Past
Events
June 2003 Events
July 2003 Events
August 2003 Events
September 2003 Events
October 2003 Events
November 2003 Events
Summer 2003 Human Rights Courses
Fall 2003 Human Rights Courses
Comprehensive List of U of M Human Rights
Courses (not updated)
Sunday,
June 1, 2003
Starting date of "TIE XI: WEST OF THE TRACKS": THE MOST DETAILED
AN AUTHENTIC LOOK AT NEW CHINA SCREENS AT U-FILM'S BELL AUDIORIUM.
A nine-hour epic documentary, "Tie Xi: West of the Tracks," filmed
over a two-year period, one of the most detailed and authentic looks at he
"New China," will get a three-day screening in early June at the
University Film Society (now Minnesota Film Arts) Bell Auditorium, 17th &
University Aves. SE.
In Chinese (Mandarin dialect),
with English subtitles, part II of the series, "Remnants" had a
U.S. premiere at the recent 21st Annual
Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival.
Part I, entitled "Rust," will play 1pm-5pm, Sunday, June 1. The film, not officially permitted to be shown in China, by a 34-year-old director, Wang Bing, focusses on the daily lives, loves, livliehoods of Chinese factory workers and their families in the so-called "Rust Belt" of Northeast China as seen on the job (240 min).
Part II, "Remnants" follows a group of Chinese teens in district workers housing about to be demolished as factories close and families are ordered to move to cramped high rises. Screening 1pm-4pm Sunday, June 8 (176 min.).
Part III, "Rails," tells
the story of an old railway, linking the factories of the district and an
unemployed scavenger and his son who live
on the fringes of that society. Shown 2pm-4:30pm Sunday, June 15 (130min.).
Each part can also been seen out of continuity and stands as a seperate story
as well as part of the whole.
Admission is $12 for the series (series pass) or single admission $6 gen'l; $5 students/seniors, $4 U-Film/Minnesota Film Arts members. The series is co-sponsored by the Minnesota China Center.
Bell Museum Auditorium (17th and
University Aves. SE, MPLS)
Hotline: 612.627.4430 or On-line at www.ufilm.org
Tuesday, June 3, 2003,
12:00 p.m.
Dorsey & Whitney LLP and Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights present
the Honorable Mary Robinson former President of Ireland (1990-1997) and United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002) speaking on the Ethical
Globalization Initiative. Lunch provided courtesy of Dorsey &
Whitney. Space is limited. Reservations Required.
In partnership with the Aspen Institute, The International Council on Human
Rights Policy and State of the World Forum, Mary Robinson has launched the
Ethical Globalization Initiative, designed to develop a Human Rights Action
Group and a Human Rights Capacity Building Network. While the Action Group
will develop multi-disciplinary methods aimed at integrating human rights
norms and standards more effectively into globalization efforts, the Capacity
Building Network is taking the New Partnership for Africa’s Development as
a case study to provide an innovative framework for catalyzing the intellectual
resources and technical expertise needed for building capacities to promote
and support human rights in Africa. This approach will seek to link universities,
policy centers and professional legal bodies in the North to work together
with their counterparts in Africa on capacity building projects. The Initiative
will draw on Mary Robinson’s experience and leadership in the field of human
rights, her extensive network of contacts among world leaders, especially
in developing countries, and the enormous respect accorded to her by governments
and human rights activists.
Location: Dorsey & Whitney LLP, 50 South 6th Street, Suite 1500, Minneapolis
Please R.S.V.P. to Amelia Buttress
by noon on Monday, June 2nd
Phone: (612) 341-3302 x 107
Email: abuttress@mnadvocates.org
Tuesday, June 3, 2003
HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER ANNOUNCEMENT: David Weissbrodt 2003 Human Rights Award
Recipient
Please join us in congratulating David Weissbrodt on receiving the 2003 Human Rights Award from the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. As many of you know, David was a founding member of the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, now recognized as one of the leading human rights organizations in the world, and thus it is only fitting that he receive this award on the 20th anniversary of the organization. The other award recipients are the late Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife, Sheila.
The award will be presented to David at the Minnesota Advocates 20th Anniversary Celebration dinner on June 3, 2003.
If you have further questions, please contact the Human Rights Center at 612-626-0041.
Thursday, June 5, 2003,
5:30-7:00 p.m.
The Human Rights Center and the Faculty Against War present, “Pizza and Politics:
Come hear Joe Margulies”. The Human Rights Center and Faculty Against
War have invited Joe Margulies, attorney for several detainees at Camp Delta
in Guantanamo Bay, to meet with Faculty Against War to discuss the prisoners
held in Guantanamo since September 11, their conditions of detention, their
rights under U.S. and international law and pending litigation that contests
the legality and conditions of their detention. If you can come, RSVP to Kathy
Fennelly (kfennelly@hhh.umn.edu) so that we order enough pizza. Free.
Location: Nolte Lounge, University of Minnesota East Bank
June 5, 2003, 12:00 p.m.
Briggs and Morgan, Professional Association and Minnesota Advocates for Human
Rights present Women's Human Rights Speaker Series Women, HIV, AIDS and Access
to Essential Medicines. Presented by Professor Susan Craddock.
Professor Craddock is an Assistant
Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Minnesota. She received
her Ph.D. and M.A. in Geography from
the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Craddock is currently working
on a project examining the implications of medical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological
relationships for global patterns of disease and geopolitics. Drawing from
feminist science studies, postcolonial theories, and bioethics, Craddock explores
the role of clinical trials, patent regulations, and the medical neglect of
major global diseases in generating debates over resource equity, valuations
of human life, and definitions of gender and race.
This is one in a series of lunchtime speakers dedicated to improving awareness of women's human rights issues. Please join us the first Thursday of each month for a new presentation.
Location: Briggs and
Morgan, PA, 2400 IDS Center, in Minneapolis
(lunch will be served)
Please R.S.V.P. to Amelia Buttress
at Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights by noon on Tuesday, June 3rd
Phone: (612) 341-3302 ext. 107
Email: abuttress@mnadvocates.org
Saturday, June 9, 2003,
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Lawyer Mark Silverman presents a workshop on issues related to immigration
for Latinos.
Location: la Iglesia de Encarnacion
3817 Pleasant Avenue, Minneapolis
FREE TO ALL
This workshop will discuss issues
related to immigration for the Latino
community such as:
(1) Knowing your rights as an immigrant, citizen, and resident;
(2) opening the doors for youth to attend university even if they do not
have appropriate documentation;
(3) necessary requirements to become a citizen and its advantages;
(4) etc.
For more information please contact
612-822-6269.
June 9 - June 13, 2003
The Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution offers weeklong Summer
Institute. CHRCR's
goal is to introduce professionals in each field to the goals and methods
of operation of the other field, and to provide professionals in both fields
with an opportunity to explore ways to strengthen communication and collaboration
to better achieve mutual goals.
Although they share similar objectives, human rights advocates and conflict
resolvers often adopt contradictory responses to violent
conflict, massive human rights abuses, or societal needs in the aftermath
of such events. This happens because they approach their work
from different perspectives and apply different methodologies. Yet, the problems
they tackle frequently require coordinated solutions if future
violence and abuses are to be prevented. CHRCR's mission is to foster greater
understanding and cooperation among members of the human rights and conflict
prevention and resolution communities as a means to promote security, peace,
justice and respect for human rights.
CHRCR is based at the Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,
the oldest graduate school of international relations in the
United States. Fletcher's existing resources in conflict resolution, international
human rights, negotiation, security studies, humanitarian
assistance and development provide an ideal base for CHRCR's work. Tufts University
and Boston area colleagues and institutions, as well as long-standing Fletcher
faculty links with key United Nations and other intergovernmental and nongovernmental
organizations, enrich the
resources that enable CHRCR to fulfill its mission. For additional information,
please see our website: www.fletcher.tufts.edu/chrcr.
The Summer Institute is designed for mid-career and senior professionals in
the two fields who are interested in exploring ways to make their
work more effective. Applicants should have significant field experience in
violent conflict or post-conflict settings, and should be prepared to share
the knowledge they acquire from this program with others at their organizations
at which they work.
The Institute will be held at the Fletcher School in Medford, MA from June
9 to June 13, 2003. This year the program is being offered free of
charge as a service to intergovernmental and nongovernmental professionals
in these fields. Participants are responsible for their own transportation
and living costs, though very reasonable rates are available for on-campus
accommodations. Registrants are asked to submit
a non-refundable $50.00 materials fee to cover the costs of briefing materials
that will be sent to all participants approximately two weeks
before the start of the course.
If you would like additional information, contact Ellen at ellen.lutz@tufts.edu
or phone (617-627-4016).
Thursday, June 12, 2003,
7:30 p.m.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power will help launch the ARC Speaker
Series. A former Balkan war correspondent, Power is the executive
director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy
School of Government at Harvard Univ. Her latest book, A PROBLEM FROM HELL:
America and the Age of Genocide, is a path-breaking analysis of the last century
of America's role in the history of genocide. $8 in advance, $10 at the door.
Social hour at 6:30 p.m.; program at 7:30 p.m. call (612) 872-7060 or visit
www.archq.org.
Location: Hill Ballroom at Macalester College in St. Paul.
June
16 - July 4, 2003 in Germany.
2003 Fellowship Program for K-12 German Language Teachers. The Center
for German and European Studies at the University of Minnesota
announces the "Sprachakademie Deutschland nach der Wiedervereinigung
und auf dem Weg ins 21. Jahrhundert," a fellowship program that is designed
to provide K-12 teachers of German with a unique, supportive, and challenging
forum in which to work collaboratively to enhance their teaching. Participants
will spend three weeks in Germany, work on creating new teaching materials
for their classroom, visit German schools, and immerse themselves in the culture
and daily life of contemporary Germany. Deadline for application is March
31, 2003.
For further information see the CGES website at: www.cges.umn.edu or email the center at: cges@umn.edu. You can also call the center at: 612-626-7705.
November
1-2, 2003
Minnesota Peace Jam. In the mid-1990’s, Denver residents
Dawn Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff asked themselves: What do Nobel Peace Prize
winners do, after they have won their award, to pass on their wisdom and skills
to youth? It is a question and idea that makes a great deal of sense in the
current global situation. The Nobel winners are people who have shown exceptional
courage and skill in addressing complex social and political problems.
A project entitled PeaceJam was created that brought together 11 of the most
outstanding living Nobel Laureates, including the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu,
who all agreed to meet personally with high-school aged youth to explore peacemaking
skills. The program has now sponsored 50 programs in a series of affiliate
sites in the United States, South Africa, India, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.
Minnesota PeaceJam is now one of the new American affiliate sites and will
sponsor its first full program featuring Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams
from Northern Ireland this year. Ms Williams shared the 1977 award with Mairead
Corrigan Maguire when the two combined to launch a peace movement of Catholic
and Protestant women after Ms. Maguire’s three nieces and nephews had been
killed on the streets of Belfast.
PeaceJam is a nonsectarian and nonpartisan educational project that focuses
on peace at four levels -- peace within yourself, peace in personal relationships,
creating the conditions for peace in your own community through service-learning
projects, and exploring issues of global peacemaking. It is open to high school
aged-youth from school classes, school clubs, and community-based organizations.
The program might be of extra interest to groups already involved in service-learning
who would like to rethink their service work in terms of peacemaking. PeaceJam
seeks to recruit and bring together 50 organizations from throughout Minnesota
that reflect our state’s diversity to dialogue and learn from one another.
The accompanying flyer provides all of the program details and timelines,
as well as contact information if you have questions. We are seeking to secure
money to scholarship some participants, but this is not yet available. The
Minnesota program director is Donna Gillen and its founders are James and
Pamela Toole of Compass Institute. As you can read in the flyer, a large number
of Minnesota organizations have come together to co- sponsor and bring this
program to our state.
For more information: view the peacejam
flyer or contact Program Director Donna Gillen at 651-646-8008 or donnag@mninter.net
or phone the Campus Institute at 651-787-0509.
June 29-July 15, 2003
Places of the Holocaust: A Journey to Remember. Vilnius, Kaunus, Lithuania
Warsaw, Lublin, Krakow, Poland, Prague, Czech Republic. This seminar is designed
to provide in-depth study of the Holocaust beginning with an overview of history
and terms and concluding with a 16-day trip to places that make up the landscape
of horror. To prepare individuals for travel there will be seven two-hour
evening sessions or a web-based course to be done individually. We will visit
four extermination camps, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor and Majdanek, the
Panarei Forest outside of Vilnius where the murder of the Vilna Jews took
place, two concentration camps, Theresenstadt outside of Prague and NinesFort
in Kaunus, and the sites of ghettos in 6 major Eastern European cities. Throughout
the trip, the instructor will facilitate ongoing reflection and discussion.
Class size is limited. To reserve a space in the course, please send your $350 deposit to the instructor (check made out to Travel Express of America) as soon as possible.
Cost: $3290.00
(Tuition cost separate. May travel without taking the course. Preference will
be given to course participants)
For more information contact:
Amy Shapiro
Professor of Philosophy, Alverno College
Director
Holocaust Education and Resource Center of the Coalition for Jewish Learning
414-382-6226
amy.shapiro@alverno.edu
University of Minnesota Fall 2003 Human Rights Courses
ENGW 5130 Topics in Advanced
Creative Writing
6:20-8:50 pm, Mondays
4.0 cr
Instructor: Damon,Maria
Diaspora Poetics: The term "Diaspora," which for millenia was used
almost exclusively to describe the global Jewish community, has recently
re-emerged as a key critical term in discussions of world-wide migrancy, displacement
and dispersion of many different national, continental and ethno-racial gropus
as a result of political and economic violence, an effect of "transnational"
globalism. This concept of "dispersal" or
"scattering" has ramifications in the arena of cultural representation
as well; how does experience of this sort affect our artistic expressions,
and how do our "diasporic" expressions in turn affect our experience?
The word "poetics" means both "the study of poetry and literature"
and "the process of making." It too has enjoyed a rise in popularity
especially in its broader meaning, as books like The Poetics and Politics
of
Transgression and The Poetics of Military Occupation explore how these phenomena
(transgression and military occupation, that is) come into being and function
in culture. We will look at a range of verbal art produced by historically
or recently "displaced persons" and study them
as a basis for engagement with the idea of a creative, survivalist displacement
of language itself.
