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(08/04/07 4:00am)
In 2006, Bishop Allen announced its plan to self-release a new EP every month for a year. Sure, this was a gimmick, but it worked. Besides gaining the notice of MP3 blogs and Pitchfork, BA was finally signed to Dead Oceans, Secretly Candadian/Jagjaguwar's new sister label. And the band's latest album, The Broken String, shows why they could get away with such a shameless plea for attention. A mix of rerecorded songs from the EPs and new tracks, it plays like a singles collection -- and several of those singles are real gems.
(06/28/07 4:00am)
Vin Diesel
(03/22/07 4:00am)
The third annual Bloomington Turkish Film Festival begins tonight, featuring films that explore children’s lives in Turkey through drama and comedy.\nThe films will be shown at 8 p.m. this week today, Friday and Saturday and next week on March 29, 30 and 31. All films are subtitled in English, and the screenings are free and open to the public.\nTonight’s film, “Boats Out of Watermelon Rinds” (2004), explores the passion for film felt by two boys from a rural village who rig a projector and host their own film screenings, which are met with disinterest by their neighbors.\nOn Friday, “My Father and My Son” (2005) presents a child’s view of the return of his father, a political prisoner, to their hometown after many years of incarceration.\nOn Saturday, “Journey of Hope,” the 1991 Academy Award winner for best foreign film, will be shown. “Journey” tells the grim story of impoverished Turkish immigrants struggling to survive in Europe.\nNext week’s films include “Cinema Is Like a Miracle” (2005), “Waiting for the Clouds” (2003) and “Vizontele” (2001), all of which also focus on children or teenagers. \nSeveral of the films in the series include themes of cinema or media, said graduate student Suncem Kocer, a member of the Turkish Student Association and one of four members of the film festival’s committee.\n“The cinema and media themes were an unintentional focus but were a nice coincidence and add an interesting element to the series, considering the role that film and television play in children’s lives,” Kocer said. \nAll six films were box office successes in Turkey, both those by well-known directors and those by relative newcomers, Kocer said.\n“These movies weren’t just included because they had children in them,” she said. “They were very popular in Turkey. ... They will be a big draw with the Bloomington Turkish community, who may have heard about them but not seen them yet.”\nThe festival coincides this weekend with the Navruz, or Persian New Year, celebration to be held Saturday afternoon in the Willkie Auditorium and with the 14th Annual Central Eurasian Studies Conference next weekend, both of which draw large crowds of people interested in the region, Kocer said. Thanks to the timing of the series and to campus and local interest, she expects about 50 people at each film showing.\nThe festival is sponsored by the Turkish Student Association and the Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies Chair.
(02/28/07 5:00am)
Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn was the most influential thinker of the 20th century, Daniel Mahoney, professor of political science at Assumption College, told a group of people in a crowded Woodburn Hall lecture room last night. \nIn his speech, titled “The Man Who Brought Down ‘An Empire of Lies’: The Case of Solzhenitsyn,” Mahoney described the Russian writer’s influence in exposing the world to the staggering scale of Soviet oppression – information unavailable in both the Soviet Union and internationally before the 1960s.\nThe publication of Solzhenitsyn’s most well-known book, 1973’s “The Gulag Archipelago,” was a “decisive moment in the erosion of the legitimacy power and cohesion of Soviet communism,” Mahoney said.\nMahoney is the co-editor of the 2006 volume “The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, 1947-2005,” nearly one-third of which consists of essays and memoirs never published in English.\nMahoney said the common understanding in the United States of Solzhenitsyn as an extreme conservative is mistaken and can be blamed in part on this lack of English material. Much of the criticism of his writing has instead been based on European reviews of French or German translations, leaving the English-speakers without the option of judging for themselves. \n“The core of Solzhenitsyn’s thought has been misrepresented in many ways, portraying him as authoritarian, an ultranationalist and (an) anti-Semite, and so on,” he said.\nThese “received opinions” are inaccurate, said Mahoney, who hopes the new collection will rehabilitate Solzhenitsyn’s image. \nMahoney said the writer went through his own intellectual evolution – from dedicated young communist in the 1930s, to dissident political prisoner in the 1950s, to exiled hero in the 1970s.\nMahoney said Solzhenitsyn has expressed gratitude for his experience in a prison camp where he saw for the first time the “empire of lies,” as he described the Soviet Union. If not for his arrest, he would have become just another Soviet writer and an apologist for the system, Mahoney quoted Solzhenitsyn as saying. \nConfirming Mahoney’s assertion that Solzhenitsyn is not widely read in the West by anyone under age 40, many of the students in the aºudience, both undergraduate and graduate, admitted they have not read any of his works. But nearly all lined up for free, autographed copies of “The Solzhenitsyn Reader.”\n“I haven’t read Solzhenitsyn,” graduate student Bogdan Popa said, as he watched for a break in the line. “But it was interesting how he (Mahoney) is trying to change the view of him in the West, and even among this audience.”
(02/26/07 5:00am)
The author of a new collection of Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s works will speak at 7:30 p.m. today in Woodburn Hall 101. \nDaniel J. Mahoney, a professor of political science at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., will present his book “The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, 1947-2005.”\nAurelian Craiutu, an assistant professor of political science, will host the lecture. Craiutu said he organized Mahoney’s visit to fit in with a course in the Department of Political Science he is teaching this semester, Y281: Modern Political Ideologies.\n“One of the major ideologies we study is communism, and we read Solzhenitsyn in the class,” Craiutu said. “His work is an unparalleled account of communist reality. ... However, this lecture is not intended just for political science students. It’s open to everyone, and we hope to have a large turnout.”\nSolzhenitsyn, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, is known best in the U.S. for his novel “The Gulag Archipelago,” which is based on his experiences in a Soviet prison camp.\nSolzhenitsyn is also the author of numerous poems, short stories, novels, memoirs, political and historical essays and speeches, according to an IU news release.\nAbout 25 percent of the material in the book, mostly essays written since 1993, has never been published in English before. Editors Mahoney and Edward E. Ericson Jr. worked with Solzhenitsyn’s sons on the translations, Craiutu said.\nThe lecture is sponsored in part by IU College Republicans, but Craiutu emphasized there is no political agenda on the part of any of the sponsors. The other sponsors are the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Russian and East European Institute on campus.\n“Solzhenitsyn is thought of as a conservative in the U.S. because he rejected American relativism and consumerism, but that isn’t an accurate understanding of his ideas,” Craiutu said. “This new collection emphasizes the liberal elements of Solzhenitsyn’s thinking.”\n“The Solzhenitsyn Reader” was published in November 2006 and has already sold out its first printing, Craiutu said. Ten free copies of the book will be available at the lecture on a first-come, first-serve basis, but the book will not be for sale at the lecture.
(02/07/07 4:23am)
Iran's political culture is more vibrant than most Western democracies, journalist Danny Postel told students during a lecture in Woodburn Hall Tuesday night. \nIranian intellectuals continue to debate Western political philosophers, including Isaiah Berlin and Hannah Arendt, to reach a consensus about the future direction of Iran, he said.\nSome of the most passionate proponents of secularism, Postel said, are deeply religious Muslims who see the damage that the Iranian Revolution and the current government have done for the image of the Islamic religion -- merely political Islam -- among Iranian youth.\nPostel is a Chicago-based journalist and a senior editor at openDemocracy, a political and cultural journal Web site at www.opendemocracy.net.\nHe was invited to IU by political science professor Jeffrey Isaac to speak about his most recent book, "Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran: Iran and the Future of Liberalism," and about the political climate in Iran.\nPostel warned the attention paid to Iranian human-rights activists and democratic reformists by American neoconservative leaders will only have a damaging effect on their cause.\nHe said activists are fearful of being seen as allies of American interests in Iran, so they seek to distance themselves from U.S. government rhetoric.\n"Neocon rhetoric puts Iranian human-rights activists and progressives in an impossible position," he said. "... The best gift that could have been given to (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad was the neocons."\nHowever, even members of the hard-line Iranian government recognize that politically liberal values are not mere Western impositions, Postel said.\n"Ideas of feminism and participatory secular democracy have been circulating in Iran for 150 years," he said. "Liberalism is more deeply entrenched in Iranian society than Khomeinism" -- the Islamist theory of government promoted by the late Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1950s.\nAhmadinejad himself recognized that in a speech given last summer upon announcing a purge of liberal and secular professors from Iranian universities. He argued for the need to uproot these philosophical ideas, "which have influenced Iran for 150 years," Postel quoted the Iranian president as saying.\nEven so, because of the danger in the current political climate, some Iranian activists have publicly rejected the support of Western governments and have asked instead for the assistance of international organizations and the moral support of the global community, Postel concluded.\nMore of Postel's writings, including interviews with well-known activists and political figures, can be found on his Web site, www.postelservice.com.
(01/24/07 4:46am)
While the bulk of Islamic scholarship today remains within a mainstream interpretation of the Quran, extreme positions have been taken by those who hope to nurture profound changes, either liberal or conservative, in the Islamic world.\nBoth the reformist and fundamentalist schools of thought have broken free from the established traditions of Quran interpretation, or "tafsir," which in the past was practiced by religious scholars, Walid Saleh, assistant professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Toronto, said in a lecture Monday night. \nSaleh is a candidate for a faculty position in IU's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.\n"Tafsir is now practiced by any personality who claims to have an interpretation of what Islam is all about," he said.\nQuranic interpretation is normally understood as falling into either the medieval or the modern period, but this is a false dichotomy, Saleh said during his talk, titled "Royalties on Interpretation: A Medievalist Outlook on Modern Islamic Debates on the Quran." \nThe so-called "medieval" tradition continued into the 20th century, and the writings of several scholars of the early Islamic period who remained unknown even a century ago have been resurrected by more radical scholars in recent decades.\nSaleh said the practice of Quran interpretation today positions an "encyclopedic" tradition against a "salafi," or fundamentalist, strain of thought. The former maintains an awareness of developments in the intellectual history of tafsir, while the latter returns to the earliest schools of thought in Quran interpretation.\n"The current developments are neither unique nor unpredictable in light of the long history of tafsir," he said. "Ultimately ... the salafi model is unable to sustain critique which surely will be mounted."\nModern political leaders are strongly interested in promoting certain schools of interpretation and have funded the publication of tafsir commentary to this end, Saleh said. \nFor example, in 1982, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia published an edition of the Quran including commentary to promote the more conservative Saudi version of Islamic orthodoxy. This royal edition rivaled a similar project undertaken by the late King Fuad of Egypt in 1924, prior to that country's revolution. Ultimately, the Saudi royal edition proved more popular than the more liberal Egyptian version, reflecting the spread in the twentieth century of a more fundamentalist sentiment in the Islamic world, he said. \nIn a similar case, the royal family of Jordan has published the world's only comprehensive catalogue of all Quran commentaries. A foundation run by the current king's uncle maintains the definitive online source for Quran commentary, www.altafsir.com. \n"Jordan is a very poor country, but it is willing to invest the expense of publications, the upkeep of the Web site, and so on in order to promote an anti-salafi message," he said.\nSaleh's lecture was presented to an audience of students and faculty interested in issues of religion and politics in Islam. \n"It was fascinating," said graduate student Faraz Sheikh. "This is a very understudied field, and this was quite an original explanation of the evolution of Islamic thinking, rather than just talking about a 'medieval' period followed one day by a 'modern' period. I've studied tafsir and hadn't thought about its place in Islamic intellectual history before."\nA second candidate for the Arabic and Islamic studies faculty position, Louay Safi, will present "Calls for Implementing Islamic Law in Modern Society: A Cross-Cultural and Diachronic Examination" from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Maple Room of the Indiana Memorial Union.
(01/17/07 5:27am)
In a cheerfully decorated corner of the Monroe County Public Library, a dozen young children crowded around IU graduate students Patrick Schoettmer and Aymen Elsheikh as they introduced the first two letters of the Arabic alphabet, alef and ba.\n"'Alef' is for 'arnab' ('rabbit')!" Schoettmer said as the children hopped around the room and gave each other bunny ears.\n"Ba" is for "baqara," or "cow," he said, and the teachers' voices were drowned out in a din of mooing as they passed around large foam cutouts of the letters. The children also learned the names for colors beginning with "alef" or "ba," such as "akhdar," for "green," and "banafsaji" ("purple"). Competing for Reese's Pieces candy, they shouted out the colors of construction paper sheets, blocks, their own clothing and other various objects in the room. \nEach week, up to 40 children and their parents gather in the library's Preschool Exploration Center to participate in the Alef Ba program, said Patty Calleson, the library's children's \nseries manager.\nWhile some of the children speak at least some Arabic at home with one or both parents, the majority who come to the lessons have no family connection to the language, Calleson said. These parents hope to broaden their children's exposure to language in general through programs such as Alef Ba or the Say It in Spanish series also taught at the center.\n"New brain research shows that children absorb language at a very early age, much younger than previously thought," Calleson said. "If we can provide an atmosphere where they're exposed to print, stories and language, even at this age, they will go to school ready to read. ... The kids will be comfortable around books and will become lifelong learners."
(11/06/06 3:59am)
Turkey's decision not to assist the United States in military campaigns against Iraq in 2003 echoed a similar course of action taken by Turkey in the colonial period, said Robert Olson, University of Kentucky professor of Middle Eastern history and politics, in a lecture Friday night.\nOlson, delivering the fifth annual Wadie Jwaideh Lecture in Arabic and Islamic Studies, gave a talk titled "Parallel History and Diplomacy: Turkey's Position Toward the Kurdish Question in 1925 and 2003" in the Dogwood Room of the Indiana Memorial Union.\nTurkey was involved in a conflict with the British Empire in 1925 over control of the province of Mosul, in today's northern Iraq. Control over local oil fields has long been considered the root cause of this conflict. However, Olson said nationalist sentiment among the native Kurdish population was perhaps more important to the decisions the Turkish government made.\n"Oil was an important issue but not as important as territorial concerns were to both the Turks and the British," he said. "The Turkish government was more interested in security with regards to the Kurdish population in the border region."\nUltimately, Turkey decided not to go to war with Britain over control of the province of Mosul and signed a treaty in 1926 that ceded the province to the British and established what is still, with minor modifications, the Turkish-Iraqi border.\nIn 2003, the Turkish government made a strikingly similar decision not to become involved militarily in Iraq, even though the threat of Kurdish nationalism was then much stronger.\n"In 2003, unlike in 1925, the Kurds of Iraq had, for all intents and purposes, attained independence," Olson said. "At the time, Turkey faced the challenges of both increased (Kurdish insurgent) activity in Turkey and heightened Kurdish nationalism in Iraq."\nOn this issue, the recently elected Islamic government was in rare agreement with the secularist military leadership.\n"The government had to consider its constituency. (At the same time, the armed forces feared intervention would prompt the Kurds of Iraq to assist the Kurds of Turkey in a war against the Turkish military and government," Olson said.\nIn the past several years, Turkey has begun a policy of economic engagement with Kurdish communities within Turkey and in neighboring countries in an attempt to spur economic development and thus limit nationalist-motivated violence, he said. However, given the unstable situation in Iraqi Kurdistan, the official U.S. policy of maintaining a united Iraq and the hostility of other regional governments to Kurdish independence, the effects of economic incentives may be minimal.\n"The adversaries of Kurdish nationalism are ever at the ready," Olson concluded.\nThe Wadie Jwaideh Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures in memory of its founder and first chairman, brings scholars of Middle Eastern studies to speak at IU each year.\n"It is not a requirement that the topic relate to current events in the region, but with the Middle East, historical topics are usually relevant in some way," said John Walbridge, NELC chair and director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program.\n"This was a timely and important topic," said graduate student Christopher Bork. "It's an extremely important issue for the U.S. to consider in future planning for the region"
(10/31/06 5:15am)
Today the world faces a trio of challenges -- terrorism, nuclear proliferation and rogue states -- said former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in a lecture at the IU Auditorium Monday night. \nIn confronting these threats, "we are in the opening chapter of an epic struggle that will shape our future and determine the world of our children," he said. A fully concerted world effort on all levels is the only path to success, he said, and this effort must be understood as a long-term endeavor. \n"The war against terrorism is like the war against malaria," he said. "It is not enough to hit the individual mosquitoes. You must also drain the swamp, but bear in mind that draining the swamp takes a long time, measured in generations, not in one prime minister's term." \nIn confronting issues of nuclear proliferation, Barak emphasized the need for further international cooperation. A coalition of all the world powers, including Russia, China and India, must work together to prevent North Korea and Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, he said. Furthermore, existing nuclear arsenals must be secured. \n"My worst nightmare for the Middle East is (Pakistani President) Pervez Musharraf being ousted and radicals taking over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal," he said. \nBarak spoke briefly of world political developments since Sept. 11, 2001. There are several lessons the United States should take from these events, he said. \n"The world is gestalt, where everything depends on everything else," Barak said. "A special effort should be made to involve other world leaders in decision-making and actions, to combine sharing the burden and responsibility of leadership with others while also remaining the leader of promotion of freedom in the world." \nIn addition to issues of global terrorism and nuclear proliferation, Barak spoke candidly about his role in the Middle East conflict, first during a 30-year military career in the Israeli Defense Force and later as a politician, including a term as prime minister from 1999-2001. He told the story that was portrayed in the Steven Spielberg movie "Munich," during which, disguised as a woman, he led a commando team into Beirut, Lebanon, to assassinate members of a Palestinian group associated with the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. \nHe also discussed the Camp David Accords, which, as Israel's prime minister three decades later, he negotiated with then-U.S. President Bill Clinton and then-Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in 2000. \n"Arafat rejected the proposal as even a basis for negotiation, and then he returned to terrorism," Barak said. \nEven so, when a settlement is ultimately achieved in the future, "you will need a magnifying glass to see the difference between what was on the table at Camp David and what is eventually signed." \nDuring a charged question-and-answer session following his talk, Barak urged audience members to respect one another's opinions. \n"You are at a university, and you should be exposed to new ideas," he said after scattered boos followed a strongly pro-Palestinian line of questioning from an audience member. \nRecent IU graduate Aaron Yuslan was impressed by Barak's reaction to the remarks. \n"He dealt with the inflammatory questions really well," he said. "He was very eloquent, and I wasn't surprised that he handled the controversial issues the way he did."\n"I liked that he respected everyone's views," said sophomore Lindi Shane. "I saw Ann Coulter here last year, and she definitely wasn't respectful at all of different views. He spoke very eloquently, too." \nBarak spoke at the invitation of the Union Board. The talk was also sponsored by the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center, the Borns Jewish Studies Program, the Jewish Studies Student Association, the IU Student Association and the Office of the Provost.
(10/30/06 4:02pm)
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak will discuss controversial issues surrounding the volatile Middle East at 7:30 p.m. today in the IU Auditorium. \nBarak, considered to be the most decorated soldier in Israel's history, served as his country's prime minister from 1999 to 2001 while heading the Labor Party. Much of his tenure focused on the peace process. As prime minister, Barak ordered the withdrawal of Israeli Defense Forces from South Lebanon, ending Israel's 18-year presence there. He also led efforts to negotiate peace agreements -- first with Syria and later with the Palestinian Authority -- with the active participation of then-U.S. President Bill Clinton and his administration, according to an IU press release for the event. \nBarak was a top choice of the Union Board's lecture committee, said Emma Cullen, public relations director for the Union Board. She said his visit has taken several months of planning and preparation. \n"Mr. Barak was on the list of potential speakers, and the committee voted to invite him in July," she said. \nStrict security procedures will be in place for the lecture, Cullen said. All attendees will be searched with metal detector wands, and bags will not be allowed inside the auditorium. Small purses will be searched but are allowed. \nEven with the restrictions, the Union Board leadership anticipates a full house. \n"The Auditorium seats 3,200 people, and we are expecting 3,200 people," Cullen said. \nGraduate student Alison Behling said she is interested in hearing someone of Barak's stature speak on campus.\n"The Middle East conflict is one of the crucial issues of our time, and every viewpoint on this issue needs to be explored, especially when these are comments from someone with his role and experience," she said. \nThe event is free and open to the public, but tickets must be reserved in advance and reservations are limited to two per person. Tickets are still available today, according to the IU Auditorium Box Office, and are also available at the door. The box office is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. For more information or to reserve tickets, call 855-1103.
(10/01/06 7:52pm)
IU, famed since the early days of the Cold War for its language\nprograms, is now the only university in North America to offer the\nKurmanji dialect of Kurdish.\n"IU has a long tradition of exotic languages, and deans approached\nabout new language courses tend to be sympathetic," said John\nWalbridge, chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and\nCultures and director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic studies\nprogram at IU.\n"Kurdish is the most important Middle Eastern language that isn't commonly taught, and this is a great opportunity to develop our program of regional languages," he said. \nKurmanji, also called Northern Kurdish, is the most widely spoken dialect of the language, used by approximately half of the estimated 27 to 30 million Kurds worldwide, most are from Iran, Iraq and Turkey, with smaller populations in Syria, Lebanon, the Caucuses and Central Asia, a new release said. Kurdish is classified as an Iranian language and is closely related to Persian, Tajik and Pashto, all of which are also taught at IU. \nThe opportunity to offer Kurdish came when Kutbettin Kilic, an ethnic Kurd from Istanbul, Turkey, applied to the doctoral program in NELC. \n"We were able to arrange a fellowship for him to teach the language class," though a formal Kurdish program had not existed before this year, Walbridge said. \nKilic said he is enthusiastic about teaching his native language in the United States. \n"We have five students in the class, which is a very good number for the first year of the only program in North America," he said. "Arabic, Turkish and the other Middle Eastern languages have states and governments supporting them, sending students abroad and promoting the teaching of these languages. This is really a great opportunity to finally promote Kurdish." \nThis year NELC is offering only first-year Kurdish, which meets five days each week. The department plans to offer at least second-year Kurdish next year and possibly other dialects of Kurdish in the future, said Martha Held, a graduate student in NELC who was actively involved in organizing the course. \nGraduate student Maryah Converse jumped at the chance to take the class. \n"I study Arabic as well and hope to work for a humanitarian organization in the Middle East," she said. "Kurdish would be very useful, especially in Iraq." \nJob opportunities for Kurdish speakers have increased tremendously in recent years, said Walbridge, and it is now also possible to conduct academic research in Kurdish areas. \n"Turkey has opened up to the point where research can be done in the Kurdish regions there, and hopefully in the future the situation in northern Iraq will stabilize to that point too," he said. \nGraduate student Suncem Kocer is a native of Turkey where, until recently, teaching Kurdish was illegal. \n"Even now, it's bureaucratically difficult to set up a Kurdish language program in Turkey," she said. "I've always wanted to take Kurdish, which would help my research on anthropology and ethnic identity." \nKocer laughed at the fact that she finally got the chance in Indiana to study a language so widely used in her own country.\n"This is a great opportunity. The class is small, so we get a lot of speaking practice," she said. "I'm so glad I've been able to do this here"
(09/28/06 3:53am)
"Was George Orwell a journalist?" controversial foreign correspondent and essayist Christopher Hitchens asked a large audience Wednesday night in Alumni Hall at the Indiana Memorial Union. \nHitchens offered his thoughts on the question, also the title of his lecture, and discussed the lessons journalists can learn from writer George Orwell. \nBy applying the teachings of Orwell, he said, journalists can avoid the trap of "recycling propaganda."\n"We must inoculate ourselves against the claim of the state that if you give us your freedom, we will give you security," he said.\nHitchens said Orwell was the only writer to foresee the failure of the three great movements of the 20th century: imperialism, fascism and Stalinism. \n"He was the only one to get all three of them right," \nHitchens said. \nOrwell's work serves as a lesson for young writers today, Hitchens said.\n"You don't have to be a genius," he said. "You only have to mobilize what you have -- your integrity and your moral courage. Look always to language. Don't find yourself saying something dishonest, a formulation that has been handed to you by authority."\nDuring a spirited question-and-answer session following his lecture, Hitchens spoke on everything from his arrest in Cold War-era Prague, Czech Republic, to his support of the Iraq war to his status as a self-described "anti-theist." He reiterated his belief that Islamic extremism should be defeated and denounced claims that U.S. culture is somehow responsible for inflaming Muslim opinion. \n"Everything inflames jihadists," he said. "Everything we do and everything we are. The only way not to upset them is to change everything about ourselves that is different from them." \nFurthermore, he said, "their defeat is an absolute certainty, as is our superiority, and all we have to do is assert it."\nSophomore Akshat Gupta is a fan of Hitchens' writing on Slate.com and Atlantic Monthly magazine. \n"He has strong opinions, and he doesn't worry about political correctness," he said. "I wasn't surprised that he was so blunt tonight. I haven't read his work on Orwell; I came to hear him talk about politics, and I was impressed by his talk."\nHitchens was the inaugural speaker of a new lecture series hosted by the School of Journalism, which will bring several well-known journalists to IU each semester to deliver a lecture and interact with journalism students. Speakers are selected based on student nominations, which are reviewed by a faculty committee.\n"The series will allow close contact between journalism students, both undergraduate and graduate, and professionals in the field," said Brad Hamm, dean of the School of Journalism. "We wanted this to be more than just a single speech, and we hope in the future to make this a journalist-in-residence program lasting several days."\nThe speaker series will continue this semester with Michele Norris of National Public Radio on Oct. 9 and Pulitzer-Prize winning author Anna Quindlen on Nov. 1.
(09/23/06 12:23am)
Speaking to a packed lecture hall Wednesday night, Amartya Sen, renowned scholar, author and 1998 Nobel Laureate in economics, dismissed the concept of a single identity trumping all others in human relationships. He applied his theory to past conflicts in India, his home country, and conflicts today in Iraq.\nIn his speech, titled "Identity: Enrichment, Violence and Terror," Sen argued that people have multiple identities in any given situation, and race, class or religion does not solely define an individual. Furthermore, he said, it is erroneous to treat violence between groups of people as a matter of only ethnic or religious conflict.\nRather, it is self-imposed and strictly defined membership in one group, which he termed "perceived absence of choice in our identities," that leads to conflict. \n"Claims of unique identities uniting desires within groups and dividing desires between groups are what cause societal violence," he said.\nA native of Santiniketan, India, Sen recalled the events surrounding the August 1947 partition of India that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people due to inter-religion violence. \n"The peaceable neighbors of January became the bloodthirsty Hindu and the brutal Muslim of July," he said.\nThere has been a general misconstruction of identity in the post-Sept. 11, 2001 world, in Sen's view, in the division of individuals into "civilizations" that are now believed to be clashing. "Civilizational partitioning" of the human population leads to a dangerously solitarist approach to international relations, he said.\nSen also touched upon Western perceptions of democracy and how these have been applied in U.S. foreign policy, particularly in Iraq. Westerners tend to view democracy as a direct inheritance from classical Greek civilization, which is always identified with the "West" even though it had closer ties to the Near East, Persia (modern-day Iran) and India than to what is now considered Western Europe, he said. \nThis understanding of history also overlooks democratic elements in many other ancient cultures, he said. Susa, an ancient city-state located in what is currently Iran, for example, was ruled by an elected council, and similar examples existed in ancient India, in seventh-century Japan and throughout Islamic history in the tradition of "consultation" among groups of local leaders.\nIn addition to misunderstanding the historical context, he said, there is a tendency in U.S. foreign policy to equate "democracy" simply with elections while overlooking the need for civil society development. In times of crisis, identity often shifts to a smaller and more immediate group, and Iraqis today are more likely to identify with co-religionists than with an overall "Iraqi" identity, making the emergence of a viable civil society unlikely, he said.\nIn general, Sen said, there is a risk that all human connections aside from religious ones will be forgotten. "We are distinct," he concluded. "But we are not distinct in one category only."\nSen, Lamont University Professor and professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University, was the inaugural speaker of the 2006-2007 Patten Lecture Series. The Series brings world-renowned scholars to IU to interact with faculty and students in classes and informal gatherings and to deliver two public lectures. Sen's second lecture, "India: Bits and Pieces and Beyond," was delivered Thursday night and continued his theme of problems of identity and violence in India.
(09/21/06 3:57am)
This week the Department of Central Eurasian Studies kicks off an international film series.\nThe Persian Film Series begins Thursday night with "Wind Carpet" (2003), the story of a Japanese businessman's journey to Iran to obtain a handmade carpet, custom-designed by his recently deceased wife. A joint production of Iranian and Japanese filmmakers, the tale explores the perils, confusion and rewards of cross-cultural cooperation.\nThe next Persian film showing is scheduled for Oct. 19. "Leila" (1996) is the story of a young Iranian woman who discovers she is infertile and must cope with her mother-in-law's pressure on her husband to take a second wife. On Nov. 16, "Under the Moonlight" (2001) explores the role of the Islamic clergy in Iran through the story of a young seminary student from a rural village who loses his clerical robes on the Tehran subway. All Persian films will be shown at 7 p.m. in Swain Hall East Room 140.\nThe movies featured this semester will be a departure from the high-brow Iranian films that have swept the international festival circuit since the 1990s, but have a limited audience in Iran, said Paul Losensky, associate professor of Central Eurasian studies and comparative literature and organizer of the Persian Film Series. Rather, these showings feature examples of more commercial films, often addressing controversial social issues, which have been popular with Iranian audiences -- although some, like "Leila," have also had international success. \nIn addition, the Turkish Film Series begins Friday with the comedy "Dongel Karhanesi" (2005). The title is a pun on the word karhane, meaning "business place" or "factory," and kerhane, meaning "brothel." Confusion ensues when a brothel is taken over by a bank, which is in turn taken over by the state. When government officials realize they are now running a brothel, an honest manager must be found before the Dongel Kerhana can become a karhane.\nOther contemporary Turkish films will be shown Oct. 20, Nov. 17 and Dec. 22. Titles will be announced on the IU events calendar. All films will be shown at 8 p.m. in Wylie Hall 005.\nAll films in both series are subtitled in English. The Persian Film Series is shown in conjunction with the IU Persian language program. The Turkish Film Series is organized in part by the Turkish Student Association. For more information, contact Karen Niggle in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at kniggle@indiana.edu.
(08/02/06 10:15pm)
The Bloomington-based Silk Road Ensemble presented its 14th annual Silk Road Festival Sunday afternoon at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. The event began in the theater lobby with exhibits from a dozen countries of the Silk Road region, the historical route that connected the East and West from Turkey to China. The event was manned largely by students studying these languages in the IU Summer Workshop in Slavic, East European and Central Asian Languages. \nGraduate student Eric Schluessel explained the displays of clothing and weapons of the Uighurs, an ethnically Turkic Muslim people of western China. Holding up a small knife he said, "A Uighur man gives this to his wife when he goes away on a trip so she can protect herself in his absence." \nOther exhibits also included weaponry as well as popular music and art, clothing and jewelry.\nThe performances began several minutes late due to technical difficulties, and one act had to be postponed until later in the program, but once the singers and dancers reached the stage, the nearly full house received them enthusiastically. Standout performances included Kyrgyz folk songs by Munara Mailybekova, classical Indian dance from the State of Orissa by Nazanin Pallavi, Alevi mystical music sung and performed on the stringed saz by Ozan Jemali and traditional music by three young Mongolian siblings using the piano, the horse-head fiddle and the astonishing voice of the older teenaged brother, an accomplished throat singer.\nFollowing an intermission, the professional musicians of the popular Silk Road Ensemble took the stage to present pieces from North Africa, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus and Kazakhstan. A medley of Azerbaijani folk songs prompted audience members to begin bellydancing in front of the stage, and the final piece, a pop song in the Lebanese dialect of Arabic, ended the evening on an upbeat note. \nShahyar Daneshgar, director of the Silk Road Ensemble and a lecturer in the IU Department of Central Eurasian Studies, thanked the audience for coming in the extreme heat and humidity of that afternoon, especially the performers and guests from Central Asia who wore traditional heavy felt robes and hats to the festival. \n"550 people came, and the theater was practically full. It's amazing that so many people came out in this heat, and I think the program this year was wonderful," he said.\nAudience members surveyed after the show were unanimous in their enjoyment of the music and dances. \n"Every piece was too good to pick just one favorite, but I really liked the classical Indian dancer and the Middle Eastern music, especially the Iranian songs," said Katrina Bristow of Iowa City, Iowa, who was in town to visit her daughter at IU.\n"I loved the diversity of the program in bringing so many different cultures together, especially the Indian dancer and the Kyrgyz lady's singing," said Mohammad Kaviani, associate director of the Center for Economic Education at IU Purdue University-Indianapolis who drove to Bloomington with his family for the event. "It's great that the Bloomington community can have this experience"
(07/26/06 10:58pm)
The Bloomington-based Silk Road Ensemble will present its 14th annual Silk Road Bayram, a word meaning "festival" or "celebration" in several Turkic languages, from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. July 30 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Kirkwood Avenue. \nThe event will begin with an exhibit of arts and handicrafts at 2:30 p.m., followed by a concert with the theme of "Musical Stops on the Silk Road." The performances will include guest artists from several regions and a fashion show. The event is open to the public and admission is free.\nEach year this festival focuses on a particular region of the territory known as the historic Silk Road, stretching from China to Anatolia and Eastern Europe. This year, special attention will be given to eastern Turkey. Featured guest artist Ozan Jemali will perform the music of Alavi religious mystics on the saz, a traditional stringed instrument, said Shahyar Daneshgar, director of Silk Road Ensemble and a lecturer in the IU Department of Central Eurasian Studies.\nPerformances will also include music and dances from China, Mongolia, India, Iran and Hungary, as well as the Arab world, the Caucasus, the Balkans and Central Asia. Musicians famous in their own countries will perform alongside local artists; some of whom are IU students of music or ethnomusicology, or simply have an interest in the culture of these regions.\nThis event is held in the summer to coincide with the IU Summer Workshop in Slavic, East European and Central Asian Languages, providing instruction in many languages of the Silk Road region to hundreds of students from around the United States. Language instructors and their families, visiting scholars and students have all been involved in the Silk Road festival since its inception in 1994.\nApproximately 350 to 500 visitors from around the country attend the festival each year. \n"It's good for Americans to experience some of the culture, music and worldview of the region, especially when it's in the news every day," said Daneshgar. "And it's good for people originally from these regions to visit as well. It's a soothing medicine for their nostalgia for their homelands."\nAll events are free and open to the public. Financial support for the event has been provided by IU's Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center and other campus programs, community cultural organizations and local businesses.\nFor more information, visit www.silkroadensemble.com.