University Symposium Calendar of Events

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Wednesday, October 12, 2005, 7:30 p.m. 120 and 125 Nolte Hall

Space, Marginalization, and Inclusion
Panel discussion with Gail Dubrow and Erika Lee; moderated by Ann Forsyth. This session will feature the new Graduate School Dean, Gail Dubrow, and History Professor, Erika Lee. The discussion will engage issues of space, marginalization, and inclusion through Dubrow's new manuscript on the anti-Chinese movement in the American West and Lee's book At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era (2003). Panelists, including John Archer, John Koepke, Judith Martin, and Robert McMaster, will focus on the spatial dimensions of belonging and exclusion.

Associated documents:

• Introduction (PDF)
• Traces of the Chinese in Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, Whidbey Island, Washington (PDF)
• Illustrations (PDF)
• Sidebars (PDF)

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Understanding Genocide: The Extremes of Population Politics
This forum brings together people from diverse disciplines to explore the ways in which different disciplines try to comprehend the seemingly incomprehensible horror that is genocide. The focus will not be on any particular genocide, but rather the methodological approaches of historians, demographers, sociologists, public health analysts, and artists.

11 a.m.-3 p.m., Northrop Dance Studio 5
Workshop with dancer Liz Lerman, whose current work includes a dance piece observing the human rights legacy of the post-World War II Nuremberg Trials.

4:00-6:15 p.m., 120 and 125 Nolte Hall
"Understanding Genocides" panel discussion. Panelists: Taner Akcam, Bruno Chaouat, Stephen Feinstein, Miriam King, Liz Lerman, J. Michael Oakes, and Eric Weitz.

Friday, December 2, 2005, 4 p.m. 120 and 125 Nolte Hall

The Newest African Americans: Post-Colonial West Africans and the Remaking of the Atlantic World in the U.S.
Discussion with Marilyn Halter and Violet Johnson. Marilyn Halter, a professor in the Department of History at Boston University, is the author of Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity (2000). Violet Johnson, Chair of the History Department at Agnes Scott College, is the author of Black and Foreign in Brahminland: West Indians in Boston, 1900-1950 (2005).

Thursday and Friday, February 16-17, 2006

Epidemics in the Making: Politics and the Production of Infectious Disease.
With the rise in discourses on 'emerging infectious diseases' in the 1990s, the heightened threat of bioterrorism since 9/11, and the declaration of infectious diseases such as AIDS as a security threat by the United States, attention has become more focused on diseases themselves, the 'threats' inhering in their dissemination, and the responses deployed to contain them. The discourses underlying responses to these "threats" illustrate the deep rooted ambivalence about processes of globalization and the attendant increase in population movements from so-called Third World to First World countries, and underscores continuing tensions between policy-makers intent upon protecting national populations and medical historians and social scientists who are quick to critique the problematic ideologies underlying such policy making. This event brings together various perspectives on this issue, allowing policy makers, epidemiologists, social scientists, historians, and members of the community to articulate their various concerns and explore ways to understand if not reconcile divergent perspectives on the contentious issues of the causes, implications, contexts, and responses to infectious disease outbreaks.

“The Politics of Infectious Diseases: Global Surveillance and Early Warning Systems”
Keynote address by Stephen Morse , School of Public Health and Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University
Thursday, February 16, 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Cowles Auditorium, Hubert Humphrey Center
Stephen Morse's Powerpoint Presentation

Friday, February 17 - Panel Discussions -140 Nolte
“History, Science, and Society” - 9:30-11:30 a.m.

• Paul Quie, International Medical Education and Research, University of Minnesota
• Tamara Giles-Vernick, Department of History, University of Minnesota
• John Eyler, History of Medicine, University of Minnesota
• Bruce Braun, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota

“Bridging Policy and Social Critique” - 2:00-5:00 p.m.

• Monica Schoch-Spana, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
• Michael Osterholm, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota
• Michael Fraser, National Association of City and County Health Officials
• Phillip Peterson, International Medical Education and Research, University of Minnesota
• Harry Hull, State Epidemiologist, Minnesota Department of Health
• Nicholas King, History of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University
• Walter Tsou, American Public Health Association

Both panels will be moderated by Susan Craddock, Department of Women's Studies, University of Minnesota

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 4 p.m. in Nolte 120 and 125

The Meanings of Citizenship: Citizen, Alien, Terrorist--Historical thoughts on Internment
Talk by Professor Mae Ngai, Department of History, University of Chicago, author of Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (2003), on the Japanese-American internment during the Second World War. How does the internment of Japanese-Americans resemble the detention of suspected terrorists today -- and how does it not? Followed by a discussion moderated by Louis Mendoza, Department of Chicano Studies, University of Minnesota.

Friday - Sunday, April 21-23

Art and Diaspora
The final event of the University Symposium will be a celebration of arts and diaspora, showcasing artists from the local community as well as invited guests. Events will include:

Filmmaker Kimi Takesue presenting three short films, "Heaven's Crossroads," "The Summer of the Serpent," and "E+nyc2"

Ananya Dance Theatre Performance

Spoken word performance by Ed Bok Lee with drumming by Kurt Kwan; Bryan Thao Worra; Bao Phi; and Ibe Kaba

Exibit of photography by Abdi Roble.

Performance by Palabristas.

Concert by Symbiosis, with opening guests Maria Isa and Desdemona

Click here for more information.