Articles tagged with "in the news"

Join us for the final WorldCanvass of the 2011-2012 season when we consider the connections between art and memory. Memories live and resonate in both the conscious and unconscious spaces of our experience, but art allows for expression that moves beyond simple narrative. How does a poet draw upon memory? What does a masterful printmaker, painter, musician or writer take from his/her own personal experience and what is sheer imagination? Why is art such a powerful medium for the preservation and expression of a community’s cultural memory?

Madhavapeddi Murthy, Dancers and Orchestra will be in residence April 16-20 within the UI Department of Dance and UI School of Music. Murthy and his troupe will culminate their residency Friday, April 20, with an open lecture demonstration followed by a public performance at the Space Place Theater.

This new consciousness among vernacular publics highlights corruption at all levels of government and the corporate world, while still resisting the hegemonic discourse of economic growth. The talk looks at the recent populist social mobilization (jan andolans) against corruption and its possible grievance mechanism (Jan Lokpal Movement). It analyzes how an urban democratization movement features a competitive struggle among vernacular publics, and how the state and news media struggle over the legitimacy of alternate politics and vernacular public space, as it moves beyond electoral politics but still calls for democratization and transparency in governance.

Abstract: Over the past several decades vernacular music industries in many parts of South Asia have utilized artistic traditions originating in Dalit communities to create marketable commodities of “folk culture.” Why do music industries that celebrate and seek to raise the profile of “folk arts” (lok sangeet) also routinely neglect and exploit regional “folk artists” (lok kalakar)? By attending to the experiences of musicians from three hereditary caste communities in the Garhwal Himalayas—Baddi, Bajgi, and Jagariya—and by interrogating the body politics of a number of mass-mediated representations, this talk will interrogate the idea that new media and vernacular markets have had a democratizing influence on musical practice. Instead, I demonstrate that entrenched and widely-shared conceptions about caste-based status, function, musical style, and mobility continue to influence who is allowed to participate in regional studio recordings, and how they are ultimately represented on video and cassette albums.

University of Iowa officials are split on whether recent changes easing restrictions on obtaining U.S. visas have affected international-student enrollment. Earlier this year, President Obama signed an executive order making tourism and travel more accessible in the United States. Those efforts include new initiatives to make the process of applying for a visa more secure and efficient for international travelers and students. These changes have led to the issuance of more than 7.5 million visas in fiscal 2011 — a 17 percent increase over fiscal 2010.

By the time the group of 60 students from the University of Iowa left the Temple Town last week, it was amply clear to them that the field of elementary studies does not limit itself to field trips in one’s own country. “It is also about encountering people and their communities far beyond borders.”

Ten students who spent three weeks in the different campuses of the Mahatma group of schools took back with them loads of information about India, and particularly small town Madurai. But what touched their hearts the most was an appreciation for them from all and also some continued questions about each other. That was true knowledge gained.

With Chinese enrollment in Iowa universities skyrocketing and a major Chinese diplomatic visit underway this week in Iowa, Chinese-Iowa relations have recently manifested themselves in a view yet unprecedented. It’s probably enough for some pundits to worry they’re on the set of a Red Dawn remake.