Week of November 15 - November 23, 2008

1. Imagination without Borders: The Sixteenth-Century Korean Woman Poet Ho Kyongbon's Textural Experience of China (talk by Xiaorong Li, East Asian Language & Cultural Studies, UCSB)

Monday, November 17 / 12:00 noon / HSSB 2252 (free)

 

2. Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam (talk, Mark LeVine)

Monday, November 17 / 4:30 p.m. / McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB (free)

 

3. Hans Küng: Global Ethics and the World's Relgions (talk)

Monday, November 17 / 8:00 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall (free)

 

4. The Importance of Including the Value of Ecosystem Services in Economic Calculations

Talk by Ashok Khosla, Chairman Development Alternatives Group, India
Tuesday, November 18 / 12:30-1:30 p.m. / Bren Hall 1414 (free)

 

5. Hans Küng, Mark Juergensmeyer, & Wade Clark Roof

"Religion, Globalization, and the Public Sphere: Paths to Dialogue or Confrontation?"
Tuesday, November 18 / 4:00 p.m. / McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB (free)

 

6. Thought for Food: Literature and Gastronomy (talk by Ronald Tobin, French & Italian Dept.)

Wednesday, November 19 / 4:00 p.m. / McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB (free)

 

7. CONFERENCE: 1968: A Global Year of Student-Driven Change

Thursday - Saturday, November 20-22 / Corwin Pavilion and McCune Conference Room, HSSB 6020
For full schedule and details: <http://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu/1968/index.html> (free)

 

8. International Dessert Festival

Friday, November 21 / 12:00 noon / MultiCultural Center Lounge (free)

 

9. INCA- The Peruvian Ensemble (Music Performance)

Friday, November 21 / 8:00 p.m. / MultiCultural Center Theater

 

10. UCSB Middle East Ensemble (Music and Dance Performance)

Saturday, November 22 / 8:00 p.m. / Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall

---

1. Imagination without Borders: The Sixteenth-Century Korean Woman Poet Ho Kyongbon's Textural Experience of China (talk by Xiaorong Li, East Asian Language & Cultural Studies, UCSB)
Monday, November 17 / 12:00 noon / HSSB 2252 (free)

Ho Kyongbon (style name Nansorhon [Lanxuexuan]; 1563-1589) was a well-known woman poet who lived in the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) in Korean history. She was born into an elite family of scholar-officials. Benefiting from family education and support, Ho Kyongbon was well-read and versed in classical Chinese poetry, hansi. In particular, she modeled her poetry on classical Tang poetry (618-907). She had never traveled to China; it is physically a distant place to her. However, she frequents it crossing time and space as it appears to be a familiar site with concrete images and meanings in her poetry. With a focus on this imaginative dimension of Ho Kyongbon’s life and poetry, this paper aims to explore how a sixteenth-century Korean woman experienced China primarily by means of poetry and what this purely textual experience brought to her life as woman and poet. With the help of her brother, her hansi was published in China and her poetry collection was subsequently published in her own country as well. What does this literary achievement mean to a sixteenth-century woman such as Ho Kyongbon? Above all, I will attempt to suggest how writing hansi contributed to the establishment of Ho Kyongbon’s identity as a woman poet in the cultural, metropolitan space of classical Chinese poetry in East Asia.

Xiaorong Li’s areas of research are concerned with women’s writing, gender and literary production, literati culture, and literary trends in the late imperial period (ca. 1500-1900). As a scholar whose dominant focus is on gender issues, Li’s approach is to go beyond the study of women and gender issues as an isolated phenomenon. Instead, she situates them within the broader historical and cultural context of the particular era.

For more information <http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/events/event_files/past/_fall08/_nov/li.html>

back to listing

2. Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam (talk, Mark LeVine)
Monday, November 17 / 4:30 p.m. / McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB (free)

An eighteen-year-old Moroccan who loves Black Sabbath. A twenty-two-year-old rapper from the Gaza Strip. A young Lebanese singer who quotes Bob Marley's "Redemption Song." They are as representative of the world of Islam today as the conservatives and extremists we see every night on the news. Why, despite governmental attempts to control and censor them, do these musicians and fans keep playing and listening? Partly, of course, for the joy of self-expression, but also because, in this region, everything is political. In a talk based on his new book, Heavy Metal Islam, Professor Mark LeVine (History, UC Irvine) explores the influence of Western music on the Middle East through interviews with musicians and fans, introducing us to young Muslims struggling to reconcile their religion with a passion for music and a desire for change. Levine takes us on a surprising foray into a historically authoritarian region where music just might be the true democratizing force.

The event is sponsored by the Center for Cold War Studies and International History, the Center for Middle East Studies, and the History Department Colloquium Committee.

back to listing

3. Hans Küng: Global Ethics and the World's Relgions (talk)
Monday, November 17 / 8:00 p.m. / UCSB Campbell Hall (free)

Internationally renowned theologian, author, and Catholic priest Hans Küng is President of the Global Ethic Foundation. From 1960 until his retirement in 1996, he was Professor of Ecumenical Theology and Director of the Institute for Ecumenical Research at the University of Tübingen, Germany. From 1962 to 1965, he served as an official theological consultant at the Second Vatican Council. In 1979 the Vatican withdrew his license to teach Catholic theology because of his opposition to the doctrine of papal infallibility. Since that time Küng has focused his efforts on promoting dialogue between the world's religions and between religion and science, efforts that have been praised by the current pope.

His many publications include Why I Am Still a Christian; Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic; Judaism: Between Yesterday and Tomorrow; Christianity and World Religions: Paths of Dialogue With Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism; Islam: Past, Present and Future; My Struggle for Freedom: Memoirs 1; and Disputed Truth: Memoirs II. Courtesy of Borders, copies of books by Hans Küng will be available for purchase and signing at this event.

Presented by the Virgil Cordano OFM Endowment in Catholic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, UCSB and cosponsored by the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Catholic Studies Research Focus Group. This event is made possible, in part, through the generous support of Gary and Mary Becker. For additional information, please call 893-2317.

back to listing

4. The Importance of Including the Value of Ecosystem Services in Economic Calculations
Talk by Ashok Khosla, Chairman Development Alternatives Group, India
Tuesday, November 18 / 12:30-1:30 p.m. / Bren Hall 1414 (free)

Loss of biological diversity poses threats to human well-being and perhaps even to life on earth that are comparable in magnitude to those from climate change -- and more immediate. Yet, today it is on the radar screen of hardly any decision maker, let alone in any media headline.

Biodiversity stands on the three legs of nature -- the richness and variety of species, the productivity of their habitats, and the health of the ecosystem processes that sustain both. The conservation issues of degraded habitats and of species extinction are fairly widely understood; the critical role that the biogeochemical cycles of the biosphere play in supporting life, however, is not. More than 50% of the world's population relies directly on nature for the fulfillment of some or all basic needs. The remaining 50% are just as dependent, though less directly, on nature for water, food, medicines, and materials. Nine of the top ten drugs originate from natural plant products. One third of human food comes from plants pollinated by wild pollinators. Virtually all the oxygen we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat would not be possible if ecosystem services were to breakdown. Yet, they are completely absent from our economic and political calculations.

In his presentation, Dr. Khosla will attempt to demonstrate the importance of including the value of ecosystem services in our economic calculations.

For more information <http://www.bren.ucsb.edu/events/khosla.htm>

back to listing

5. Hans Küng, Mark Juergensmeyer, & Wade Clark Roof
"Religion, Globalization, and the Public Sphere: Paths to Dialogue or Confrontation?"
Tuesday, November 18 / 4:00 p.m. / McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB (free)

Globalization has had a remarkable impact on the interplay of religion, politics, and the distribution of wealth in recent years. It has intensified divisions, conflicts, and human suffering in many parts of the world, but it has also provided new opportunities for dialogue, mutual understanding, and cooperation that may lead to the resolution of these challenges in accordance with a new global ethic. In a wide-ranging conversation, Professors Hans Küng, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Wade Clark Roof will discuss these developments and their implications for the 21st century. Is there a place for religion in the public sphere and in democratic institutions, or does it foster the forces of authoritarianism, intolerance, and violence? Are religious traditions capable of contributing to the formation of global ethical principles suited to the 21st century that can ameliorate poverty, greed, social injustice, and political conflicts, or are they of limited relevance? What kinds of organizations and institutions are best suited for this undertaking, and are new ones required? The conversation will also include reflections on the impact that the recent U.S. elections will have on the place of religion in the American public sphere.

Hans Küng is President of the Global Ethic Foundation in Tübingen, Germany. Mark Juergensmeyer is Director of the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies at UCSB. Wade Clark Roof is Director of the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life at UCSB.

Presented by the Virgil Cordano OFM Endowment in Catholic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, UCSB and cosponsored by the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Catholic Studies Research Focus Group. This event is made possible, in part, through the generous support of Gary and Mary Becker. For additional information, please call 893-2317.

back to listing

6. Thought for Food: Literature and Gastronomy (talk by Ronald Tobin, French & Italian Dept.)
Wednesday, November 19 / 4:00 p.m. / McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB (free)

If we are nourished by food, so too are we restored with dreams, symbols, myths, signs of all kinds. Gastronomy and literature have strong ties because eating is paradigmatic of literary acts. Gastro-criticism serves to foreground both of the arts with which it deals, and in so doing reveals that the poet and the cook are both supreme creators of metamorphosis and illusion.
Sponsored by the IHC as part of its “Food Matters” series.

For more information <http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/foodmatters.html>

back to listing

7. CONFERENCE: 1968: A Global Year of Student-Driven Change
Thursday - Saturday, November 20-22 / Corwin Pavilion and McCune Conference Room, HSSB 6020
For full schedule and details: <http://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu/1968/index.html>

Free and open to the public.

Marking the 40th anniversary of the Black student takeover of North Hall, this conference examines Black activism in relation to at least two other movements: the Mexican student revolt on the eve of the '68 Olympics and the Paris student uprising of May '68. This conference raises a series of questions about the process by which youth movements brought about fundamental change in the archaeology of power and knowledge in the West and transformed the calculus of hegemony and identity that dominated the United States, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe in the 1960s. Students in 1968 aimed at nothing less than a democratic goal: the demand that those being educated be allowed to shape their educations and the quality of everyday life in the societies into which they were being educated. This conference maps the “new education” of the future by recovering what is useful and dispensing with what is not, and fashioning a new pedagogy from the innovative ways of thinking, doing, and creating culture that students advanced on three continents in 1968.
Website: http://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu/

Sponsored by the UCSB Department of Black Studies. Co-sponsored by the UCSB Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor, College of Letters and Science, Associate Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Academic Policy, Center for Black Studies Research, Office of Equal Opportunity, MultiCultural Center, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Chicano Studies Institute, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education and the departments of Political Science, Asian American Studies, English, French and Italian, History, and Political Science.

back to listing

8. International Dessert Festival
Friday, November 21 / 12:00 noon / MultiCultural Center Lounge (free)

Join the campus community at an international dessert fest, featuring a variety of desserts from around the world. Members of the community are invited to bring international and ethnic desserts. Coffee and tea will be provided.

If you will be contributing a dessert, please call Rebekah Meredith at 893-8411 or email rebekah.meredith@sa.ucsb.edu to make arrangements.

back to listing

9. INCA- The Peruvian Ensemble (Music Performance)
Friday, November 21 / 8:00 p.m. / MultiCultural Center Theater

"INCA" the Peruvian Ensemble was founded in 1981 in Los Angeles, for the purpose of researching, preserving, and presenting Peru's rich multi-cultural heritage of ethnic and folkloric music, songs, dance, and traditions. INCA performs music and dances from the Andean region (Inca heritage), from the central and northern coasts (Criollo, Hispanic heritage), from the southern coast (Afro-Peruvian, African heritage), and from the Peruvian and Bolivian Amazon jungle (jungle natives heritage).

Tickets $5 for students/ $15 general admission. Contact the A.S. Ticket Office at (805) 893-2064.

back to listing

10. UCSB Middle East Ensemble (Music and Dance Performance)
Saturday, November 22 / 8:00 p.m. / Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall

The concert will feature special guest singer and `ud player, Naser Musa. Naser will present songs from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt. Bahram Osqueezadeh will also lead the ensemble in a set of Persian music. In addition, the ensemble will present an Umm Kulthum song, a Turkish Bektashi Sufi song, and a popular Iraqi song.

As always, the Ensemble's Dance Troupe will present a wonderful variety of dances from Arab, Armenian, Persian, and Turkish cultures. To conclude the concert, Alexandra King will present a special solo dance finale.

Scott Marcus, Director
Alexandra King, Director of Ensemble's Dance Troupe
Sue Rudnicki, Director of Ensemble's Percussion Ensemble

Special Guests: Naser Musa, `ud and vocals
Bahram Osqueezadeh, santur, and Director of Persian Music Set

Tickets: $17/Gen, $9/Stu - UCSB Associated Students Ticket Office, 893-2064

back to listing