Spring 2006: Thursdays at Four
January 26
Yellowface, Blackface, and Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado
Josephine Lee, Department of English, University of Minnesota.
Co-sponsored by the Asian American Studies Program.
February 2
Discussion with Playwright and Director Leigh Fondakowski
Leigh Fondakowski is directing the Guthrie's current production of her play The People's Temple. Sonja Kuftinec, Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, University of Minnesota, will moderate the discussion.
February 9
Whaling and Whaling Songs: The Rhythms of Maritime Life in Music and Memory
Performance and Discussion with Lisa Norling, Department of History, University of Minnesota, and Robert Walser, ethnomusicologist and musician.
February 16
Elliot Carter's “Figment for Cello”
A lecture-recital, with performance by Noah Rogoff, graduate student, University of Minnesota, and commentary by Michael Cherlin, School of Music, University of Minnesota.
February 23
“Thirty Years of Sisterhood: Women in the 1970s Women's Liberation Movement in Japan”
Film screening and roundtable discussion with the film's directors, Chieko Ishii and Noriko Seyama. Panel includes Satoko Yagiura, feminist filmmaker; Tomomi Yamaguchi, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Chicago; and Kiyoko Matsuno, Department of Women's Studies, Kyoto Seika University. Mark Anderson, Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Minnesota, will moderate.
Co-sponsored by the Department of Women's Studies, Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, the Department of History, the Office for University Women, and the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence.
March 2
Elliot Carter's “Riconoscenza per Goffredo Petrassi”
A lecture-recital, with performance by Dale Barltrop, second violin, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and commentary by Michael Cherlin, School of Music, University of Minnesota.
March 9
The Social Life of Hmong Video
Louisa Schein, Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University.
Louisa Schein will introduce her work on Hmong-made videos, showing the role of media in Hmong social lives both in the U.S. and in relations with Asian homelands. Several clips of Hmong videos will be shown.
Co-sponsored by the Asian American Studies Program and the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures.
March 23
The Meanings of Citizenship: Citizen, Alien, Terrorist – Historical thoughts on internment
Mae Ngai, Department of History, University of Chicago. Discussion moderated by Louis Mendoza, Department of Chicano Studies, University of Minnesota.
Lecture by Mae Ngai on Japanese-American internment during the Second World War, and how it does and does not resemble the detention of suspected terrorists today.
This event is part of the 2005-06 University Symposium, The Politics of Populations.
Co-sponsored by the Asian American Studies Program, the Department of History, and the Immigration History Research Center.
March 30
Poetry of Witness/Poetry as Witness
A reading and discussion with IAS Visiting Fellows John Gery, Department of English, University of New Orleans, and Biljana Obradovic, Department of English, Xavier University of Louisiana.
This event will feature a reading and open discussion of poems by these two poets that explore the delicate interaction between private experience and socio-political crises, including the Persian Gulf war, NATO bombing of Serbia, urban crime in the U.S., the war in Iraq, and Hurricane Katrina, among others.
April 6
Libraries and University Presses in an Amazoogle Age
A conversation with Douglas Armato, Director, University of Minnesota Press, and Wendy Pradt Lougee, University Librarian, University of Minnesota. What is the future for libraries and university presses in the age of instant online information and mega-services, as epitomized by Amazon.com and Google? Will Internet superpowers overshadow traditional players or does the digital age enable wholly new models for libraries and publishers?
April 13
Access to Higher Education
Steven Rosenstone, Dean, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota
Over the past few decades, access to higher education for students from families of moderate financial means has declined in America. Steven Rosenstone, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts of University of Minnesota, will discuss the nature, causes, and implications of this trend and will suggest some strategies for increasing student access to college.
April 20
Friends or Foes? Social Relationships among Female Chimpanzees
Anne Pusey, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota.
Unlike most other mammals, female chimpanzees display competitive social relationships, even to the point of infanticide. Anne Pusey will discuss how ecological factors such as diet and food distribution may help us understand social organization and relationships among female chimpanzees.
April 27
The House that Hijack Built
Adeena Karasick, performance poet and feminist Kabbalah scholar, Department of English, St. John's University, New York.
Adeena Karasick's talk will be on how and in what ways much of her work links itself to early Kabbalistic theories of language. She also aims to point out some of the uncanny similarities between Kabbalistic discourse and contemporary deconstruction and feminist poetics.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies.
May 4
EVENT CANCELED - rescheduled for October 19, 2006
Partnership Networks and the Spread of HIV: Lessons from Uganda, Thailand, and the United States
Martina Morris, Departments of Sociology and Statistics, University of Washington.
Traditionally, models for infectious disease transmission have emphasized the role of the number of contacts a person makes as the key factor for epidemic spread. Martina Morris will show that the connectivity of the transmission network can be created from other behavioral patterns and argue that these help to explain the disparities in the global prevalence of HIV.
Co-sponsored by the Minnesota Population Center.