http://hdl.handle.net/1811/51309 Sat, 25 May 2013 00:36:02 GMT 2013-05-25T00:36:02Z http://hdl.handle.net/1811/53676 North Korea's Cold War Lerner, Mitchell Perhaps no country in the modern era has perplexed Western observers as much as North Korea, a nation whose extraordinary secrecy and internal repression has generally prevented scholars from exploring its Cold War experience. As a result, the country remains to many an enigma, a land of provocation and intrigue that is often criticized but rarely understood. Then came the liquidation of the Soviet empire, and with it a torrent of new information from the archives of North Korea's former communist allies. Records from the embassies of Russia, East Germany, Poland, Romania, Albania, Hungary, and elsewhere, pulled back the curtain of secrecy that had long enshrouded North Korea, and for the first time allowed outsiders to begin to understand the policies of the "Hermit Kingdom." By utilizing these materials, this conference will examine the inner workings and foreign relations of North Korea during the Cold War, and in doing so will open a virtually unparalleled window into the nation's use of force and diplomacy during the Cold War and beyond. Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1811/53676 2012-02-27T00:00:00Z Lerner, Mitchell http://hdl.handle.net/1811/53675 Somalia at Crossroads: Foreign Intervention, Humanitarian Crisis, and Aspirations for Statehood Mohamed, Jibril; Joseph, Laura; Malac, Deborah; Arman, Abukar This two-day conference will bring together some of the brightest minds in Somali affairs with the aim of deepening public discourse and understanding of the complex situation in Somalia and developing strong, pragmatic, and principled policy recommendations for, post-transition political development in Somalia. Issues discussed include the national roadmap, piracy, humanitarian crisis, frontline state military interventions, Diaspora remittance challenges and community development issues. Streaming video requires Flash Player, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player to view. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1811/53675 2012-01-27T00:00:00Z Mohamed, Jibril Joseph, Laura Malac, Deborah Arman, Abukar http://hdl.handle.net/1811/53674 Good Works in Central America: Interrogating North American Voluntary Service Borland, Katherine; Cardenal, Fernando Short-term delegations to Central America for the purpose of providing material aid, assisting with grassroots development, or offering direct service have proliferated in the last four decades. This conference critically examines travel-for-service and the micro-politics of encounters between privileged visitors (professionals, politically motivated groups, service-learning programs) and impoverished third-world communities they visit, as well as the larger implications of poverty relief efforts organized outside of and sometimes in opposition to existing national and international institutions. Such projects promise solutions to seemingly entrenched problems in poorer nations through virtuous vigorous action. Yet in actuality, the dynamics of cosmopolitan interaction are complex. This conference will provide an opportunity for students and faculty interested or already engaged in international service to reflect upon their motives, practices, and experiences and to consider not only their immediate accomplishments but the longer-term implications of the kind of citizen-diplomacy they aspire to enact. The keynote speaker, Nicaragua's Father Fernando Cardenal, has committed his life to direct service to the poor within the framework of a religious vocation and training, more specifically, liberation theology. In 1980, he directed Nicaragua's National Literacy Crusade, an internationally acclaimed voluntary effort to teach reading and writing to rural and underserved populations, organized through the revolutionary state as a nationalist project. The academic speakers come from a variety of positions within the university but share a concern for reflection and the identification of "best practices." They have all either volunteered with or facilitated volunteer missions/delegations. Streaming video requires Flash Player, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player to view. Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1811/53674 2012-05-03T00:00:00Z Borland, Katherine Cardenal, Fernando http://hdl.handle.net/1811/53007 Transformations of the Public Sphere Mergenthaler, May This conference investigates the historical and contemporary significance of the public sphere and modern social imaginaries—of the discourses, norms, and ideas shared by members of a given society. The motivation for such an investigation arises from the growing interdependence of different nations, regions, and communities that demands and generates new ways of political, legal, economic, strategic, and cultural forms of cooperation. What kind of public spaces facilitate and what kind of shared imaginaries support such cooperation? What aspects in society hinder productive communication and interaction? Does productive social cooperation presuppose certain governmental, in particular democratic structures? Answers to these and related questions will be developed by drawing on several relevant disciplines, including, but not limited to social and political science, cultural theory, philosophy, history, history of science, and media studies. Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1811/53007 2012-04-13T00:00:00Z Mergenthaler, May http://hdl.handle.net/1811/53006 Tales of Trickery, Tales of Endurance: Gender, Performance, and Politics in the Islamic World and Beyond Noyes, Dorothy; Lloyd, Barbara Professor Margaret Mills, retiring in June 2012 from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, has made major contributions to the study of women in contemporary Afghanistan, the folklore of the Persian-speaking world and South Asia, women’s oral traditions, and traditional pedagogies. She has helped us to think about the rhetorical dimension of oral traditions; the gendering of religious experience; the partitioning of the traditional public sphere into gendered and performative situations; how literacies and pedagogies are mobilized to form political identities; how individual and collective expressive repertoires respond to war and displacement. This conference assembles some of her former students and longterm colleagues to discuss new developments in these lines of research. Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1811/53006 2012-05-18T00:00:00Z Noyes, Dorothy Lloyd, Barbara http://hdl.handle.net/1811/52943 Immigration: What's at Stake? Hubin, Don; MacGilvray, Eric "Immigration: What's at Stake?" is the first major interdisciplinary conference of the Immigration COMPAS, organized with the support of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies , that will focus on core ethical, political, social, and economic issues related to immigration. The conference will bring together a truly distinguished set of researchers addressing the main challenges and opportunities immigration poses in the modern world. The conference aims to interest not only researchers and students, but the broader community. Beside the academic panels, there will be two panels specifically oriented to public discussion. The introductory panel will focus on broad demographic changes on international, national, and local levels, including discussion of how immigration has affected Ohio. The final session will be a question and answer moderated by Fred Andrle (WOSU), encouraging reflective engagement by the community. Streaming video requires Flash Player, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player to view. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1811/52943 2011-10-20T00:00:00Z Hubin, Don MacGilvray, Eric http://hdl.handle.net/1811/52941 Central Eurasian Studies Society 2011 Annual Meeting Levi, Scott; Liu, Morgan Annual Meeting of the Central Eurasian Studies Society is an event put on by the preeminent scholarly organization for Central Asian studies. CESS is a private, non-political, non-profit, North America-based interdisciplinary organization of scholars who are interested in the study of Central Eurasia: a region that stretches from the Black Sea region, the Crimea, and the Caucasus in the west, through the Middle Volga region, Central Asia and Afghanistan, and on to Siberia, Mongolia and Tibet in the east. Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1811/52941 2011-09-15T00:00:00Z Levi, Scott Liu, Morgan http://hdl.handle.net/1811/52940 Islam and Rationality: The Impact of al-Ghazālī Tamer, Georges Abu Hāmid al-Ghazālī (1058-1111) is a central figure in the history of Islamic theology, jurisprudence, philosophy and Sufism. Of Persian origin, he lived and worked in Baghdad and in other intellectual centers of the Muslim world of the 11th and 12th century. Besides his teaching activity in Baghdad and Tus (in Iran), al-Ghazālī wrote in Arabic and Persian on an enormous variety of subjects, which primarily include theology, Islamic law, logic, philosophy, mysticism, and epistemology. A major concern in his works involves the development of an approach to God which is both Islamic and rational; he also strove to integrate religious rationality in the worship of God and in spiritual life. His eminent works on this topic have been widely influential. Indeed, in general, the discourse on rationality, as accepted by orthodox Islam, was largely established, articulated, and solidified by al-Ghazālī. Al-Ghazālī's influence was so widespread that he earned, in the medieval period, the unique title "The Proof of Islam" (Hujjat al-Islām); this honorific, merited by his preeminent scholarship, acknowledged the illustrious way in which he combined logic and ethics, knowledge and action, rationality and spirituality, orthodoxy and renewal of religious thought. To commemorate the 900 year-long legacy of al-Ghazālī, an international and interdisciplinary conference will take place on November 10-12, 2011. Leading scholars in intellectual history, philosophy, Islamic law and theology, and medieval Christian and Jewish thought will convene to discuss vital aspects of al-Ghazālī's work. Dealing with the increasingly important topic of Islam and rationality, and raising relevant questions related to the inter-religious exchange of ideas, the conference will aim to invigorate discourses between philosophy, religious studies, cultural history, and Islamic studies. The goals of this dialogue are to enhance research of and initiate new studies into the impact of al-Ghazālī's vast work and to create continuing forums for international conversation between scholars and the public on the topics of Islam, reason, and cross-cultural exchange. Streaming video requires Flash Player, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player to view. Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1811/52940 2011-11-10T00:00:00Z Tamer, Georges http://hdl.handle.net/1811/52939 Beyond Mosque, Church, and State: Negotiating Religious and Ethno-National Identities in the Balkans Dragostinova, Theodora; Hashamova, Yana Ethnic diversity and national tensions in the Balkans have long attracted the attention of the international community of scholars and policy-makers who have tried to understand how states, societies and people in the area negotiate complex religious and ethno-national identities. Bulgaria and Bosnia exemplify two fascinating case studies of these issues of ethnic diversity and national conflict. The two countries share a similar history of strained transitions from empires to nation-states to communist internationalism and back to nationalism. However, after the fall of communism in 1989, the two states followed diverging paths; while Bosnia underwent a violent process of civil war accompanied with ethnic cleansing, Bulgaria maintained relative ethnic peace, religious tolerance, and political stability. The ultimate purpose of this conference is to debate how and why two similar states and societies experienced comparable challenges of ethnic complexity, political conflict, and national reconciliation differently. Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1811/52939 2011-10-06T00:00:00Z Dragostinova, Theodora Hashamova, Yana http://hdl.handle.net/1811/52938 Science, Technology and Medicine in East Asia: Policy, Practice, and Implications in a Global Context Wittner, David; Blaylock, David Since the end of World War II, historical and contemporary developments in East Asian science, technology and medicine have received increasing scholarly attention partly due to historian of Japanese science James R. Bartholomew's career-long commitment to the field and his mentorship of a younger generation of scholars. This interdisciplinary conference proposes to examine the ways in which the sciences in East Asia – whether basic or applied, from technology to medicine—have shaped and been shaped historically, and are being transformed in the contemporary world by political, economic, institutional, social, and cultural forces, both regional and global. Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1811/52938 2011-10-07T00:00:00Z Wittner, David Blaylock, David