Islamic microfinance gains popularity in war-torn Afghanistan
After spending several years in Iran as a refugee struggling to make a living, Shooperi Sharif never imagined that one day she would have a business of her very own. Last year, the 34-year old mother of three took out an Islamic microfinance loan to expand her business -- it was an Islamic loan as she's one of thousands of Afghans who refuse to take interest-bearing loans.
Energy technologies: some forecasts for the next decade
Affordable energy that is clean and consistent, delivered in a single system at a fraction of the price that people are paying today – 4.5 pence (US$0.07) per kilowatt hour (kWh) to be precise – isn’t that too good to be true? John Banham, Chairman of Johnson Matthey, doesn’t think so because these are the very benefits from fuel cells which are already powering homes and buildings in the US today. And it often comes from an unlikely source – methane gas from human waste.
Healthcare: at the crossroads
Healthcare reform today is being avidly discussed in political, social, medical and business circles around the world. In developing countries, the billions of dollars spent on containing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other pandemic diseases such as TB and malaria, are beginning to show some positive results. In Europe, the cost of government-sponsored healthcare is having a negative impact on GDP, while in the US, the Obama Administration is embarking on the country’s most ambitious attempt at p
"The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression"
James Mann is author in residence at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and the author of Rise of the Vulcans, About Face, and Beijing Jeep. He was previously the Los Angles Times Beijing bureau chief. In his new book, The China Fantasy, Mann explores two scenarios popular among the policy elite. The "Soothi
“Baltimore Drowning: A Slavic Microhistory of Global Proportions"
This talk by Keith Brown of Brown University was the keynote address of "Rethinking Crossroads: Macedonia in Global Context." The conference assembled both young and established scholars whose social-scientifically and humanistically informed work speaks to the contemporary realities of the Republic of Macedonia as they continue to be reshaped by actors and p
"Militarization of U.S. Foreign Relations with Latin America: Prospects for Change"
A panel discussion with: Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director of the Latin America Working Group; Joy Olson, Executive Director of the Washington Office on Latin America; Adam Isacson, Senior Associate at the Center for International Policy. From the Latin American Briefing Series. Co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies and the Internati
"Q&A with Director Hitomi Kamanaka"
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
"U.S.-Cuban Academic Relations Part II: Roundtable Discussion on U.S.-Cuban Academic Exchange"
Introduction: Alan Kolata, University of Chicago. Discussants: Stephan Palmie, University of Chicago; Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, University of Chicago; Shannon Dawdy, University of Chicago; Laurie Frederik, University of Chicago; Paul Ryer, University of Chicago.
U.S. and Cuban scholars involved in academic, scientific, and cultural research face
"Session 3 (Futures) - History Textbooks and the Profession: Comparing National Controversies in a G
A symposium panel featuring the following papers: "School Textbooks as Collective Memory and Social Design: Some Thoughts on Developing a World Consciousness" — Hanna Schissler (Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig, Germany); "Historical Reconciliation: A Tool for Conflict Resolution" — Elazar Barkan
"Japanese Education and Society in Crisis"
A talk by Yoshifumi Tawara, Secretary General of the Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21. 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.Author(s):
"United States Government Perspective Global Energy Security"
Introduction by Robert Zimmer, President, University of Chicago; Keynote Address by The Honorable Alan S. Hegburg, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Energy Policy.
Session 1 of the conference "Petroleum: Prospects and Politics." Sponsored by the Chicago Society. Co-sponsored by the Student Government of the University of Chicago, The Graduate Scho
“Securing the International Oil Supply”
A panel featuring David Goldwyn, President of Goldwyn International Strategies LLC; Senior Fellow in the Energy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; former Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs; Scott Nauman, Manager of Economics and Energy in Corporate Planning for ExxonMobil Corporation; and Michael Klare, Five College Professor
“United States Energy Policy and Oil Alternatives”
A panel featuring James Bartis, Senior Policy Researcher at RAND Corporation; former Vice President, Science Applications International Corporation; Cofounder, Eos Technologies; Roger H. Bezdek, President of Management Information Services, Inc.; former Special Advisor on Energy in the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury; and Vito A. Stagliano, Director of Research at t
"Petroleum Technology Presentation"
A talk by Brian C. Gahan, Energy Consultant; Chair of the Chicago Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; former Senior Scientist and Manager of E&P Technology Development at the Gas Technology Institute.
Session 4 of the conference "Petroleum: Prospects and Politics." Sponsored by the Chicago Society. Co-sponsored by the Student Government of the Universi
“Democracy, Governance, and War in Oil Exporting Nations”
A panel featuring Terry Lynn Karl, William and Gretchen Kimball University Fellow and Gildred Professor of Political Science at Stanford University; Miriam R. Lowi, Visiting Research Scholar at Princeton’s Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia; Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science of The
"The Talibanization of South Asia: Can it Be Stopped?"
A talk by Pervez Hoodbhoy, Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azama University. Dr. Hoodbhoy received his bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, master's in solid state physics, and Ph.D in nuclear physics, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a faculty member at the Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad since 1973. He is cha
"'Bhadralok Detenus': Prisons and Detention Camps in Interwar Bengal"
A talk by Durba Ghosh, Assistant Professor of History, at Cornell University, and author of "Sex and the Family in Colonial India: The Making of Empire". From the South Asia Seminar.
Displacement Week: "The Effects of Gentrification on Chicago's Communities"
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.
“Impossible Translation: Beyond the Legal Body in Two South Asian Family Courts”
Srimati Basu, Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies University of Kentucky on "Impossible Translation: Beyond the Legal Body in Two South Asian Family Courts"
Civil Engineering in Developing Countries
Based on working on exercises on project decision making and planning, the specific context of working abroad in general and in developing countries in particular is illustrated, with regard to socio-cultural aspects, planning and financing of projects, roles of (consulting) engineers and contractors, local materials, techniques and knowledge and environmental issues. Study Goals: define projects in several phases of the project cycle (feasibility, identification, design and construction, evalua
