Tagged with "research"

WorldCanvass guests on October 9 will take us inside the groundbreaking history of space research at the UI, describe their research into 'chemo brain' or the cognitive deficits that can occur after chemotherapy, and detail a research collaboration that aims to provide weather and climate information to farmers to help them make key decisions at different times of the year. Join us at the next WorldCanvass for an intriguing conversation about research breakthroughs and the many unexpected but essential discoveries that flow from them. The live event is free and open to the public. The program is held at MERGE, 136 South Dubuque Street, in Iowa City from 5:30-7 p.m., with a pre-show reception from 5-5:30 p.m.

UI associate professor Irina Kostina wins global curriculum development award to teach new course about the North Caucasus.

The twentieth century has been called the American Century, a time when American ingenuity, economic growth, military power, and vibrant cultural expression led to increased prosperity and confidence at home and a stabilizing role in leadership on the international stage. 2018 finds us in a time of shifting alliances, renewed nationalism, unraveling multinational trade agreements, and serious divides at every level of political discourse. On the next WorldCanvass, historians, political scientists, and a former U.S. ambassador will look back over the last century through the prism of foreign policy and explore the interwar period (1918-1939), follow the rise of the post-WWII Western alliance, and assess U.S. foreign policy in a new time of global realignment and instability. Joan Kjaer hosts WorldCanvass, which takes place in downtown Iowa City at MERGE, 136 South Dubuque Street, from 5:30-7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 5, and is free and open to the public. We invite you to come at 5 and join us for a pre-show catered reception.

WorldCanvass starts 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 hosts the program, which moves to a new location in the heart of downtown Iowa City—MERGE, at 136 South Dubuque Street. The live show takes place from 5:30-7 p.m. on Friday, September 29, and is free and open to the public. We invite you to come at 5 and join us for a pre-show catered reception!

Cooking with firewood and other biofuels is one of the most urgent problems in the world today. It affects the health and wellbeing of those inhaling the fumes at close range, relies on increasingly scarce sources of firewood, and contributes over 20% of global black carbon emissions. The harm to individuals and the environment cannot be denied, and yet there’s little awareness of the issue among the general public. WorldCanvass host Joan Kjaer and a panel of experts drawn from multiple fields including engineering, urban and regional planning, public health, anthropology, and geography will discuss the use of traditional wood-burning cookstoves and the complex social and cultural underpinnings of the practice on the April 12 WorldCanvass, a highlight of the UI’s yearly Provost’s Global Forum. The public is invited to attend the April 12 discussion at the Voxman Music Building Recital Hall from 7:30-9:30 p.m. There will be a pre-show catered reception from 6:30-7:30 p.m.

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. On the next WorldCanvass, host Joan Kjaer and a diverse panel of guests will discuss 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 public is invited to attend the free WorldCanvass discussion on Wednesday, March 8, from 7:30-9:00 p.m. in the Voxman Recital Hall.

On the next WorldCanvass, we investigate adverse childhood experiences and the negative physical and mental health consequences children and adults with these experiences may face. If left unaddressed and untreated, the toxic stress of childhood adversity can have serious health repercussions throughout a lifetime. But important advances are being made in the recognition and treatment of health issues related to adverse childhood experiences, many of them led by physicians and researchers at the University of Iowa. WorldCanvass host Joan Kjaer will speak with experts from a wide range of health disciplines as well as child advocates from the Iowa City Community School District and Johnson County on February 20, from 7:30-9:00 p.m., when the topic is “Resilience Over Trauma.” The free event will be held in the Recital Hall of the Voxman Music Building. No tickets are required.

New time, new location! Season eight of the television, radio, and internet program WorldCanvass will begin on Tuesday, September 13, at 7:30 p.m., in the newly-opened Voxman Music Building in downtown Iowa City. WorldCanvass guests will join 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. We’ll also explore through music, photography, and literature ways in which artists have documented transitions and grappled with the drumbeat of change. The public is invited to attend and no tickets are required.

WorldCanvass tackles informatics—also known as big data—on its final program of the 2015-2016 season. Guests from the diverse fields of computer science, medicine, sociology, public health, and geographical and sustainability sciences will discuss the proliferation of big data and their attempts to both understand and utilize this massive and, in many ways, untamed digital resource. “Big Data: Big Brother or Big Sister?” is the topic at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, at FilmScene. WorldCanvass is free and open to the public.

The Confucius Institute at the University of Iowa will host a symposium on April 22 and 23 from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. at the University Capitol Centre. This event will serve as a platform for researchers on Chinese applied linguistics around the world to generate ideas, cross disciplinary boundaries, and disseminate research about issues and concerns in the learning and teaching of Chinese as a non-primary language (including heritage language learning) across different acquisition stages in different settings. Topics will include Chinese as a second language processes and development, data-driven pedagogy and discourse analysis and grammar.