California Higher Education Leaders Meet for Promoting Study Abroad

Friday, March 20, 2009

On Match 20, 2009, NCAGE co-sponsored and participated in a workshop organized by the California Consortium for International Studies (SOCCIS) on California Study Abroad Collaboration. The meeting attended by over 100 persons, was structured in a town hall style to facilitate conversation on critical issues facing travel abroad, such as: collaboration within and across systems in the state of California, creatively addressing and finding solutions to financial challenges in a time of economic; curriculum integration and student learning support from pre-departure to reentry learning; increasing diversity in study abroad; and the Forum on Education Abroad Good Practice and Code of Ethics. Underlying the event was the hope that congress will approve the Simon Act, that would finance a million U.S students studying abroad each year. Key Panelists briefly presented the main questions or issues for discussion, then discussions commenced around the room at individual tables. In addition, there was a keynote presentation on Study Abroad Health and Safety Issues and Resources.

Integrating Climate Science and Policy: Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies

Thursday, March 19, 2009
4:00pm
Location: Morris Dailey Hall (SJSU)

                                                                     

It is not enough for scientists to understand how climate is changed by human activities, as police makers must also understand these changes so that they may take reasonable actions. Policy choice maps should account for two prime inputs: natural resources and human actions. Such maps can point to mitigation efforts, such as non fossil fuel and conservation, as well as to adaptation to unavoidable climate change through long term sustainable behavior. Policy choices and their implementations must also account for time pressures and for the need of international cooperation.

A Brief bio about Lord Julian Hunt,

     Lord Julian Hunt is currently Professor of Climate Modeling in the Department of Earth Sciences and Honorary Professor of Mathematics at University College London. At Cambridge University, he is also a Fellow of Trinity College and Honorary Professor of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. He has also been a visiting professor at a number of universities and institutions around the world and has served as Chief Executive of the British Meteorological Service from 1992-1997. In 2000 he was named a Baron of the UK House of Lords, with the title of Lord Hunt of Chesterton.
     Born in 1941, Professor Hunt was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, where he earned a PhD in Mechanical Sciences in 1967. After a visiting lectureship in South Africa and a Fulbright Scholarship in the United States, he returned to Cambridge to lecture in Applied Mathematics and Engineering, rising to Professor in 1990.

 

"Prospects for US-Iran Relations in the Obama Administration: New Directions or Status Quo? " A talk by Reese Erlich, Journalist and Author

Thursday, March 5, 2009
3-5 p.m
MLK Library Room 255/257

                                                 

From Mr Reese's Bio,

 

Israle Consul General Uncensored at SJSU

Thursday, February 5, 2009
5:30 p.m
Location: Almaden Room, Student Union

Come learn about the recent situation in Gaza... Upcoming elections in Israel and what that means.... U.S./Israel relationship.... ....And much more! This is your opportunity to meet the new Consul general of Israel for the Pacific Northwest region and ask any question related to Israel. Akiva Tor has recently taken up the post of Israel Consul General to the Pacific Northwest. In his previous position as World Jewish Affairs Adviser to the President of Israel he began the organization of the World Jewish Forum, a presidential initiative for creating a pan-Jewish strategy for stemming assimilation and decline in Jewish life. Tor has served as Director of the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei and as Deputy Director for Palestinian Affairs. He was a Wexner Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government and has written and lectured extensively on Jewish values in the foreign policy of Israel.

 

TEJIENDO LA VIDA DE GUATEMALA

(Weaving the Life of Guatemala)

Video Screening

November 25, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Ohlone Room in the Student Union
Sponsored by the Global Studies Club, Sociology Club, and Phi Alpha Theta/History Club.

 

Islam and Violence: Fact vs Fiction

Tuesday Evening, December 2, 2008

Martin Luther King Library, Schiro Room, Fifth Floor

Sponsored by the Global Studies Program: Dr. Michael Conniff, Director

Attendance: 40

For a variety of reasons, many Americans struggle with the perception of Islam as a religion that condones violence. These and other important questions that address the nature of the “clash between American and Islam” will be explored by Dr. AbdulMawgoud Dardery. Dr. Dardery has had the unique experience of working as a volunteer at a polling place in Egypt during their presidential election of 2005 as well as working for a polling site during our recent presidential election. Dr. Dardery is a former Fulbright Scholar and Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies and Critical Discourse at South Valley University, Egypt. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh and has spent more than 20 years teaching in the US and Egypt. In 1994, while he was working on his PhD in Pittsburgh, he established a special occasion during the month of Ramadan called Humanity Day, in Arabic “Al-Naas Day.” This celebration, now in its fourteenth year, brings Americans of all faiths together to share a meal with one another. Dr. McKale, Director of the Institute for Ethics at Saint Francis University writes that he is excellent in addressing the important connections between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. “I must say that after one month traveling in Egypt with him I have found him to be a very important voice in the quest for a "Dialogue of Civilizations.”

Sudan-2007

Monday April 7 , 2008
Time: 5:00-7:00 pm

San Jose State University School of Social Work Conference Center

Speaker: Zied Mhrisi MD, MPH Fulbright Scholar, University of Washington
 

Wild, Sacred and Erotic: Transformative Aspects of Wilderness Experiences

January 24, 2008 at 4:15 p.m.
Clark Hall 412
Sponsored by the Comparative Religious Studies, Global Studies and Humanities Department.

Dr. Sylvie Shaw is a professor in the Religious Studies Department from University of Queensland in Australia.  She gave a Religion and Environment lecture titled: Wild, Sacred, And Erotic: Transformative Aspects of Wilderness Experiences.

Inside Global Terrorism: From Personal Impacts to World Responses

November 7, 2007 at 6 p.m.
Co-sponsored by the History Department, Jewish Studies and the college of Social Sciences

Judea Pearl, father of Daniel Pearl, spoke as part of a two week series entitled, "Inside Global Terrorism: From Personal Impacts to World Responses."

 

NCAGE Forum:

November 15, 2007 from 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 pm.
Co-sponsored by CCIE (California Colleges for International Education)

For more information, please click here.

Bisi Adigun

MLK Library- 1:30 P.M Room 225/229
HGH 103- 6:30 P.M.
November 7, 2007
Sponsored by the Global Studies Initiative, Mosaic, Dept of Communication Studies, Dept of Television, Radio, Film and Theatre and the Nigerian Student Association.
Attendance: 65 people

Bisi Adigun is a playwright and theatre director living in Dublin , Ireland. Originally from the Yoruba land of southwest Nigeria, his plays address issues of race and immigration. As the founder and artistic director of Arambe Productions, Ireland's only African theatre company, he has written and directed numerous performances. His most recent play, a modernization of John Synge's Playboy of the Western World, which he co-wrote with Irish author Roddy Doyle, is currently in production at Dublin's famed Abbey Theatre.

 

The 11th International Latino Film Festival.

WSQ 207
Sponsored by the Global Studies Initiative, Mosaic, Dept of Foreign Languages and Associated Students.

November 6: Oscar with Guest Appearance by Director Sergio Morkin
Attendance: 65 people
November 7: La Ciudad de los Fotografos with guest appearance by Director Sebastian Moreno
Attendance: 70

Post-Conflict Nation Building- Lessons from Yugloslavia and Education

SJSU Student Union, Pacifica Room
October 15, 2007 from 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Co-sponsored by the College of Education, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and History Department.

Dr. Svetlana Broz is the grandaughter of Josin Broz Tito of the former Yugoslavia. She graduated from the University of Belgrade and began her career as a cardiologist at the Military Medical Academy. She now devotes her time to several NGOs in Sarajevo where she works to expand humanitarian work in the Balkans, Europe and beyond. She has published many books. Her first book was "Good People in an Evil Time" also in Spanish as "Buena Gente en Tiempo Malo". She spoke about the affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, recent developments with the European Union, as well as the future of the Balkans. More information about Dr. Svetlana Broz can be found at http://www.svetlanabroz.info/Broz/index.php

 

Dia De la Raza

Clark Hall, 412- 10:30- 11:30 A.M
Clark Hall, 206- 1:30-2:30 P.M.
October 12, 2007
Sponsored by the Global Studies Initiative, Circulo Hispanico and the Department of Foreign Languages

Jessie "Chuy" Varela  is a host of Latin Jazz for KCSM Public Television and Public Radio. He moderated two presentations at SJSU about  Brazilian culture and music as well Latin American Music.

Phantom Polls: How the Media Manufacture Public Opinion and Undermine Democracy.

Le Petit Trianon - 72 N. Fifth Street- San Jose
October 1, 2007     7:00 p.m (program), 8:00 p.m. (Book signing: "The Phantom Public, Phantom Polls")
Co-sponsored by the The Commonwealth Club- San Jose Chapter

The Clash Between America and Islam: Time for a New Ethical Paradigm

Martin Luther King Jr., library Room 255/257
September 4, 2007 from 3:00-4:30 p.m.

Dr. Abdul Mawgoud R. Dardery earned his Ph.D. in English from the University of Pittsburg. He has over 20 years of teaching experience in both the Arab World and United States. Currently he is a professor of Cultural Studies and Critical Discourse at South Valley University in Egypt. He has been a Peace Fellow and more recently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. He has written various articles on literary criticism and culture in Egypt.

 

Global Economy in the 21st Century

Martin Luther King Jr., library Room 255/257
April 30, 2007 from 3:00-4:30 p.m.

 

 

Dr. Daniel Altman is a columnist for the International Herald Tribune as well as the author of "Connected: 24 Hours in the Global Economy". He spoke about the impact of globalization and how individuals can make decisions to change the future of the global economy in the twenty-first century.

Land Management, Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration in the African Sahel

Geography Seminar Room, Washington Square Hall
April 16, 2007 from 4:30 p.m-6 p.m.

Dr. Larry Tieszen works for the USGS and the Eros International Program directing projects on climate change, distributed information systems, carbon cyclying and Spatial Data Infrastructure. Tieszen spoke about carbon sequestration in semi-arid and sub-humid regions of the world.

Global Warming : Science and Solutions

Boccardo Business Center, BBC 4
April 11, 2007 from 3:00-4:00p.m.
For more information click here

 

Brazil - Future Superpower?

Clark Hall 205 - February 7th, 2007 at 10:30-11:20 AM

 

Ambassador Maurício Cortes Costa, Brazilian Consul General in San Francisco, spoke at SJSU about the rise of Brazil to international prominence, as one of the newly-important BRIC nations (Brazil-Russia-India-China). He addressed the country’s industrial expansion, leadership in MERCOSUR, the rise of center-left President Lula da Silva, and the burgeoning alternative energy program.

 

Argentina on The Brink

Dudley Morehead Hall 165 - February 7th, 2007 at 6:15 PM

 

 

Noted political sociologist Torcuato Di Tella spoke at SJSU about the waning days of Nestor Kirschner’s presidency in Argentina and prospects for the nation’s future. He covered the economic stabilization program and the struggle for control of the historic Peronist Party under his leadership.

Monday, December 11, 2006:

Brazil's Energy Independence: The Biofuels Program

Dr. Weber A. Neves do Amaral earned his Ph.D.in Biology from Harvard University.  Throughout his career he has worked in Brazil, Latin America and Asia on sustainable development and biodiversity policies.  Currently he is the Coordinator of the Brazilian Biofuels Program through an initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Brazil and the University of Sao Paulo. He works closely with the private sector to improve the status of renewable sources of energy in Brazil.  He also works as a full time professor at the University of Sao Paulo in the School of Agronomy and Forestry.  He has written three books and more than 100 research articles about environmental policies, forest conservation and biodiversity.

More information about the Brazilian Biofuels Program can be found at http://www.polobio.esalq.usp.br/

Monday, November 27, 2006:

The United Nations as a Global Community for Peace

Dr. Lisinka Ulatowska has been involved with the United Nations for more than thirty years. She spoke about how "ordinary people" can give input on global policies and decisions by using the UN as an instrument of peace. How businesses and the UN can work together proactively is important.  Dr. Ulatowska represents the association of World Citizens and the Institute for Planetary Synthesis at the UN. She specializes in lobbying for a sustainable global community which works well for all. Copies of her book, Fearless, Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things in a World Gripped by Fear, will be available for purchase as a book signing following the lecture as well. Sponsored by Global Studies and the Commonwealth Club of Sillicon Valley

 

Friday, November 17, 2006:

 

The Life and Works of Maya Poet and Politician, Areceli Cab Cumi.

Professor Kathleen R. Martin talked about the life narrative of the contemporary Yucatec Maya poet and political activist, Areceli Cab Cumi, along with a discussion of her essays, poems, personal narratives, and political and public policy paper

 

This event was co-sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages, Anthroplogy, Global Studies and MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center

Tuesday, November 14, 2006:

 

The Rise of the Corporatist State and the Fall of Freedom in Russia

Dr. Andrei Illarionov, President of the Institute of Economic Analysis, provided a personal, in-depth view of the policies and politics that have led to Russia's membership in the G-8 and to its current economic stagnation. From 2000-2005, he served as President Valdimir Putin's Chief Economic Advisor and his personal representative to the G-8.Dr. Illarionov's passionate, provacative talks about the political, economic, and social climate in Russia have been called Churchillian in style. He is widely known in Russia and abroad for his sharp, comprehensive and often unexpected analysis of Russian economic policies and development.

November 14 to 16, 2006

The International Latino Film Festival 2006

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library

The International Latino Film Festival screened the following three educational films at SJSU:

 

• Tuesday November 14th, 2006:

Maquilapolis - Vicky Funari, USA - 2005

Produced in association with ITVS and fiscal sponsor Film Arts Foundation and funded by the US-Mexico Fund for Culture and National Endowment for the Arts, among many, this is a poignant documentary by local filmmaker Vickie Funari, artist Sergio de la Torre and Tijuana women's organization Grupo Factor X which tells the story of globalization from a personal perspective of women who work  in the multinationally-owned assembly plants on the US-Mexico border.

MAQUILAPOLIS is a documentary about (and by) workers in Tijuana's assembly factories, the maquiladoras. The project is a collaboration between filmmaker Vicky Funari, artist Sergio De La Torre, and Tijuana women's organization Grupo Factor X, with the participation of the human rights organization Global Exchange and the environmental activism non-profit The Environmental Health Coalition.

Maquiladoras are the multinationally-owned assembly plants which dominate the economy of the U.S.-Mexico border region, employing over a million people. Carmen is one of these people. She works the graveyard shift, six nights a week, in Tijuana's Panasonic factory. After making television components all night, Carmen comes home to a shack she built out of recycled garage doors, in a neighborhood with no paved streets, no sewage lines and no electricity. A single mother, Carmen takes care of her three children all day, and if she's lucky she sleeps for an hour or two before heading off to work again. At 29, she suffers from kidney failure and anemia resulting from her years of factory work. Carmen earns six dollars a day.

This unique documentary tells the story of globalization from the personal perspectives of Carmen and a dynamic group of Mexican maquiladora workers who together are working towards creating liveable solutions to the complexities of life in a globalized city. The film meets women who are each dealing with the hardships of environmental toxins, labor rights abuse, infrastructure and housing issues, and women's rights. MAQUILAPOLIS approaches the workers as experts who can provide us with keys to our common future, inviting them to co-author their own story on videotape.

MAQUILAPOLIS is being created through a collaborative storytelling process which allows the characters in the film to have a voice in their own representation. Over a six-week period the producers of MAQUILAPOLIS conducted a video workshop in Tijuana, training a group of promotoras (community-based activists) to use digital video cameras. The workshop covered filming techniques, sound recording, and ways to tell a story using the documentary medium. Participants made intimate video diaries and worked in teams to document their lives and their stories.

MAQUILAPOLIS' final incarnation will incorporate footage recorded during the workshop and beyond, as the women continue to use their filmmaking skills and donated cameras to record the world they see around them.The MAQUILAPOLIS project is a documentary that will exist beyond the traditional boundaries of film. As cameras remain with the promotoras in Tijuana, the activists are continuing to record their struggles and visions of the world around them. The project is currently still seeking funding for an editing workshop to train the activists in desktop editing techniques, as well as for a community outreach plan and grass-roots distribution of the film in Mexico and the U.S. We hope to give the promotoras opportunities to represent the film by bringing it and their stories to audiences around the world.

• Wednesday November 15th, 2006:

State of Fear - Pamela Yates, Peru- 2005

 

“Peru’s sordid 20-year cycle of violence and corruption provides a disquieting mirror of the current conflicts in the Middle East. This edifying new documentary makes the parallel explicit... The film offers a balanced view of the atrocities... STATE OF FEAR presents a troubling chronicle of the “war on terror’ and the all too-familiar ways that countries bungle it.”
– Anthony Kaufman, Time Out New York

“A brilliant and moving film, which is both a portrait of Peru and a chronicle of terror and response - fanaticism, bravery, heroism, abject fear and the way everyone is affected by such events. It is what Orwell called the aim of great art, which was both imaginative in craftsmanship and politically committed at its heart.”
– Paul Theroux, Author

In STATE OF FEAR the spectacular beauty of Peru is juxtaposed with the disturbing revelations of that nation’s Truth Commission detailing a 20-year reign of terror. It began in 1980 with the violent Maoist guerrilla cult, Shining Path, whose bloody doings were met with equal violence from Peru’s democratically elected government. Once the terrorists were subdued, fear of their return was used as an excuse by President Alberto Fujimori to institutionalize absolute power and propagate corruption. The film, however, transcends its immediate subject to become a cautionary tale of our current global war on terror. The Commission found that Fujimori’s response increased the nation’s crisis by exacerbating the cycle of violence, and that terrorism is best fought with more democracy, not less.

State of Fear showcased at film festivasl in US and abroad, award receipient of Film Critis Award at Chicago Documentry Festival and Los Angeles Audience Award, State of Fear dramatizes the human and societal costs a democracy faces which is embarks on a war against terror.  This film narrated primarily by distiguished members of Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission follows events in Peru and a nations struggle for justice.

 

• Thursday November 16th, 2006:

To the Other Side (Al Otro Lado) - Natalia Almada, Mexico-USA - 2005

 

U.S. premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, Director Natalia Almada addresses the economic conditions and life threating risks of crossing the Mexico-U.S border illegally.  The story is  told using Mexico's 200-year old tradition of corrido music by recoun.ting the story of an aspiring corrdio composer facing two life-chaning choices:  to traffic drugs or unlawfully cross the border.

The proud Mexican tradition of corrido music-captured in the performances of Los Tigres del Norte and Chalino Sanchez-provides both heartbeat and backbone to this novel examination of songs, drugs and dreams along the U.S./Mexico border.

Director Natalia Almada, whose All Water Has a Perfect Memory won the Best Short Documentary Prize at the 2002 Tribeca Festival, follows three musicians from Sinaloa, Mexico, who embody the link between music, immigration and drugs. San Jose, California-based Los Tigres del Norte are icons of the Mexican community, with songs fueled by the hardships of life in the U.S. and a deep nostalgia for Mexico. They also helped trigger the narco-corrido subgenre, which examines (and sometimes glorifies) the lives of drug traffickers. The charismatic Chalino Sanchez helped popularize narco-corridos among urban Mexican-American teens in the States; his brutal murder turned him into a Tupac-like icon still beloved to this day. Meanwhile, young Magdiel is still in Sinaloa, working on his father's fishing boat and penning songs, dreaming of getting 'to the other side,' and becoming as famous as the others. Interspersing stadium performances of Los Tigres del Norte and iconic archival footage of Chalino Sanchez with the day-to-day, far more prosaic struggles of Magdiel and other hopeful immigrants, To the Other Side is an illuminating portrait of Mexican life, and of how music can reflect hardships-and sometimes provide an escape from it. Almada's interviews with border guards, immigrant smugglers and self-confessed 'border vigilantes,' however, prove that life is not just a song, and is usually more nightmare than dream.

LOCATION: Martin Luther King Jr. Room 225 and 229
TIME:

6:30 PM - 9PM (with access at 6PM)

COST:

  Free

 

This event is co-sponsored by: Associated Students, Global Studies, Foreign Languages and MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center

November 1, 2006: The Phillippine Insurrection

Washington Square Hall

 

Tony Powell, part of the Gailey Memorial Lecture series, spoke on behalf of SJSU History department.

 

October 27, 2006: The War in Afganistan: A leader's Perspective Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library

General Anthony L. Jackson, part of the Burdick Military History Project,  spoke on behalf of the SJSU History Department.

October 23, 2006: Post Soviet -Ukraine and the U.S. interests in this region

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library

Dr. Volodymyr Dubovyk provided insight into Ukraine and United States relations. He has been a professor in the Department of International Relations as well as director for the Center for International Studies at Odesa National University, Ukraine for ten years. Most recently he works as a visiting scholar with the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies and the Wilson International Center for Scholars. Some of his academic research specializes in Ukraine relations with the U.S. foreign policy, international relations and the foreign policy of Ukraine in which he has published several articles.

 

September 16th to 23rd, 2006

 

Trade Mission to Brazil on Renewable Energy and Biofuels

States of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro

Join Global California, the Silicon Valley Center for International Trade Development and West Valley College on an exclusive trade mission to Brazil to explore renewable biofuel energy opportunities in ethanol, biodiesel and hydrogen.  Brazil is the world’s largest ethanol producer and continues to develop and expand its sustainable energy alternatives.  Most cars in Brazil run either on alcohol or gasoline.   Dual-fuel - "Flex Fuel" - engines have recently become available and represent some 80% of the cars produced in Brazil in 2005.  Brazil is also expanding its production and consumption of biodiesel and other biofuels as it diversifies its alternative energy market, and is actively involved in research and development of hydrogen fuel cells.

Trade mission members will participate in tours to ethanol and biodiesel plants, research labs and farms to gather information, learn the chain process from plant to fuel and discuss potential opportunities and joint ventures with small and large firms in the sector.  Highlights include receptions with Brazilian energy companies in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, visits to production plants, and to academic research centers, including the National Reference Center on Hydrogen Energy.

For further information, click here

 

August 31, 2006

New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library

Persis M. Karim, associate professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at SJSU, and contributing author and editor of "Let Me Tell You Where I've Been" was joined by contributing authors Farnaz Fatemi, Sanaz Nikaein, Mojdeh Marashi and Shadi Ziaei in a reading of the anthology.

The emerging literary voice of the Iranian diaspora has been dominated by women. This powerful writing reflects lives shaped by history, exile, immigration and the fusion of cultures.

 

Sponsored by the Commonwealth Club of Sillicon Valley, Global Studies Program, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, Poetry Center of San Jose, Department of English and Comparative Literature and the Center for Literary Arts.

For further information, click here.

February 28, 2006

Cities Representing the Nation: Planning and Nation Building in Brazil (1855-2005)

SJSU Washington Square Hall, Room 109

A Presentation Open to the Public Professor Joel Outtes Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Joel Outtes earned his B.A. in Brazil, his M.A. in Paris, and his Ph.D. in Oxford. His studies trace the rise of urban planning in Brazil as a discipline not simply of physical amenities but of social reform. His prize-winning work on Recife in the 1930s also demonstrated the impact of political movements on urban design. He is a delightful speaker and intellectual with wide-ranging interests around the Atlantic rim.

Sponsored by Global Studies Program and Urban and Regional Planning Department.

November 14-19, 2005

International Education Week

The International Education Week was celebrated on the campuses of San Jose State University and UC Davis between November 14-19, 2005.

For more information, click here

November 15-17, 2005

Latino Film Festival

Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Joint Library

The International Latino Film Festival screened three educational films at SJSU dealing with the themes of Literature, Diversity and Global Studies.

Tuesday November 15, 2005 - Literature

“¡Pablo Neruda! ¡Presente!”

Directed by Mark Eisner

USA/Chile – 2004

83 min.

Narrated by Isabel Allende ¡Pablo Neruda! ¡Presente! is a fascinating examination of the life of Chile’s great Nobel Prize winning poet. Including interviews with those who knew Pablo best, and readings of his own magical works throughout – we follow him from his origins to his rise to greatness as a diplomat, political fugitive, presidential candidate and world renowned poet.

Wednesday November 16, 2005 – Diversity

  “Race is the Place”

Directed by Ray Telles, Rick Tejeda-Flored

USA – 2005

90 min

Race is the Place is a performance documentary on America’s most explosive social issue. Poets, actors, comedians and performance artists explore racism, its endless permutation and continued survival. The film offers perspectives from Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Arab Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on the unspoken issues that separate citizens of the United States. Performances are set against a stunning mix of visual art and an archival record of America’s prejudices.

Thursday November 17, 2005 – Global Studies

“Tudo Azul/Everything Blue”

Directed by Jessie Azevedo

Brazil - 2004

77 min

This beautifully crafted documentary explores Brazilian music as it travels from Salvador da Bahia to Rio, while uncovering the soul of samba, capturing magical performances in the places where the music developed and illuminating the defiantly celebratory spirit of an outcast people searching for tolerance, peace and understanding through music.

 

For more information on the Latino Film Festival visit: www.LatinoFilmFestival.org

November 14, 2005

Professor Larry Diamond - "The Prospects for Democracy and Stability in Iraq"

Student Union Ballroom

Professor Larry Diamond of Stanford University and the Hoover Institution spoke on "The Prospects for Democracy and Stability in Iraq." Diamond is a dynamic speaker with with a powerful story to tell. An expert on democratization of developing countries, he was sent to Iraq by the Bush administration and returned disillusioned and pessimistic about the prospects for the American project in that country.

For more information on professor Larry Diamond, please visit http://www.stanford.edu/%7Eldiamond/

October 31, 2005

Professor Stephen H. Schneider - Climatic Roulette: Rolling the Dice on Global Warming

Morris Dailey Auditorium

Stephen H. Schneider is the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, a senior fellow in the Center for Environmental Science and Policy and Professor by Courtesy in the Department of Civil Engineering at Stanford University. He is co-director of the Center for Environmental Science and Policy and serves on the Faculty Leadership Committee for the Stanford Institute for the Environment. Dr. Schneider was honored in 1992 with a MacArthur Fellowship for his ability to integrate and interpret the results of global climate research. He has served as a consultant to Federal Agencies and/or White House staff in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush I and II and Clinton administrations. He also received, in 1991, the American Association for the Advancement of Science/ Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology. In 1998 he became a foreign member of the Academia Europaea, Earth and Cosmic Sciences Section. He was elected Chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences Section on Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences (1999-2001) and was elected to membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in April 2002. He received the National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation for 2003 as well as the Edward T. Law Roe Award of the Society of Conservation Biology, also for 2003.

He studied the role of greenhouse gases and suspended particulate material on climate as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 1972 and was a member of the scientific staff of NCAR from 1973-1996, where he co-founded the Climate Project. In 1975, he founded the interdisciplinary journal, Climatic Change, and continues to serve as its Editor. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather and author of The Genesis Strategy: Climate and Global Survival; The Coevolution of Climate and Life; Global Warming: Are We Entering the Greenhouse Century? and Laboratory Earth: The Planetary Gamble We Can't Afford to Lose, among others. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 scientific papers, proceedings, legislative testimonies, edited books and book chapters. At Stanford University he teaches classes in a dozen different departments and courses in Earth Systems, Civil Engineering, Biological Sciences and a Senior Honors Seminar in Environmental Science, Technology and Policy at SIIS. Dr. Schneider's current global change research interests include: climatic change; global warming; food/climate and other environmental/science public policy issues; ecological and economic implications of climatic change; integrated assessment of global change; climatic modeling of paleoclimates and of human impacts on climate, e.g., carbon dioxide "greenhouse effect" or environmental consequences of nuclear war. He was a coordinating Lead Author in Working Groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program) from 1994-2001.

 

October 19, 2005:Cervantes and Don Quixote: Tradition and Innovation

Almaden Room, Student Union

James A.Parr, Professor of Hispanic Studies at UC Riverside gave a lecture celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the first part of Don Quixote de la Mancha.

This event is sponsored by the SJSU Department of Foreign Languages .

 

October 14, 2005: Professor Khaled M. Abou El Fadl

Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Joint Library

The preeminent voice for moderate Muslims, both an Islamic jurist and American lawyer, offers a passionate defense of Islam against the encroaching tide of fundamentalists corrupting the true faith.

Khaled M. Abou El Fadl is a distinguished Islamic jurist, scholar and professor of law at UCLA. Dr. Abou El Fadl holds degrees from Yale University, University of Pennsylvania Law School and Princeton University. He received formal training in Islamic jurisprudence in Egypt and Kuwait. A staunch advocate of human rights, Abou El Fadl serves as an advisory board member for Human Rights Watch and was recently appointed by President Bush to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

 

October 5, 2005: The Cultural Mosaic of Cuba

Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Joint Library, Cultural Heritage Center Program Room

Professor and students from SJSU showcased their travel experience to Cuba through photographs and presentations.

September 20, 2005: Lecture by Author Jennifer Miller - Inheriting the Holy Land: An American’s Search for Hope in the Middle East

Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Joint Library, Room 225B from 1PM to 2:15PM

Jennifer Miller – Author of Inheriting the Holy Land: An American’s Search for Hope in the Middle East discussed the Middle East conflict.

As the daughter of a U.S. State Department peace negotiator and a peace activist, Jennifer Miller grew up with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After attending the Seeds of Peace program, a youth focused initiative that brings students from the Middle East to America to learn negotiation and trust building skills, she realized that the one perspective missing in media coverage was that of the youth in the region.

At 24, Jennifer offers a poignant and frank view of the historic ramifications that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has had and what the future holds for her generation. Her book includes reactions from prominent officials she has interviewed including Benjamin Netanyahu, Yasir Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and Colin Powell.

September 8, 2005: Lecture by Nahid Mozaffari - Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Joint Library

Nahid Mozaffari - co-editor and Ahmad Karimi-Hakak - poetry editor of Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature  discussed Iranian Literature.

This anthology gives American readers a more complete view of arts and literature, and even life in Iran, at a time when there is tremendous negative publicity. It represents the most current literary trends in Iran, translated into English, and was published against the OFAC ban on literature translated from nations with which the U.S. has embargoes.

Over the last 25 years Iran has experienced a cultural renaissance defying war, repression and censorship. Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature is a compilation of some of the best examples of fiction and poetry in a variety of literary styles written in and out of Iran, since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. It contains selections from the work of more than 50 men and women from three generations.