"MIRCH MASALA" - Free Film Showing - September 3, 2008
Room 219, New West Building (on Cameron St. across from Memorial Hall)
Dir. Ketan Mehta, 1985. In Hindi-Urdu. Free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Dr. Afroz Taj at taj@email.unc.edu or Dr. Pamela Lothspeich at ploth@email.unc.edu.

"Understanding China Demographic and Business Census Data with GIS"- 9/15
Lecture by Shuming Bao, China Data Center, University of Michigan
Sept. 15, 2008 at 12:00 p.m. in Davis Library, room 214

CAC will provide lunch boxes for attendees. Please RSVP to
Hsi-chu Bolick at bolick@email.unc.edu before Sept. 13.

Dr.Shuming Bao is currently a senior research coordinator for China initiatives of the China Data Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is also serving as the executive director of the Chinese Economists Society and the deputy general secretary of the West China Research Consortium. Dr. Bao's primary research interests are in GIS, regional economics, spatial statistics and econometrics.

Any questions about this talk may be addressed to UNC's East Asian bibliographer, Hsi-chu Bolick, at bolick@email.unc.edu.

A film by Buthina Khoury

Screening and discussion with the director
Thursday, October 2 at 7:00 pm
219 New West
A portrait of four women whose lives have been dictated by a moral code, Maria's Grotto is an astonishingly intimate film about the honor killings in Palestine.

Sponsored by the Arabic Program, the Department of Asian Studies, the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, the Curriculum in Women’s Studies, the Curriculum in International Studies, and the Center for Global Initiatives. Free and open to the public.

"Crossing Borders" Book Reading with Sahar Amer - October 9, 2008

Sahar Amer, Professor of Asian and International Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, will read from her new book CROSSING BORDERS: LOVE BETWEEN WOMEN IN MEDIEVAL FRENCH AND ARABIC LITERATURES on Thursday, October 9th at 3:30 at the Bull’s Head Bookshop. A bold and groundbreaking work, CROSSING BORDERS reveals a medieval French literary discourse on same-sex desire that has gone all but unnoticed. This reading is free and open to the public. Please call 962-5060 for more information.

Interested in Israeli politics and culture? Come to a FREE screening of the documentary “Unsettled” which highlights the disengagement of Israeli settlers from the Gaza strip in the summer of 2005. This film aims to give you a deeper understanding of the events during the disengagement and introduces you to the diversity of Israel by seeing the situation on the ground through 6 different Israeli viewpoints. If you want to learn how events like the disengagement affected real young people like YOU, this film will be able to show you things you will never see in the public media. The director, Adam Hootnick, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, will be there to introduce the film and take questions after the screening.

Go here to watch the trailer and find out more info on the film:

http://www.unsettledmovie.com/

This event is sponsored by NC Hillel.

"Reproductive Writes: Motherhood and Manga in Contemporary Japan" - October 27th, 2008
4:00pm, Nelson Mandela Auditorium, Global Education Center UNC-Chapel Hill

Dr. Amanda Seaman, assistant professor of Japanese language and literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the author of "Bodies of Evidence: Women, Society, and Detective Fiction in 1990s Japan" (University of Hawai'i Press, 2004), is an expert on popular fiction in Japan written by women and targeting women readers. "Reproductive Writes" takes up the rising number and popularity of comic books and graphic novels dealing with, and speaking to, pregnancy and motherhood in contemporary Japan.

Sponsored by the Department of Asian Studies, Carolina Asia Center, Center for Global Initiatives, and the Curriculum in Women's Studies

Renowned actor and cultural ambassador Ying Ruocheng (1929-2003) hailed from a prominent Manchu Catholic family that made unique contributions to China during the political and social upheavals of the twentieth century. His recently published autobiography begins with his three years in prison during the Cultural Revolution before describing his unique education and his career on stage, screen, and in politics—including his partnership with Arthur Miller and his post as vice minister of culture during the 1989 social movements. Ying’s co-author, Claire Conceison, visits the UNC campus to talk about his extraordinary life and their collaboration on his memoir during his final years.

Ying Ruocheng graduated from Qinghua University and became a founding member of the Beijing People’s Art Theatre where he gained acclaim as an actor, director, and translator. He instituted lasting reforms as China’s vice minister of culture from 1986-1990. As both an artist and official, he devoted his life to fostering increased cultural contact and understanding between China and the West.

Claire Conceison is associate professor of drama at Tufts University, where she is also on the faculties for programs in International Relations, Asian studies, American studies, and International Letters and Visual Studies. She has conducted research in China’s theatre community since 1990 and is an active translator and director of contemporary Chinese plays in English.

Ying and Conceison collaborated on Ying Ruocheng’s autobiography entitled Voices Carry: Behind Bars and Backstage during China’s Revolution and Reform, which was published by Rowman & Littlefield in October 2008.

Sponsored by the Carolina Asia Center, Center for Global Initiatives,
Department of History, Department of Asian Studies

Tuesday, December 2
7:15 pm-9:15 pm, 039 Graham Memorial, UNC
Research Presentations by students from AMES 183/283 (The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict), Duke University

Wednesday, December 3, 7:15 pm-9:15 pm, 0013W Divinity School, Duke
Research Presentations by students from ARAB 452 (Imagining Palestine) University of North Carolina at C

This conference is made possible by the generous support of the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Duke), Department of Asian Studies (UNC), Carolina Center on Comparative Islamic Studies, the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence (UNC), Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations.