Global Voices Lecture Program:
Spring Quarter 2012
Lecture Program
The Global Voices Lecture Program presents prominent speakers and organizes round-table discussion groups and special interest conferences and seminars. As a part of this program, leading figures from the world stage come to share their thoughts and exchange ideas with students and members of Chicago’s civic community on major issues facing the country and the world. The Global Voices Program enables International House to continue to strengthen its links with the University of Chicago and the City of Chicago in ways that are commensurate with its institutional position of promoting cross-cultural understanding and respect and the exchange of ideas among people of all nations and backgrounds.
To view descriptions of past events, please visit our program listing archives (2010-2011). If you are interested in having the Global Voices Program co-sponsor one of your events, please check out our rooms available for reservation and the Co-Sponsorship Application and Terms.
Spring Quarter 2012
World Chicago Welcome Fulbright Scholars
Diversity in Education
Panel Discussion and Luncheon
Thursday, March 29, 2:00pm - 3:30pm, Assembly Hall
Featuring the following three panelists:
Ofer Malamud: Affirmative Action in Higher Education: Some Myths and Some Evidence
Bernard Rowan: Diversity and Minorities: Problems and Possibilities
Penny Bender Sebring: Improving Intractable Urban Schools: Lessons from Chicago
Ofer Malamud, an assistant professor in the Harris School, conducts research in labor economics and the economics of education. His work focuses on understanding why education affects labor market outcomes and whether different types of education affect such outcomes in different ways. In past work, he has examined the relative returns to academic and vocational education in Romania, and the trade-off between early and late specialization in higher education in England and Scotland. Most recently, he has looked at the impact of home computer use on the development of children’s human capital in Romania, and has several follow-up projects on computer and internet use in Chile and Peru. Malamud received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 2004, where he also graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and philosophy.
Bernard Rowan is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Criminal Justice, Philosophy, and Political Science at Chicago State University. He has taught at Chicago State since 1993. Rowan earned his Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Chicago, where he was a Centennial Fellow; his Master’s in Political Philosophy at the University of York (U.K.) as a Rotary International Scholar, and his bachelor’s in Political science and Economics, with High Honors in Political Science, at Vanderbilt University. Rowan is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and the co-editor or author of three volumes and a dozen papers on Korean culture, politics and society. He also helped to create the International Studies degree major for Chicago State, the first of its kind at a public university in Illinois.
Penny Bender Sebring is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Chicago and Founding Co-Director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research. She co-authored Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2010), and Charting Chicago School Reform: Democratic Localism as a Lever for Change (Westview Press, 1998). Previously, Sebring directed federally funded longitudinal studies of middle school and high school students at the National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Grinnell College, where she is a life member of the Board of Trustees, and received her Ph.D. in Education and Policy Studies from Northwestern University. Sebring serves on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Public Education Fund, and she is a member of the Visiting Committee to the Division of Social Sciences, University of Chicago, and the Policy Advisory Board of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University.
This event is free and open to the public.
The U.S.-Israel Relationship with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., The Honorable Michael Oren
Monday, April 2, Doors open at 4:15 pm, Assembly Hall
A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia University, Ambassador Oren has received fellowships from the U.S. Departments of State and Defense and from the British and Canadian governments. Formerly, he was the Lady Davis Fellow of Hebrew University, a Moshe Dayan Fellow at Tel-Aviv University, and the Distinguished Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown. Ambassador Oren has written extensively for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The New Republic where he was a contributing editor. His two most recent books, Six Days of War: June 1967 and The Making of the Modern Middle East and Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present, were both New York Times bestsellers and won the Los Angeles Times’ History Book of the Year prize, a National Council of the Humanities Award, and the National Jewish Book Award. Ambassador Oren moved to Israel in the 1970’s where he served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, in the paratroopers in the Lebanon War, a liaison with the U.S. Sixth Fleet during the Gulf War, and an IDF spokesman during the Second Lebanon War and the Gaza operation in January 2009. He acted as an Israeli Emissary to Jewish refuseniks in the Soviet Union, as an advisor to Israel’s delegation to the United Nations, and as the government’s director of Inter-Religious Affairs.
Valid UCID required. All backpacks, bags, laptops must be checked. Click here to view the poster.
The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States
Monday, April 2, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm, Home Room
In the dramatic narratives that comprise The Republic of Nature, Mark Fiege reframes the canonical account of American history based on the simple but radical premise that nothing in the nation’s past can be considered apart from the natural circumstances in which it occurred. Revisiting historical icons so familiar that schoolchildren learn to take them for granted, he makes surprising connections that enable readers to see old stories in a new light. By focusing on materials and processes intrinsic to all things and by highlighting the nature of the United States, Fiege recovers the forgotten and overlooked ground on which so much history has unfolded. In these pages, the nation’s birth and development, pain and sorrow, ideals and enduring promise come to life as never before, making a once familiar past seem new. The Republic of Nature points to a startlingly different version of history that calls on readers to reconnect with fundamental forces that shaped the American experience.
Mark Fiege is an associate professor of history and the William E. Morgan Chair of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University, Fort Collins from 2008-2013. He is the author of Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies and the Program on the Global Environment at the University of Chicago.
World Beyond the Headlines Lecture Series Presents Iran, the West, and Israel: Moving Toward a Decision Featuring Uzi Rabi
Monday, April 9, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm, Assembly Hall
The Iranian regime is under immense pressure. The West appears more determined than ever to pose crippling sanctions on Iran that target the two bases of Iran’s economy, the oil sector and the banking sector. In the background are Israel’s statements regarding a military strike and U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s assessment that an Israeli attack is a likely option. To make things worse, Iran has been grappling with the blows of a shadow war in which an invisible hand has been killing Iranian nuclear scientists, one after another. Out of a growing feeling of vulnerability, Iran responded with bolder, antagonistic statements. The rhetorical war that Iran, Israel, and the United States are having could easily escalate into an actual confrontation.
Tel Aviv University Professor, Uzi Rabi, will discuss Iran’s efforts toward regional hegemony and provide insight into the various scenarios the Israeli government is considering in response. Uzi Rabi is the director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies and chair of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University. He is a senior researcher in the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University and is regularly invited by the Israeli Knesset to deliver updates and briefs on current developments in the Middle East. He most recently edited International Intervention in Local Conflicts. His current book projects include Yemen: The Anatomy of a Failed State and Iran, Israel, and the Arabs: The Changing Face of the 21st Century Middle East.
This event is free and open to the public. To register, please visit https://cis.uchicago.edu/events/2011-2012/04092012-iran-the-west-and-israel. Co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
Environmental Advocate Van Jones with Artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph to Discuss Culture, Climate Change, and Justice
Tuesday, April 10, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm (Reserved seating guaranteed until 6:30 pm), Assembly Hall
The University of Chicago will host environmental advocate Van Jones, former Green Jobs advisor to the Obama Administration and co-founder of jobs initiative Rebuild the Dream, for a talk titled “At Your Own Risk: What Is To Be Done?” Marc Bamuthi Joseph, recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, which annually recognizes 50 of the country’s “greatest living artists,” will join in on a conversation about the environment, race, social ecology, and collective responsibility.
Anthony Kapel “Van” Jones is an environmental advocate, civil rights activist, and attorney. Van Jones is the Co-Founder and President of Rebuild the Dream, a pioneering initiative to restore good jobs and economic opportunity in the United States. Van Jones is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and American Progress Action Fund. His focus is on “green-collar jobs” and how cities are implementing job-creating climate solutions. Van Jones is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean energy economy. He is a co-founder of three successful nonprofit organizations, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and Green For All. He is also the best-selling author of the definitive book on green jobs, The Green Collar Economy Van Jones served as the green jobs advisor in the Obama White House in 2009 and is currently a senior policy advisor at Green For All. He also holds a joint appointment at Princeton University as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph, originally from New York City, is an arts activist currently living in Oakland, California. He is a National Poetry Slam champion, Broadway veteran, featured artist on the past two seasons of Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry on HBO, and a recipient of the 2002 and 2004 National Performance Network Creation commissions. He just recently returned from Tokyo where he was presented during the first International Spoken Word Festival and Santiago de Cuba where he joined the legendary Katherine Dunham as a part of the CubaNola Collective. He has entered the world of literary performance after crossing the sands of “traditional” theater, most notably on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning show The Tap Dance Kid and Stand-Up Tragedy.
To RSVP, please visit mcachicago.org. The event is co-sponsored by portoluz as part of its new series “WPA 2.0 a Brand New Deal”; the Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the MCA Stage presentation “red, black and GREEN: a blues” by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Theaster Gates; and the University of Chicago (The College, University Community Service Center, Office of Civic Engagement, Human Rights Program, Office of Sustainability).
Global Voices Author Night Presents Dario Maestripieri speaking on his latest book Games Primates Play
Tuesday, April 17, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Dario Maestripieri holds faculty appointments in the Department of Comparative Human Development, the Committee on Evolutionary Biology, and the Committee on Neurobiology at the University of Chicago. Maestripieri’s research focuses on the biology of social behavior from a comparative and evolutionary perspective. He is the author of over 130 scientific publications and several books including Primate Psychology (Harvard University Press, 2003) and Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World (University of Chicago Press, 2007). He was awarded the 1991 National Award “B. Grassi” from the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy) as the best young investigator in the field of Zoology, the 2000 American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of Animal Learning and Behavior/Comparative Psychology, and a NIMH Career Development Award (2001-2006). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In his latest book, Games Primates Play, Maestripieri examines the curious unspoken customs that govern our behavior. These patterns and customs appear to be motivated by free will, yet they are so similar from person to person and across species, that they reveal much more than our selected choices. Maestripieri uncovers our evolutionary legacy: the subtle codes that govern our behavior are the result of millions of years of evolution, predating the emergence of modern humans. To understand the rules that govern primate games and our social interactions, Maestripieri arms readers with knowledge of the scientific principles that ethologists, psychologists, economists, and other behavioral scientists have discovered in their quest to unravel the complexities of behavior. As he realizes, everything from how we write e-mails to how we make love is determined by the legacy of our primate roots and the conditions that existed so long ago. An idiosyncratic and witty approach to our deep and complex origins, Games Primates Play reveals the ways in which our primate nature drives so much of our lives.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Seminary Co-op Bookstores.
The Palestinians and the Arab Spring with Rashid Khalidi
Thursday, April 19, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm (Doors open at 5:00 pm), Assembly Hall
Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies and Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University and is among the foremost U.S. historians on the modern Middle East. He is the author of numerous books on the region, including several written during his many years on the faculty at the University of Chicago: Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East, and The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) and the Franke Institute for the Humanities.
Click here to view poster.
The Midwest Russian History Workshop Presents a Celebration of Sheila Fitzpatrick’s Career and Students
Friday – Saturday, April 20 – 21
For information about the two-day workshop, please click here.
Co-sponsored by the History and Slavic Languages and Literatures Departments, the Social Sciences and Humanities Divisions, Alumni Relations, and the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies (CEERES) at the University of Chicago.
Mexico Tomorrow: 2012 Ideas for the Future
Saturday, April 21, 10:00am - 7:00 pm, Assembly Hall
2012 is a pivotal year for Mexico. The struggle to regain macroeconomic stability, the rise in drug-related violence and organized crime, the high levels of immigration, the ideological political warfare, and the increasing levels of unemployment and poverty are some of the issues faced by the political, social, and cultural structures of Mexican society. Although concentrated in Mexico, these issues have expanded from a national to a regional (and some may even say global) sphere, making what goes on in Mexico a focal point for the rest of the hemisphere.
The issues on the table are tough and will weigh a great deal in the upcoming 2012 Mexican presidential elections. This symposium seeks to bring this conversation to campus, to create an academic space in order to debate, analyze, reflect, and propose possible paths for the cultural, political, and social issues confronting Mexico today, with a special emphasis on the role that the year 2012, and the upcoming elections, will play in shaping the future of Mexico and the region.
This event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided to those who register in advance at mexicotomorrow2012.eventbrite.com.
Strangers in Our Own Land: Muslim in Post-9/11 America with Arsalan Iftikhar
Monday, April 23, 6:00 pm, Assembly Hall
Reception and book signing to follow
Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, global media commentator, and author of the book Islamic Pacifism: Global Muslims in the Post-Osama Era. As founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and global managing editor for The Crescent Post, Arsalan has been a regular weekly commentator for National Public Radio (NPR), and he is also a regular contributing writer for Esquire (Middle East edition) and CNN.com on domestic and international issues affecting our world today. His published columns and written articles have appeared in major publications around the world. His interviews, commentaries, and analyses have regularly appeared in virtually every major media outlet including CNN, BBC World News, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Associated Press, C-SPAN, The New York Times, and Time, among dozens others worldwide. He has also been invited to speak at major universities across the world.
In 2006, Arsalan was named to the Personnalites d’Avenir (Personalities of the Future) World Leader Program in Paris sponsored by the French Foreign Ministry by the French Ambassador to the United States. In 2008, Arsalan was among the debaters selected to participate in The Doha Debates on BBC, an honor that has been shared with the likes of Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former United States President Bill Clinton. In 2011, he was also invited to join the British Council’s Our Shared Future Opinion Leaders Network, a transatlantic network of opinion leaders and scholars whose work and ideas contribute to the public conversation on relations between Muslims and non-Muslims around the world.
Arsalan graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1999 and received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in 2003. A native of Chicago, he is licensed to practice law in Washington, DC.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA). Click here to view poster.
Challenges in Combating Torture: A Conversation with Juan E. Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
Tuesday, April 24, 7:00 pm, Assembly Hall
Juan E. Méndez is the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment and co-author (with Marjorie Wentworth) of Taking a Stand: The Evolution of Human Rights. Until May 2009, he was the President of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). Concurrently, he was Kofi Annan’s Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide (2004 to 2007). Between 2000 and 2003, he was a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States and its President in 2002. He teaches human rights at American University in Washington and at Oxford University. In the past, he has also taught at Notre Dame Law School, Georgetown University, and Johns Hopkins University. He worked for Human Rights Watch (1982-1996) and directed the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica (1996-1999). As a labor and human rights lawyer in Argentina, Méndez was himself imprisoned and tortured during Argentina’s “Dirty War” that occurred from 1976 until 1983.
This event is free and open to the public. Book signing to follow. Co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Human Rights Program. Click here to view poster.
East Asia in Performance: A Graduate Student Conference in East Asian Studies
Friday, April 27, 3:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Coulter Lounge
Schedule:
2:30 pm: Registration
3:00 pm: Re-Orienting East Asia
Discussants: Professor James Hevia, University of Chicago; Jae Won Chung, Columbia University; Pauline Fu, University of California, Santa Cruz; Non Arkaraprasertkul, Harvard University; Liu Xiao, University of California, Berkeley
5:15 pm: Keynote Address by Professor Mark Driscoll, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “J-hād: Classical Text and Insurrectionary Performance in East Asia, 1866 – 1911”
7:00 pm: Reception
Whether viewed as a discrete sociopolitical sphere of influence or a distinct field of academic inquiry, the putative unity suggested by the term “East Asia” belies much of the historical and social fluidity that has marked its construction and transformation in time throughout the modern period. Performance, here broadly understood as a process of communication, provides an important lens through which to examine the multiplicity and heterogeneity which mark the emergence of “East Asia” as both the object and subject of discourse. How have disparate semiotic modalities (e.g., ritual, oratory, poetics) aided in the discursive creation of East Asia? What are the mechanisms through which these embodied practices and events are framed? In an attempt to address these and other related questions, this conference seeks to provide a forum for discussion of the many ways in which performative practices – from Meiji Buddhist homiletics to colonial magazine culture to writing practices in Maoist China – have contributed to the creation, negotiation, and competition of various figurations of modern East Asia.
Co-sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies.
International Conference on Mamluk Literature
Saturday – Sunday, April 28 – 29, National Room and Home Room
Schedule of Events:
- Saturday, April 28
- Panel 1 (9:00 am – 12:00 pm)
- Panel 2 (2:00 pm – 5:00 pm)
- Sunday, April 29
- Panel 3 (9:00 am – 12:00 pm)
- Panel 4 (2:00 pm – 5:00 pm)
Keynote Address:
Thomas Bauer (University of Münster)
“ ‘Ayna hadha min al-Mutanabbi?’: Towards an Aesthetics of Mamluk Literature”
Margaret Larkin (University of California, Berkeley)
“Al-Mutanabbi and Mamluk Arabic Poetry: The Contours of an Intertextual Relationship”
Adam Talib (University of Oxford/American University in Cairo)
“A 14th Century Literary Constellation and the Emergence of a Genre”
Muhsin al-Musawi (Columbia University) “The Islamic ‘Republic of Letters’ in the Middle Period”
Antonella Ghersetti (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia) “Mamluk Literary Anthologies and their Sources: The Case of al-Watwat’s Gurar al-khasa’is”
Thomas Herzog (Bern University) “Thamratu al-qanā’ati al-rāhātu: The Worldview of Some Bourgeois and Petit-bourgeois Mamluk Encyclopedias and Anthologies”
Th. Emil Homerin (University of Rochester) “The Mystical Writings of A’ishah al-Ba’uniyah”
Livnat Holtzman (Bar-Ilan University) “Insult, Fury and Frustration: The Martyrological Narrative of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s al-Kafiya al-Shafiya”
Richard McGregor (Vanderbilt University) “Texts, Textuality, and Ornamentation: The Uses of Mystical Literature in the Mamluk Sultanate”
Frédéric Bauden (Université de Liège and Università di Pisa) “A Neglected Reservoir of Mamluk Literature: al-Safadi and his Tadhkirah”
Li Guo (University of Notre Dame) “Al-Safadi and Ibn Hijja on the art of tawriya”
Hakan Özkan (University of Münster) “The Drug Zajals in Ibrahim al-Mi’mar’s Diwan”
Co-sponsored by the Middle East Documentation Center (MEDOC) and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) at the University of Chicago.
Engendering Change: Interactive Public Lecture on Dangers & Pleasures of Teaching Gender & Sexualities
Saturday, April 28, 1:30 pm – 2:50 pm, Coulter Lounge
The University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) are proud to announce the second annual Engendering Change graduate student gender conference.
Two exciting panels will be presented this year. The first will revolve around the Wal-Mart sex discrimination case. This panel will feature Chicago area professors, such as Laura Beth Nielsen (Northwestern University), and graduate students who worked on the amicus curiae brief for the American Sociological Association (ASA). A central theme of this panel will be how gender inequality research can impact the law. The second panel will be an interactive workshop on the pleasures and dangers of teaching gender and sexualities, led by University of Chicago professors Lauren Berlant and Kristen Schilt.
The conference is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (CSGS).
The Object Cultures Project Presents The Lives of Things: Interdisciplinary Conversations, Featuring:
Webb Keane, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, “On Spirit Writing: Materialities of Language and the Religious Work of Transduction”
Jonathan Lamb, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Vanderbilt University
“Things can drive you mad”
Thursday, May 3, 4:30 pm, Home Room
Reception to follow.
The Object Cultures Project recently reemerged at the University of Chicago in response to a growing enthusiasm across a diverse body of scholarship for object-centered studies. As a continuation of our 2011 “The Lives of Things” conference, our new “Conversations” series is part of OCP’s commitment to experimental process in producing and sharing knowledge about and within the “material turn” of recent scholarship. We hope to turn the vexations of disciplinary commitments and of representation into the very grounds of our investigation. Can conversations about objects and materials transcend disciplinary differences? What, if any, is the place of the politics of the university in the politics of value? How have changes in our understanding of “things,” “objects,” “life,” and “materiality,” produced or impacted further interdisciplinary work on these concepts? Webb Keane, an anthropologist thinking about the materiality of language, and Jonathan Lamb, a literary historian interested in the exchange and import of things and materials, will initiate “the Lives of Things: Interdisciplinary Conversations,” a series dedicated to these questions.
Co-sponsored by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory.
Click here to view poster.
The Center for Teaching & Learning and the Midwest Faculty Seminar Present
Preparing Future Faculty Seminar: Negotiating Discord/Teaching Contentious Topics
Monday, May 7, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, Assembly Hall
Many instructors see disagreement as a central part of learning. For others, a cooler and more distant approach to discussion and dialogue is the desired mode of student engagement. Classroom conflict, whether it is a desired outcome or event to be avoided at all costs, requires an instructor to deploy his/her management skills to ensure that the appropriate issues stay in focus and all remain engaged in the learning task at hand. Our panels, comprised of experienced liberal arts college faculty, will consider two sides of this pedagogical challenge: finding teaching opportunities in such moments and managing such events when even “programmed” disagreement turns ugly.
Strangers in Our Own Land: Growing Up Undocumented with Jose Antonio Vargas
Wednesday, May 9, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm, Assembly Hall
A journalist writing for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country for over a decade, Jose Antonio Vargas’ personal journey contends with some of the most fascinating stories he has covered, living a double life since he was 16 years old. After coming to the United States from the Philippines, Vargas immersed himself within American culture, learning to speak the language perfectly and studying hard in school. However, it wasn’t until he was 16 years old when applying for a learner’s permit at the DMV that he learned that his green card was fake, which was later confirmed by his grandfather. Vargas then realized that in order to be able to pursue his American dream, a career in journalism, he had to hide his true identity to avoid deportation. Nevertheless, he succeeded to achieve a wide array of accolades. Vargas wrote a widely circulated profile of Mark Zuckerberg for The New Yorker. He also served as a senior contributing editor at The Huffington Post, where he launched the Technology and College sections and created the Technology as Anthropology blog, which focuses on tech’s impact on people and how they behave. He covered the 2008 presidential campaign for The Washington Post and was part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for covering the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech. His 2006 series on HIV/AIDS in Washington, DC inspired a feature length documentary, The Other City, which he co-produced and wrote. Yet even among the midst of his achievements, Vargas frequently lied to friends and colleagues in order to hide his documented status and did not travel due to his illegal passport. Finally, in the summer of 2011, 18 years after arriving in America, he decided he was done running. He revealed his story in his groundbreaking essay, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” for The New York Times, which shocked the media and attracted worldwide coverage.
This event is free and open to the public. This event is co-sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA), Minorities in Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago Coalition for Immigrant Rights, American Civil Liberties Union of the University of Chicago, PanAsia, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, Chicago Policy Review, Graduate Council, Latino Law Students Association, Human Rights Program, Organization of Black Students, Office of International Affairs, Department of History, Kababayan, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlán, Center for Latin American Studies, and Student Government Finance Committee.
Click here to view poster.
Reproductive Health Disparities Among Youth: Improving Services and Ensuring Access
Thursday, May 10, 8:30 am - 4:00 pm, Assembly Hall
The Section of Family Planning & Contraceptive Research and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago invite you to join us for a one-day conference exploring youth engagement with reproductive health services. This conference will examine the barriers and facilitators that shape young people’s access to reproductive health services and the resulting outcomes, focusing on the experiences of youth under the age of 25 and underserved youth.
Featuring keynote speaker, Professor John Santelli, MD, MPH, of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the University of Chicago OB/GYN section of Family Planning and Contraceptive Research.
Click here to view poster.
Sociology Spring Institute Conference
Friday, May 11
Keynote Speaker: Paula England is Professor of Sociology at New York University. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1975 and has held positions at the University of Texas at Dallas, University of Arizona, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Stanford University. Her early work focused on gender and labor markets. More recently, her research has focused on families and sexuality. She was the editor of American Sociological Review from 1994 to 1996. In 1999, she won the ASA’s Jessie Bernard Award for career contributions to scholarship on gender. She has also received the distinguished career award from the ASA’s Family Section in 2010.
Post-Crisis Perspectives on the Sovereign Debt Question
Saturday, May 12, Assembly Hall
A conference of three panels on the implications of the crisis on global finance, the eurozone crisis and models of economic development, and the future of the nation-state in Europe.
Keynote address by Philippe d'Arvisenet, chief global economist of BNP Paribas.
Discussion dinner with speakers to follow.
This event is free and open to the public. To register, please visit post-crisis.chicagosociety.org/registration. Co-sponsored by the Chicago Society. Click here to view poster.
Robert H. Kirschner, M.D. Memorial Human Rights Lecture Presents: Reconnecting in the Aftermath of El Salvador’s Civil War: The Joys and Challenges of Finding Family
Featuring Professor Margaret E. Ward and Filmmaker Nelson Ward de Witt
Thursday, May 31, 6:30 pm, Assembly Hall
Margaret Ward, Emerita Professor, Wellesley College, is the author of Missing Mila, Finding Family: An International Adoption in the Shadow of the Salvadoran Civil War, in which she tells how she and her husband Thomas adopted a Salvadoran baby and their later reconnection with their son’s birth family through Asociación Pro-Búsqueda.
Nelson Ward de Witt, Margaret’s adopted son, is now a filmmaker and will present excerpts from his new documentary Identifying Nelson/Buscando Roberto in which he tells the adoption and reunification story from his perspective. Asociación Pro-Búsqueda was founded by the late Dr. Robert Kirschner and Salvadoran colleagues to reunite Salvadoran families with children adopted abroad during the war years. It was a 1997 call from Dr. Kirschner to the de Witt-Ward family that set in motion this remarkable reunion.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Human Rights Program. Click here to view poster.
Winter Quarter 2012
Leonard D. White Memorial Lecture with Justin Yifu Lin, PhD’86 and Former I-House Resident 1982-1985
Friday, January 6, 12:00 pm — 1:15 pm, Assembly Hall and Coulter Lounge
Justin Yifu Lin is the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank, a position he has held since June 2008. In his current position, Dr. Lin guides the Bank’s intellectual leadership and plays a key role in shaping the economic research agenda of the institution. Prior to joining the World Bank, Dr. Lin served for 15 years as Founding Director and Professor of the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University. Dr. Lin received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1986 and is the author of 18 books, including The China Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform and Economic Development and Transition: Thought, Strategy, and Viability. In 2007, he gave the Marshall Lectures at Cambridge; and in 2011, the Simon Kuznets Lecture at Yale and the UNU Wider Annual Lecture in Mozambique, the first ever to be held in a developing country. Dr. Lin was a deputy of China’s People’s Congress, Vice Chairman of Committee for Economic Affairs of Chinese People’s Political Consultation Conference, and Vice Chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
Click on image for more details.
Before the 18th century, China was the largest and one of the most advanced economies in the world. However, it declined precipitately and degenerated into one of the world’s poorest economies by the late 19th century. Despite generations of efforts for national rejuvenation, China did not reverse its fate until it introduced market-oriented reforms in 1979. Since its resurgence, China has been the most dynamic economy in the world. In this lecture, Dr. Lin will provide a consistent framework to analyze the causes behind those dramatic changes in China and draw some lessons from the Chinese experiences for other developing countries. His perspectives challenges many tenets of conventional neoclassical theory and show how naïve applications of many of its principles had catastrophic consequences for many transition economies.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Department of Political Science.
Global Voices Author Night Presents Thomas Frank, PhD’94, speaking on his latest book Pity the Billionaire
Wednesday, January 11, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Economic catastrophe usually brings social protest and demands for change — or at least it’s supposed to. However, when Thomas Frank set out in 2009 to look for expressions of American discontent, all he could find were loud demands that the economic system be made even harsher on the recession’s victims and that society’s traditional winners receive even grander prizes. The American Right, which had seemed moribund after the election of 2008, was strangely reinvigorated by the arrival of hard times. The Tea Party movement demanded not that we question the failed system but that we reaffirm our commitment to it. Republicans in Congress embarked on a bold strategy of total opposition to the liberal state. And TV phenomenon Glenn Beck demonstrated the commercial potential of heroic paranoia and the purest libertarian economics.
In Pity the Billionaire, Frank, the great chronicler of the American paradox, examines the peculiar mechanism by which dire economic circumstances have delivered wildly unexpected political results. Using firsthand reporting, a deep knowledge of the American Right and a wicked sense of humor, he gives us the first full diagnosis of the cultural malady that has transformed collapse into profit, reconceived the Founding Fathers as heroes from an Ayn Rand novel, and enlisted the powerless in a fan club for the prosperous. The understanding Frank reaches is at once startling, original, and profound.
Thomas Frank is an author, journalist, and columnist for Harper’s Magazine. He is a former columnist for the Wall Street Journal, authoring “The Tilting Yard” from 2008 to 2010. In 1988, Frank began studying American history at the University of Chicago, from which he received his PhD in 1994. His dissertation later became The Conquest of Cool (University of Chicago Press, 1997), a book about the infatuation of certain branches of industry with counterculture in the 1960’s.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Seminary Co-op Bookstores.
Martha T. Roth, Dean of the Division of the Humanities Invites You to Celebrate the Indian Ministry of Culture Vivekananda Visiting Professorship
Initiating a new partnership between the Ministry of Culture, Government of India and the University of Chicago
Saturday, January 28, 3:45 pm – 5:15 pm, Assembly Hall
Pre-ceremony Concert at 3:45 pm
Ceremony at 4:15 pm
Reception to follow.
Please join us to witness the ceremonial signing of the joint memorandum of understanding in honor of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Swami Vivekananda featuring remarks by: The Honorable Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister of India Her Excellency Nirupama Rao, Ambassador of India to the United States Dipesh Chakrabarty, The Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor, Department of History and Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Ashraf Khalil: Egypt after Tahrir Square
Wednesday, February 8
Reading and discussion with Ashraf Khalil on his new book, Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation. In his book, Khalil tracks multiple turning points that led to the downfall of Hosni Mubarak, dating back to the very beginning of Mubarak’s twenty-nine year reign. A longtime Cairo-based journalist, Khalil delivers a first-hand account of the whirlwind eighteen-day popular uprising that toppled Egypt’s modern-day Pharaoh.
Ashraf Khalil has covered the Middle East for The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, The Times, and The Economist. He worked as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times in Baghdad and Jerusalem and has been based in Cairo for most of the last fifteen years. He is an Egyptian-American, born and raised in the U.S. and a graduate of Indiana University.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES).
From the Adriatic to the Sulu Sea: Islam and Identity in Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia
Islamization of the Modern or Modernization of Islam: A brief critical review of Islam in contemporary Southeast Asia
Thursday, February 9, 5:00, Assembly Hall
Featuring Distinguished Professor Datuk Shamsul Amri Baharrudin, Malaysian National University.
World Beyond the Headlines Lecture Series Presents Hal Weitzman speaking on his latest book Latin Lessons: How South America Stopped Listening to the United States and Started Prospering
Thursday, February 9, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm, Home Room
Could it be that for the first time in history, the United States needs Latin America more than the other way round? Since the early 1800’s, the United States regarded the region as its “backyard,” but in the past decade South America’s leaders have increasingly snubbed U.S. efforts to persuade them to adopt free-market economics and sign trade agreements. While Washington has been distracted by military campaigns elsewhere, rivals such as China, Russia, and Iran have expanded their clout in Latin America, and U.S. influence in the region has fallen to a historic low — at the very time that the United States has become more dependent than ever on exporting to Latin America and importing its oil. Combining sharp wit and great storytelling with trenchant analysis, Hal Weitzman examines how America “lost the South” and argues that if the United States is to find a new role in a world of emerging superpowers, it must reengage with Latin America. Hal Weitzman is the Chicago and Midwest correspondent of the Financial Times and formerly served as its Andes correspondent based in Lima, Peru.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies and the Seminary Co-op Bookstores.
Diplomatic Encounters Series – Egypt
Featuring the Honorable Maged Refaat Aboulmagd, Egyptian Consul General of Chicago
Wednesday, February 22, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm (Doors open at 5:00pm), Coulter Lounge
Maged Refaat Aboulmagd is an Egyptian diplomat and is the present Consul General in Chicago. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English translation from Al Azhar University in Cairo in 1982 and a Diploma of English translation from The American University in Cairo in 1986. Consul General Aboulmagd has been a Diplomat with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1988, serving in the Egyptian Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, 1988-92; the United Nations in New York, 1994-1998; the Russian Federation in Moscow, 2000-01; the Kingdom of Bahrain, 2002-03; and the Kingdom of Belgium, 2004-08. He is also the Deputy Assistant Minister for Regional Economic Cooperation and Head of Energy Unit since September 2009.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
World Beyond the Headlines Lecture Series Presents Charles Kupchan speaking on his latest book No One’s World: The West, the Rising West, and the Coming Global Turn
Wednesday, February 29, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm, Assembly Hall
Although most strategists recognize that the dominance of the West is on the wane, they are confident that its founding ideas — democracy, capitalism, and secular nationalism — will continue to spread, ensuring that the Western order will outlast its primacy. In No One’s World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn, Charles Kupchan challenges this view, arguing that the world is headed for political and ideological diversity; he believes the ascent of the West was the product of social and economic conditions unique to Europe and the United States. As other regions now rise, they are following their own paths to modernity and embracing their own conceptions of domestic and international order. The 21st century will not belong to America, China, Asia, or anyone else. It will be no one’s world. For the first time in history, Kupchan says, the world will be interdependent, but without a center of gravity or global guardian.
Charles Kupchan is Professor of International Affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University. He is also Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. During 2006-2007, he held the Henry A. Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress and is a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Kupchan was Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council (NSC) during the first Clinton administration. Before joining the NSC, he worked in the U.S. Department of State on the Policy Planning Staff. Prior to government service, he was an Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University.
This event is free and open to the public. This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies and the Seminary Co-op Bookstores.
Global Voices Author Night Presents Trafficking Languages and Cultures Through Translation
Thursday, March 1, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Home Room
Mukoma wa Ngugi, Kadija Sesay, Kennedy Waliaula, and Jeffery Renard Allen join St. Petersburg Review and 57th Street Books for a historic reading and discussion of African literature. Moderators: Tom Burke and Elizabeth Hodges.
This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Seminary Co-op Bookstores.
Autumn Quarter 2011
"Reflections on 9/11: Ten Years Later" Roundtable discussion and reception
Friday, September 23, 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm, Home Room
Featuring University of Chicago Faculty Panelists:
- Ethan Bueno De Mesquita, Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy
- Ahmed El Shamsy, Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
- Lisa Wedeen, Professor in the Department of Political Science
This event is free and open to the public.
Click here to see flier.
Global Voices Author Lecture with Liao Yiwu
Wednesday, September 28, 5:30 pm
Liao Yiwu, poet, novelist, musician, and documentarian, is one of the most outspoken writers in China today. Dubbed as the "Studs Terkel of China," Liao is the author of The Corpse Walker, Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up, a stunning series of portraits of individuals ignored in history books and unacknowledged in the accounts of the new China. His latest book, God Is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China, is a collection of seventeen stories based on interviews conducted by Liao between 2002 and 2010.
A special evening with Liao Yiwu will include a performance with the xiao, or Chinese flute, a reading of his works, and a discussion with the public. Wen Huang, journalist, author, and translator of Liao's works, will also be at the event.
This event is free and open to the public.
Click here to see flier.
Author Event with U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Alumnus John Paul Stevens, LAB'37, AB'41
Monday, October 3, 6:00 pm - 7:00pm, Assembly Hall
Born in Chicago, Illinois, John P. Stevens graduated from the University of Chicago in 1941. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he received a J.D. from Northwestern University in 1947. In 1975, he was nominated by President Gerald Ford to become a Justice of the Supreme Court and served on the Supreme Court for nearly 35 years, making him the third longest-serving Justice in American history by the time he retired on June 29, 2010.
In Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir, Stevens captures the inner workings of the Supreme Court via his personal experiences with the five Chief Justices (Fred Vinson, Earl Warren, Warren Burger, William Rehnquist, and John Roberts) with whom he interacted. Packed with interesting anecdotes and stories about the Supreme Court, Five Chiefs presents an unprecedented and historically significant look at the highest court in the United States.
This event is free and open to the public.
Click here to see flier.
Author Lecture with ACLU President, Susan N. Herman speaking on Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of Democracy
Tuesday, October 11, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm, Assembly Hall
Susan N. Herman became president of the American Civil Liberties Union in 2008 after serving on its national board for twenty years. A constitutional scholar and chaired professor at Brooklyn Law School, she is the co-editor (with Paul Finkelman) of Terrorism, Government, and Law and the author of The Right to a Speedy and Public Trial. In her eye-opening book Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy, Herman takes a hard look at the human and social costs of the War on Terror.
This event is free and open to the public.
Click here to see flier.
Great Chicago Book Sale
Thursday - Friday, October 13 - 14, Assembly Hall
Over 10,000 new books, hardcovers, and paperbacks in many subjects — all for only $5 each!
Schedule:
- Thursday:
8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. (UChicago ID required)
1:00 - 6:00 p.m. (Public welcome) - Friday:
8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. (Public welcome)
Global Instrument of Change Conference & Scholarship Luncheon
Saturday, October 15, 8:00 a.m., Assembly Hall
Are you an international student or a young immigrant passionate and hungry to succeed? Do you want to learn what it takes to succeed in corporate America or are you undecided about your career path or seeking valuable resources that would help you academically and professionally as an international student or immigrant? If so, this event is one you will not want to miss! Come and network with other students, speakers, professionals, and potential employers.
Don't miss the opportunity to receive the Distinguished Global Instrument of Change Scholarship Award and participate in trivia quizzes to win great prizes such as Kindles, gift cards, books, and more!
Keynote Speakers:
- Sarah Pang, Senior Vice President at CNA's Corporate Communications and Public Affairs and co-chair of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's transition team
- George Agyen, Mid-Atlantic Zone Officer and Senior Vice President for one of CNA's six geographic zones
Global Voices Author Lecture with Eric Petersen
Monday, October 24, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm, Assembly Hall
Eric S. Petersen is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and one of the world's foremost experts and speakers on the life and times of Thomas Jefferson. He is the editor of Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness, published by Random House's Modern Library.
This event is free and open to the public.
Click here to see flier.
World Beyond the Headlines Lecture Series
Peter Eichstaedt speaking on Pirate State: Inside Somalia's Terrorism at Sea
Monday, November 3, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm, Assembly Hall
Journalist Peter Eichstaedt explores the links between the pirates, global financiers, and extremists who control southern Somalia and whose influence extends well beyond the country's borders.
Eichstaedt crisscrosses East Africa, meeting with pirates both in and out of prisons, talking with them about their lives, tactics, and motives. Ultimately, he comes face-to-face with a former fighter with Somalia’s brutal Islamic al-Shabaab militia. He discovers that piracy is a symptom of a much deeper problem: Somalia itself.
Pirate State explores the links between the pirates, global financiers, and extremists who control southern Somalia and whose influence extends across the Gulf of Aden into Yemen and connects to extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Somali pirates are desperate and dangerous men who will do just about anything for money, and Pirate State argues that turning a blind eye to piracy and the problems of Somalia is inviting a disaster of horrific proportions.
This event is free and open to the public.
Click here to see flier.
China Higher Education Exhibition in conjunction with the Confucius Institute
Monday, November 14, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, Assembly Hall
The aim of this event is to bring awareness to Chinese higher education to American high school graduates as well as university students and graduates. Come and learn about programs and scholarship opportunities in China. Twenty-eight universities from China, including Peking University and Tsinghua University, will introduce their programs and scholarship opportunities offered to high school graduates and university students in the U.S.
This event is free and open to the public.
Click here to see flier.
Author Lecture with Sergio Troncoso speaking on From This Wicked Patch of Dust
Thursday, November 17, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Sergio Troncoso, the son of Mexican immigrants, grew up in Ysleta, Texas in an adobe house with only kerosene lamps and an outhouse in the backyard. He graduated from Harvard College and received two graduate degrees from Yale University. In From This Wicked Patch of Dust, Troncoso chronicles the experiences of the Martinez family, who begins life in a shantytown on the U.S.-Mexico border, and struggles to stay together despite cultural clashes, different religions, and contemporary politics.
This event is free and open to the public.
Click here to see flier.
Chicago Public Schools 2011 International Education Conference
Friday, November 18
The University of Chicago, CPS Office of Language and Cultural Education, and Chicago Sister Cities International invite CPS K-12 teachers and administrators to the 4th Annual Chicago International Education Conference (IEC). The 2011 IEC will focus on “Educating for Global Competence.” Teachers and administrators will work in breakout sessions based on subject area to learn about ways to create engaging learning experiences through internationalizing classroom lessons. Facilitators will share best practices for adding a global dimension to classroom teaching. Teachers are encouraged to come with their teams/department colleagues.
U.S.-Iran Relations in the Wake of the Arab Spring: Confrontation or Accommodation?
Wednesday, November 30, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
A panel discussion featuring:
Dr. Marvin Zonis, Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Dr. Scott Hibbard, Associate Professor of Political Science, DePaul University
Dr. Kaveh Ehsani, Associate Professor of International Studies, DePaul University
Emad Kiyaei, M.S., Executive Director, American Iranian Council
Diplomatic Encounters Series: The Honorable Maen Rashid Areikat, Palestinian Ambassador to the United States
Wednesday, December 7, 5:30 pm
The Diplomatic Encounters Series, sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the International House Global Voices Program, brings to the University of Chicago campus representatives of various diplomatic missions for short presentations followed by an opportunity for open dialogue. This series provides an excellent venue for those interested in the Middle East to hear from leading diplomats and come to a better understanding of the issues, challenges, and opportunities facing Middle Eastern countries.
Maen Rashid Areikat is a Palestinian diplomat and present chief of the PLO Delegation in Washington DC. He was born in Jericho, obtained a B.Sc. in finance from Arizona State University in 1983, and earned his MBA from Western International University in 1987. Mr. Areikat has worked as spokesman of the Orient House and the unofficial PLO headquarters in East Jerusalem. He joined the Palestinian National Authority's Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD) in 1999, serving as Coordinator-General of NAD from 2008 to 2009, and in 2009 he was appointed chief of the PLO Delegation to the U.S.