The January 2008 issue of Wired magazine contains an interesting article on page 74: "Criminal Code: A new DNA test can ID a suspect's race, but police won't touch it."
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
graphic design as social commentary
Zimbabwean graphic designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies uses "creative defiance" to "cut through complacency and apathy while trying to raise consciousness about an array of social issues from discrimination and human rights, to health and the environment." His work is very powerful.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Somali Institute for Peace and Justice event
The Somali Institute for Peace and Justice, consisting of a group of Somali intellectuals, scholars, community leaders, and students, is holding the anniversary of Ethiopian Forces Occupation in Somalia on December 28, 2007 at 6:30pm, at the Zuhrah Shrine Center (2540 Park Av. S, Minneapolis, MN). Speakers include:
Professor Peter Erlinder
Professor Ismael Gorse
Professor Hassan Mohamud
Congressman Keith Ellison (Expected)
Professor Ahmed Samatar (Expected)
The Institute promotes an alternative academic and practical approach to Somali social and political problems, and encourages Somali and non-Somali scholars and intellectuals to participate in the search for solutions to problems Somalis face in America and at home. The Institute strives to promote greater education of non-Somalis about Somalia and the Horn of Africa.
Professor Peter Erlinder
Professor Ismael Gorse
Professor Hassan Mohamud
Congressman Keith Ellison (Expected)
Professor Ahmed Samatar (Expected)
The Institute promotes an alternative academic and practical approach to Somali social and political problems, and encourages Somali and non-Somali scholars and intellectuals to participate in the search for solutions to problems Somalis face in America and at home. The Institute strives to promote greater education of non-Somalis about Somalia and the Horn of Africa.
Monday, December 17, 2007
what's happening at SCSU?!
In the past few weeks there have been a string of race-related issues at St. Cloud State University. Most recently, a student of color was spat on and shown the Nazi salute. What happened to Minnesota Nice?
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
film: "War/Dance"
The Shine Global film War/Dance opens at the Lagoon Landmark in Minneapolis on Friday, December 14.
War/Dance is the story of three Acholi children of northern Uganda who have been brutalized not only by a twenty-year civil war, but also by the terrorist organization the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). It follows the historic journey of three children from northern Uganda--Dominic, Rose, and Nancy--and their school in the Patongo refugee camp, the first school from the northern war zone to make it to the finals of Uganda's national music and dance competition.
Amidst unimaginable violence and grief, these children sing and dance: they sing with vitality; they sing without fear; they sing in protest and in celebration.
War/Dance has won more than 20 awards nationally and internationally including "Best Director" at Sundance. The film opened in Los Angeles and New York on November 9, and it was the top ranked film at the Dupont Theater when it premiered in DC on November 16. It is the first documentary made by Shine Global.
Shine Global, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) film production company dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of children worldwide through the production of documentary films and other media that raise social awareness and effect political change.
All contributions to Shine are used to produce films. Net profits are returned to the documented children through local non-governmental agencies.
For more information, visit Shine Global or the War/Dance blog.
War/Dance is the story of three Acholi children of northern Uganda who have been brutalized not only by a twenty-year civil war, but also by the terrorist organization the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). It follows the historic journey of three children from northern Uganda--Dominic, Rose, and Nancy--and their school in the Patongo refugee camp, the first school from the northern war zone to make it to the finals of Uganda's national music and dance competition.
Amidst unimaginable violence and grief, these children sing and dance: they sing with vitality; they sing without fear; they sing in protest and in celebration.
War/Dance has won more than 20 awards nationally and internationally including "Best Director" at Sundance. The film opened in Los Angeles and New York on November 9, and it was the top ranked film at the Dupont Theater when it premiered in DC on November 16. It is the first documentary made by Shine Global.
Shine Global, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) film production company dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of children worldwide through the production of documentary films and other media that raise social awareness and effect political change.
All contributions to Shine are used to produce films. Net profits are returned to the documented children through local non-governmental agencies.
For more information, visit Shine Global or the War/Dance blog.
Monday, December 10, 2007
build the dream
Interested in supporting the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.? Visit the M.L.K. Memorial website.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
"What in the World is Social and Cultural Analysis?"
On Monday, December 10, Professor Lisa Duggan (New York University) will present "What in the World is Social and Cultural Analysis? Departmentalization and the Future of Ethnic Studies at NYU." This lecture will be held from 2:00-4:00 in 402 Walter Library. It is the second event in the "Ethnic Studies in the Neo-Liberal University" lecture series.
Monday, December 3, 2007
December 5 "Coffee Hour" presentation
On Wednesday, December 5, Njeri Githire will present "Cannibalism and the Erotics of Domination: Rewriting Imperial Conquest in Caribbean Women's Writings" from 3:00-4:30 in the Geneva H. Southall Library (Social Sciences Tower 815). [Presentation Abstract]
Githire's examination of the trope of cannibalism in selected works by Caribbean women writers situates itself within the wider context of her engagement with metaphors of consumption and incorporation as analytical bases for exploring issues of encounter, gender, and identity in Caribbean and Indian Ocean Women's writings.
Indeed, binary definitions of 'self' and 'other' underpin the representation of cannibalism just as the inside/outside binary plays an important role in the conceptualization of all antitheses. Postcolonial studies especially have suggested that this 'other' so powerfully figured in the cannibal was created to support the cultural cannibalism of colonization. The accusation of cannibalism was merely a projection of imperialist appetites onto the cultures subsequently subsumed. Accordingly, the cannibal may productively be read as a symbol of the permeability or instability of boundaries.
Githire will explore the ways in which selected Caribbean women writers link cannibalism and erotic fascination as different ways of consuming the body to expose the consumptive mentality and violence that underpins the legacy of imperialism.
Githire's examination of the trope of cannibalism in selected works by Caribbean women writers situates itself within the wider context of her engagement with metaphors of consumption and incorporation as analytical bases for exploring issues of encounter, gender, and identity in Caribbean and Indian Ocean Women's writings.
Indeed, binary definitions of 'self' and 'other' underpin the representation of cannibalism just as the inside/outside binary plays an important role in the conceptualization of all antitheses. Postcolonial studies especially have suggested that this 'other' so powerfully figured in the cannibal was created to support the cultural cannibalism of colonization. The accusation of cannibalism was merely a projection of imperialist appetites onto the cultures subsequently subsumed. Accordingly, the cannibal may productively be read as a symbol of the permeability or instability of boundaries.
Githire will explore the ways in which selected Caribbean women writers link cannibalism and erotic fascination as different ways of consuming the body to expose the consumptive mentality and violence that underpins the legacy of imperialism.
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