2013

Citizens' Media and War: The Colombian Case

In an upcoming UI presentation, Clemencia Rodríguez, professor of communication at the University of Oklahoma, will present part of her extensive research on how Colombians turn to community media – including radio, television, video, digital photography, and the Internet – as tools to forge lives for themselves and their families that are not entirely colonized by armed conflict and its effects.

Refugees in the heartland

The Provost's Global Forum "Refugees in the Heartland" will feature panels and discussions about refugee resettlement, rights of refugees, the long history of refugee resettlement in Iowa, international refugee crises and related management challenges, and will bring together refugee experts and refugee leaders from the Midwest and the nation.

UI alum/filmmaker inspired by year abroad in Austria

Film producer Devon Terrill didn’t pursue filmmaking until after her graduation from the UI, but the experiences she had during her undergraduate education – including studying abroad – had a big impact on her career path.

Weismann says international immigrants attracted to Midwest

International immigrants are attracted to the Midwest, and Iowa specifically, for its low unemployment rate and cost of living, diverse economic sectors, and educational opportunities, said Amy Weismann, associate director for the University of Iowa’s Center for Human Rights.

“Especially for refugees, people come from places with violence and economic strife where they fear authorities,” she said. “Iowa is much less anxious and a more accommodating place to live and not only survive but thrive.”

UIMA offers talks ahead of Iowa City's first carnaval

As part of Iowa City’s first carnaval celebration this summer, the University of Iowa Museum of Art will present two spring-time talks by carnaval designers. The first is by architect and interior designer Jaime Cezário. His free, public lecture will be held in the Old Capitol Museum Senate Chamber from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, March 25.

“Refugees in the Heartland” topic of April 5 WorldCanvass, part of 2013 Provost's Global Forum

Who is a refugee? What distinguishes refugees from immigrants? When and how is refugee status recognized by nations and governments? How do refugee crises arise and what can be done to aid refugees in resettlement? What’s the history of refugee resettlement in the Midwest? These are just a few of the questions WorldCanvass guests will address on the April 5 program “Refugees in the Heartland.” The program takes place from 5-7 p.m. in the Senate Chamber of Old Capitol Museum and is free and open to the public.

Crossing Borders ‘Study Day’ offers panels, guest lecture March 28-29

Crossing Borders in International Programs is holding several panel discussions and a guest lecture as part of its Study Day 2013, to be held March 28-29. All events will be held in University Capitol Centre 2520D and are free and open to the public. No prior registration is required.

Study abroad worth extra year of tuition for Iowa students

Iowa’s universities boast graduation rates above the national average, but have produced mixed results in pursuit of goals set by the Iowa Board of Regents, which governs the universities.

The University of Iowa, where more than 48 percent of students finish school in four years, performed the best. Its graduation rate is just shy of a 48.3 percent goal. The regents want each university to achieve its graduation goals by 2016.

Students, however, sometimes prefer to pay more to stay in school longer. Internships, semesters abroad and demanding majors like engineering are all common reasons for not graduating in four years, students and university officials said.

Buddhism after the Tsunami event March 14

To mark the second anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies and the Department of Religious Studies would like to invite you to a jointly sponsored film showing of "Buddhism after the Tsunami - The Souls of Zen 3/11 Japan Special," followed by a discussion to be led by Tim Graf, one of the filmmakers who will also introduce the film. The event will take place from 4:30-6 p.m., Thursday, March 14, 101 Becker Communication Studies Building. The showing and discussion is open to the public.

Pronunciation Is Key

With more Chinese students showing up on University of Iowa class rolls than ever before, the Henry B. Tippie College of Business last month invited its faculty and staff to a workshop on how to pronounce the students' names. Meanwhile, Chinese students are flocking to the tutoring center to become fluent in English.

The introductory lessons in Chinese, hosted in early February, drew about 50 participants to the Judith R. Frank Business Communications Center, the business school’s tutoring center. Some participants likened the experience to a fifth-grade classroom -- administrators and faculty members huddled in groups of four or five, trying and failing to pronounce sounds never used in English.

Attending to the written record of Native peoples

In October 1833, a book purporting to be the autobiography of the famous Sauk and Fox leader, Black Hawk, appeared in Cincinnati. In the 1830s, Euro-Americans were clamoring for “Indian stories,” and this volume of recollections by the principal warrior in what became known as the Black Hawk War — whose final battle was pitched on the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois — was an instant sensation.

Although some contemporary reviewers dismissed the book as the fabrication of Antoine Le Claire, the biracial (French-Canadian/Potawatomi) founder of Davenport, others continued to believe in its authenticity, their views bolstered by the undeniable fact that in the 1830s there were many books written and published by Native Americans — books recounting Native writers’ objections to the Jackson administration’s policy of removal, the erosion of their treaty rights, or often simply their life stories.

Semester in South India (video)

This fall, a group of adventurous students will leave the familiar surroundings of the University of Iowa for the bustling city of Mysore in South India where they will explore India's rich classical heritage and the contemporary forces that are rapidly reshaping this powerful nation today.

Documentary Activism in India: A Conversation with Anand Patwardhan March 12

Anand Patwardhan, a leading activist documentary filmmaker in India, will be visiting the University of Iowa Tuesday, March 12, to discuss his approach to cinema as political activism. His presentation will be held from 5-7 p.m. in 2390 University Capitol Centre and the event is free and open to the public.

For nearly thirty years, Patwardhan’s courageous work on slum-dwellers and women’s rights, on people displaced by massive dam projects, on the political manipulation of Hindu-Muslim conflict, and (most recently) on the fight for social equality by India’s Dalits (i.e., “untouchables”) has provoked controversy, broadcasting bans, Supreme Court cases, and a great deal of public awareness.

UI launches new online journal for MFA in Spanish Creative Writing program

Iowa Literaria, the electronic journal of the Master of Fine Arts in Spanish Creative Writing program at the University of Iowa, is online as of Tuesday, Feb. 26. Created with the support of the UI’s Digital Studio for Public Humanities, it has been designed as a space to reflect on the art of creativity, to approach the complexities and challenges of creative writing, and to publish a variety of literary pieces.

The inaugural issue contains a dossier on the great Chilean poet Óscar Hahn, who just received the National Prize on Literature of Chile, the most prestigious literary award in that country. Hahn was professor of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese here at the university for more than 30 years. He is now retired.

Department of Asian and Slavic Languages receives prestigious grant

Faculty members in the Department of Asian and Slavic Languages at the University of Iowa have received a $90,000 grant from STARTALK, a unit of the federal National Security Language Initiative, for their program “Bridging the Gap through Standards and Technology: STARTALK for Teachers.” The program provides unique professional training for teachers of Russian as a foreign language in the United States.

This is the second grant received by this team—Irina Kostina, UI lecturer; Anna Kolesnikova, UI visiting professor; and Marina Kostina, CEO of Wired @ Heart—from STARTALK for the development of their teacher-preparation program.