exhibition. A quarter of a century later Cohen-Solal assesses the value of the exhibition as an example of post-colonial Europe and a 21st century approach to understanding and appreciating ‘the other.”