Events
Changing China: The Politics of Private Sector Development Wednesday, September 7 at 12 noon in Hamilton 271 Lecture by Kellee S. Tsai, Dept. of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University |
Study Abroad in Asia Info Session |
Israeli film: Mechina, A Preparation Thursday, September 8 at 7 pm in the Carolina Union cabaret Documentary film about Israeli teenagers before they enter the army; the film will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker. Free refreshments from Med Deli. Sponsored by Carolina Students for Israel. |
Court Culture and the Villa in Tenth-Century Islamic Spain Friday, September 9 at 1 pm in Hanes Art 121 Lecture by Glaire Anderson, Brandeis University |
Transparency in Southeast Asia Friday, September 9 at 2:30 pm in Toy Lounge, Dey Hall 4th floor Lecture by Garry Rodan, Director of the Asia Research Centre and a Professor of Politics and International Studies at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. He has written extensively on Singapore’s political and economic development and more generally on democratization and its problems in Asia, as well as on theoretical approaches for understanding development in the region. His recent research includes examination of the political economy of the international media in various parts of East and Southeast Asia, the political impact of the Internet, and the implications of transparency reform in the region for politics. Part of the Distinguished Speakers Series sponsored by SEAIA and the Carolina Asia Center. |
Ambassador Ralph Boyce on Thai-U.S. Relations |
The Culture/Gender Wars: Margaret Fahmy and Murder in 1920s Egypt Tuesday, September 20 from 12-1 pm in Toy Lounge, Dey Hall 4th floor Lecture by Shaun Lopez, Postdoctoral Fellow, UNC Dept. of History. Lopez's research focuses on the rise of the mass media in early 20th-century Egypt and its impact on both popular and official gender discourse. Bring your lunch; cookies and drinks will be provided. This is the September Luncheon Colloquium sponsored by Women's Studies. |
Study Abroad Fair Thursday, September 22 from 11 am - 4 pm in the Carolina Union Great Hall The Study Abroad fair, covering all UNC programs, will feature returnees giving you the inside scoop on their experiences and Study Abroad experts answering your questions on how you, too, can depart for adventures abroad. |
Exploitation and Competitive Development: Hyena Capitalism and the Informalization of Labor Monday, September 26 from 10:30-12 noon in Toy Lounge, Dey Hall 4th floor Lecture by Phil Robertson Jr., who until recently was the Program Manager of the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in Greater Mekong Sub-region, based in Bangkok, Thailand. Prior to his work with the UN, he served as Mainland Southeast Asia Representative for the American Center for International Labor Solidarity. Southeast Asian labor movements have long been weakened by government interference, faulty labor laws, and political influence and corruption between ruling elites and employers (who are increasingly one and the same). Authoritarian governments fear empowerment of the urban poor as destabilizing and seek to marginalize organized labor as force in civil society. More recently, as Southeast Asia has seen increased cross-border migration and border development schemes, the exploitation of migrant workers has added another challenge. Migrant workers are being incorporated into industrial development schemes that substantially reduce labor costs and foster employer dependency on cheap, easily controlled, and disposable labor. Non-enforcement of laws, discriminatory attitudes towards migrants, and employer-government alliances create a system where migrant workers’ rights can be abused at will. Like hyenas, local and foreign employers prey on the weakest workers – desperately poor migrants seeking work, and in some cases fleeing human rights abuses and persecution in their home countries. Border development schemes offer the opportunity for this “Hyena Capitalism” to spread. Focusing on Thailand and its neighbors, the origins and development of Hyena Capitalism will be discussed. |
Tibetan Art and Culture Series SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: For more information about this fascinating week of events, please contact Dr. Pamela Winfield at (919) 760-8308 or Dr. Margarita Suarez at (919) 760-8063. |
Majors Expo Wednesday, September 28 from 11 am to 3 pm in the Carolina Union Great Hall The purpose of this event, sponsored by the Alumni Association, is to give UNC students the opportunity to explore the various majors, minors, programs, and schools that Carolina has to offer. Come browse the booths and meet with representatives from different departments who can tell you about their offerings and answer your questions. |
Arab Feminism--Beyond the Hijab Wednesday, September 28 at 4 pm in Hamilton Hall room 271 Dr. Rula Quawas, a visiting professor from the University of Jordan, and Dr. Nadia Yaqub, of the UNC Department of Asian Studies, will be hosting a discussion on Arab feminism and Arab feminist writers. The discussion will center around Arab women writers and how they present themselves, their culture, and broader feminist ideals in their work, and how these ideals compare to Western ideas of feminism. If you are interested in this subject and you have constructive comments or a unique viewpoint to bring to the discussion, please come and share them. Snackage will be served. Also, if there is sufficient time and interest, the main event will be followed by a discussion in Arabic. RSVP to Vanessa Holder. Sponsored by the Middle East Student Forum. |
A Conversation on Burma with Andrew Reynolds and Ian Holliday Doing Business With Burma's Military Junta, by Ian Holliday, Professor of Policy Studies, City University of Hong Kong. Prospects for a Transition from Military Rule, by Andrew Reynolds, Associate Professor of Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. |
Korean film: Christmas in August Wednesday, October 12 at 8 pm in White Lecture Hall, East Campus, Duke Considered by many to be the Great Korean Movie Romance, Christmas in August (dir. Hur Jin-Ho, 1998, 97 min, South Korea, Korean w/ subtitles) is a movie about the beginning of falling in love - a gentle meditation on life, death, and parking violations that lingers on your eyes long after it's over. Part of the Cine-East 6 film series. |
Kabuki and the Twist of Women Onnagata Thursday, October 13 from 3:30-5 pm in House Library, room 205 Lecture by Maki Morinaga, Assistant Professor of Japanese Theater and Literature, University of Minnesota. In a fascinating glimpse into the history of Japan's Kabuki theater, Morinaga explores the phenomenon of late-19th-century female performers who took the stage as Kabuki onnagata, becoming "women impersonating men impersonating women." The talk will be preceded by the showing of a short documentary film on onnagata. Film at 3:30; talk at 4:00. Sponsored by the First-Year Seminar Program (in conjunction with ASIA 006J) and the Carolina Asia Center. |
Israeli film: Broken Wings (K'nafayim sh'vurot) Saturday, October 15 at 7:45 pm in Gardner 105 (dir. Nir Bergman, 2002, 87 min., Hebrew w/ subtitles) After the death of their husband and father, a family struggles to cope with grief as each member reacts in their own way. This film was a critical and commercial success in Israel, winning nine Israeli Film Academy awards, as well as prizes at film festivals in Tokyo, Berlin, and elsewhere. Film will be followed by a student-led discussion. This screening is the first in a monthly series of Israeli films; watch this space for more info. |
Community Forum: The United States and Iran Sunday, October 16 from 2-4 pm at the Exploris museum in Raleigh Dr. Charles Kurzman, UNC Associate Professor of Sociology & Associate Director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, will be the keynote speaker; his talk on the past, present, and future of Iran and the U.S's relationship to it will be followed by discussion. |
Concert: Twelve Girls Band Monday, October 17 at 7:30 pm in Memorial Hall Dubbed the Twelve Girls Band, twelve Chinese women have taken the musical arena by storm in recent years by presenting a new genre of 'New Folk Music,' comprised of various Chinese traditional instruments. The band members are graduates of the top arts universities in Beijing, and have all won musical awards in various instrumental competitions. Drawing upon more than 1,500 years of traditional Chinese music, the group blends that rich legacy with classical, folk, and contemporary sounds. The combination of spirited music, flawless performance, creative adaptation and feminine glamour have not only appealed to Chinese audiences but also won the band numerous fans overseas, especially in Japan. A multiplatinum-selling act all over Asia, the Twelve Girls Band fills arenas there, and has now been discovered by America. The concert is a benefit for the Red Cross Katrina-Rita Relief Fund. |
China's Tobacco Control Policy at a Crossroads: Challenges for Public Health and Economics Tuesday, October 18 from 4-5: 30 in the Student Amphitheater, Duke South Lower Level, Duke Lecture by Teh-wei Hu, Emeritus Professor of Health Economics, UC-Berkeley. China has the world’s largest smoking population with over 320 million cigarette smokers. Globally, about one out of every four smokers is in China. Secondhand smoke exposure among nonsmokers was about 420 million with 12.1% of men and 51.3% of women reporting home exposure. China also has the world’s largest tobacco company, within a state-owned monopoly, producing 1,722 billion cigarettes in 2002 and generating 8% of the central government’s revenue. China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001 lowered international trade tariffs and opened the gateway for transnational tobacco companies, which have been eager to recapture China’s large tobacco market. The challenge is the policy conflict faced by the Chinese government between pursuing the economic benefits of tobacco production and supporting public health concerns. The state’s interest in the tobacco monopoly conflicts with the tobacco control campaigns of the Chinese Ministry of Health. This presentation will show that as economic gains of the tobacco industry in China become less important and the negative health impact of smoking on the population’s health becomes better known, China stands at a crossroads to implement WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) economic provisions and promote the health of its population. |
Thai film: Last Life in the Universe Wednesday, October 19 at 8 pm in the Griffith Theater, Bryan Center, West Campus, Duke Last Life in the Universe (dir. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, 2003, 112 min, Thailand/Japan, Thai, Japanese, and English w/ subtitles) is an exquisite, dreamy romance between a Japanese librarian and a Thai woman in Bangkok that drifts among different time periods, locations and maybe even life and death itself. With cinematography by frequent Wong Kar Wai collaborator Christopher Doyle. Part of the Cine-East 6 film series. |
The Fast Boat to China: Outsourcing As a Way of Life--Lessons from Shanghai Thursday, October 20 from 4-5:30 in room 240 of the John Hope Franklin Center, 2204 Erwin Road, Duke Lecture by Andrew Ross, Professor of American Studies, NYU. Part of the APSI Fall Speaker Series. |
Japanese film: Ghost in the Shell Monday, October 24 at 8 pm in the Griffith Theater, Bryan Center, West Campus, Duke (dir. Mamoru Oshii, 1995, 82 min, Japan, dubbed) This Japanese anime classic follows female cyborg cop Major Kusanagi and her partner Batô in their pursuit of a mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master, who effortlessly "hacks" into the minds ("ghosts") of net-connected cyborgs in order to take over their bodies. Part of the Cine-East 6 film series. |
Changing Israel's Ethos: Recent Transformations in Israeli Society Wednesday, October 26 at 7:30 pm in Carroll Hall, room 111 Lecture by Yoav Gelber, head of the Herzl Institute for Research and Study of Zionism at the University of Haifa, who is spending the year in residence at UNC. Since 1967, Israel's traditional pioneering and collectivist ethos has given way to an individualistic ethos, accompanied by new ideals such as peace, democracy, and personal success. Gelber will explore the viability of these new ideals given the current political climate in the Middle East, and he will investigate the challenges that recent developments have issued to traditional forms of Zionism. Sponsored by the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. |
Chinese film: Love Battlefield Wednesday, October 26 at 8 pm in White Lecture Hall, East Campus, Duke (dir. Cheang Pou-Soi, 2004, 96 min, Hong Kong, Cantonese and Mandarin w/ subtitles) Moments after a painful breakup with Ching, Yui is kidnapped and held hostage by a ruthless gang of smugglers, forcing the remorseful Ching to set out in search of her former lover and confront her true feelings for him. This love-story/thriller balances romantic angst with action-packed suspense as the unhappy couple's lives are turned upside down by forces beyond their control. Part of the Cine-East 6 film series. |
Life in Flux: Lu Xun, Biology, and the Vicissitudes of Cosmic Womanhood Friday, October 28 from 3-4:30 in room 240 of the John Hope Franklin Center, 2204 Erwin Road, Duke Lecture by Lydia Liu, Professor of Comparative Literature & Helmut Stern Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Michigan. Part of the APSI Fall Speaker Series. |
Chinese film: Breaking News |
Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South Wednesday, November 2 at 7:30 pm in Hanes Art Center auditorium Lecture by Marcie Cohen Ferris, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Associate Director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. Ferris will examine the expressive power of food throughout southern Jewish history, demonstrating how Jews reinvented culinary traditions as they adjusted to living in a largely Christian region where foods not permitted by Jewish dietary laws abound such as pork and shellfish. This culinary tour of the Jewish South is based on Ferris's book, Matzoh Ball Gumbo, published by UNC Press. Sponsored by the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. |
Poet of the Bazaars: Nazir Akbarabadi (1735-1830) Friday, November 4 at 5 pm in Hanes Art Center room 117 Aditya Behl, chair of the South Asia Dept. at the University of Pennsylvania, will lecture on late Mughal culture, poetry, and urban life in Agra as seen through Nazir's poems. |
Eastern Light on the Synoptic Problem: The Analects and the Gospel of Mark in Comparative Perspective Friday, November 4 from 8-9:30 pm in Toy Lounge, Dey Hall Professor Brooks is a Research Professor of Chinese at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and the director of the Warring States Project, an international group of scholars devoted to the reconstruction of early Chinese social and intellectual history through the use of new methods to work out the chronological relationships to each other of early Chinese texts. The talk stresses the universality of philology, and its importance as a partner with history. The duties of philology will be shown to include the growth text, a type of text that comes into being over a period of time before being publicly copied, and whose early history is thus not attested by manuscript variants. Examples of growth texts in India and China will be given, with particular emphasis on the Analects of Confucius, which, besides a core of Confucius's remembered sayings, turns out to contain a continuous record of doctrinal evolution in the posthumous Confucian school of Lu extending over more than two centuries, disguised as further sayings of Confucius. Finally, a brief estimate of the Synoptic Problem will be made, and the Gospel of Mark will be examined to see whether philology of the kind recommended is able to distinguish layers of growth in that text, and if so, what those layers tell us about the development of early Christian doctrine. A full analysis of Mark will not be given, but an attempt will be made to establish a lemma: a point from which questions of the Historical Jesus may perhaps more fruitfully be posed in the coming century. Part of the Southeast Early China Roundtable conference. |
Chinese film: Splendid Float Sunday, November 6 at 8 pm in White Lecture Hall, East Campus, Duke (dir. "Zero" Chou Mei-Ling, 2004, 73 min, Taiwan, Mandarin w/ subtitles) Oddball Taiwanese tragi-comedy revolves around Roy/Rose, by day a Taoist priest and by night a female impersonator on the neon-flashing float of the title. He meets and falls for Sunny but suspects that something terrible has happened when Sunny disappears without saying goodbye. Best Taiwanese Film of the Year, Golden Horse Awards. Part of the Cine-East 6 film series. |
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Design Insights Tuesday, November 8 at 7:30 pm in Hanes Art Center auditorium Lecture by Ralph Appelbaum. Appelbaum has planned, produced, and designed award-winning museum exhibitions, visitor centers, and educational environments. In this lecture, he will give a photographic walk-through of the design decisions and process used to create the permanent exhibitions of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Sponsored by the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. |
Chinese film: Wayward Cloud Wednesday, November 9 at 8 pm in White Lecture Hall, East Campus, Duke The most audacious film to date from visionary director Tsai Ming-liang, Wayward Cloud (2005, 114 min, Taiwan, Mandarin w/ subtitles) is a daring, envelope-pushing work about a porn actor and the librarian who enters into a relationship with him, unaware of his profession. Behind its lively musical numbers and sexually explicit scenes lies an allegorical exploration of alienation and exploitation. Part of the Cine-East 6 film series. |
Public Monuments, Historical Memory: Qiu Jin's Nine Burials Thursday, November 10 from 3-4:30 in room 230-232 of the John Hope Franklin Center, 2204 Erwin Road, Duke Lecture by Hu Ying, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages & Literatures, University of California-Irvine. Part of the APSI Fall Speaker Series. |
Japanese film: Nobody Knows Thursday & Friday, November 10-11, at 7 and 9:30 pm in the Griffith Theater, Bryan Center, West Campus, Duke (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2004, 114 min, Japan, Japanese w/ subtitles) Four abandoned children in Tokyo try their best to survive in their own little world, devising and following their own set of rules. This winsome, documentary-like detailed study of their lives and struggle to survive has the gut-shot anxiety of the best thrillers. Part of the Cine-East 6 film series. |
The North Korean Nuclear Crisis: After Beijing, What Next? Thursday, November 17 from 12-1:30 in the Breedlove Room, Perkins Library, Duke--West Campus Lecture by Chung-in Moon, Professor of Political Science, Yonsei University. Sponsored by APSI. |
Mahmoud Darwish and the Space of Memory Thursday, November 17 from 12:30-2:00 in House Library room 205 Lecture by Ibrahim Muhawi, University of Munich, translator of Darwish's Memory For Forgetfulness, and author of Speak Bird, Speak Again. |
Family in Korea's Economic Growth and Crisis Friday, November 18 from 12-1:30 in he AALL conference room, 2101 Campus Dr., Duke Lecture by Dong-no Kim, Associate Professor of Sociology, Yonsei University. Kim's talk deals with the issue of "familism," which has long been considered one of the most important social values in Korean society since the traditional period. Familism, defined as a form of social organization in which all values are determined by the maintenance, continuity, and functions of a family group, went through a radical transformation particularly following Korea's economic development and economic crisis. Since the late 1990s, Koreans have adopted a family oriented strategy to gain more economic benefits during the period of growth but also after the economic crisis in order to overcome its effects. The talk will investigate why they relied upon this "family strategy" in the competition for economic success in the period of economic crisis and what impact it had on Korean society. Sponsored by APSI. |
Japanese film: Umizaru Friday, November 18 at 4 pm in Gardner 105 Umizaru (dir. Eiichiro Hasumi, 2004, 120 min., Japanese with subtitles) is a comedy about divers working in the marine security department of Japan. |
Israeli film: Ha'hesder (Time of Favor) Saturday, November 19 at 7 pm in Gardner 105 Winner of six Israeli Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and highly acclaimed in its U.S. theatrical release, Time of Favor (dir. Joseph Cedar, 2000, 100 min., Hebrew with subtitles) weaves an intricate tale of passion, loyalty and conspiracy amidst the contemporary political powder-keg and timeless austere beauty of Israel's West Bank. In a film the New York Times calls an "arthouse thriller," deft characterizations and a fine-tuned plot depict the people and stakes behind an Israeli settlement with a clarity and complexity not hinted at in today's headlines. A highly respected soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, Menachem (Aki Avni) is also a devout student of controversial West Bank settlement leader Rabbi Meltzer (Assi Dayan). Despite the army's doubts and the Israeli Secret Service's suspicions, Menachem receives permission to lead an army unit made up of his fellow students from Rabbi Meltzer's West Bank Yeshiva. Rabbi Meltzer's star pupil and Menachem's best friend, Pini (Edan Alterman), gladly accepts the Rabbi's invitation to court his beautiful, headstrong daughter, Michal (Tinkerbell). But Michal, suffocated by settlement life and repulsed by her father's expectations, is drawn not to Pini's religious devotion but to Menachem's quiet strength. As the Rabbi's agenda, the Army's control and Pini's desperation all build to a boil, Menachem and Michal's secret passion threatens to destroy more than just their reputations. A violent scheme to blow up the Temple Mount soon puts all their allegiances to the test. From a peaceful desert sunrise on the Wailing Wall to a frantic chase through an 1800 year-old network of tunnels, Time of Favor raises issues of religious faith and duty to one's nation that are inextricably relevant to our lives today. |
Beyond the Wall: The Realities of Palestinian Displacement Wednesday, November 30 at 7 pm in the Carolina Union Underground Opening reception of the photo exhibit of a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan composed by a group of UNC students who spent last summer in Jordan. Refreshments will be served. |
Documentary film: Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land Thursday, December 1 at 8 pm in Murphey, room 116 (dir. Sut Jhally, 2004, 80 min.) Powerful documentary on how the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is portrayed by the American media. |
The Wizard Behind the Curtain: The De-Fetishization of Jerusalem and the Prospects for Israeli-Palestinian Peace Monday, December 5, at 7:30 in Hanes Art Center auditorium Lecture by Ian Lustick, Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Among the obstacles to an Israeli-Palestinian political settlement that have loomed largest is the eventual disposition of Jerusalem. Lustick will explore myths about Jerusalem--some arising accidentally and some fostered with a clear political purpose--and investigate the issue of the legal and political status of Israel's presence in enlarged East Jerusalem. Sponsored by the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. |
Hebrew play: Yad VaShem Tuesday, December 6 at 7 pm at UNC Hillel, 210 W. Cameron Ave. The students of the Advanced Modern Hebrew class will present an all-Hebrew performance of the play Yad VaShem, based on the short story by Israeli author Aharon Megged.. English translations will be provided, and the community is welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served following the performance. |
Last updated: 2 May 2008