University Symposium Calendar of Events, 2008-09
The Symposium's public events will be organized by semester-long themes. The theme for Fall 2008 is Political Bodies/The Body Politic.
Wednesday, September 10
Bringing Justice to an Unjustified Past in Korea
Judge Park Won Soon will discuss human rights and transitional justice in Korea.
Named by the Citizen Times as the "Most Distinguished and Respected Activist in Korea" for three years running, Judge Park is the executive director of the Hope Institute and of the Beautiful Foundation and Beautiful Store (a community foundation and fair-trade network).
4 pm, 125 Nolte
Mondays, September 29, October 27, and December 1
Conversations about Body & Knowing
Lunch discussions in which we will ask questions about what we know about the body and how we know it, and how people in different times and places have articulated their knowledges about the body. The ideas from these meetings will help to stimulate academic discussion and to shape the course of the symposium over the course of the next two years. Open to all; lunch provided. Please register at ias@umn.edu or 626-5054.
12:00 pm - 1:15 pm, 125 Nolte
Wednesday, October 8
Performance and Social Justice
Ananya Chatterjea (Theatre Arts and Dance), Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley (English), and Jigna Desai (Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies) lead a discussion of how global politics impact on women's bodies and how to make an embodied response.
4:00 pm, 125 Nolte
Wednesday, October 22
Somali refugees in Europe
During the summer of 2007, Abdi Roble and Doug Rutledge of the Somali Documentary Project (SDP) traveled to places in Europe that have proven very difficult for Somali refugees: Germany, Greece and Malta. They discovered that Europe is using its border countries to create a fortress against refugees attempting to enter the European Union. Roble and Rutledge will discuss the SDP’s work in the United States and in Dadaab refugee camp, and compare the conditions for Somali refugees in the U.S. and Europe, with specific information on each European country.
Abdi Roble has been honored with the Arts Freedom Award of the South Settlement House and the Individual Artist Award from both the Ohio Arts Council and the Greater Columbus Arts Council. Doug Rutledge is a poet, playwright, and essayist who has dedicated most of his life to humanitarian issues. They are the authors of The Somali Diaspora: A Journey Away (University of Minnesota Press, September 2008).
4:00 pm, 125 Nolte
Wednesday, November 5
The United Nations Convention on Persons with Disabilities
Arlene S. Kanter will discuss the history leading up to the UN
Convention on the Rights of Persons, its key provisions, its importance to the disability rights movement worldwide, and problems that remain for children and adults with disabilities under international and domestic disability laws.
She is the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Law, Director of the Disability Law and Policy Program, and Co-Director of the Center on Human Policy, Law and Disability Studies at Syracuse University
4:00 pm, 125 Nolte
Wednesday, November 12
The 1969 Morrill Hall Takeover: University of Minnesota Veteran Activists Reflect on Black Bodies in Resistance
Organized by Walt Jacobs, African American & African Studies, this roundtable discussion will be one of several events leading up to the fortieth anniversary of the peaceful protest efforts that forced the University to address issues of equal rights for minorities.
Cosponsored by the Department of African American & African Studies
4:00 pm, 125 Nolte
Friday, December 5
Symposium on Rethinking Sovereignty and Statehood
Organized by Christine Bauemler (Art) and Sonja Kuftinec (Theater Arts and Dance), this symposium will explore the historical, cultural and political relationships between the University of Minnesota, American Indian sovereign governments and the larger Twin Cities community. By learning from contemporary American Indian ways of living and knowing in the realms of politics, law and science, in education and community outreach, and through the performing and visual arts, we seek to understand how more just futures can be imagined, and a more vibrant University can be realized.
Time and location TBD
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Symposium 2006-2008: Time
Symposium 2005-06: The Politics of Populations
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