"Q&A with Director Hitomi Kamanaka" (video)
A discussion with the director of the film Rokkashomura Rhapsody: A Plutonium Plant Comes to Northern Japan. Part of the Japan at Chicago Lecture Series: Celebrating Protest. Sponsored by the Japan Committee of the Center for East Asian Studies, the Human Rights Program, the Center for International Studies, the Committee on Cinema and Med
"Colonialism, Militarism, and the Political Economy of Transracial Adoption" (video)
A talk by Emi Koyama. Part of the Japan at Chicago Lecture Series: Celebrating Protest. Sponsored by the Japan Committee of the Center for East Asian Studies, the Human Rights Program, and the Center for International Studies.
Chicago Humanities Festival: Wangari Maathai (video)
Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize. Maathai was elected to Kenya's National Assembly with 98 percent of the vote in 2002 and in 2003 was appointed assistant minister of environment, natural resources, and wildlife. She is the
"Legal Defense and Human Rights in Russia" (video)
A talk with Robert Amsterdam, founding partner, Amsterdam & Peroff, legal defense counsel for Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In practice since 1980, Mr. Amsterdam has extensive experience litigating and arbitrating corporate disputes in emerging markets, focusing on the areas of individual and corporate human rights. Mr. Amsterdam was retained by Mikhail Khodorkovsky in August
"The Oil and Glory" (video)
A talk by journalist and author Steven LeVine. Pipeline politics became a modern day version of the 19th Century's Great Game, in which Britain and Russia had employed cunning and bluff to gain supremacy over the lands of the Caucasus and Central Asia. “The Oil and Glory” is the story of how, at the dawn of the 21st century, the game was played once more across the harsh e
"Cows, Cars and Cycle-Rickshaws: The Politics of Nature on the Streets of Delhi" (video)
A talk by Amita Baviskar, Associate Professor at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University. As an embodied public sphere, city streets are sites for multiple exchanges between differently located people and things. This talk focuses on cows, cars and cycle-rickshaws as they navigate Delhi's roads, and on the people who own, use and seek to control them. All three have b
Displacement Week: "The Effects of Gentrification on Chicago's Communities" (video)
A panel discussion with Jamie Kalven: Writer, Invisible Institute; Tom Walsh: Director of Advocacy and Public Policy, Jewish Council on Urban Affiars; Victoria Romero: President of the Board, Pilsen Alliance. Moderated by Virginia Parks: Assistant Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago.
"The Sixth Anniversary of the Gujarat Riots" (video)
A talk by Shabnam Hashmi, Managing Trustee and Executive Secretary of Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD) in New Delhi, India. Presented with Professor Steven Wilkinson and Mona Mehta of the University of Chicago. The Gujarat violence was a series of communal riots that took place in the Indian State of Gujarat from February to May 2002, involving violence between Hindus and Mu
"The Closing of the ICTY and its Effect on Justice and Accountability in the Former Yugoslavia (vide
This panel explores how the impending closing of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will affect justice and accountability in the Balkans including: the integration of international human rights standards on a national level, the challenges and opportunities confronting the domestic courts and the role of the media/civil society.
Distinguished panelists in
Genocide Conference Panel 3: “Confronting Darfur" (video)
This panel addressed the conflict in the Darfur region of The Sudan and the allegations of genocide; the adequacy of the international response to the crises and proffer solutions to end the conflict.
Vincent O. Nmehielle, Principal Defender of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and Associate Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)
"Muslim Peace Building in Conflict Regions of Southeast Asia" (video)
A historical overview of the situation in southern Thailand and southern Philippines is presented, followed by a discussion on peace building efforts in conflict regions. Panelists give special attention to welfare and security issues in these areas. The panel is moderated by Kikue Hamayotsu (Ph.D., Department of Political Science, Northern Illinois University). Panelists include: Kriya Lanputeh (Yala Islamic University), Abdulghoni Suetair (Prince of Songkla University), Pattama Hamingma (Asian
"The Next Great Clash" (video)
A talk by Michael Levin. In The Next Great Clash, Michael Levin presents evidence of a global political order on the verge of a historic power shift from West to East. A reemerging China is the only nation with the latent capacity to challenge American hegemony, and Levin demonstrates that such challenges to the status quo usually lead to war. From the World Beyo
"Pens and Swords: How the American Mainstream Media Report the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" (video)
A talk by Marda Dunsky, former Arab affairs reporter for the Jerusalem Post and editor on the national/foreign desk of the Chicago Tribune. As world attention is renewed and refocused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the sixtieth anniversary of its seminal year of 1948, Marda Dunsky takes a close look at how more than two dozen major American print and broadcast outlets have reported the conflict i
"Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making" (video)
"Superclass" provides the first in-depth examination of the connections between the global communities of leaders who are at the helm of every major enterprise on the planet and control its greatest wealth. It is an unprecedented examination of the trends within the superclass, which are likely to alter our politics, our institutions, and the shape of the world in which we live. Rothkopf is also the
PGE Distinguished Lecture: "Is Development Sustainable? Not Even Close" (video)
A talk by Robert Repetto. Is development sustainable? Certainly not the way the world is now going about it. Major trends are heading straight toward ecological and human disasters and if they are not changed and changed soon, development efforts will fail for billions of people, comprising mainly the world?s most vulnerable populations. Climate change, water
"Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War" (video)
In his book "Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War", Jimmie Briggs book provides a vitally important perspective on the global tragedy of child soldiers. More than 250,000 children have fought in three dozen conflicts around the world. From the "little bees"" of Colombia to the "baby brigades" of Sri Lanka, the subject of child soldiers is changing the face of terrorism. Briggs was awarded the Jo
"Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror" (video)
"Our government can make you disappear." Those were the words Steven Wax never imagined he would hear himself say. In his twenty-nine years as a public defender, Wax had never had to warn a client that he or she might be taken away to a military brig, or worse, a "black site", one of our country's dreaded secret prisons. How had our country come to this? The disappearance of people happens in places ruled by t
"Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan,
The growing instability and resurgence of Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan pose a great threat to U.S. interests and global security. In his new book, "Descent into Chaos", Ahmed Rashid examines the rising insurgency, booming opium trade, and weak governance in Afghanistan, concluding that U.S. strategy in the region has been a complete failure. Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist based i
"Hugo Chavez y la Realidad Venezolana de Hoy" (video)
A talk by Teodoro Petkoff, prominent Venezuelan politician, journalist and economist. From the Center for Latin American Studies.
"Taiwan's New Approach: Opportunities and Challenges for President Ma Ying-jeou's Government" (video
Introduction and Welcome: Professor Dali L. Yang, University of Chicago. Panel 1: Taiwan's Participations in International Affairs (Chair: Professor Te-Yu Wang, Illinois State University) -- Professor Chong-Pin Lin, Tamkang University, "Sightful Carrot and Shrouded Stick: Beijing's Adjusted Taiwan Policy" (Discussant: Professor John J. Mearsheimer, University o
