The goal of the semester is to consider the meanings and outcomes of revolution across societies and cultures of the world.

We will feature a rich medley of forums, exhibits, presentations, and workshops on topics like:

• The Arts
• Society
• Environment
• Gender
• Sexuality
• Race
  
  

Join us in the the Commons of Spooner Hall, 3:00-5:00 p.m.

Friday, February 27:
"What Does 'Revolution' Mean in Our Time? Society, Science, and the Arts"
This first forum in the "Changing the World" series addresses the following question: Over the last century has there been a "paradigm shift" in the meaning of "revolution"? I It can be argued that the traditional understanding of revolution as radical social-political change is no longer dominant in our time. We think of revolutionary change initiated through organized social and political resistance or violent overthrow of the existing order-which is driven by some utopian vision of an ideal future. While "revolution" in the 21st century certainly involves technological innovation, it also involves rethinking and rediscovering how people interact with the environment and religion. In the arts and literature of the latter half of the 20th century, images of change are often playful, parodying rather than confronting. The question of the sources and "springs" of the "new" is always a central concern. In our "post-" era, coming after the more radical products of the Enlightenment-modernism, communism, colonialism, to name a few-although there is no artistic "avant-garde" in the modernist sense of the word, art continues to disturb, interrogate, challenge the status quo, and move audiences to change how they live.
Presentations by:
Vitaly Komar, Russian Artist
Kris Ercums, Spencer Museum, KU
Diane Fourny, French, European Studies, KU
Garth Myers, Geography, AAAS and KASC Director

Saturday, February 28, 8:30-4:00 PM:
"Art, Music, and Revolution"
K-16 Workshop
Spencer Art Museum, Reception Room (Rm. 307)
The Workshop Addresses the roles that music and visual art play in revolutionary movements throughout the world, particularly Russia and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The goal is to develop applications of this knowledge in the k-12 classroom.

Monday,March 9:
"Gender, Sexuality and Race"
Time and Room TBA

Thursday, April 16:
"Changing the World: Revolutionary Thinking about the Environment"
Over the last 200 years the natural environment has played a crucial role in radical social thought, whether leftist or ultraconservative. In the early 21st century, however, it is the endangered environment itself that has forced thinking that is changing how humans live on this planet. This roundtable focuses on these two kinds of interaction: 1) the historical and contemporary ways that revolutionary thinking and social revolution have conceptualized the natural environment; and 2) how the environmental change of the last half century has radically changed our conceptions of our lives.

Presentations by:
Pro. Tom Newlin, Oberlin College, "Russia's Ecological Footprint: A Brief Cultural and Intellectual History”
Pro. Jimmy Adegoke UMKC, "The Environment, Culture and Economics: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives of Resource Extraction in the Niger Delta"
Pro. Chris Brown, KU“Brazil’s Landless Peasant Movement, the Amazon Forest, and the Political Peril of “Natural” Environments”
Pro. Bill Tsutsui, KU "Trajectories of development and the environment in Asia over the past half century"

FRIDAY MAY 1
African Studies Council Meeting
Bailey 109

OTHER EVENTS OF INTEREST

Fight for Freedom! A Century of the NAACP and the Struggle for Racial Equality
Was held, Friday February 13, 2009 8 am - 5 pm The University of Kansas, Kansas Union Alderson Auditorium, Lawrence, Kansas
Sponsored by the Langston Hughes Center  

Medical Anthropology Position
Candidate visits & lectures

January 19-21, 2009 - Dr. Adam Mohr, from U of Pennsylvania
Lecture:  1/20, 3:30pm, in 547 FR, reception to follow
"School of Deliverance: Healing, Exorcism and Male Spirit Possession in the Ghanaian Presbyterian Diaspora."

January 25-27, 2009 - Dr. Toni Copeland, from U of Alabama
Lecture:  1/26, 3:30pm, in Alderson room of the KS Union, reception to follow
“Cultural Knowledge, Behavior, and Health among HIV-Positive Women in Nairobi, Kenya”

January 28-30, 2009 - Dr. Katherine Rhine, from Brown University
Lecture:  1/29, 3:30pm, in Malott room of the KS Union, reception to follow
"Support Groups, Marriage, and the Management of Ambiguity among HIV-positive Women in Northern Nigeria."