Nomination of President Xi Jinping’s ‘old friend’ comes after China Daily says relations are ‘facing uncertainty as never before’ -- article from The Guardian by David Smith in Washington and Tom Phillips in Beijing

I want to preface this post by saying that my host family here is fanfreakingtastic. I love them as if I were related to them, and I feel like an actual part of their family: an older sister, a cousin, a niece, a granddaughter. My host sister, Rosario (who would like everyone to know she’ll be six very soon), apparently threw her school psychologist for a loop when she started telling people she had an older sister from the United States. I’ve known Amparo, the two-year-old, for practically a quarter of her life. I will cry when I leave them, and I know my host mom will be right there with me. My mamita and tía (grandmother and aunt) have asked me when I’m coming back to Chile, and I haven’t even left yet.

We are two scholars of American literature and culture at the University of Iowa, a black woman and a white man, who are concerned about the future of the country in which we teach, live, and write. On Wednesday, we will help facilitate a WorldCanvass forum on “White Privilege, Institutional Racism, and the Dream of America” that will offer tools to thrive and survive during the difficult times ahead. With white nationalism in ascendance in the United States and abroad, our topic is particularly urgent.

The focus of the UI Theme Semester in spring 2017 is the Internet, the global system of connectedness that has literally made the world smaller. It enables the efficient processing of complex information, the transfer of knowledge and ideas beyond the borders of language and geography, technological advances few would have dared imagine possible mere decades ago, and rapid communication that can save lives, start a revolution, crowdfund research, and play to both our better and worse natures in interpersonal exchange. WorldCanvass guests will talk with host Joan Kjaer about “Our Lives Online” on January 17, from 7:30-9:00 p.m., in the Recital Hall of the Voxman Music Building. The public is invited to attend both WorldCanvass and the catered, pre-show reception (6:30-7:30 p.m.).

Shakally shared his experiences Thursday at a presentation hosted by the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council about his experience growing up as a Syrian asylum seeker.

Howard Kerr, a native Iowan and 1960 graduate of the UI, was named the 2016 recipient of the International Impact Award. UI Provost Barry Butler and Associate Provost and Dean of International Programs Downing Thomas presented the award to Kerr on November 17, as part of the WorldCanvass: Higher Education in the Age of Internationalization. Also appearing on WorldCanvass to discuss the challenges and opportunities offered by increasing internationalization in higher education were Ellen Hazelkorn, policy advisor to the Higher Education Authority, Ireland, and Barbara McFadden Allen, executive director of the Big 10 Academic Alliance.

“Masterpieces of art can translate nature for us.” Though originally stated by Dr. Drew Harvell, a marine biologist and professor at Cornell University, these are the words which served as inspiration for Stanley awardee Jacquelyn Whitman, who recently utilized sculpture and ecology in her research to illustrate the anthropogenic effects humans are having on the environment.

“Islamophobia” isn’t a word commonly heard on the University of Iowa campus; however, in the Old Capital Museum, the word has found a place in an exhibit whose hope is to abolish it.