Tagged with "press releases"

The Chinese Association of Iowa recently selected Downing Thomas, dean of International Programs at the University of Iowa, as an honoree of the International Education Leadership Award. The award recognizes individuals or organizations that have an exemplary record of publication, teaching, advising, advocacy, leadership, new program development, or general service to the field that has made and will make a lasting contribution to international education.

In an upcoming lecture, Antoni Castells-Talens, a researcher at Universidad Veracruzana, will explore how Veracruz's community media were forced to learn new ways to operate in this violent atmosphere. His presentation, “Community media and armed violence in Mexico: Challenges and dilemmas in the State of Veracruz,” will take place Tuesday, March 5, from 4-5 p.m. in 203 Becker Communication Studies Building.

University of Iowa alum Aaron Sinift, creator of 5 Year Plan in collaboration with Gandhi Ashram spinning and weaving collectives in India and 26 artists from 7 countries, will be speaking at the UI Thursday, February 28, 2013, at 5 p.m. in 1117 University Capitol Centre.

The European Studies Group will welcome Dimitrios Latsis, a Ph.D. candidate in the UI Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature, for the next lecture in their luncheon series on Friday, March 1, at noon in 1117 University Capitol Centre. Latsis will present “À la recherche de Yankee Art: Franco-American 'Exhibition Diplomacy' on the Eve of WWII.”

The University of Iowa College of Law will be the new administrative home for the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights (UICHR), with Adrien Wing, Bessie Dutton Murray Professor of Law, becoming its new director. The center, which faced an uncertain future in recent years because of funding constraints, will move from International Programs in the Office of the Provost to the law school effective July 1. The center will retain its central campus office as a hub for interdisciplinary programs.

The stories of our lives and our histories are carried from one generation to the next through language. Whether spoken, signed, or written, languages are complex systems of communication that evolve over time and are rich with cultural and social meaning. As the centuries go by, some of the keys to understanding these languages and the cultures they reflect may be lost. On the March 8 WorldCanvass, we’ll investigate the painstaking work of uncovering and interpreting age-old documents and written records, and we’ll try to get a fuller picture of the people who produced them. WorldCanvass takes place before a live audience in the Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol Museum in Iowa City and is taped for television, radio and internet distribution. The program begins at 5 p.m., March 8, and is free and open to the public.

The controversy over awarding of the Nobel Prize for literature to PRC author Mo Yan has uncovered old and bitter debates about the relationship between politics and literature. However, Chinese society and contemporary Chinese literature have come a long way since the Cold War, when those debates first flared up, and the possibilities for Chinese literature today are unprecedented. In an upcoming public lecture, East Asian scholar Charles A. Laughlin will explain how Mo Yan and his generation have fundamentally changed the relationship between literature and politics in China, helping create a broader space for creativity and more vigorous engagement with world literature than ever before.

How did competitive, witty conversations at elite salons shape Spanish histories of the Iberian kingdom of al-Andalus? In the first lecture of the European Studies Group spring lecture series, UI associate professor Denise K. Filios will analyze the traces of such oral performances in two stories about Musa b. Nusayr, the conqueror of al-Andalus.

Come try your hand at the ancient and beautiful art of Chinese calligraphy at a free workshop Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, from 7-8:30 p.m. in 1117 University Capitol Centre on the UI campus. The workshop is open to the public and no prior experience of Chinese or calligraphy is necessary to attend.

The study of genetics has come a long way since Gregor Mendel’s groundbreaking work with pea plants in the mid-19th century. To see just how far we’ve come and where research into genetics is taking us, join WorldCanvass host Joan Kjaer and her panel of expert guests on Friday, February 15, at 5 p.m. in the Old Capitol Senate Chamber, when the topic is "Genetics and New Technologies." The program is free and open to the public.