The Alibi of Capital
October 22, 2026, 12 pm EST
300S Buell Hall and online
Timothy Mitchell (Columbia)
Response by Zeynep Çelik Alexander (Columbia)
Capitalism’s supposed power to transfigure nature into wealth has been one of the central motors for the Abundance myth in the modern period. In his new book, The Alibi of Capital: How We Broke the Earth to Steal the Future on the Promise of a Better Tomorrow (Verso 2026), Timothy Mitchell offers a rich counter-narrative to this myth: rather than a means for accumulating wealth, he argues it is an alibi for discounting the future. This event will highlight aspects of the book that relate to architecture and development, as well as epistemologies of space and time.
For in-person attendance (general public welcome), complete this form to RSVP. If you do not have an active Columbia ID card, please RSVP before noon on Monday October 19 - you will receive an email from Columbia University Public Safety containing a QR code, which you will be asked to present along with a matching ID at campus gates. Please allow a few extra minutes to pass through campus security. Please note: 300S Buell Hall is reached by three flights of stairs; there is no elevator in the building.
For virtual attendance, register for the webinar here.
Speakers:
Timothy Mitchell is the William B. Ransford Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University, where he is also faculty in the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He is the author of Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, and Rule of Experts: Egypt, Technopolitics, Modernity.
Zeynep Çelik Alexander is an architectural historian who teaches at Columbia University. She is the author of Kinaesthetic Knowing: Aesthetics, Epistemology, Modern Design (2017) and a co-editor of Design Technics: Archaeologies of Architectural Practice (2020) and Writing Architectural History: Evidence and Narrative in the Twenty-First Century (2021). She is also a member of Columbia’s Center for Comparative Media and Aggregate. She is currently at work on a book titled Imperial Data: An Architectural History.