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52. Reading The Backstreets in Ürümchi: Translation as Ethnographic Method and Practice of Refusal
- Author:
- Darren Byler and Andrew J. Nathan
- Publication Date:
- 02-2023
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- While conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Northwest China in 2014, anthropologist Darren Byler found that a Uyghur language novel, The Backstreets, helped Uyghurs to narrate their own stories. By shifting the frame of the narrative of colonial violence away from the authority of the state toward the work it takes for the colonized to live, this difficult, absurdist fable gave young Uyghurs a way to articulate experiences of dehumanization and rage. With its English-language translation and publication, it also gave the novelist, Perhat Tursun, a way of refusing his own silencing through censorship and, ultimately, imprisonment. The Backstreets in Ürümchi is a novel by Perhat Tursun, a leading Uyghur writer, poet, and social critic from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Perhat Tursun has published many short stories and poems as well as three novels, including the controversial The Art of Suicide (1999), decried as anti-Islamic. In 2018, he was detained by the Chinese authorities and was reportedly given a sixteen-year prison sentence. Byler was a cotranslator with ‘Anonymous,’ who disappeared in 2017, and is presumed to be in the reeducation camp system in northwest China. This event would be meaningful to students and faculty in many different areas of the university including the above proposed cosponsors, and students of China and Inner Asia.
- Topic:
- Culture, Minorities, Ethnography, Literature, Language, and Uyghurs
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, and Xinjiang
53. "Rompamos El Silencio"
- Author:
- Julio Ramírez
- Publication Date:
- 05-2023
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
- Abstract:
- The recent dismantling of the Cuna Nahuat Indigenous language program in El Salvador is the latest in a long history of erasure for Salvadoran Indigenous communities.
- Topic:
- Civil War, Culture, Minorities, Language, and Indigenous
- Political Geography:
- Latin America, Central America, and El Salvador
54. A Monumental Relationship: North Korea and Namibia
- Author:
- Tycho van der Hoog
- Publication Date:
- 03-2023
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- Visitors to Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, will quickly learn a remarkable fact that is well-known among the local population—much of the capital’s architectural landscape is designed and constructed by North Korea. In recent years, North Korean nationals have built the official residence of the president of Namibia, the State House; the national cemetery for the fallen heroes of the liberation struggle, the National Heroes’ Acre; the national history museum, the Independence Memorial Museum; the Ministry of Defense headquarters and other buildings. The Namibian government thus uses North Korean aesthetics for some of the most important aspects of its power: the president, the history, and the army. This analysis explores the relationship between Namibia and North Korea by providing historical and political context to the aforementioned buildings. Today, Namibia often has the reputation of a quaint and sometimes sleepy destination, tucked away in the southwestern corner of the African continent. Yet, Namibia was at the center of geopolitical tensions for most of the twentieth century. The complicated decolonization process of Namibia, or “the Namibian question,” as it became known in the corridors of the United Nations (UN), had its roots in the aftermath of three decades of German occupation between 1884 and 1915. German South West Africa, the area that became modern Namibia, was transferred to South Africa as a League of Nations mandate territory and renamed “South West Africa.” South Africa viewed the territory as an unofficial fifth province and introduced brutal apartheid legislation. Internal opposition against the South African regime resulted in the formation of nationalist organizations, of which the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) became the most prominent.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Economics, Politics, Arts, and Culture
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Asia, North Korea, and Namibia
55. How Poster Art of the “Long 1960s” Fueled International Solidarity
- Author:
- Lincoln Cushing
- Publication Date:
- 03-2023
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Institution:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Abstract:
- With internet and cell phone connectivity enabling instant worldwide dissemination of information, many individuals presume that communication between international social justice activists during the twentieth century was tedious, insular, and ineffective. Yet analysis of the vast output of published graphics from that period reveals a different story, one of dynamic interchange and cross-national support.
- Topic:
- Cold War, History, Arts, Culture, Solidarity, and Internationalism
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
56. Dumping the Jewel in the River: Renewing and Perpetuating the Memory of Bhutanese Statehood in Punakha Domchoe
- Author:
- Sonam Kinga
- Publication Date:
- 12-2023
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Bhutan Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies (CBS)
- Abstract:
- Theatrical re-enactments of historical battles characterize some local festivals in western Bhutan in contrast to the largely Buddhist mask dances that are performed during such festivals elsewhere in the country. They serve as medium of recording, renewing and transmitting the memory of historic moments in the life of spiritual and political leaders. For example, the festival of Nangkar Dog (snang-dkar bzlog) in Chang village, Paro is dedicated to commemorate the victory of Phajo Drugom Zhigpo over his spiritual adversary called Lama Lhapa (Zangpo, 2003). Lo-ju (blo-‘gyur) is another festival celebrated every three years in villages of Wangdue Phodrang. It is ‘an articulate narrative of the events leading up to the formation of the Drukpa state by conquering hostile forces…’ (Chophel, 2003, p.85). Punakha Drubchen (spungs-thang sgrub-chen) popularly known as Punakha Domchoe (hereafter domchoe) theatrically re-enacts a historic battle that the Bhutanese fought against Tibetan forces in 1649. Dochula Tshechu is a very recent innovation that recounts Bhutan’s military operation in 2003 against Indian militants (David & Samuel, 2016). The domchoe is one of the most important festivals celebrated in the first month of the lunar calendar. It begins with fifteen days of sacred prayers and mask dances inside the congregation hall or dukhang (‘du-khang) of the magnificent Punakha Dzong, which was built by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (hereafter Zhabdrung Rinpoche) between 1639-40. Known as Goenwang Drubchen (mgon-dbang sgrub-chen), it is followed by three days of martial performances by people dressed as traditional militia called pazangpas (dpa’-mdzangspa - hereafter pazaps) to commemorate and re-enact the military victory in 1649. Both folk and mask dances are performed during the domchoe alongside the pazaps’ performances. The most significant episode of the domchoe with which it concludes involves immersion of multi-coloured sacred substances used as base of the mandala made for Goenwang Drubchen. This moment of dumping of jewel in the Mochu (mo-chu) river and three days of pazaps’ performances record and renew the memory as well as transmit the narrative of that historic victory to both the performers and the audience. The focus may be that particular battle but the overall narrative of the domchoe recounted through songs and dances also record, perpetuate and transmit the memory of the founding of Bhutanese state by Zhabdrung Rinpoche. In this article, I examine how this narrative is constructed and re-told in Punakha Domchoe. I argue that this local festival has transformed into a state-sponsored national ritual that serves important political objective of keeping alive, perpetuating and transmitting the memory of the founding of Bhutanese State.
- Topic:
- History, Culture, Theater, and Festivals
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and Bhutan
57. MENA Music and More!
- Author:
- Danny Hajjar and Fadi Nicholas Nassar
- Publication Date:
- 01-2023
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Middle East Institute (MEI)
- Abstract:
- On today's episode, Middle East Focus kicks off the new year with Danny Hajjar, whose newsletter Sa'alouni El Nas brings diverse music and perspectives from the MENA region to inboxes worldwide. Interviewing Danny is Fadi Nicholas Nassar, U.S.-Lebanon Fellow at the Middle East Institute, Director of the Institute for Social Justice and Conflict Resolution, and Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Lebanese American University (LAU).
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, and Music
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and North Africa
58. Unequivocal benefits of, and necessity for, stronger Turkic Union
- Author:
- Emin Mammadov and Kamran Ismayilov
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Economic and Social Development (CESD)
- Abstract:
- In recent years, the cooperation and unity of the Turkic countries gain increasing momentum which are being demonstrated by its viability leading to the emergence of a united Turkic World as a new geopolitical reality in the Euroasian region. The cooperation deeply embedded in historical brotherhood ties, common language root, cultural and traditional commonalities has revealed significant political and economic results in the continent.
- Topic:
- Culture, Geopolitics, Regional Integration, and Turkic People
- Political Geography:
- Eurasia and Caucasus
59. Cultural Encounters: Istanbul and Refugees from the Russian Empire (1919-1923) - Welcome & Panel I
- Author:
- Özalp Birol, Ipek Cem Taha, Valentina Izmirlieva, Vladimir Alexandrov, and Edward Kasinec
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- The Encounter in Context: Istanbul Under the Armistice Chair: Holger Klein Valentina Izmirlieva (Columbia University), "The Four Paradoxes of Istanbul's Beyaz Ruslar Moment" Vladimir Alexandrov (Yale University), "Frederick Bruce Thomas and Being Black in Constantinople" Edward Kasinec (Hoover Institution, Stanford University), "American Elite Philanthropy, Anna V.S. Mitchell and The Constantinople/Istanbul Russians, 1920-1929"
- Topic:
- History, Culture, and Refugees
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Eurasia, and Turkey
60. Cultural Encounters: Istanbul and the Refugees from the Russian Empire (1919-1923) | Panel III
- Author:
- Vladimir Alexandrov, Ayşenur Güler, Ekaterina Aygün, and Nadia Podzemskaia
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- Artists in Transcultural Dialog Chair: Vladimir Alexandrov Ayşenur Güler (Independent Researcher, London) [Via Zoom], "Findings on Gritchenko's Sojourn in Istanbul (1919-1921)" Ekaterina Aygün (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich), "Union of Russian Painters in Constantinople (1921/1922-1923) as an Émigré Artists' Collective" Nadia Podzemskaia (ITEM, CNRS-ETS, Paris), "Constantinople/Istanbul in the First Half of the 1920s, through the Eyes of the Émigré Artists from the Russian Empire"
- Topic:
- History, Culture, Refugees, and Dialogue
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Eurasia, and Turkey
61. Cultural Exchanges: Istanbul and Refugees from the Russian Empire (1919-1923) - Panel II
- Author:
- Valentina Izmirlieva, Holger A. Klein, and Sergey A. Ivanov
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- The Byzantine Legacy Rediscovered Chair: Valentina Izmirlieva Holger A. Klein (Columbia University), "From Russia to Byzantium: Thomas Whittemore's Intellectual Formation and the Work of the Byzantine Institute of America" Sergey A. Ivanov (Moscow Higher School of Economics), "Byzantium as Seen by the White Russians in Constantinople"
- Topic:
- History, Culture, Refugees, and Byzantine Empire
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Eurasia, and Turkey
62. Cultural Encounters: Istanbul and the Refugees from the Russian Empire (1919-1923) - Panel IV
- Author:
- Cengiz Kahraman
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- Cengiz Kahraman (Istanbul Photography Museum) and Valentina Izmirlieva present two archives of Iraïda Barry's life and work - one in Istanbul, the other in New York.
- Topic:
- History, Culture, and Refugees
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Eurasia, and Turkey
63. Dancing in the Battle for the Mantle of the Politically “Modern”: An Interview with Victoria Philips
- Author:
- Victoria Philips and Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- The Toynbee Prize Foundation
- Abstract:
- “It is that we continue to live as if this were the 20th century, even though we have formally moved to the 21st century,” lamented the former Bolshoi prima Ballerina Olga Smirnova as she announced her decision to defect to the Netherlands. I had just finished reading Victoria Philips’s monograph Martha Graham’s Cold War: The Dance of American Diplomacy (Oxford University Press, 2020) when I read Smirnova’s statement. In her innovative monograph, Philips places Smirnova’s decision in a longer history of moments where “[c]ulture met political aims, as private met public needs, and apolitical ideology served politics” (p. 2). Smirnova’s statement rests on the fact that her cri de paix situates itself above the political quagmire, in the higher realm of the arts—for the artist, as Philips notes, derives “deep political import” from her “claim to be apolitical” (p. 223). Philips provides us in this recent book with an innovative and relevant example of this “politics of antipolitics”: the life and works of Martha Graham. Through a carefully knitted narrative that spans decades of touring, Philips provides us with a detailed account of the role that the “Highest Priestess of Modern Dance in America” played during the Cold War. Drawing from archival sources all around the world, Philips captures the paradoxes, tensions, and contradictions that surrounded Graham’s involvement in a series of dance tours around the world in which she served as an emissary of Unitedstatesean soft power, in the midst of a international struggle for the mantle of political modernity. Indeed, just like Smirnova, Graham’s project was deeply anchored in a modernist understanding of time. But as Philips shows, the promise of modernity was full of ambiguities and ambivalence. Graham’s modernist dance was, at the same time, sacral and secular. It embraced womanhood but shunned organized female emancipation, or feminism. More dramatically, it elevated individualism but depended on the support of the state. Aesthetically, it claimed to represent abstract universal experiences but also purported to capture the particularity of Unitedstatesean (and even non-Western) cultural forms. As we saw above, it was politically antipolitical—and the list goes on. In our days, as Smirnova reminds us, the battle over the plural meanings of the “modern” is far from over. Perhaps, in that sense, we are all still living as if this were the 20th century. In our conversation, we explore what Professor Phillip’s book reveals about the ghosts of the Cold War and their claims to modernity that still haunt our political and aesthetical imaginaries.
- Topic:
- Cold War, Politics, History, Culture, Interview, and Dance
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America
64. NPS Park Cultural Resource Program Comprehensive Assessment Update
- Author:
- Sallyanne Harper, Stephen Ayers, Scott Cameron, Beth Gazley, and Janet Weiss
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA)
- Abstract:
- Established in 1916, part of the National Park Service (NPS) mission is to preserve the nations cultural heritage and serve as a steward and manager of cultural resources within the units of the National Park System. Currently, the NPS manages more than 420 individual units that contain a wealth of cultural resources ranging from historic structures to museum objects and archives. The Park Cultural Resource Programs (PCRP) represent the disciplines of archeology, cultural landscapes, historic and prehistoric structures, ethnography, park history, and museum management. The PCRP’s are responsible for research, planning, and stewardship so that those resources may be preserved unimpaired for future generations. The Academy assessed the current state and the desired state of the PCRP and developed findings and recommendations to support the program's efforts to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the future. This project built off a previous Academy study for the PCRP published in October 2008, "Saving Our History: A Review of National Park Cultural Resource," and assessed the progress made on recommendations and provided additional guidance to improve NPS stewardship of park cultural resources.
- Topic:
- Culture, Public Administration, National Park Service, and Organizational Assessment
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America
65. Analyzing DPRK's Food Supply and Demand Condition with Food Culture
- Author:
- Jangho Choi and Bum Hwan Kim
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
- Abstract:
- Estimation of food supply and demand in North Korea follows the FAO/WFP calorie standard at least 1,640 kcal per person per day. This method is useful in that it can estimate the minimum amount of food shortage for survival, but has a limitation in that it does not accurately reflect real life in that it ignores the food culture of North Korean residents. In this study, the amount of food supply and demand in North Korea was estimated by considering the food culture. The amount of food shortage was calculated by the difference between food consumption and supply. For food consumption, South Korea’s food supply and demand tables (1970 and 1990) and North Korean population were used to consider food culture. The amount of food supply considered North Korean food production, imports, and exports. As a result of the estimation, first, when the food shortage in North Korea in 2014 was estimated by reflecting South Korea’s food supply table in 1970, 2,388.4 thousand tons were oversupplied, resulting in a food supply and demand rate of 1.26. Second, assuming that North Korea’s food culture changes similarly to that of South Korea in 1990 due to the spread of marketplaces or the unification of South and North Korea, total food consumption increased by 33.3%, and the food supply and demand rate fell from 1.26 to 0.95. The results of this study have two implications. First, it is possible that the cereals shortage estimated by FAO/WFP based on the minimum calorie required for survival was overestimated. Second, North Korea’s carbohydrate-oriented food aid does not take North Korea’s food culture into account, so it is necessary to increase support for fish, meat, fruits and vegetables.
- Topic:
- Economics, Culture, Food Security, Consumption, and Supply and Demand
- Political Geography:
- Asia and North Korea
66. Military Culture 2.0: The Female Cadet’s Approach, Feminine Competencies, and Pan-Critical Feminism - Drawing examples from American and Norwegian Special Forces
- Author:
- Mariah Loukou
- Publication Date:
- 07-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- Military values of honour, courage and loyalty are synonymous to male soldiers due to the association of the military with the alpha-male narrative. However, the everchanging nature of war urges for a new approach. One that is identified with female cadets and feminine competencies. The article explores examples from the U.S. and Norway to show practically how military training and education can benefit from the female soldiers’ approach. To back this argument, the author, explores feminist institutionalism and body politics. The author then suggests a new theoretical tool, pan-critical feminism, as the means to incorporate female values and competencies to represent the changing cohort of military institutions. The article finally discusses military culture through the lens of organisational culture to show that there is space for testing this idea, even though social perceptions create barriers to its implementation.
- Topic:
- Culture, Armed Forces, Feminism, and Military
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Norway, North America, and United States of America
67. Promoting the Inclusion of Europe’s Migrants and Minorities in Arts and Culture
- Author:
- Lucía Salgado and Liam Patuzzi
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- Decades of sustained immigration have transformed many European cities into mosaics of different cultures. Yet this diversity is not always mirrored in the art celebrated in museums, the plays produced in major theaters, and the music heard in concert halls. In addition, well-intended efforts to celebrate ethnic and cultural diversity through art and culture run the risk of overemphasizing differences, exoticizing minority groups rather than contributing to the normalization of diversity within society. But this status quo may be changing. Widespread anti-racism protests have prompted long-overdue conversations about mis- and under-representation of minorities as well as discrimination in the cultural scene. At the same time, pandemic-related restrictions have placed further financial strains on the already fragile cultural sector, challenging organizations to reach new audiences in new ways. This MPI Europe report, which draws on interviews with cultural professionals from 11 European countries, explores approaches to strengthening the participation of migrant and minority communities in arts and culture, with potential benefits for immigrant integration outcomes, social cohesion, and the vibrancy and sustainability of cultural institutions. It examines migrants’ and minorities’ inclusion on three levels: as visitors of cultural venues and consumers of art, as featured artists and performers, and as leaders and staff within cultural institutions. The research was conducted within the framework of the Urban Agenda Partnership on the Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees, co-led by the City of Amsterdam and the European Commission and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs.
- Topic:
- Migration, Arts, Culture, Minorities, European Union, Integration, and Inclusion
- Political Geography:
- Europe
68. Public and cultural diplomacy in European cities and states’ branding
- Author:
- Szymon Ostrowski
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
- Institution:
- Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
- Abstract:
- Article “Public and cultural diplomacy in cities’ branding” is a try to set ideas of city diplomacy and idea of branding into theory of international relations. Also, analysis of two West-European and two East-European cities is a chance to analyze chances and threats that both states and cities can encounter during a process of brand building. The main questions that article is answering are “Can cities use their resources and connections to make public and cultural diplomacy?” and “What influence on that process has factor of being a city in post-soviet country or former Soviet Satellite state?” It can be said that cities are able to brand and rebrand itself and they are more flexible than states that cannot run away from some aspects of its identity. In case of difference between western and post-soviet states, the difference is none. In research, numerous rankings, articles and analyses were used as a primary sources in order to characterize how different are images of Italy, Germany, Hungary and Ukraine. Also, paper tries to determine, what is relation between states brand and branding of its cities.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Diplomacy, Culture, Soft Power, State, Cities, and Branding
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Ukraine, Germany, Hungary, and Italy
69. Artists killed in Latin America for exercising their freedom of artistic expression
- Author:
- Cecilia Noce and Diana Arévalo
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL)
- Abstract:
- This is an executive summary of the original report produced in Spanish that focuses only on violence against artists, like targeted killings related to the exercise of their right to freedom of expression and artistic creativity in Latin America. In 2021, CADAL recorded 378 attacks on freedom of artistic expression, of which 23 were murders. Artists and cultural workers who participated in protests in Colombia and Cuba were harassed, detained, and repressed. Musicians and cultural leaders were also involved in the violence between organized crime groups in countries such as Mexico and Brazil.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, Freedom of Expression, Protests, Targeted Killing, and Organized Crime
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Latin America, and Mexico
70. Democracy and Urban Political Culture in Spanish South America, 1810-1860
- Author:
- Paula Alonso and Marcela Ternavasio
- Publication Date:
- 07-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- “Democracy,” a word seldom used in public debate at the start of the nineteenth century and negatively associated with tumult, disorder, and direct rule, in a few decades became linked to representative government and increasingly employed with positive connotations. This paper argues that these conceptual changes should be explored in their political and social contexts, since the term “democracy” was invoked to (de)legitimate certain political practices and social sectors. Therefore, in exploring this non-linear process in Spanish America, these pages focus on the interactions between the emerging language of democracy and its varied meanings and uses in urban politics. These interactions were part of the factional disputes on how to implement the principle of popular sovereignty. Starting with an overview of selected emerging political practices during the Independence period, the paper then focuses on Lima and Buenos Aires, two regions with contrasting colonial pasts, responses to Spanish crises, and post-independence paths, showing how the concept of democracy could be put to varied uses according to different contexts and political objectives.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Governance, Culture, Democracy, Citizenship, and Institutions
- Political Geography:
- Argentina, South America, Latin America, and Peru
71. Gender Attitudes and Trends in MENA
- Author:
- Mary Clare Roche
- Publication Date:
- 09-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Arab Barometer
- Abstract:
- Gender equality is far from achieved in MENA. Clear majorities in most countries surveyed hold that women should not play equal roles to men in both public and private spheres. Yet, there are also signs of change. In the past decade and a half of Arab Barometer surveys, public opinion across the Middle East and North Africa has trended towards gender equality. This is not only a result of younger generations with more liberal ideas of social norms becoming older, but an actual shift in perceptions across generations. In particular, agreement with the statements that “men are better at political leadership than women” and “university education is more important for men than women” has dropped sharply across many countries Arab Barometer has surveyed. The survey always examines perceptions of violence against women. There is a widespread perception that violence against women has been increasing in the region. This is in line with the World Bank’s assessment that gender-based violence has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic in MENA.1 However, the gap between men and women’s perceptions of violence is significant, with women being far more likely to say the level of violence has increased. In order to appropriately address the issue of gender-based violence, conversations need to be facilitated across genders. Another challenge for women in MENA relates to employment opportunities. Labor force participation rates for women are the lowest of any region in the world.2 However, results from Arab Barometer make it clear that most citizens perceive structural barriers to have a greater impact than cultural barriers, meaning governments could more readily develop policies to address these challenges.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Culture, Public Opinion, Equality, and Gender
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Middle East, North Africa, and MENA
72. The Tower of David Museum: Venue for Co-Existence
- Author:
- Rony Ohad
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies
- Abstract:
- Jerusalem has been studied extensively by scholars across a range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. However, the arts, specifically public performance arts, have rarely been leveraged as a primary source to inquire into the city’s social structures. This research project examines how cultural institutions within the Old City of Jerusalem (focusing on the Tower of David Museum site) reflect and shape the relationship between citizenship and cultural performances. The article inquires how a cultural institute in a contested city can become an allied sphere, a source for joint creation, and even a venue for peacebuilding. The events and performances addressed in this article provide examples of both straightforward and indirect peace process approaches, revealing culture’s potential use and limits in a contested environment. The author suggests that a multicultural approach, yet not a neutral one, leads the museum to reveal its agenda, becoming “The City’s Museum” for joint cultural creation and initiative. This is the fifth in a series of papers of a joint project by the Mitvim Institute for Regional Foreign Policies and the Davis Institute for International Relations at Hebrew University examining selected actors’ contribution to the advancement of Israeli-Palestinian peace.
- Topic:
- Culture, Peacebuilding, and Coexistence
- Political Geography:
- Israel, Palestine, and Jerusalem
73. Taiwan Matters for America/America Matters for Taiwan
- Author:
- East-West Center
- Publication Date:
- 09-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- The inaugural edition of Taiwan Matters for America/America Matters for Taiwan, part of the Asia Matters for America initiative, maps the trade, investment, employment, business, diplomacy, security, education, tourism, and people-to-people connections between the United States and the Taiwan at the national, state, and local levels. This publication and the AsiaMattersforAmerica.org website are resources for understanding the robust and dynamic US-Indo-Pacific relationship.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Climate Change, Economics, Education, Environment, Politics, Science and Technology, Governance, Culture, Population, and Travel
- Political Geography:
- Taiwan and Asia
74. Alcohol consumption in modern Turkey: Kulturkampf and polarization
- Author:
- Evangelos Areteos and Christina Kapodistria
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
- Abstract:
- Α culture war (Kulturkampf) is raging in Turkey, and alcohol is one of the major fronts once again. Opposing cultural identities are emerging as a powerful instrument of polarization. The ongoing culture war is revealing the AKP’s potential, but also its limits.
- Topic:
- Religion, Culture, Alcohol, AKP, and Polarization
- Political Geography:
- Turkey and Middle East
75. Photo Poetics: Chinese Lyricism and Modern Media Culture
- Author:
- Shengqing Wu, Ying Qian, and Alexander Alberro
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Chinese poetry has a long history of interaction with the visual arts. Classical aesthetic thought held that painting, calligraphy, and poetry were cross-fertilizing and mutually enriching. What happened when the Chinese poetic tradition encountered photography, a transformative technology and presumably realistic medium that reshaped seeing and representing the world? This event is organized by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Center for Comparative Media, all at Columbia University.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, Media, and Buddhism
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
76. The Buddhist Dream Tale: Past and Present
- Author:
- Francisca Cho and Seong Uk Kim
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Kim Manjung's Kuunmong, or Dream of the Nine Clouds, was written by a scholar-official and he turned to the Buddhist trope that "life is nothing but a dream" in order to express his doubts and disappointment about the Confucian social structure in which he lived. The speaker argues that the dream tale turns the act of fiction writing into a Buddhist philosophical exercise, and she will draw out this argument by considering how the medium of fiction functions in a ritual way. In this vein, she brings the dream tale into the present by considering the experience of cinema as an analogue. This event is cosponsored by the Center for Korean Research and the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
- Topic:
- Religion, Arts, Culture, and Literature
- Political Geography:
- Asia
77. China's Colonial Boarding Schools in Tibet
- Author:
- Lhadon Tethong, Freya Putt, Jia Luo, Tenzin Dorjee, and Andy Nathan
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Chinese government policies are forcing three out of every four Tibetan students into a vast network of colonial boarding schools, separating children as young as four from their parents. According to a recent report by Tibet Action Institute, the schools are a cornerstone of Xi Jinping’s campaign to supplant Tibetan identity with a homogenous Chinese identity in order to neutralize potential resistance to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule. The report, “Separated From Their Families, Hidden From the World: China’s Vast System of Colonial Boarding Schools Inside Tibet,” finds that an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 Tibetan students aged six to 18, as well as an unknown number of four and five-year olds, are in these state-run schools. This panel will discuss how the schools function as sites for remolding children into Chinese nationals loyal to the CCP.
- Topic:
- Education, Culture, Children, Colonialism, and Boarding Schools
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, and Tibet
78. Making Art Amid Mayhem
- Author:
- Carlos Egaña
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
- Abstract:
- For a Venezuelan artist, photography offers a democratic means of expression and experimentation from differing viewpoints.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, and Photography
- Political Geography:
- South America and Venezuela
79. Promoting the Inclusion of Europe’s Migrants and Minorities in Arts and Culture
- Author:
- Lucía Salgado and Liam Patuzzi
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- Decades of sustained immigration have transformed many European cities into mosaics of different cultures. Yet this diversity is not always mirrored in the art celebrated in museums, the plays produced in major theaters, and the music heard in concert halls. In addition, well-intended efforts to celebrate ethnic and cultural diversity through art and culture run the risk of overemphasizing differences, exoticizing minority groups rather than contributing to the normalization of diversity within society. But this status quo may be changing. Widespread anti-racism protests have prompted long-overdue conversations about mis- and under-representation of minorities as well as discrimination in the cultural scene. At the same time, pandemic-related restrictions have placed further financial strains on the already fragile cultural sector, challenging organizations to reach new audiences in new ways. This MPI Europe report, which draws on interviews with cultural professionals from 11 European countries, explores approaches to strengthening the participation of migrant and minority communities in arts and culture, with potential benefits for immigrant integration outcomes, social cohesion, and the vibrancy and sustainability of cultural institutions. It examines migrants’ and minorities’ inclusion on three levels: as visitors of cultural venues and consumers of art, as featured artists and performers, and as leaders and staff within cultural institutions. The research was conducted within the framework of the Urban Agenda Partnership on the Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees, co-led by the City of Amsterdam and the European Commission and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, Employment, Citizenship, Economy, Integration, Identity, Inclusion, Civic Engagement, and Immigration Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
80. Finding a New Idiom: Language, Moral Decay, and the Ongoing Nakba
- Author:
- Elias Khoury
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- Abstract:
- This essay is a translated and edited version of the Anis Makdisi Program in Literature lecture delivered by the author in May 2021. The talk, on the uprising sweeping every Palestinian geography from the river to the sea, was constructed as a series of illustrative stories. Their distillation, as Khoury points out, is that there will be no end to the Palestinian question so long as there exists a people continually prepared to resist the ongoing Nakba. “It is enough,” Khoury concludes, “that with this uprising Palestine has recovered the alphabet, leaving us to create a new idiom.”
- Topic:
- Culture, Language, Nakba, Resistance, and Storytelling
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Palestine
81. Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- MIT Center for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Panel discussion with experts :: Part of the Myron Weiner Seminar Series on International Migration Panelists: Azra Akšamija, an artist and architectural historian, is Director and Founder of the MIT Future Heritage Lab (FHL) and Associate Professor in the MIT Department of Architecture and the Program in Art, Culture, and Technology. Raafat Majzoub, an architect, artist, and writer, is Director of The Khan: The Arab Association for Prototyping Cultural Practices and Editor-in-Chief of the Dongola Architecture Series. Melina Philippou, an architect and urbanist, is Program Director of the MIT Future Heritage Lab, founder of Trapezui: Marble Objecthoods and Associate at the Department of City Planning, Ministry of Interior in Cyprus. Moderator: John Tirman is the executive director and a principal research scientist at MIT's Center for International Studies. Tirman is author, or coauthor and editor, of fourteen books on international affairs, including, Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American Backlash (MIT Press, 2015) and The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars (Oxford University Press, 2011). About the book, Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp: The power of art and design to create a life worth living: designs, inventions, and artworks from the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan. This book shows how refugees use art and design to transform their living environments, restoring humanity within circumstances that seem aimed at depriving them of it. Featuring more than twenty projects created by Syrian refugees at the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan, Design to Live offers a new way of understanding design as a subversive worldmaking practice and as tool for reclaiming agency in conditions of forced displacement. The projects—including a vertical garden, an arrangement necessitated by regulations that forbid planting on the ground; a front hall, fashioned to protect privacy; a baby swing, made from recycled school desks; and a chess set, carved from broomsticks—showcase the discrepancy between standardized humanitarian design and the real sociocultural needs of refugees.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, Refugees, and Humanitarian Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
82. The Culture-Promotion Effect of Multinationals on Trade: the IKEA case
- Author:
- Dylan Bourny, Daniel Mirza, and Jamel Saadaoui
- Publication Date:
- 07-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
- Abstract:
- In this paper, we investigate how some MNEs which spread their home culture over time and space to the rest of the world are affecting, in turn, trade flows from home. By selling products embodying cultural information related to their country of origin, those MNEs embrace the role of ambassadors of their home country. We argue that IKEA offers an ideal case to identify a multinational's culture-promotion effect on trade. We build a dataset on IKEA's presence in foreign markets between 1995 and 2015 and merge it with disaggregated product level trade between pairs of countries. We find solid evidence of an externality linked to IKEA: a setting of an IKEA new store in a destination increases trade flows by around 2% from Sweden for products that resemble to what the multinational offers (despite being completely unrelated to that multinational). This result is driven primarily by the products identified to encompass a high-cultural content. Other robustness checks and tests seem to be very much consistent with the hypothesis of IKEA promoting the Swedish culture to the world.
- Topic:
- Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Culture, and Multinational Corporations
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
83. A Salute to Cultural Diplomacy and Those Who Make It Possible
- Author:
- Renee M. Earle
- Publication Date:
- 08-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- American Diplomacy
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- What do James Brown, Joseph Heller, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and the U.S. Sixth Fleet Band have in common? They all supported U.S. cultural diplomacy abroad. Not all of our cultural ambassadors are as famous— most are not — but together a very wide variety of American artists, performers, and writers have had positive impact on the image of the United States throughout the world. U.S. cultural diplomacy also includes many examples of citizen diplomacy and philanthropy, whether in partnership with U.S. embassies or independently. Together, these programs positively project our values abroad.
- Topic:
- Culture, Soft Power, and Cultural Diplomacy
- Political Geography:
- Turkey, France, North America, Brussels, Czech Republic, and United States of America
84. Language and Cultural Immersion Build Effective Communication
- Author:
- Bruce K. Byers
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- American Diplomacy
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- Foreign language competency and cultural understanding are acknowledged as important skills for diplomats. While many Foreign Service Officers receive such training in Washington before going to an overseas assignment, few have the opportunity for the deep cultural and language immersion that I enjoyed as part of my first assignment for the U.S. Information Agency (USIA). In early 1972, after completing seven months of Farsi language training at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), I was posted to USIS Tehran. My family and I arrived shortly before the Persian new year, Now Ruz, and took up residence in an embassy apartment. Dave Dubois, the Public Affairs Officer, with the concurrence of the embassy Deputy Chief of Mission and USIA’s Office of Near East and South Asian Affairs (NEA), had arranged for me to spend some time with a host family in Isfahan. It was a “deep immersion” experience in which I would continue learning Farsi and experience life with a local family for several weeks.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Culture, Language, and Memoir
- Political Geography:
- Iran, Middle East, and United States of America
85. Tabletop Debates: reflections on molokhia, identity, and forks vs spoons
- Author:
- Antonio Tahhan
- Publication Date:
- 08-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
- Abstract:
- Molokhia—an iconic Middle Eastern and North African soup—can be notoriously slimy. But when I lived in Aleppo, my aunt taught me three tricks to keep the slime at bay: first, leave the molokhia leaves whole (as opposed to chopped); second, squeeze a lemon over the leaves as soon as you add them to the pot; and third, do not overcook them. “This is how we cook molokhia,” my aunt said. The “we” was vague. Did she mean Aleppans? Other Syrians? “Egyptians—they make it the slimy way,” she added, raising a skeptical eyebrow. This led me to wonder: is there such a thing as a “Syrian molokhia” distinct from an “Egyptian molokhia”? In what ways does this dish unite, but also cut through, imagined national categories, in the Arab world and beyond?
- Topic:
- Food, Culture, Diversity, Identity, Molokhia, and Cooking
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and North Africa
86. How MAAS alum and food historian Anny Gaul studies cookbooks
- Author:
- Vicki Valosik
- Publication Date:
- 08-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
- Abstract:
- Cookbooks can teach us how to braise a lamb shank, thicken a sauce, or bake a perfect pie crust. But for MAAS alum Anny Gaul (’12), a cultural historian of food and gender, they can do so much more. “Cookbooks can tell us something significant about norms and ideals, what is good taste, what is good food, and how those questions are connected to who we are as a nation,” says Gaul. That is an argument Gaul explores in her recent Global Food History article “From Kitchen Arabic to Recipes for Good Taste: Nation, Empire, and Race in Egyptian Cookbooks.” In Gaul’s paper, which earned her the Global Food History Prize for an Emerging Food Historian, she takes a deep dive into a unique literary sub-genre: cookbooks written by Egyptian women between the 1880s and 1950s. This was a period in Egypt, says Gaul, when female literacy was on the rise, girls were going to school in greater numbers, and women were beginning to pursue degrees abroad. Domestic science was a popular choice, with programs in England and Europe training female students to run efficient and modern home kitchens. A cohort of these women returned to Egypt to author cookbooks that would become widely influential, finding receptive audiences among the country’s emerging middle-class housewives, as well as the public education system, which often adopted their books as home economics texts.
- Topic:
- History, Food, and Culture
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and North Africa
87. MENA Photography: More than your eyes can see
- Author:
- Lyne Sneige, Iman Ali, and Samar Hazboun
- Publication Date:
- 08-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Middle East Institute (MEI)
- Abstract:
- MEI Arts and Culture Center Director Lyne Sneige speaks with photographers Iman Ali and Samar Hazboun, who are featured in MEI's latest gallery exhibition "More Than Your Eyes Can See: Contemporary Photography from the Arab World" - curated by Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah and in partnership with Tribe Magazine.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, and Photography
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and North Africa
88. Between the Sky and the Earth: Contemporary Art from the UAE
- Author:
- Afra Aldhaheri and Asma Belhamar
- Publication Date:
- 02-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Middle East Institute (MEI)
- Abstract:
- Afra Aldhaheri and Asma Belhamar, two featured artists in the MEI Art Gallery’s latest exhibition, Between the Sky and the Earth: Contemporary Art from the UAE, join MEI’s Lyne Sneige to discuss the inspirations and artistic processes behind their pieces in the show.
- Topic:
- Development, Arts, and Culture
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, United Arab Emirates, and Gulf Nations
89. Policy Papers by Women of Color: Decolonizing International Development
- Author:
- Tamara White, Aisha White, Gabrielle B. Gueye, Daniet Moges, and Eliza Gueye
- Publication Date:
- 02-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS)
- Abstract:
- This series explores a handful of scenarios where colonial legacies surface in international development and humanitarian aid work, from staffing and institution building to food aid and global tourism. Exploring these topics and seeking to deconstruct the systems and structures that impede success in development and humanitarian efforts is critically important in ensuring that we ultimately meet global goals and restore integrity to our sector. Many believe international development and humanitarian aid are irreconcilable and that this work is an extension of colonialism, but our constituency believes that there is hope in transforming the sector and shifting power to those who should rightfully own this work and reap the benefits of development.
- Topic:
- Development, Humanitarian Aid, Tourism, Culture, Neoliberalism, Decolonization, Institutions, COVID-19, and Food Assistance
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus and United States of America
90. Korean Soft Power Goals and US-Korea Relations
- Author:
- Jenna Gibson
- Publication Date:
- 07-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- Jenna Gibson, a PhD Candidate at the University of Chicago, explains why "listing off credibly popular cultural products coming out of South Korea and calling it soft power rings hollow" and how declarations of this type obscure the concept of soft power.
- Topic:
- Bilateral Relations, Culture, and Soft Power
- Political Geography:
- Asia, South Korea, North America, and United States of America
91. The Legal Role of Government in Protecting Cultural Heritage and Archaeological Sites in the War-Affected Countries: The Case of Iraq and Syria
- Author:
- Rukhsar Ahmad
- Publication Date:
- 06-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Liberty and International Affairs
- Institution:
- Institute for Research and European Studies (IRES)
- Abstract:
- Conserving cultural heritage and archaeological sites have become a serious national concern in the Middle East for the war-affected countries, including Iraq and Syria. Because looting and violence have caused massive destruction of cultural heritage and archaeological sites, this study aimed to analyze the legal background concerning the protection of cultural heritage and archaeological sites in the context of Iraq and Syria during 2014 with the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). This study used the content analysis method and cross-country analyses for Iraq and Syria. The study is guided by two main questions: What is the government's legal role in protecting cultural heritage and archaeological sites? Are there any legal authorities in Iraq and Syria to protect cultural heritage and archaeological sites during war and conflict? In the end, this paper suggests that protecting cultural heritage is the legal responsibility of government which is supposed to be enforced in the legal foundation of the state as a national sovereign power.
- Topic:
- War, Governance, Culture, Legal Theory, Heritage, and Archaeology
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Middle East, and Syria
92. Book Talk. Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic Art: Political and Social Perspectives
- Publication Date:
- 02-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute for a presentation of the book Contemporary Ukrainian Art and Baltic Art: Political and Social Perspectives (ibidem Press, 2021). The event will feature presentations by the volume’s editor Svitlana Biedarieva and contributors Ieva Astahovska, Olena Martynyuk, and Margaret Tali with moderator Mark Andryczyk (Harriman Institute). This volume focuses on political and social expressions in contemporary art of Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. It explores the transformations that art in Ukraine and the Baltic states has undergone since their independence in 1991, discussing how the conflicts and challenges of the last three decades have impacted the reconsideration of identity and fostered resistance of culture against economic and political crises. It analyzes connections between the past and the present as seen by the artists in these countries and looks at their visions of the future. Contemporary Ukrainian art portrays various perspectives, addressing issues from controversial historical topics to the present military conflict in the East of the country. Baltic art speaks out against the erasure of past historical traumas and analyzes the pertinence of its cultural scene to the European community. The contributions in this collection open a discussion of whether there is a single paradigm that describes the contemporary processes of art production in Ukraine and the Baltic countries. With contributions by Ieva Astahovska, Svitlana Biedarieva, Kateryna Botanova, Olena Martynyuk, Vytautas Michelkevičius, Lina Michelkevičė, Margaret Tali, and Jessica Zychowicz.
- Topic:
- Nationalism, Arts, Culture, and Identity
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia
93. Internationalist Aesthetics: China and Early Soviet Culture by Edward Tyerman
- Publication Date:
- 02-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- Following the failure of communist revolutions in Europe, in the 1920s the Soviet Union turned its attention to fostering anticolonial uprisings in Asia. China, divided politically between rival military factions and dominated economically by imperial powers, emerged as the Comintern’s prime target. At the same time, a host of prominent figures in Soviet literature, film, and theater traveled to China, met with Chinese students in Moscow, and placed contemporary China on the new Soviet stage. They sought to reimagine the relationship with China in the terms of socialist internationalism—and, in the process, determine how internationalism was supposed to look and feel in practice. Internationalist Aesthetics offers a groundbreaking account of the crucial role that China played in the early Soviet cultural imagination. Edward Tyerman tracks how China became the key site for Soviet debates over how the political project of socialist internationalism should be mediated, represented, and produced. The central figure in this story, the avant-garde writer Sergei Tret’iakov, journeyed to Beijing in the 1920s and experimented with innovative documentary forms in an attempt to foster a new sense of connection between Chinese and Soviet citizens. Reading across genres and media from reportage and biography to ballet and documentary film, Tyerman shows how Soviet culture sought an aesthetics that could foster a sense of internationalist community. He reveals both the aspirations and the limitations of this project, illuminating a crucial chapter in Sino-Russian relations. Grounded in extensive sources in Russian and Chinese, this cultural history bridges Slavic and East Asian studies and offers new insight into the transnational dynamics that shaped socialist aesthetics and politics in both countries.
- Topic:
- Nationalism, Arts, Culture, and Identity
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Soviet Union
94. Book Talk. La Nijinska by Lynn Garafola
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- Overshadowed in life and legend by her brother Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska had a far longer and more productive career. An architect of twentieth-century neoclassicism, she experienced the transformative power of the Russian Revolution and created her greatest work - Les Noces - under the influence of its avant-garde. Many of her ballets rested on the probing of gender boundaries, a mistrust of conventional gender roles, and the heightening of the ballerina's technical and artistic prowess. A prominent member of Russia Abroad, she worked with leading figures of twentieth-century art, music, and ballet, including Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Poulenc, Alexandra Exter, Natalia Goncharova, Frederick Ashton, Alicia Markova, and Maria Tallchief. She was also a remarkable dancer in her own right with a bravura technique and powerful stage presence that enabled her to perform an unusually broad repertory. Finally, she was the author of an acclaimed volume of memoirs in addition to a major treatise on movement. Nijinska's career sheds new light on the modern history of ballet and of modernism more generally, recuperating the memory of lost works and forgotten artists, many of them women. But it also reveals the sexism pervasive in the upper echelons of the early and mid-twentieth-century ballet world, barriers that women choreographers still confront. Lynn Garafola is Professor Emerita of Dance at Barnard College, Columbia University. A dance historian and critic, she is the author of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and Legacies of Twentieth-Century Dance, and the editor of several books, including The Diaries of Marius Petipa, André Levinson on Dance (with Joan Acocella), José Limón: An Unfinished Memoir, and The Ballets Russes and Its World. She has curated several exhibitions, including Dance for a City: Fifty Years of the New York City Ballet, New York Story: Jerome Robbins and His World, Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath, and, most recently, Arthur Mitchell: Harlem's Ballet Trailblazer.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, Feminism, Russian Revolution, and Gender
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Europe
95. Finding Common Ground: Intercultural Dialogue Among Youth in North Macedonia
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- Marija Krstevska will discuss her trajectory as a girl raised in a mono-ethnic environment to a young advocate for intercultural acceptance. She is the Secretary General of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue, a youth organization in Kumanovo, North Macedonia. Through that organization, she has created learning opportunities within non-formal education for diverse groups of learners, advocated for direct involvement in community decision-making, and supported youth participation through inclusive policies. She will discuss the importance of active citizenship, capacity building, and non-formal education in fostering intercultural dialogue among youth.
- Topic:
- Education, Culture, Youth, Activism, and Gender
- Political Geography:
- Europe and North Macedonia
96. Eyes that Lead: The History of Guide Dogs for the Blind in East Central Europe and Beyond
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- The lecture explores a hitherto overlooked episode in the history of the human-animal relations: the establishment of professional guide dog training after the First World War, which had its origins in Central Europe. Under this scheme, dogs became helpers, and, furthermore, equal partners to disabled soldiers and soon thereafter also to blind civilians. The lecture shows how the resultant cooperation between guide dogs and their owners placed the human–animal bond on a new footing. It also reveals how an idea initiated by veterans of the German and Austro-Hungarian army spread across the world and what adjustments were necessary to make the scheme suitable for different economic, cultural and social settings. In a broader context the lecture seeks to call attention to the potentials of the burgeoning fields of animal studies and disability histories for the study of East Central Europe.
- Topic:
- Culture, Disability, and Animals
- Political Geography:
- Europe
97. Byzantium as Seen by the White Russians in Constantinople
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- The Harriman Institute
- Abstract:
- or the broad public in pre-revolutionary Russia, Byzantium belonged to religious discourse; it also became a battle cry for Russian imperialism. And, by an irony of history, it was that long-coveted Byzantium that greeted the White Russians as they, orphaned refugees, disembarked in Constantinople following their defeat in the Civil War. What sentiments did the Byzantine monuments inspire in them? It appears that their attitudes were more nuanced than pure nostalgia or dismissal. Sergey A. Ivanov is a member of the British Academy. He has published more than 200 scholarly works on Byzantine culture and the relations between Byzantium and the Slavs. Among his monographs are Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond (Oxford, 2006), “Pearls Before Swine:” Missionary Work in Byzantium (Paris, 2015) and "Византийская культура и агиография" (Moscow, 2020, Byzantine Culture and Hagiography). His guidebook "В поисках Константинополя" was first published in Russian in 2011, went through three editions and was translated into Bulgarian and Turkish. It was published in English as In Search of Constantinople. A Guidebook Through Byzantine Istanbul and Its Surroundings in March 2022.
- Topic:
- Culture, Urban, Cities, and Monuments
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Turkey, and Istanbul
98. China and America: From Trade War to Race and Culture Confrontation
- Author:
- Walter Woon
- Publication Date:
- 03-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- PRISM
- Institution:
- Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University
- Abstract:
- The Thucydides Trap is an intellectual trap for the unwary when uncritically applied to China. China is not a rising power; it is a returning power. The psychology is different. Misapprehending the nature of the problem will exacerbate it. First and foremost, it is essential to recognize that it is not “China” and “the Chinese” that challenge America’s dominance. America’s adversary is the People’s Republic of China (PRC) led by the Communist Party of China (CCP). The Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan has been an ally of America since World War II. The millions of people of Chinese descent abroad are not automatically aligned with the PRC. To refer unthinkingly to the “Chinese” challenge is intellectually flabby and politically misguided.
- Topic:
- Race, Culture, Trade Wars, and Strategic Competition
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, North America, and United States of America
99. Field-by-Field Changes in China since Covid-19 and Implications for Korea
- Author:
- Jai Chul Heo
- Publication Date:
- 03-2021
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
- Abstract:
- China has been able to escape from the Covid-19 outbreak relatively quickly compared to other countries. Nevertheless, it still remains greatly influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic across its politics, economy, society, culture, and other areas, which has led to various changes throughout China. Therefore, this study comprehensively examined the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on various aspects of Chinese politics, economy, society, and culture. And in response to these changes in Chinese society, the study explores new strategies toward China in the post-Covid-19 era.
- Topic:
- Politics, Culture, Economy, COVID-19, and Society
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, and Korea
100. Narrating Memories of the Homeland Paris Based Syrian Artists Reflect on the War
- Author:
- Vanessa Badre, Lyne Sneige, Kate Seelye, Denis Quenelle, Nagham Hodaifa, and Bady Dalloul
- Publication Date:
- 04-2021
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Middle East Institute (MEI)
- Abstract:
- The Middle East Institute's Arts and Culture Center and The Cultural Services of the French Embassy are pleased to host a conversation with leading Syrian contemporary artists, Bady Dalloul and Nagham Hodaifa. The Paris-based artists will reflect on the past decade of conflict and trauma, its impact and influence on their work and their relationship to their homeland. They will be joined by Lyne Sneige, the Director of the Arts & Culture Center at the Middle East Institute. Dalloul grew up in France, the son of prominent Syrian artists. His work confronts the notion of what is real and imagined while challenging the process of writing history. Hodaifa, who left Syria in 2005 to pursue her studies, explores the human condition through the representation of the body. Both artists are in the current MEI Art Gallery exhibit In This Moonless Black Night: Syrian Art After the Uprising, featuring leading contemporary Syrian artists chronicling the hope, trauma, and pain of the past decade through their practice. The artists will be in conversation with Vanessa Badré, art historian, lawyer, and faculty fellow at American University.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, Conflict, Trauma, Syrian War, and Memory
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, France, and Syria