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October 2008

U.S. foreign policy and human rights in Colombia focus of Oct. 13 lecture

University of Iowa students David Goodner and Megan Felt will present “Postmodern Conquistadors: the role of multinational corporations and U.S. foreign policy in the perpetuation of human rights violations in Colombia” as part of the International Mondays lecture series. The presentation takes place from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 13, in Meeting Room A of the Iowa City Public Library.

Goodner is a 27-year-old senior at the University of Iowa majoring in international studies with an emphasis in human rights. Felt is a 21-year-old UI junior with a double major in Spanish and anthropology. Goodner and Felt spent ten weeks this summer in rural Colombia as delegates with the human rights accompaniment organizations Witness For Peace, Christian Peacemaker Teams, and the Colombian NGO, Justicia y Paz.

“Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s ‘Democratic Security Policy’, financed by the U.S.-sponsored Plan Colombia, is essentially a war strategy against Colombia’s most vulnerable population sets - Afro-Colombians, campesinos, labor unionists, indigenous people, women, and the urban poor,” Goodner said.

“Uribe’s Democratic Security Policy sounds an awful lot like the ‘National Security Doctrines’ of Latin American dictators in the 1970s,” Felt added. “The idea is to violently suppress civil society in order to restructure the country’s rural landscape in preparation for transnational investment and the passing of the free trade agreement with the United States.”

Goodner and Felt are both members of the UI Antiwar Committee. Felt spent four months in the Fall of 2007 studying abroad in Costa Rica and has also traveled extensively throughout Cuba, Guatemala, and Panama. Goodner is a blogger for the Des Moines Register Young Adult Board of Contributors and has been quoted in the Nation Magazine and in a new biography of Republican adviser and strategist Karl Rove.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Cressey to discuss international terrorism at Oct. 6 International Mondays

Roger Cressey will present “International Terrorism” as part of the International Mondays lecture series. The presentation takes place from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 6, in Meeting Room A of the Iowa City Public Library.

Cressey has served in senior cyber security and counterterrorism positions in the Clinton and Bush administrations. He has been a crisis manager in Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans. He currently advises clients on homeland security, cyber security and counterterrorism issues and is an on-air counterterrorism analyst for NBC News.

Previously, Cressey served as Chief of Staff to the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board at the White House from November 2001 to September 2002. From November 1999 to November 2001, Mr. Cressey served as Director for Transnational Threats on the National Security Council staff, where he was responsible for coordination and implementation of U.S. counterterrorism policy. During this period, he managed the U.S. Government’s response to the Millennium terror alert, the USS COLE attack, and the September 11th attacks.

Prior to his White House service, Cressey served in the Department of Defense, including as Deputy Director for War Plans. From 1991–1995, he served in the Department of State working on Middle East Security issues. He has also served overseas with the U.S. Embassy in Israel and with United Nations peacekeeping missions in Somalia and the former Yugoslavia. While in the former Yugoslavia, he was part of a United Nations team that planned the successful capture of the first individual indicted for war crimes in Croatia.

Cressey received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and an M.A. in Security Policy Studies from The George Washington University. He has taught a graduate course on U.S. counterterrorism policy at Georgetown University.

Cressey is the recipient of the State Department’s Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards and the Defense Department’s Exceptional Civilian Service Award.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

September 2008

Ge and Hanson to share Beijing Olympics experiences at Sept. 29 International Mondays

Lini Ge, UI graduate student in professional journalism, and Jane Hanson, May 2008 graduate of the foreign language and ESL Education doctoral program, will present “Back from the Beijing Olympics: ‘It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience’” as part of the International Mondays lecture series. The presentation takes place from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, in Meeting Room A of the Iowa City Public Library.

The Iowa Olympic Ambassadors Project, organized by UI Professor Judy Polumbaum, gave 24 UI students the opportunity to experience the 2008 Beijing Olympics as media volunteers for the Olympic News Service. From the faculty coordinator, Jane Hanson, to the 24 media volunteers, each individual made the two-month adventure in Beijing meaningful. All participants strengthened professional skills through contacts with the international media. Many came to better understand their own culture while contrasting it with the other cultures encountered. In addition, interpersonal communication skills between group members grew. Volunteering at the Beijing Olympics also helped Lini Ge (a UI master’s student in journalism who is originally from China) gain new perspectives about her own culture and people.

Jane L. Hanson is a native of Nebraska, but has lived overseas and east of the Mississippi for much of her life. She graduated with a PhD in Foreign Language and ESL Education from The University of Iowa in May of 2008. She was faculty director for the Beijing Olympic Ambassadors Project at the Summer Olympics of 2008 in Beijing, China. Hanson has been a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, a Nebraska Regent’s Scholar, an Oklahoma Scholar-Leader, and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa. She is an avid reader, a weaver, and loves to learn about other cultures. She has two sons. Hanson’s second language is Spanish and she is studying Mandarin.

Lini Ge joined the master’s professional journalism program at the University of Iowa in July 2006. One month before that, she quit her job as a radio host and journalist at Fujian Provincial Radio Station in China, where she had worked for five years. Ge won the Shafer Family Trust Scholarship and Ruth and Morris Zweiban Memorial Scholarship in April 2008 and the Gazette Foundation Minority Journalism Scholarship in April 2007. Ge volunteered at the Main Press Center of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games this summer. Prior to her trip, Ge was awarded the Stanley Graduate Award for International Research for her master’s project.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.


IP seeks nominations for second annual Outstanding International Achievement awards

In celebration of the ninth annual International Education Week, International Programs is proud to announce that we are seeking nominations for the second annual Outstanding International Achievement awards.

Each year, the University of Iowa recognizes two individuals – one UI student and one community member – for their significant contributions and accomplishments in advancing international understanding and education to the campus, community, state and beyond.
Nominations are due by Friday, Oct. 10 by 5 p.m.

UI student nomination form
Community member nomination form

All nominees, nominators, and award winners will be invited to the International Education Week awards ceremony, which will take place on Friday, Nov. 21 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

For more information on International Education Week, see: http://iew.state.gov/.

A calendar of events taking place on the UI campus will be posted to the International Programs web site in late October.

Fehér kicks-off the International Mondays lecture series discussing Transatlantic diplomacy on Sept. 22

Zoltán Fehér, Chief Creative Officer and Press Attaché at the Embassy of Hungary in Washington, D.C, will present “From Back Channels to “The Colbert Report”: The Changing Face of Transatlantic Diplomacy in the 21st Century” as part of the International Mondays lecture series. The presentation takes place from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22, in Meeting Room A of the Iowa City Public Library.

For much of the 20th century, the often uneasy relations between European countries and the United States were not only conducted on the formal governmental level, but they were also shaped through backdoor dealings. The ideological struggle of the Cold War and its attendant cultural propaganda warfare actually necessitated such parallel maneuvers. After the end of the Cold War, the countries of Central Europe had free reign in shaping their own relations with the United States, and even after joining the European Union, they have retained considerable agency in this field. As a result, these young democracies have been eager to strengthen their ties with the United States even in new, experimental forms of diplomacy.

Drawing on his own experience of rising through the ranks of the Hungarian diplomatic corps in Washington, D.C., Zoltán Fehér will identify and define the pioneering new forms of transatlantic diplomacy ranging from the representations of national cultures, art and history through film festivals and museum exhibitions to the creative use of the potential of U.S. mass media for cultural diplomacy (such as the former Hungarian ambassador's several appearances on “The Colbert Report”) to the diplomatic use of the “new media” such as the Internet and blogging. In his presentation, Fehér hopes to challenge his audience to think outside the box of conventional international relations and identify and pursue alternative and new forms of cultural relations including public/civil diplomacy, cultural exchange, media diplomacy, and intercultural communications through music. Deploying such practices would help redefine both the (shattered) image of the United States in the world and the tools of promoting American interests abroad - for a new understanding of international relations in the 21st century.

Dubbed “the rising star of transatlantic diplomatic relations,” Zoltán Fehér is Chief Creative Officer and Press Attaché at the Embassy of Hungary in Washington, D.C. Fehér holds Master's degrees in Political Science and American Studies from Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary, and a Law degree from Pazmany Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary. He has studied as a Kellner Scholar at Bard College, New York. The former president of a Hungarian NGO which discusses current issues with the country's young intelligentsia, Fehér has taught Political Science and International Relations courses at Hungarian universities, and has published on comparative government, U.S. foreign policy and Transatlantic relations.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.