Monday, November 16, 2009 at 6:00 PM (Film Screening at 7:30 PM)
Trayes Hall, Douglass Campus Center, DC

Discussion with Anne C. Bellows, University of Hohenheim; Martina Aruna Padmanabhan, Humboldt University; and Ethel Brooks, Rutgers University.

BULLSHIT is about Vandana Shiva, Indian environmental activist and nuclear physicist, who does battle with one of her toughest opponents, Monsanto, a huge American biotech company, when they try to patent an ancient Indian strain of wheat.  In this film Vandana Shiva also tackles the question of farmers’ suicide, a backlash of the globalization.

It’s a film on globalization and patenting, on genetic engineering, bio-piracy, and indigenous knowledge.  In this documentary, the filmmakers follow Vandana Shiva over a two-year period, from her organic farm at the foot of the Himalayas to institutions of power all over the world.

PeÅ Holmquist and Suzanne Khardalian are Swedish independent filmmakers who have directed more than 50 documentaries, among them several award-winning films, like Gaza Ghetto, Back to Ararat, Unsafe Ground, Her Armenian Prince, From Opium to Chrysanthemums, My Dad the Inspector, and I Hate Dogs – The Last Survivor.

Event sponsored by Global Initiatives - http://ecologies.rutgers.edu

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 7:00 PM
Graduate Student Lounge, 126 College Avenue, CAC

Advanced Arabic students Hoda Abdolrazek and Mervette Jebara will present the film "Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt" and lead a post-discussion after the screening.

Directed by Michal Goldman and narrated by Omar Sharif, "Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt" was released in 1996, at a length of 67 minutes. It will be shown in English with both English and Arabic subtitles.

Sponsored by:
* Center for African Studies
* Office of Undergraduate Education

Tuesday, September 1, 2009 to Friday, December 4, 2009

2009-2010 Estelle Lebowitz Visiting Artist-in-Residence Exhibition

This exhibition of work by Chilean-born artist Cecilia Vicuña is the first US anthological review of her works. The artist presents new works in many media, including a large site specific installation created for the Douglass Library galleries, videos, wall drawings and works created in Chile, London, Colombia and the United States. Renowned for her "precarious"  installations in nature, which address ecological issues, Vicuña bridges  the space between art and poetry, integrating multiple media into her work. Her visual language speaks to the past and the future by exploring parallels between the ancient indigenous worldview of the Americas and the worldview of particle physicists which includes concepts of entanglement and the multiverse.

Gallery Hours: M-F 9am - 4:30pm; Weekends by Appointment
Mabel Smith Douglass Library Galleries

SPECIAL EVENTS:

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 from 5:30 PM7:30 PM (Film Screening)
Scholarly Communications Center, Alexander Library, 4th floor

For additional information about any of the above events please contact Nicole Ianuzelli via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 7:00 PM (Reception at 6:30 PM)
Alexander Library, 4th Floor Lecture Hall, CAC

Andrea Torrice is an award-winning documentary and public television producer/director whose work spans a range of contemporary and international issues.

Some of her award-winning documentaries include: Forsaken Cries: the Story of Rwanda, which examines the historical factors contributing to the 1994 genocide; Large Dams, False Promises, which examines the impacts large dam projects in Brazil, India and China, and Bad Chemistry, which exposed the hazards of low-level chemical exposures on human health. Her documentary, Rising Waters, explores the global warming debate through the personal stories of Pacific Islanders, was featured at the 2004 United Nation’s Earth Summit, as well as broadcast in 110 countries around the world. She was a segment producer for POV”S Election Day which examined voting irregularities in Ohio in the 2004 election. Her programs have won many festival awards and a CPB gold award. 

Her upcoming public television documentary series, The New Metropolis, examines the infrastructure crisis and race relations in America’s older suburbs and is currently in release.

Her career started almost 20 years ago at San Francisco’s PBS station KQED TV. She has also produced programs for One World TV, Link TV, World Television News and Media Natura.

Event sponsored by Global Initiatives - http://ecologies.rutgers.edu

Monday, October 12, 2009 from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM
(Round-table w/ cartoneras)

 Tuesday, October 13, 2009 from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM (Book Making Workshop)
Mason Gross, 33 Livingston Ave., Room 202

A series of workshops, exhibits, panel discussions, classroom visits and films. The cartonera publishing phenomenon began in Buenos Aires in 2003, and has inspired similar collectives in seven other countries such as Peru, Brazil and Paraguay. In 2001, a severe financial crisis left Argentina in distress, and put millions out of work. Between 25,000 to 30,000 unemployed, displaced workers started combing the city every night picking out paper, cardboard, metal and glass in order to support their families. As one of the social, political, and cultural implications of this phenomenon, a group of artists and writers came up with a progressive new publishing model that challenges and contests the neo-liberal political and economic hegemony. They purchase cardboard from the cartoneros who collect cardboard in the street, and convert it into bookbinding for short literary pieces whose authors and agents have donated their rights to the texts.  Each book is decorated with tempera paint and stencils, creating a one-of-a-kind literary and art object.  These books are sold at moderate prices to the public, but also make their way into main-stream venues such as art museum shops.

For more information, please visit http://clas.rutgers.edu

Sponsored by:
* Center for Latin American Studies
* Center for Latino Arts and Culture
* Department of Spanish and Portuguese
* Global Initiatives
* Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions
* Seminar on "The History of the Book"
* Rutgers Libraries
* School of Communication and Information

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 from 1:40 PM to 3:00 PM
Beck Hall, Room 221, Livingston Campus

"Encounter: An Ethiopian Literary Wit and British Working Class Folk" is a public lecture by Dr. Hailu Habtu. Dr. Hailu Habtu is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies where he also teaches graduate courses on Ethiopian Oral and Written Literature. He studied philosophy at Indiana University, and received a PhD in African Literature from the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. He taught in the Department of Black Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and in the History Department of the City College of the City University of New York. He later headed the Culture Bureau of the Tigrai Regional State and served as a consultant in the Centre Français des Études Éthiopiennes, Addis Ababa. He is the project director of Encyclopedia Ethiopiana in Amharic. He has published widely on Ethiopian Christianity, language, and culture.

Event sponsored by The Department of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures and the Center for African Studies.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Bradley Hall Theater, 110 Warren Street, Newark, NJ

Goodbye Ayucocho is a play adapted and directed by Miguel Rubio Zapata. It is based on the text by Julio Ortega and stars Augusto Casafranca. It features live music by Debora Correa and will be presented in Spanish with English subtitles. Following the performance, there will be a question and answer session with the performers. Goodbye Ayacucho is free and open to the public.

For information about this group, please visit http://www.yuyachkanirepertorio2009.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 from 3:20 PM to 4:40 PM
Beck Hall, Room 219, Livingston Campus

“i ni ce, thank you, merci: The Art of the Groupe Bogolan Kasobane” a talk by artist Janet Goldner.

The Groupe Bogolan Kasobane is a collective of six artists from Mali who have been working together since 1978. The members of the Groupe were concerned about perpetuating the culture of Mali. After having graduated from art school, they traveled throughout Mali to research the traditions and practices of bogolan (mud cloth). Their findings enabled them to read the significance of the cloths which were in danger of being lost due to the cultural disruption and erasure that resulted from colonialism.

Traditionally, bogolan was used only for clothing. Their insistence on using local materials in their art and "elevating" materials associated with craft is a strategy employed by many contemporary artists throughout the world who use the materials at hand in their work. Their works are layered with meanings. Even without knowing the significance of the symbols, the works hold as paintings.  An appreciation of Malian history and culture adds specificity to the work and aids in the protection of the symbols.

Sponsored by:
* Center for African Studies
* Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures
* Institute for Women and Art

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Alexander Library, 4th Floor Lecture Hall, CAC

Introduction by:
* Joanna Regulska, Dean of International Programs, SAS and
* Philip J. Furmanski  Executive Vice-President for Academic Affairs

Panelist include:
* Thomas N. Farris, Dean , SOE
* James E. Katz, Chair, Department of Communication, SCI
* Robert W. Lake, Professor, BSPPP
* Fran Mascia-Lees, Chair, Department of Anthropology, SAS
* Lily Young, Dean of International Programs, SEBS

Event sponsored by Global Initiatives - http://ecologies.rutgers.edu