2017 marks the hundredth anniversary of the Russian revolution. That tumultuous century saw Russia reject the Romanov dynasty which had ruled for over three hundred years and embrace a new ideology whose leader, Vladimir Lenin, would become the head of the world’s first communist state.  The world watched as the Soviet Union re-created a Russian-dominated empire, lost millions of lives to purges and terror,  withstood the onslaught of Nazi Germany, faced off against the West during the Cold War, then dissolved, with Russia re-emerging under Vladimir Putin as a central player in global power politics. 

WorldCanvass started its ninth season by teaming up with Hancher and its Embracing Complexity project for a multi-layered program exploring the beauty of Islamic art and the diversity within Islamic cultures. Joan Kjaer and guests discussed the great diversity that exists within Islamic cultures and traditions, ancient and modern, near and far.  They examined the many aesthetic, artistic, architectural, and other elements of Islamic expression that have made their way into the global consciousness and talked with a playwright who’s documenting the contemporary Muslim experience in Iowa. The show was closed out with a performance by musical group, Niyaz. They shared their musical vision, which is rooted in ancient poetry and Sufi mysticism, and their hopes to unite different peoples and traditions through a common humanity.

While immigrants have long fueled the American experiment, passionate debate about the pros and cons of immigration are nothing new. The rhetoric of recent national and local elections highlights tensions around changing demographics, inspiring debate about the impact of immigration on employment, on crime, and on community identity, while challenging the citizenry to examine their values and notions of what it means to be an American. WorldCanvass host Joan Kjaer and a diverse panel of guests discussed the history of immigration in the Midwest over the past century and a half, as well as current questions about bilingualism, multiculturalism, and belonging and exclusion in times of international and domestic conflict.

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 talked with host Joan Kjaer about "Our Lives Online."

Season eight of WorldCanvass premiered on Tuesday, September 13, in the newly-opened Voxman Music Building in downtown Iowa City. WorldCanvass guests joined host Joan Kjaer to discuss the controversial method of energy production known as fracking and its impact on the environment, social dynamics, and the economy. They also explored, through music and literature, ways in which artists have documented transitions and grappled with the drumbeat of change.