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Winter 2007 ACGCC Sponsored Events
"Sweet Soul Music" by Ron Paris (MCC, January, 22, 2007, 4PM)
Singer Ron Paris sings soul music and presents the history of rhythm and
blues in a special performance. This lecture describes moments in the
history of music in America and music's contribution to social justice and
human rights. It pays tribute to those R&B pioneers who literally and
figuratively made the rope disappear that used to divide white from black
audiences. Hear about Charles Brown, Johnnie Ace, Bobby Bland, Ruth Brown,
B.B. King, and James Brown, with special focus on the Platters (with whom
Ron sang in the early 70s) and Sam Cooke.
"Human Rights and Neoliberalism: Universal Standards, Local Practice and
the Role of Culture Conference" (IHC and Campbell Hall, March 2-3, 2007)
Many of the most controversial foreign policy decisions pursued by the
United States government in recent years have been defended as means of
spreading democracy and of realizing basic human rights. In this regard,
the U.S. has been explicit in its attempt to reshape international
governance, and to achieve human rights by conjoining these to neoliberal
economic policies. Taking up these dynamics, the Human Rights and
Neoliberalism Conference will analyze the cultural dimensions of human
rights policies, activism and scholarship, and examine closely the ways in
which these human rights efforts challenge, extend or otherwise engage the
ideals of neoliberalism. Most often associated with free market economies,
minimal governmental regulations regarding production, and the dismantling
of tariffs and related international trade controls, neoliberalism is also
a cultural system, one that claims priority for the individual. Often times
echoing the rhetoric of Social Darwinism, advocates of neoliberal policies
value individual freedoms and the notion of meritocracy, while arguing
against a variety of welfare programs and the recognition of social groups.
Both the international human rights movement and the neoliberal economic
imperative (coming of age with Reagan and Thatcher), carry strong cultural
assumptions interacting in complex ways that call out for further analysis.
Keynote address: Tariq Ali. For more information, visit:
http://acc.english.ucsb.edu/conference/humanrights/index.asp
"Harmed: Ancient Tragedy and Modern Catastrophes," A Lecture by Wai Chee
Dimock, English Department, Yale University (March 13, 2007, SH 2635)
Wai Chee Dimock, the William Lampson Professor of English and American
Studies, focuses her teaching and writing on American literature, law and
literature, and world literature. She is especially concerned with the
relation of literature to law, philosophy and the history of science. She
has authored two books, "Empire for Liberty: Melville and the Poetics of
Individualism" and "Residues of Justice: Literature, Law, Philosophy."
Dimock is also co-editor of "Rethinking Class: Literary Studies and Social
Formations." In her recent work, she has attempted to link American
literature to world literature, and she has two new books in progress:
"Literature for the Planet" and "Deep Time: American Literature and World
History."
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"Torture and the Future: Perspectives from the Humanities"
Visit the website that has been established regarding the 2006-2007 Critical Issues in American Programming.
http://www.complit.ucsb.edu/projects/tortureandthefuture/events.html
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| Sister
Swing
By Shirley Geok-lin Lim
paper 9812612270 $12.00
Buy
This Book!
Karen Yamashita,
author of Through the Arc of the Rain Forest
"... [set] against [a] wild cultural backdrop...
the story unfolds to reveal the strong and intimate ties
and responsibilities of sisterhood."
Shawn Wong, author
of American Knees
"... a richly textured understanding of a family
rooted in a rigid patriarchy ... and their new identity
molded in [1980s'] America."
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Richard
Lim, The Straits Times
"As in her first novel "Joss and Gold",
Shirley... has infused the work with her poetic sensibility.
A compelling read."
Book Description
"Sister Swing" chronicles the growing up years
of three sisters. It follows their transplant from a relatively
sheltered life in Malaysia to the raw realities of the
United States. It illuminates the complex relationships
between the sisters, and gently but firmly explores the
morals, values and mindsets of growing up Asian in a Western
world. |
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America and the Reshaping of
a New World Order: Normative Implications, Cultural Constraints |
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The American
Cultures and Global Contexts Center in the Department
of English, together with UC Santa Barbara's Global and
International Studies Program and the Interdisciplinary
Humanities Center, are co-sponsoring a year-long, campus-wide
project on the subject of "America and the Reshaping
of a New World Order: Normative Implications, Cultural
Constraints." Funded by an annual grant devoted to
"Critical Issues in America" and administered
by the Office of the Provost in the College of Letters
and Science, this project will include a sequence of special
programs, from a distinguished speaker series, and a major
academic conference, to a UC system-wide Faculty Roundtable,
and a film series, and it will be coordinated with a variety
of graduate and undergraduate courses.
Series of Events
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Imagination and the Nation:
In, Between, and Beyond States
ACGC Graduate Student Conference
Saturday, May 8th, 9am - 6:30pm, 2004
Centennial House, UCSB In recent
years, the processes, flows, forces, and trends which
could be called "globalisms" or "globalization,"
as well as theories surrounding these developments, have
contributed to renewed interest in the connections within
and among America, the Americas, and the rest of the world.
With this in mind,
this conference brings
together student scholars from various disciplines around
the central theme of the national imaginary and how it
relates to the global imaginary.
Up and coming scholars from various humanities
and fine arts departments in the UC system and across
the nation are presenting papers on topics as divers as
Philipino-American spoken word performance, female Indonesian
dancers, and American literature survey courses. A faculty
panel will hold a rountable discussion on the topic as
well: Susan Koshy (Asian American Studies), Jacqueline
Stevens(Law and Society), Chris Newfield (English) and,
tentatively, Kumkum Bhavnani (Sociology) will hash out
issues of the national imaginary. English Department doctoral
candidate Emily Davis will moderate the discussion. In
addition, artists from our university community will show
selected works in Centennial House that day. |
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World Order and Documentary: Davis
Guggenheim and Elizabeth Shue Celebrate the work of Charles
A. Guggenheim
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
7:30-9:30 p.m., Girvetz 1004
Hollywood writer, producer, and director
Davis Guggenheim (of such films as “Gossip”
and the new HBO series “Deadwood”) and Academy
Award nominee for best actress (“Leaving Las Vegas”)
Elizabeth Shue discuss the legacy of world renowned documentary
film-maker Charles A. Guggenheim. Nominated for ten Academy
Awards and winner of three for such films as “Nine
from Little Rock” (1964) and “Robert Kennedy
Remembered” (1968), Charles Guggenheim is also remembered
as well for such classics as “Klan: A Legacy of
Hate in America” (1982), “Monument to the
Dream” (1967), “The Johnstown Flood”
(1989), “D-Day Remembered” (1994), “A
Time for Justice” (1994) and “Berga: Soldiers
of Another War” (2003).
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| International
Conference on America and the Reshaping of a New World
Order: Normative Implications, Cultural Constraints
April 23-24, 2004, Corwin Pavillion,
UCSB
This
conference will feature keynote addresses by
Ronald Steel and Richard Falk, an evening exhibition of
performance art (and walk-through, participatory diaorama
on the global) by world famous performance artist Guillermo
Gomez-Peña, and papers by, among others, Myra Jehlen,
Rutgers, Lisa Lowe, UCSD, Eileen Boris, Mark Juergensmeyer,
Lisa Parks, Clark Roof, and Juan Campo, UCSB, Carolyn Porter,
UCB, Donald Pease, Dartmouth, David Palumbo-Liu, Stanford,
Helmut Anheier, UCLA, and Berndt Ostendorf, University of
Munich. With the exception of the plenary talks, papers
will be kept to 20 minutes in length in order to reserve
a maximum amount of time in each session for discussion
among the panelists and well as with the audience.
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Homi
Babha
"A Global Measure: Writing, Rights, and Responsibilities"
April 15, 2004, 4pm, UCSB Corwin Pavilion
"The Global and the Postcolonial:
A Conversation with Homi Bhaba"
April 16, 2004, Lobero Room in the UCEN
Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature
at Harvard Univerisity, Professor Bhabha is
author of The Location of Culture and the forthcoming
A Measure of Dwelling and editor of Nation
and Narration. His interests are extraordinarily
wide-ranging and extend to colonial and post-colonial
theory, cosmopolitanism, 19th- and 20th- Century British
and other English-language literatures, semiotics, theories
of ethics, psychoanalysis, and questions of culture and
globalization. His more recent essays include "Americanization:
Imaging the American Century" (1999); "Anxiety
in the Midst of Difference" (1998); "The White
Stuff" (1998); "On the Irremovable Strangeness
of Being Different" (1998); and "Day by Day
. . . with Frantz Fanon" (1998). |
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ACGC
Colloquium:
New Directions in American Literary and Cultural Studies
Laura Szanto and Jacob Berman
Friday March 5, 3:30-5:00
ACGC Seminar Room, South Hall 2617
Laura Szanto and Jacob Berman will discuss
aspects of their research at
the ACGC Colloquium: New Directions in American Literary
and Cultural
Studies this Friday, March 5 from 3:30-5:00 PM in the
ACGC seminar room
(SH 2716). Jacob's research is focused on the influence
of the image of the Arab
on Ante Bellum American identity formation, and Laura's
research
examines the impact of the urban experience on contemporary
Native
American literature.
To be sure we have enough goodies, please
RSVP to Elizabeth Freudenthal
at freuden@umail.ucsb.edu by Wednesday if you plan to
come. |
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