U.S. Planning and Realities of Post-War Iraq
Judging from these panelists, the more intimate your experience of Iraq, the more optimistic you are likely to be. David J. Nash was fully immersed. He organized the multi-billion dollar reconstruction effort of Iraq’s infrastructure in 45 days. His 2800 projects ran the gamut from new power plants and water compani
Discourses on Iraq and the Middle East
U.S. actions in Iraq get a thorough thrashing in this final chapter of the Reconstructing Iraq series. First, Yosef Jabareen sprints through editorial page cartoons from Arab print media, which represent the U.S. as immoral, abusive, greedy and above all, hegemonic. The drawings depict George Bush burning th
The Current Crisis in the Middle East
True to form, Noam Chomsky makes a sweeping and copiously detailed indictment of U.S. Middle East policy, brooking no contrary or alternate views. His history-filled lecture (interrupted by occasional applause) focuses on four crises, involving the Palestinians, the Lebanon invasion, the Iraq war and the “impending catastroph
Beyond the Bench: Preparing MIT Students for the Challenges of Global Leadership
MIT produces students who are “deep, entrepreneurial, passionate, diverse and active,” says Phillip Clay, the kind of talented individuals who should play major parts on the world stage. MIT has begun a drive to ensure that its students fulfill their promise. Central to this mission, Richard Samuels says, is
The Next Giant Leaps in Space Exploration
From satellite-enabled radio and TV to climate tracking, space has become a “ubiquitous capability in our lifetime,” as Edward Crawley puts it. But he also notes there is uncertainty about the future of U.S. spaceflight, which closely follows the “cadence” of political elections. AeroAstro symposium panelists bot
Institutional Perspectives on Storage
European archivists grapple with the legal obligations, civic responsibilities and future prospects of their collections, which, thanks to the Internet and other new technologies, are increasingly awash in image and sound. As William Urichhio notes, “tradition-bound institutions know what we should be gathering: feat
Media in Transition 6: Summary Perspectives
At the end of the three-day Media in Transition conference, panelists swap impressions and reactions, offering some notional themes for future symposia.
Mary Bryson frames her comments as “a mash-up aggregation.” The conference’s “massive disagreements and sometimes awkward silences and gaps” were beneficial,
In Charlie’s Vision: The Future of Engineering at MIT
James Champy finds much to admire at MIT. But as a seasoned insider, and as a successful entrepreneur, business writer and consultant, he thinks the Institute could use some serious shaking up. As rationale for an MIT redesign, Champy points to increased competition from other universities, here and abroad; new fields opening
Student Remarks 2006 MLK Breakfast
With a mix of bitterness and hope, these two young men address the legacy of Martin Luther King. David Lowry, a Lumbee Indian, grew up in southeastern North Carolina where the great majority of the Lumbee people reside.
He speaks compellingly of his Lumbee Indian ancestry, and his need to be recognized at MIT and beyond as part
Portuguese studies review
The PSR is a peer reviewed journal devoted to promoting interdisciplinary scholarly study of the countries, regions, and communities that share, build on, or are transforming a Portuguese or Brazilian legacy. The PSR promotes a critical understanding of the historical and current evolution of political, economic, social and cultural networks incorporating Portugal, Brazil, and other lusophone countries. The journal, launched in 1991 by Trent University (Ontario, Canada) is published biannually,
China and Europe, 1500 - 2000 and beyond
In this online teaching and learning resource from Columbia University's Asia For Educators series, professors Bin Wong and Ken Pomeranz debate the comparative development of China and Europe in the five hundred years from 1500. In a series of sections, each with an accompanying video (played through RealPlayer), topics are explored chronologically, charting the relative development of the two regions. Issues explored include the growth in population of the two regions, industrial progress, and
Reith Lectures 2008 - Chinese Vistas
The online companion to BBC Radio 4's 2008 Reith Lecture series allows users to listen to and read transcripts of talks and discussion from China expert Jonathan Spence. The Reith lectures were inaugurated in order to increase public understanding of important issues of the day, and in 2008 (Beijing Olympic year), Spence delivered lectures on: Chinese ideas of sport and athleticism; the relationship between China and the United States; China and the United Kingdom in the post-Mao era; and Confuc
Tank Man
The accompanying online resource to the PBS Frontline programme, The Tank Man, follows the image of a young man standing in front of a tank used to quash the Tiananmen protests in 1989 to interrogate the progress of political and ideological freedoms in modern China. Users will find a brief introduction to the programme, and sections on the Tiananmen Square protests and their aftermath, which include: eyewitness accounts and press reactions to the 1989 protests; a timeline of key events in the s
China and the media Users access stories (listed in chronological order) through simple links, and the main page also acts as a
The UK's Guardian newspaper publishes this resource of collected news stories relating to Mainland China and its control of and expression in contemporary media. Content is updated along with news stories, but consistent topics include: blogging in contemporary China; government control and censorship of media resources; internet firewalls in China; and contemporary television culture.
Perspectives Chinoises
Perspectives Chinoises (Chinese Perspectives) is a French language quarterly revue of modern Chinese politics, economics, society and culture published by The French Centre For Contemporary China (CEFC). From a menu bar on the main page, users can access the mission statement of the publication, along with links to full text online versions of articles from the journal from 2003 to 2005. Summaries of articles from 2006 to 2008 are also provided, with plans to publish full text versions of more r
Detritus.net : dedicated to recycled culture
Detritus.net is a website concerned with "fine art and pop culture. Lofty postmodern theory and grassroots resistance". It is also concerned with making new works out of old, copyright infringement and cultural comment. It is "devoted to a prevalent and yet rather progressive trend in art, music and culture in general" - that is, plagiarism, piracy, copyright infringement or as the website states: "cultural recycling, recombinant art, copy culture, sampling". The site is divided into the followi
Wyndham Lewis's art criticism in 'The Listener', 1946-1951 : postwar British art in its context of i
This website, entitled Wyndham Lewis's Art Criticism in 'The Listener', 1946-1951, is the outcome of an AHRC research project, 2008-2009, at the University of Plymouth, England and the Universidad de La Rioja in Spain. Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) was not only a major English artist of the twentieth century, who co-founded the Vorticist movement, he was also an important art critic, a novelist and short-story writer, a cultural commentator, a political theorist, and a philosopher. This research pro
Bibliography of Japanese history up to 1912
The website "Bibliography of Japanese history up to 1912" is an online comprehensive bibliography of books, monographs and articles in English, French, German and Italian. The bibliography was compiled by Peter Kornicki, a well-known historian at the University of Cambridge, and is regularly updated. The compiler notes that he has included everything relevant he could find and inclusion therefore does not constitute recommendation; PhD theses are generally not included. The site has an explanato
Towards A Global BioPolicy?
Proceedings of a symposium held in March 2007 looking at aspects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by UNESCO in October 2005. Hosted by Biocentre: the Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy, the symposium was the first event of the 'Global Perspectives on Biopolicy' series. The proceedings cover the keynote speech on the Universal Declaration by Professor Jan Helge Solbakk Director of Bioethics at UNESCO. Following papers were given on the UK perspective on the Declaration, fo
Social Science Data Laboratory, University of Colorado, Boulder
The Social Science Data Laboratory (SSDL), sponsored by the Departments of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, "provides a wide range of social scientific research and instructional support for faculty, students and staff, as well as broader academic and public communities". There are links to dataset websites and access to online methods resources, including an SPSSX starter kit
