January 29–April 26

Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur.  This groundbreaking exhibition of 58 artworks will present new facets of Indian painting that flourished in the royal courts of Rajasthan from the 17^th to the 19^th Century. More info at Seattle Asian Art Museum http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibit/exhibitDetail.asp?eventID=14343  Phone:  206.654.3206   (return to top)

February 12

A Matter of Trust: Maoist Conflict in Nepal and its Influence on Youth. 12:30-1:30 Parrington Hall Forum. Dyuti Baral is a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow in the Evans School of Public Affairs at UW. She is Human Resources and Organizational Development Manager, ActionAid Nepal. Presented by Humphrey Fellowship Program at the Evans School, UW. Info: evansdss@u.washington.edu or 206.543.4900  (return to top)

February 12

Patriotic Morality and Social Reform:  Nationalist Women's Responsibilities During the Second Sino-Japanese War.  3:30–5:00 PM, 317 Thomson Hall.  Speaker: Dr. Helen Schneider. Helen M. Schneider earned her PhD in History from the University of Washington in 2004. She is currently an Assistant Professor of History at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia where she teaches classes in East Asian History. Her current research interests include gender and war, domesticity, the history of childhood, and Chinese women’s history. 

Professor Schneider will present some of her ongoing research into the ideas of gendered wartime responsibilities of educated Chinese women during the Sino-Japanese war. She hopes to show that these women believed that it was their patriotic duty to lead their "unenlightened" sisters in combat against unhealthy and seemingly irrational quotidian practices that weakened Chinese moral and psychological defenses. She will trace some of the history of women's involvement in social work in the pre-war period, and will look at the wartime development of these activities through the work of the New Life Movement Women's Advisory Council which, after 1938, was a prime organization in mobilizing women's wartime relief efforts. Professor Schneider will also talk about her experiences finding (or not finding) materials related to this project in archives in mainland China and Taiwan. For more information please visit http://jsis.washington.edu/china/colloquia.shtml or email lpbutt@u.washington.edu or call 206.543.4391  (return to top)

February 17

Beyond Anne Frank: Hidden Children and Postwar Families in Holland. 12:00–1:30 PM; 309 Parrington Hall Forum. Speaker: Professor Diane Wolf, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Jewish Studies Program at UC Davis. Prof. Wolf has written Beyond Anne Frank (UC Press, 2007), Factory Daughters (UC Press, 1992), edited Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork (Westeview, 1996) and co-edited Sociology Confronts the Holocaust. (Duke Univ. Press, 2007). Co-sponsored by the Center for Global Studies, Jackson School of International Studies. For more Info contact: (206) 543 0138 or visit the Jewish Studies website: http://jsis.washington.edu/jewish/events.shtml   (return to top)

February 17

Walter Williams/Byron Jones: Obama and the Bush Legacy. 7:30 PM, Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101. Speakers: Walter Williams, emeritus professor at the UW’s Center for American Politics and Public Policy, and Bryon D. Jones, professor at the University of Texas, Austin Department of Government, give a talk entitled “Barack Obama and the Challenge of the Bush Legacy.” While economists generally hold that market forces (not a president’s policies and concept of governance) are the main influences on this country’s economy, Williams and Jones argue that, in fact, this economic crisis is the direct result of policies pursued by Bush (income tax cuts and deregulation) and a dysfunctional approach to governing. Williams and Jones are co-authors of the recent The Politics of Bad Ideas: The Great Tax Cut Delusion and the Decline of Good Government in America. Presented by the Town Hall Center for Civic Life, with University Book Store.
Tickets are $5 at www.brownpapertickets.com or 800/838-3006, and at the door beginning at 6:30 pm. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall, enter on Seneca Street.  (return to top)

February 17

Canadian Pianist Performance.  8:00 PM. Westin Hotel, Seattle. Performer: Angela Hewitt. Being named the 2006 Gramophone Artist of the Year is only one of the many accolades heaped on this exceptional Canadian pianist during her illustrious career. In 2005, she completed an 11-year-long project - to record all of Bach's major keyboard pieces - though her discography also includes works by Granados, Beethoven, Rameau, Ravel, Chopin, and many others. It is a distinct pleasure to have her return to Meany Hall. Sponsored by the Canadian Studies Center and UW World Series. For more information please visit: http://www.uwworldseries.org/artists.cfm?page=hewitt.   (return to top)

February 18

Israel: Facing a Reconfigured Middle East and a New U.S. Administration.   7:00 PM, Kane Hall, Walker Ames Room. Speaker: Joel S. Migdal, Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies, Jackson School. First of the 2009 Hot Spots Lectures Series sponsored by the Jackson School. Contact: email: mecuw@u.washington.edu, or 206-543-4227.   (return to top)

February 19

The 'Discovery' of Malnutrition in China: A Window onto the Comparative and Transnational History of Medicine, Hunger, and the Body. 3:30-5:00 PM, 317 Thomson Hall.  Speaker: Prof. Mark Swislocki. Mark Swislocki is Assistant Professor of History at Brown University. His research focuses on the social and cultural history of China, and his interests include the history of food and cuisine, medicine and the history of the body, and human-animal relations.  His first book, Culinary Nostalgia: Regional Food Culture in Shanghai, is forthcoming from Stanford University Press.

Malnutrition was “discovered” in China during the Republican period (1912-1949).  This was a genuine medical discovery that surprised and concerned many observers of China’s relatively new and growing industrial workforce, among whom malnutrition had become widespread by the 1930s.  It was also, however, a “discovery,” made possible by new ideas about the body and nutrition that provided Chinese with a new framework for conceptualizing the relationship between eating and health.  These ideas, which originated in Europe and the United States, matured internationally during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century and spread quickly not only to China, but to many other parts of the world, including Japan, Eastern Africa, and India, where malnutrition was also “discovered” during these same years. Placing this moment of Chinese history in a global comparative context helps us think through the benefits and limitations of studying the comparative history of China from the China-Japan or “colonial modernity” models that have heretofore informed and inhibited understanding of China’s historical relationship to global currents.  For more information please visit http://jsis.washington.edu/china/colloquia.shtml or email lpbutt@u.washington.edu or call 206.543.4391   (return to top)

February 19

Playing with Power: States, Art, and Patronage in Jodhpur. 7:00 PM,  Seattle Asian Art Museum, Stimson Auditorium. Presentations include: "Rasa Theory," Michael Shapiro, Professor of Hindi, Chair, Department of Asian Languages and Literature "Krishna and the Naths: Eroticism and Asceticism," Heidi Pauwels, Associate Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Literature "Patronage and Power," Purnima Dhavan, Assistant Professor, Department of History "Princely and Colonial States," Anand Yang, Director, Jackson School of International Studies. For more information visit Seattle Asian Art Museum http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibit/exhibitDetail.asp?eventID=14343, or call 206-543-4800.   (return to top)

February 20

Ki Midiyanto with Gamelan Pacifica. 7:30 PM. Meany Theater, UW. This special evening of Javanese performing arts showcases shadow puppetry, gamelan music, and dance. Featured artists include shadow master Ki Midiyanto, Cornish College's noted Gamelan Pacifica, Jessika Kenney and Sutrisno Hartana. Arrive early for conversation led by Christina Sunardi, UW Ethnomusicology, 6:45-7:15 PM in the Meany West Lobby. A ticket to the evening's performance is required for admission. Tickets are $10-15. For more information please visit www.music.washington.edu or call at (206) 543-4880.   (return to top)

Constitutional Limitations on the Power of Government and the Role of Japan's Private Lawyers.            12:00-1:15 PM,  317 Thomson Hall. Speaker: Lawrence Repeta, Japan’s 1947 Constitution declares protection for many individual rights and grants to the Supreme Court the power to “determine the constitutionality of any law, order, regulation or official act.”  The Constitution says little about lawyers, but it surely places a heavy burden on their shoulders. In recent years, some heavily reported constitutional cases have included challenges to the deployment of Japan’s “Self Defense Forces” to the Iraq war zone, Prime Minister Koizumi’s visits to the Yasukuni shrine, and government action to compel teachers to sing kimi ga yo. Parties who bring cases like these are represented by lawyers who often work for little or no pay.  If not for the constitutional guarantees mentioned above or the 1949 law that released lawyers from direct government supervision, there would be no such litigation and few people in Japan would have any knowledge of individual rights. Professor Lawrence Repeta will discuss the role of Japan’s lawyers in seeking to realize the rights described in Japan’s 1947 Constitution. He is Professor at the Omiya Law School and Garvey Schubert Barer Visiting Professor at the University of Washington School of Law. He is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Law and member of the Washington State Bar Association. Japan Colloquium Series. Sponsors: Japan Studies Program & East Asia Center. For more information about this event, please visit: http://jsis.washington.edu/japan/colloquia.shtml or contact Ellen Eskenazi at 206-685-9997 or esky@u.washington.edu.  (return to top)

February 25

Global Classroom: Afghanistan on our Minds and in the Classroom. 4:30-7:30 PM, 120 Communications Bldg. Speaker: Professor Cabeiri Robinson will be delivering a brief historical and cultural overview of Afghanistan. This evening will also feature guest speakers from Afghanistan and/or Americans who have worked there. Also included is: Afghan food, three clock hours, and up-to-date teaching resources. To register or for more information: http://jsis.washington.edu/soasia//file/Afghan%20flyer.pdf or register
online at http://www.world-affairs.org/calendar.cfm?eventID=1084&action=eventDetails   (return to top)
 

February 27

Contemporary Dilemmas and Cold War Lessons. 7:00 PM, 210 Kane Hall. Speaker: Melvyn Leffler, University of Virginia, Professor of History. The U.S. now faces stark problems: a world economic crisis; a resurgent Russia; an ambitious China; terrorism; WMD proliferation; global warming; Islamic fundamentalism; energy shortfalls; and global inequality. Can we learn anything from our experiences in the Cold War? The answer is yes, and the lessons are reassuring as well as surprising.

Melvyn Leffler was a Council of Foreign Relations Fellow; he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 1979/80 and worked on arms control issues in Europe, and served on delegations to the MBFR talks in Vienna and the review conference on the Helsinki Accords in Madrid. He was President of the Society of the History of American Foreign Relations in 1993. More recently, Leffler is Edward Stettinius Professor of American History. He is the author of For the Soul of Mankind: the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the Cold War, which recently won the George Louis Beer Prize, awarded by the American Historical Assn for the best book on modern international history. Most recently, he co-edited To Lead the World: National Security After the Bush Doctrine (Oxford U Press, 2008). He is the winner of many fellowships, including those from The Norwegian Nobel Peace Institute, the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and the United States Institute of Peace. He has been a visiting professor at Oxford and Cambridge, and held the Henry Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress in 2004-5.

This event is part of the Jackson School of International Studies Centennial Lecture Series. The event is free and open to the public. For more information please go to
http://jsis.washington.edu/centennial/events.shtml or contact tleonard@u.washington.edu.    (return to top)

March 4

Canada-US Fulbright Chair Lecture: A 'Spectrum' of Disputes: Framing Autism Activism in Canada and the US 7:00 PM. Walker-Ames Room, 225 Kane Hall, University of Washington. Speaker: Michael Orsini, 2008-2009 Canada-US Fulbright Visiting Chair, Associate Professor, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa. Using the case study of autism activism in Canada and the US, this lecture sketches the contours of the contested terrain of autism/autistic activism, asking questions about how to conceptualize autism activism in the field of “health social movements” more generally, and about whether these forms of activism represent a form of continuity or rupture with other social movements organized around combating injustice. This lecture is part of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Hot Spots in Your World 2009 Lecture Series. Sponsored by the Canadian Studies Center and UW Jackson School of International Studies Outreach Centers. The event is free and open to the public. For more information please go to http://jsis.washington.edu/canada/faculty/orsini.shtml or contact the Canadian Studies Center at (206) 221-6374 or email us at canada@u.washington.edu.   (return to top)

March 6

A Presentation and Concert by Éric Beaudry and De Temps Antan: "La recherche de la musique traditionalle dans la région de la Launaudière" 2:00 – 4:00 PM. Burke Room, Burke Museum, University of Washington. Speaker: Éric Beaudry. Since 2003, Éric Beaudry, André Brunet and Pierre-Luc Dupuis have been exploring and performing time-honoured melodies from Québec’s musical past. Using fiddle, accordion, harmonica, guitar, bouzouki and a number of other instruments, our three virtuosos blend boundless energy with the unmistakable joie de vivre found only in traditional Québec music. So come enjoy an afternoon unlike any other with De Temps Antan! Éric Beaudry was first exposed to traditional Québec music in Saint-Come, a village in Québec’s Lanaudière region. Raised by a family entrenched in music, he began singing and playing guitar at the age of 10. In 1992, he unleashed his musical ambitions on local audiences by founding the groups Ni Sarpe Ni Branche and Norouet. Éric’s passion for music also helped foster an interest in song, which led to several awards including a 2002 Prix Mnémo for his role in producing an album of Gaspé fiddler Édouard Richard. In 2003, hot on the heels of this success, Éric became a member of La Bottine Souriante. Despite his international touring schedule, Éric has found time to study the music of his home region of Lanaudière. This rural area of Québec is the heartland of traditional songs and dances. Éric’s research has uncovered many beautiful songs and tunes and has taken him throughout the province of Québec. Join Éric for a lecture en français on his innovative fieldwork, followed by an unforgettable performance from De Temps Antan! Sponsored by the Canadian Studies Center and QuébecNW. The event is free and open to the public. For more information please go to http://jsis.washington.edu/canada/outreach/beaudry.shtml or contact the Canadian Studies Center at (206) 221-6374.   (return to top)

March 6

Department of Geography Colloquium Series: Neoliberalism and the "New Thai Man": Taxi Drivers, Street Politics, and the Rise and Fall(?) of "Thailand, Inc." 3:30 – 4:30 PM. Smith 304, University of Washington. Speaker: Maureen Hickey-Putnam, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Geography. In 2001, media mogul and former policeman Thaksin Shinawatra became Thailand's Prime Minister and in 2005 his political party, Thai Rak Thai, was re-elected with a sizable majority.  But less than two years later Thaksin was ousted in a controversial coup d'etat and forced into exile in the UK. Although now officially "retired" from politics, Thaksin remains a highly polarizing figure in Thai politics, and pitched battles over his neoliberal economics and conservative populism continue to rage in the streets, government buildings and even in the airports of Bangkok.  Famously stating in a 1997 speech that, "A company is a country. A country is a company. They're the same. The management is the same," Thaksin sold himself as the model for Thailand's future, and held himself up as the ultimate example of the "new (neoliberal) Thai man," while at the same time assiduously courting his rural base with economic entitlements and populist social programs. In this presentation I will explore the contradictions inherent in this "new" hegemonic Thai masculinity, as advocated and epitomized by Thaksin, through an examination of his complex relationship with one of his most loyal constituencies, Bangkok's poor migrant taxi drivers. During the pro- and anti-Thaksin protests both before and after the coup taxi drivers have been at the center of the street-level struggle over the future of democracy and development in a country that is increasingly divided along both class and regional lines. Sponsored by the Department of Geography. For more information please contact the Department of Geography at (206) 543-5843.   (return to top)

March 9

Baroque Economies of Imperial Christendom in the Spanish Indies.  4:00–6:00 PM,   202 Communications Bldg.   Speaker: Jody Blanco, Department of Literature, University of San Diego. Beginning with an analysis of what might arguably be called the "first" novel produced in Latin America (Carlos Sig¨¹enza y G¨®ngora's Los infortunios de Alonso Ram¨ªrez, pub. 1690), Blanco builds on an understanding of the colonial order (or disorder) in the Philippines in the aftermath of the conquest and pacification of the islands, in order to examine more broadly how that colonial order reflected a larger understanding of both the long decline of the Spanish Empire and the birth and growth of a world economy. What is interesting about this new economy, as well as the legal apparatus that came to buttress it, is the decisive role of imperial Spain and Asia, particularly China, in the fashioning of a global network of commodities and capital; as well as the way that Manila, and the Malay and Indonesian archipelagos more broadly, came to serve as the crossroads of this network and the conflicts that arose from it. Both this analysis and its larger implications lead to considerations of how both the awareness of Spanish decline and the growth of a Sinocentric world economy was tied to a variety of closely related phenomena in Latin America and the Philippines: the colonial political culture of corruption, the rise of Creole patriotism in New Spain and Peru, and the flourishing of what later came to be dubbed as "religious syncretism" in the rise of native Christian cults. Each bears testament to the way overseas Spanish imperialism, as an early form of what scholars would later identify as "colonial modernity," was administered and received by its subjects as a flexible, open-ended, and thoroughly negotiable, mediated practice. This economy, which was paradoxically based not on state administration but in fact its very absence, had ramifications in fields of colonial culture as diverse as vice regal administration, Christian theology, and Latin American and Philippine baroque art and architecture. Blanco has chosen to call these ramifications "baroque economies" of the Asia-Pacific region, all of which entailed the absence of central authority or organization in the making of the world economy, as well as the European framework for international law and the rise of Creole patriotism. This event is free and open to the public and co-sponsored by the Southeast Asia Center and Department of Comparative Literature. For more information, please call (206) 543-9606 or email us at seac@u.washington.edu.  (return to top)