Illinois International Review, University of Illinois

Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal

2007-05-29T17:52:17Z

Kathryn Hargrave and Anne Ratteree
Students, College of Fine and Applied Arts
Images courtesy of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History

Events surrounding an award-winning exhibition at the Krannert Art Museum: “A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal,” curated by UCLA’s Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, saw the University of Illinois campus abuzz with energy in fall 2006. The subject matter explored in the exhibition was the visual culture inspired by Sheikh Amadou Bamba, an important Muslim religious leader of Senegal in the early 20th century. Followers of Bamba, known as Mourides, are not only located in Senegal, but across the globe.
The exhibition fostered an environment of understanding and education within the Champaign-Urbana community. A seminar taught by Assistant Professor Dana Rush brought together both undergraduate and graduate students in art history, fine arts, art education, African studies, and anthropology. To introduce the local and the university communities to this unique exhibition and the basic underpinnings of the Mouride way, the students in the seminar focused their energy on preparing for the exhibition opening, giving exhibition tours, and performing outreach trips to local schools. The seminar allowed for the community to explore more fully the life of Sheikh Amadou Bamba, his preaching, the Mouride way, and Senegalese visual culture.
In addition, there was a day-long symposium, which included participation from the Mouride community, to introduce Champaign-Urbana to the arts and interwoven culture that is “A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal.”
Through the artifacts and art objects illustrated here, more can be understood about Sheikh Amadou Bamba’s teachings and the visual culture of Senegal’s urban centers.

Historic photo of Sheikh Amadou Bamba Djourbel, Senegal, 1913 Photo by Don Cole

“It is said that wherever the Holy Man’s image can be found, it instantly changes the environment. It comes directly from the Holy Man. Whenever you enter the room, all you need to do is look at the picture.”
—Mor Gueye, Sengalese Glass Painter
It is unlikely that another image exists, facilitating such a strong visual culture as the infinitely reproduced 1913 photo of Mouride religious leader Sheikh Amadou Bamba. This black and white photograph, the only photograph of the Saint, has been reproduced across nearly every medium because of the Mouride belief that the Saint is found in his image. Representations directly derived from the photograph are visible everywhere in the streets of Senegalese cities such as Touba and Dakar.

Mor Gueye Noah’s Ark, 1992 Reverse glass painting Glass, paint, cardboard and tape 57.7 x 71.5 cm Private Collection Photo by Don Cole

Familiar to Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike, this reverse glass painting by Senegalese artist Mor Gueye depicts Noah’s Ark, as the Qur’an shares many stories with the Old Testament. While glass paintings like Mor Gueye’s are primarily a tourist trade today, these paintings are derived from banned Islamic prints depicting religious scenes. When prohibited by the French colonialists, Sufi artists copied the images by placing a plate of glass atop the print and copying it.
Gueye considers the act of painting to be a form of prayer, as Sheikh Amadou Bamba believed work to be prayer. Popular with tourists, Gueye finds himself painting many scenes having little to do with Bamba; however, he believes that solely by having images of the Sheikh amongst the souvenir images, he is able to transmit a blessed energy referred to by Mourides as baraka onto passing tourists.

Pape Mamadou Samb (Papisto Boy) Painted mural detail showing Reverend Martin Luther King and the Archangel Gabriel in the form of a dove, 1997–1998 Dakar, Senegal Photograph by Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, 1999

This image comes from a six hundred-foot mural by Mouride artist Pape Mamadou Samb (better known as “Papisto Boy”), which was painted on the exterior of factory walls in an industrial neighborhood of the port of Dakar. However, the wall was later torn down and the mural was destroyed. Through his devotional works, Papisto educates people about Amadou Bamba. He calls upon a panoply of global freedom fighters, heroes of resistance, revolutionaries, and “messengers”of the Saint. Portraits of Che Guevara, Jimi Hendrix, and Martin Luther King can be discerned among more local personalities.
In this section, we see the lion of courage gazing at the Reverend Martin Luther King. The Archangel Gabriel, a popular icon within Mouride art, brings Dr. King the Holy Bible as a gift from God, in the form of a dove. According to Papisto “Martin Luther King fought against oppression and evil. He didn’t fight for Senegal, but he fought for the whole world. He is like Amadou Bamba who blesses our hearts because he has endured sadness in order to encourage us and to give us freedom.”

Viye Diba Musical Materiality, 1998 Wood, cloth, paint and cordage 156.6 x 168 cm UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History Photo by Don Cole

Viye Diba was trained in art education at the National School of Fine Arts in Dakar, where he also has worked as a professor. His education continued at the Teachers’ College for Art Education in Dakar. Diba remains interested in the environment and considers himself a researcher as he continues to teach and make art.
Musical Materiality is a departure into freestanding sculpture from Diba’s more two-dimensional work. The pendant pieces of distressed wood wrapped in cloth make several references at once: to the keys of balaphones (marimbas), a Senegalese instrument, hence the materialization of their music; to the space of Senegalese dance and theatricality; and to the clubs and patchwork clothing of Baye Falls, who live Amadou Bamba’s phenomenology of work and the sense of “unity in diversity” one gains from the Saint’s teaching.

Restaurant Doors depicting Sheikh Amadou Bamba Artist unknown Dakar, Senegal Mid to late 20th Century Paint on metal 205 x 65.5 cm, each UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History Photo by Don Cole

A representation of the visual culture of Senegal, these bakery doors have meticulously beautiful representations of Sheikh Amadou Bamba and his first and most ardent disciple, Sheikh Ibra Fall. From the capital city of Senegal, these doors are only one sample of many places of work in Dakar with images of the Saint. Ibra Fall is often shown in the workplace because he led a life of constant work.
Similar to the photograph of Bamba, there is merely one photograph of Ibra Fall, and all representations are derivatives of the photograph. An anonymous Mouride told Mary and Allen Roberts, “Work becomes a privileged instrument for reinforcing faith, a powerful tool for controlling passions and appetites, a source of spiritual elevation.”

Elimane Fall Le Travail (Work), 1999 Paint, Linen, wood, and nails 40”x 28” UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History Photo by Don Cole

“Work as if you’ll never die.”
—Sheikh Amadou Bamba
In conjunction with the exhibition, Senegalese artist Elimane Fall visited the University of Illinois campus to discuss his painting and its connections to the teachings of both Amadou Bamba and Ibra Fall. Elimane paints followers of Ibra Fall in a movement by the name of Baye Fall; hard working, simple living, devout followers of both Ibra Fall and Amadou Bamba sacrifice their belongings and live a life of work and prayer.
Incorporated in Le Travail (Work) is Arabic calligraphy and Mouride Iconography depicted in Elimane’s highly graphic paint handling. The text states, “In the Name of God, most Gracious, most Merciful” and “Blessedness for a servant of God, a faithful seeker.” Amadou Bamba is said to have written seven metric tons during his lifetime despite being illiterate. Represented here alongside the Saint’s verse are images of Bamba, Ibra Fall, a Baye Fall disciple, and the largest pilgrimage site of Senegal, the burial ground of Bamba: Touba.

Image of Amadou Bamba on a sidewalk shop selling hubcaps near the Great Mosque of Dakar Photo by Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, 1994

Passersby are assured that Mourides run the shop, and that the Saint will bless them should they decide to purchase something there.
This shop is a small example of the many ways Bamba is represented in Senegalese visual culture. Mourides believe that imagery of Bamba holds baraka, a term closely related to divine grace. According to Mary and Allen Roberts “baraka bestows physical superabundance and prosperity, and psychological happiness.” Therefore, when looking at this particular sidewalk shop, according to the Mourides, one is receiving baraka. In Dakar, visual culture can help people address and resolve everyday problems.

Japan: Confronting the Challenges of the 21st Century

2007-11-20T20:52:48Z

David G. Goodman, Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures

photo by David GoodmanJapan’s success was not preordained. A mountainous, densely forested archipelago with scarce natural resources where less than 15 percent of the land is suitable for agriculture, Japan nevertheless sustains a population of over 127 million and boasts the second-largest economy in the world. It is a parliamentary democracy with a free press, universal literacy, and a life expectancy that is second to none. The Japanese are keenly aware of the fragility of their achievements. Sixty years ago, the country lay in ruins, the casualty of its own disastrous policies and behavior. There were many

Japanese who believed the nation would never recover. It rose literally from the ashes to become a leading world power. The ability of Japanese leaders and the Japanese people to quickly come to an accommodation with their American conqueror and occupier was the most important reason for Japan’s resurrection. Watching Iraq tear itself apart today under U.S. occupation, Japan’s singleness of purpose and the alacrity of its response are all the more impressive. Virtually overnight, the Japanese people transformed themselves from “100 million balls of fire” (as Japanese wartime propaganda put it) to “100 million penitents.” They dedicated themselves to recovery and reintegration into the world system. There was dissent, of course, but since 1960 there has been no serious challenge to the national consensus. The new constitution, written in English by Occupation personnel and translated into Japanese, which Japan adopted in 1947, was also of overarching importance. The extremely idealistic document, which among other things stipulated equal rights for women and famously declared in Article 9 that Japan would eternally foreswear the maintenance of armed forces and the use of war as an instrument of national policy, also shaped postwar Japan. The Cold War solidified the bond between Japan and the U.S. In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party took control of China, and in 1950 the Korean War began. The United States needed Japan as a “bulwark against Communism” in the Far East, and Japan benefited from the stimulation to its economy provided by U.S. bases in Japan and by its economic relationship with the United States. The U.S. encouraged Japan’s economic recovery, transferring technology at bargain-basement prices; and the Japanese dedicated themselves to developing their industrial base and accepted what the historian John Dower has called a relationship of “subordinate independence” with the United States. By the 1960s, Japan was enjoying sustained double-digit growth and was well on its way to becoming an economic superpower. The problems Japan faces today are in large measure the consequence of adjustments to this postwar arrangement. By the 1980s, Japan was no longer an economic protégé of the U.S. but was regarded with suspicion by many Americans as a predatory competitor. And with the end of the Cold War, Japan was no longer essential as an anti-communist ally, and criticism of Japan’s cleavage to Article 9 and its unwillingness “to pull its own weight” in defense matters mounted. These criticisms reached a crescendo during the first Gulf War of 1990-91, when Japan argued that its constitution barred it from participating in the anti-Saddam alliance. The U.S. charged that Japan was content to sit on the sidelines, reaping profits while American blood was being spilt to protect Japan’s vital Middle East oil supply. Stung by this criticism, the Japanese government ultimately contributed an estimated $13 billion to defray the cost of the war. But feelings of humiliation were not easily dissipated and reinforced longstanding calls by conservatives to revise the constitution to allow Japan to contribute to its own defense and regional security in a way commensurate with its economic power. Despite the prohibitions of Article 9, Japan has one of the strongest militaries in the world, with 240,000 personnel under arms. Its military expenditures for 2006 were $43.7 billion, fifth largest in the world after the U.S., Britain, France, and China. As of January 2007, the Japan Defense Agency was upgraded to a cabinet-level Ministry of Defense. Japan justifies its possession of a military on the basis of the inalienable right to self-defense and has historically refused to become involved in international conflicts. Since the Gulf War debacle, however, the government has implemented laws that make it possible for Japan to participate in non-combat and support roles. This enabled Japan to send 600 troops to Iraq in a non-combat capacity in 2004 (they withdrew in 2006). Japan also contributes one-fifth of the U.N.’s budget for peacekeeping operations. Japan faces real threats. North Korea possesses nuclear weapons and has successfully tested missiles that are capable of hitting Japan. China is steadily arming itself and becoming more assertive. Middle East instability threatens Japan’s oil supply. Despite these challenges, the Japanese people strongly oppose revision of their “peace constitution,” recently forcing a conference on constitutional revision planned for this April to be postponed until 2010 at the earliest. The source of Japan’s power is its economy, but the Japanese economy is being sorely tested. Japan emerged only recently from a prolonged period of economic stagnation, recession, and deflation that lasted more than a decade. The aftermath of the “bubble economy” of the 1980s, which collapsed in 1989-90, continues to be felt; and competition from China, Korea, Taiwan, and most recently India have exacerbated the situation. The most serious threat to Japan’s economy, though, is domestic. With a birthrate of only 1.23 births per woman of childbearing age in 2006 (est.), far below the replacement rate of 2.1, the Japanese population will decline in coming years. The United Nations Population Division has predicted that, at current birth rates, the Japanese population will fall from a current high of more than 127 million to close to 100 million by 2050. With an average life expectancy of 81.25 years, the longest in the world, Japan is a rapidly aging society that will soon become a land of retirees supported precariously by a narrowing base of taxpaying workers. Immigration is one possible solution to this problem. The United Nations estimates that Japan could maintain its labor force at current levels if it allowed 600,000 new immigrants into Japan each year. For comparison, the United Kingdom, another island nation, admitted just 147,700 immigrants in 2004. Japan has little history of large-scale immigration and prides itself on the homogeneity of its population, so this is an unthinkable figure. Admitting any significant number of immigrants, many Japanese fear, would alter Japanese culture beyond recognition. Moreover, they regard present-day European and American struggles to assimilate large immigrant populations as a warning to avoid this path. Another obvious solution to the population crisis is for Japanese women to have more babies. The government and conservative moralists avidly promote this idea. But Japan also needs women to work. Twenty-seven million Japanese women have jobs, constituting nearly half the Japanese labor force. An increasing number of women are opting to postpone marriage—or not marry at all—and continue working. The average age for a Japanese woman to marry was 27.8 in 2004, and on average she had her first baby at 28.9. By contrast, American women marry two and a half years earlier and have their first baby at 25.2. There were 5.7 marriages per thousand people in Japan in 2004, compared to 7.5 in the U.S. Despite their importance in the workforce, however, women’s talents are not fully utilized. Japan ranks forty-second, just above Macedonia, on the scale of “gender empowerment” of the United Nations Development Program. Japanese women occupy only 10.1 percent of managerial positions compared to 42.5 percent for women in the U.S. Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan virtually without interruption for more than 60 years, wants to meet these challenges by adjusting and reinforcing Japan’s postwar system. It is seeking to reinforce the resolve of the Japanese people through the systematic inculcation of patriotism in the schools, which since 1999 have been required by law to fly the national flag and sing the national anthem, both of which are controversial because of wartime associations. New textbooks have been approved that seek to instill pride by minimizing Japan’s wartime aggression and emphasizing heroic self-sacrifice for the nation. Viewed as a glorification of Japanese imperialism, this has caused outrage among Japan’s Asian neighbors, creating a major foreign policy headache for Japan. The Japanese believe that a strong system of international institutions insulates them from the caprices of power politics and allows them to exercise their influence in the international arena. Japan is the world’s second largest donor to the United Nations, contributing more than 19 percent of the U.N.’s budget; and with U.S. support Japan continues to lobby for a permanent seat on the Security Council. Japan has also become more assertive bilaterally and multilaterally. In August, Prime Minister Abe made an official visit to India, seeking to strengthen ties with the South Asian nation as a counterweight to China; and Japan is actively involved in Middle East diplomacy and efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite significant challenges, both foreign and domestic, Japan, with its highly educated and hardworking population and its strong relationship with the U.S., will remain a stable and estimable force in the world for the foreseeable future.

Ramanujan

2007-11-20T21:13:41Z

Bruce C. Berndt, Professor of Mathematics

While a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, I first learned about Srinivasa Ramanujan, who is generally regarded as India’s greatest mathematician.A few years later while teaching at the University of Glasgow, Professor Robert Rankin, who was a former student of G. H. Hardy, asked me if I wanted to examine his copy of Ramanujan’s notebooks. I told Rankin that I was not interested. However, seven years later in 1974 at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, while on my first sabbatical leave from the University of Illinois, my research yielded a connection with some formulas of Ramanujan that are found in

his notebooks, and I quickly became absorbed by Ramanujan’s mathematics. More than 30 years later, that obsession continues. Who was Ramanujan? What was so special about his notebooks? Who was Hardy and what was his association with Ramanujan? Why have Ramanujan’s notebooks and his “lost notebook” dominated my thoughts since 1974? Most famous mathematicians were educated at renowned centers of learning and were taught by inspiring teachers, if not by distinguished research mathematicians. The one exception to this rule is Ramanujan, born on December 22, 1887 in Erode in the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. He lived most of his life in Kumbakonam, located to the east of Erode and about 250 kilometers south-southwest of Madras (Chennai). At an early age, he won prizes for his mathematical prowess—not mathematics books as one might surmise, but books of English poetry, reflecting British colonial rule at that time. At the age of about 15, he borrowed a copy of G. S. Carr’s Synopsis of Pure and Applied Mathematics, which was the most influential book in his development. Carr was a tutor and compiled this compendium of approximately 4,000-5,000 results (with very few proofs) to facilitate his tutoring at Cambridge and London. One or two years later, Ramanujan entered the Government College of Kumbakonam, often called “the Cambridge of South India,” because of its excellent academic standards. By this time, Ramanujan was consumed by mathematics and would not seriously study any other subject. Consequently, he failed his examinations at the end of the first year and lost his scholarship. Because his family was poor, Ramanujan was forced to terminate his formal education. At about the time Ramanujan entered college, he began to record his mathematical discoveries in notebooks. Living in poverty with no means of financial support, suffering at times from serious illnesses (including two long bouts of dysentery), and working in isolation, Ramanujan devoted all of his efforts in the next five years to mathematics, while continuing to record his discoveries without proofs in notebooks. In 1909, Ramanujan married S. Janaki, who was only nine years old. More pressure was therefore put upon him to find a job, and so in 1910 he arranged a meeting with V. Ramaswami Ayyar, who had founded the Indian Mathematical Society three years earlier and who was working as a deputy collector. After Ramanujan showed V. R. Ayyar his notebooks, the latter contacted R. Ramachandra Rao, collector in the town of Nellore, north of Madras, who agreed to provide Ramanujan with a monthly stipend so that he could continue to work unabatedly on mathematics and not worry about having a job. In 1910, with the financial support of Rao, Ramanujan moved to Madras. For reasons that are unclear, after 15 months, Ramanujan declined further support and subsequently became a clerk in the Madras Port Trust Office, where he was encouraged, especially, by Sir Francis Spring and S. Narayana Aiyar, chairman and chief accountant, respectively. They persuaded Ramanujan to write English mathematicians about his mathematical discoveries. One of them, G. H. Hardy, professor of mathematics at Cambridge University and one of the foremost analysts and number theorists in the 20th century, responded encouragingly and invited Ramanujan to come to Cambridge to develop his mathematical gifts. Ramanujan’s family was Aiyangar, a conservative orthodox branch in the Brahmin tradition, and his mother especially was adamantly opposed to her son’s “crossing the seas” and thereby becoming “unclean.” After overcoming family reluctance, Ramanujan boarded a passenger ship for England on March 17, 1914. At about this time, Ramanujan evidently stopped recording his theorems in notebooks. That Ramanujan no longer concentrated on logging entries in his notebooks is evident from two letters that he wrote friends in Madras during his first year in England. In a letter of November 13, 1914 to his friend R. Krishna Rao, Ramanujan confided, “I have changed my plan of publishing my results. I am not going to publish any of the old results in my notebooks till the war is over.” And in a letter dated January 7, 1915 to S. M. Subramanian, Ramanujan admitted, “I am doing my work very slowly. My notebook is sleeping in a corner for these four or five months. I am publishing only my present researches as I have not yet proved the results in my notebooks rigorously.’’ On March 24, 1915, near the end of his first winter in Cambridge, Ramanujan wrote his friend E. Vinayaka Row in Madras, “I was not well till the beginning of this term owing to the weather and consequently I couldn’t publish anything for about five months.’’ By the end of his third year in England, Ramanujan was critically ill, and, for the next two years, he was confined to nursing homes. After World War I ended, Ramanujan returned home in March 1919, but his health continued to deteriorate, and on April 26, 1920 Ramanujan died at the age of 32. In both England and India, Ramanujan was treated for tuberculosis, but his symptoms did not match those of the disease. More recently, an English physician, D. A. B. Young, carefully examined all extant records and symptoms of Ramanujan’s illness and convincingly concluded that Ramanujan suffered from hepatic amoebiasis, a parasitic infection of the liver. Amoebiasis is a protozoal infection of the large intestine that gives rise to dysentery. Relapses occur when the host-parasite relationship is disturbed, which likely happened when Ramanujan entered a colder climate. The illness is very difficult to diagnose, but once diagnosed, it can be cured. Despite being confined to nursing homes for two of his five years in England, Ramanujan made enormously important contributions to mathematics, several in collaboration with Hardy, which, although they won him immediate and lasting fame, are probably recognized and appreciated more so today than they were at that time. Most of Ramanujan’s discoveries lie in the areas of (primarily) number theory, analysis, and combinatorics, (the arrangement of or operation on discrete mathematical elements belonging to finite sets or making up geometric configurations, Source: Merriam-Webster), but they influence many modern branches of both mathematics and physics. After Ramanujan died, Hardy strongly urged that Ramanujan’s notebooks be edited and published. By “editing,’’ Hardy meant that each claim made by Ramanujan in his notebooks should be examined and proved, if a proof did not already exist. Of the three notebooks that Ramanujan left us, the second is the most extensive. The notebooks contain about 3,200–3,300 entries, almost all of them without proofs and most of them not rediscoveries, despite working without contact with other mathematicians before leaving for Cambridge. At the University of Madras, various papers and handwritten copies of all three notebooks were sent to Hardy in 1923 with the intent of bringing together all of Ramanujan’s work for publication. Ramanujan’s Collected Papers were published in 1927, but his notebooks and other manuscripts were not published. Sometime in the late 1920s, two English mathematicians, G. N. Watson and B. M. Wilson, undertook the task of editing Ramanujan’s notebooks. Wilson died prematurely in 1935, and although Watson worked for 10-15 years on the task and wrote over 30 papers inspired by Ramanujan’s mathematics, the work was never completed. It was not until 1957 that the notebooks were made available to the public when the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay published a photocopy edition, but no editing was undertaken. While residing for a year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, on a cold winter day in early February 1974, I was reading two papers by Emil Grosswald, in which some formulas from the notebooks were proved. I observed that I could prove these formulas by using a theorem I had proved two years earlier and so was naturally curious to determine if there were other formulas in the notebooks that I could prove employing my theorem. Fortunately, the library at Princeton University had a copy of the Tata Institute’s edition, and, indeed, I found a few more formulas of the same sort that I could prove. In the next three years, I divided my time between Ramanujan’s notebooks and other ongoing research. All of the aforementioned entries can be found in Chapter 14 of Ramanujan’s second notebook. After the spring semester at the University of Illinois ended in May 1977, I decided to attempt to find proofs for all 87 formulas in Chapter 14. After I worked on this project for nearly a year, George Andrews from Pennsylvania State University visited the University of Illinois and informed me that on a visit to Trinity College Library at Cambridge two years earlier, he learned that Watson and Wilson’s efforts in editing the notebooks were preserved there. The librarian kindly sent me a copy of the notes, and so with their help on certain chapters, I began to devote all of my research time toward proving the theorems stated by Ramanujan in his three notebooks. With the assistance of several mathematicians, I completed the task in five volumes over a period of 21 years. When Andrews visited Trinity College Library in 1976, he also discovered Ramanujan’s “lost notebook,’’ which was undoubtedly sent to Hardy in the aforementioned shipment of papers in 1923. Hardy likely kept it in his possession until possibly the late 1930s or early 1940s when he passed it to Watson, who, by that time, had lost his passion for Ramanujan’s work. The “lost notebook’’ was found among Watson’s papers after his death in 1965 and was sent by Rankin to Trinity College Library on December 26, 1968, where it resided until it was rediscovered by Andrews less than eight years later. The lost notebook, actually a sheaf of 138 disparate pages, contains the statements of approximately 650 theorems, all without proofs, and clearly emanates from the last year of Ramanujan’s life. The excitement among mathematicians caused by Andrews’s discovery can be compared to that which would arise in the music world from the finding of Beethoven’s tenth symphony. Along with other manuscripts and letters by Ramanujan found in the libraries at both Cambridge and Oxford, the lost notebook was finally published in 1988. In the mid-90s, I began to work with Andrews on the task of providing proofs for all the entries in this volume. Our second book on this project will be submitted to Springer in the late summer or early fall of 2007. Two or three further volumes remain to be written. Why did Ramanujan not record any of his proofs in the three earlier notebooks and lost notebook? There are perhaps several reasons. First, Ramanujan was perhaps influenced by the style of Carr’s book in which one theorem after another is stated without proof. Second, like most Indian students in his time, Ramanujan worked primarily on a slate. Paper was expensive. Thus, after rubbing out his proofs with his sleeve, Ramanujan recorded only the final results in his notebooks. Third, Ramanujan never intended that his notebooks be made available to the mathematical public. They were his own personal compilation of what he had discovered. If someone had asked him how to prove a particular result in the notebooks, undoubtedly Ramanujan felt he could remember his proof. Speculations about Ramanujan’s methods are plentiful. Many have suggested that he discovered his results by “intuition,” or by making deductions from numerous calculations, or by inspiration from Goddess Namagiri. Although any or all of these considerations may have some merit, none offer much insight. Moreover, assessments focusing on Eastern mysticism are worthless. As Ramanujan himself admitted, some of his proofs may not have been rigorous by contemporary standards. Nonetheless, despite the lack of rigor at times, Ramanujan undoubtedly thought and devised proofs like any other mathematician, but with insights that surpass all but a few of the greatest mathematicians. Andrews, the author, and others have been struggling to devise proofs of Ramanujan’s discoveries for over three decades now. But even if we are successful in finding proofs, considerable efforts still remain, as we try to uncover the veil of mist enveloping Ramanujan’s ideas, insights, and methods.

France 2007: Turning a New Leaf?

2007-11-20T21:24:45Z

Jean-Philippe Mathy, Professor of French and Comparative & World Literature Nicolas Sarkozy, the newly elected President of the French Republic, centered his campaign on the theme of “la rupture,” i.e. the promise of a decisive break from the traditional way of doing things through a series of bold social, economic and political reforms. The first hundred days of his presidency, a period the French call “the state of grace,” have provided ample evidence of Sarkozy’s carefully scripted new public style (according to a recent poll, 71% of respondents are happy with his performance so far). He introduced in the solemn surroundings of the Elysée Palace a degree of unconventional, congenial simplicity that contrasts sharply with the constrained, elegant, and somewhat stuffy protocol favored by his predecessors. The new President, an avid bicycle rider, also enjoys jogging through the neighborhood, stopping for short, impromptu conversations with passers-by or members of the Elysée staff. His youthful, energetic, engaging manner is more reminiscent of Tony Blair than of the older, more statesman-like figures of Jacques Chirac and François Mitterrand. How much of this new style is the consultant-driven image of a savvy politician, and how much of it heralds the substantial change the rhetoric of rupture is meant to convey? Sarkozy’s campaign was a masterpiece of political communication. He excelled at setting the agenda for the national conversation, forcing his opponents, and the press, to meet him on his own turf, on his own terms. His constant appeal to a revived sense of national identity and national pride compelled his socialist rival, Ségolène Royal, to insert patriotic references in her campaign speeches, asking her audience to sing the national anthem during electoral rallies and her compatriots to put the tricolor flag in their homes. The Left proved much less adept at, and less comfortable with, this exercise in national symbolism than its opponents. Sarkozy’s staunch law-and-order rhetoric on crime and immigration enabled him to disqualify the Socialists, whom he accused of laxness in these matters, while luring thousands of votes away from Jean-Marie Le Pen, the extreme Right candidate. Voter participation was very high (83% as opposed to 72% five years earlier), and Nicolas Sarkozy received more than twice as many votes than Jacques Chirac, who was endorsed by the same party, did in the first round of the 2002 elections. France’s two-round, single-majority electoral system reflects the fractured and contentious nature of political opinion in the country’s history. In the first round, a multiplicity of parties representing the diversity of homegrown political ideologies endorse a candidate for the Presidency. The two contenders with the highest number of votes compete in the second round, and all the winner needs is a simple majority, which is half the number of votes plus one. No less than twelve candidates entered the last election (four fewer than in 2002). Sarkozy and Royal were the top vote getters, the former with 31% and the latter with 27% of the vote. Nicolas Sarkozy has been credited with having done for the Right what François Mitterrand did with the Left a quarter of a century ago. The latter managed to durably marginalize the Communists, paving the way for the Socialists’ domination of all subsequent left-wing coalition governments, while using the rise of the National Front to divide and weaken the mainstream Right. Sarkozy, for his part, drew from the lessons of the 2002 presidential elections. His advisors clearly bought into the dominant interpretation of the rise of the National Front in the 1980s, which is that many low-income workers, the traditional constituency of the Left, switched over to the National Front, convinced that the pro-European Union socialists would do nothing to protect their jobs from what they saw as the effects of immigration and foreign competition. Sarkozy made sure his strong stance on immigration, in the aftermath of the ethnic upheaval of the fall of 2005, during which black and Arab youth from impoverished and segregated housing estates burned buildings and cars and battled the police for several weeks, would rally a plurality of votes from those among his compatriots, many of them blue-collar and elderly, who yearned for a restoration of civic order and public safety. While eliminating the threat of the National Front, Sarkozy managed to rally behind his banner all the components of the anti-socialist constellation, from Gaullists to Christian-Democrats to Liberals, turning the UMP into the arm of a pluralistic, self-confident and forward-looking modernist Right, “a Right without complexes,” to use one of his campaign’s most quoted slogans. But the candidate was not content with consolidating his hold on the conservative electorate. His strategy was to tap into blue-collar economic discontent and cultural disorientation, poaching from both the National Front and Left electorates, while driving a wedge between legitimate concerns about the state of the nation (which he promised his victory would address) and Le Pen’s divisive, racist, and incendiary definition of Frenchness. This balancing act meant referring in turn to both versions of the republican legacy, the Republic of order and the Republic of progress. It accounts for the “catch-all,” some will say schizophrenic, nature of his political program, which reaffirms the sacred principle of the separation of church and state while recommending government funding of mosques (to avoid involvement by foreign Muslim governments and organizations), and extols the virtues of free market capitalism while advocating “humane globalization.” The son of a Jewish-Hungarian immigrant, he publicly denounced the xenophobic rhetoric of the far right, but threw oil on the fire in the fall of 2005 by calling the mostly black and Arab rioters “scum” and vowing to clean up their neighborhoods “with a power washer.” Once elected, he further confused and weakened the opposition by appointing several prominent socialists to his administration and to honorific positions, angering many would-be cabinet members from his own party. His avowed pro-Americanism, apparently not only motivated by geopolitical realism but by a professed love for the country and its culture, a rare occurrence among French politicians, has led many U.S. conservatives and neo-conservatives to welcome his rise to power, after the prolonged tension of the Chirac years. George W. Bush recently invited his newly elected counterpart, who was vacationing in New Hampshire, to an informal lunch at his Kennebunkport, Maine, family residence. Sarkozy’s American connection goes beyond a propensity to vacation in New England. His successful attempt at diverting some of the disgruntled blue-collar vote away from his rivals on the right and the left, resembles the Republican Party’s own record at winning over conservative Democrats in the rural South and “Reagan Democrats” in northern cities. His advisors’ skillful use of the media and efficient promotion of an energetic and capable image, as well as his ability to build a modern, “big tent” right-wing party and turn it into an instrument of his own political ambition, are reminiscent of Karl Rove’s twice-victorious attempts at making an American President. Given this context of anticipation of a new era in transatlantic relations, the President’s first official foreign policy declaration, a speech before the French ambassadorial corps, was eagerly awaited by academic experts and journalists alike. The most commented upon excerpt was a suggestion that Iran might be the target of a military attack if it did not comply with international injunctions to curb its nuclear program. Sarkozy quickly dismissed this possibility as “catastrophic,” stressing that all other alternatives were preferable to the use of force, but the interpretive machine was set in motion. Unsurprisingly, it was the tone, rather than the content of the presidential declaration, that drew comments of yet another ‘rupture’ with the preceding government. Commentators pointed out that the French president had not advocated military intervention, but merely evoked its possibility, while claiming his continued support for the diplomatic route backed by United Nations sanctions, favored so far by France and the European Union. The mere suggestion that the use of force might be a conceivable alternative to diplomacy and economic sanctions, if they were to fail, was nonetheless seen as a major departure from the views held by Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin regarding France’s involvement in the Middle East. Inevitably, the firmness of the presidential tone and his assertion that Iran’s attitude was unacceptable to France, drew parallels with the uncompromising stance of the United States government on the issue, reinforcing the view that the new French leader was indeed much closer to the Bush administration than his predecessor on issues of foreign policy. Is it really the case? French postwar foreign policy, as codified during General de Gaulle’s presidency in the late fifties and early sixties, has been remarkably consistent over the years, regardless of the ideological persuasion of the man living in the Elysée Palace. Gaullist, right-of-center and socialist presidents alike have pursued similar policies in Africa, for example, and all of them have expressed disagreement with the United States at one point or another, while swearing their unwavering commitment to the long-standing friendship between the two nations. Nicolas Sarkozy, nicknamed “the American” by his critics, has repeatedly criticized the war in Iraq as well as the U.S. position on global environmental policies. Despite statements in his party’s electoral program that “France will only help regimes that defend democracy and actively fight corruption,” the new President went on a tour of African capitals shortly after his election, meeting with dictators such as Gabon’s Omar Bongo, a long time supporter of French interests on the continent, while ignoring more “pluralistic” countries, such as Niger, Mali and Ghana. His prominent, much-publicized role in the liberation of the Bulgarian nurses jailed by Muammar Gaddafi, obtained in exchange for a French nuclear reactor (officially to provide drinking water from desalinated sea water), angered his European partners, drew criticism from his domestic opposition and worried American conservatives. The Germans bristled at what they perceived as a unilateral, eleventh-hour move that enabled France to reap the commercial and diplomatic benefits of months of arduous negotiation by European envoys. American conservatives expressed concerns at Sarkozy’s apparent willingness to trust Arab dictators with nuclear technology (like Chirac had done with Saddam Hussein), a possible sign that the honeymoon between the French leader and the American Right might already be over. In a recent column, George Will cautioned his readers against putting too much faith in the supposed conservatism of “France’s new peripatetic president.” He disputed Sarkozy’s credentials, calling him a “Keynesian” and questioning his “suspiciously opaque formulations” regarding “regulated liberalism.” In Will’s view, Sarkozy will no more break with the long-standing French tradition of “statism as a prerequisite for national greatness” than his predecessors. The same holds true of foreign policy. Presidents come and go, electoral majorities, ideological configurations and power dynamics constantly evolve, but the conception of the French national interest elaborated in the postwar period remains strikingly unchanged. The decisive break from the past signaled by Sarkozy’s election might be mainly generational. The new President is 52 years old, and many of his cabinet members and advisors are younger than he is (several of them were born in 1965). The French political leadership went from the pre-WWII generation (the three former Presidents were born in 1926, 1916 and 1932, respectively) to the post-68 generation, skipping over the first wave of baby-boomers who came of age in the sixties, helping to change France’s culture landscape, but missing their chance of producing a serious presidential contender from their midst. French postwar politics were framed by a series of momentous historical events: the collapse of the Third Republic in 1939, the German Occupation and the Resistance, and the Algerian War. The “Sarkozy generation” cut its political teeth in the early eighties, a time of profound change in France’s intellectual climate, marked by the repudiation of Marxism, the decline of the Communist Party, the rejection of sixties radicalism, anti-colonialism and philosophical critique, and a pervasive sense that the country had stepped out of history. On the campaign trail, the UMP candidate never missed an opportunity to denounce the legacy of May 68, long a watershed in the country’s cultural self-representation, but responsible in his eyes for contemporary France’s many woes. Ironically enough, the youngest French President to be elected in 33 years, owed his victory to the votes of the elderly, a powerful demographic bloc in an increasingly aging country. 1 “What Sarkozy Won’t Change,” The Washington Post, August 26, 2007

Global Citizenship: International Service Learning in the Dominican Republic

2007-11-28T20:47:35Z

Karen Hewitt, Visiting Outreach Coordinator, Center for Global Studies

photos by Cody Bralts

As I finalized plans for a group of high school students and teachers to undertake a service learning trip in the Dominican Republic in June, I knew they were in for a life-changing experience. My interaction with the impoverished yet resilient Batey Libertad community was only one day; they would spend two weeks in the Dominican Republic, and eight days working at Batey Libertad on community improvement projects. Prior to their trip, many of the students researched the country and living conditions in bateys. After they arrived, students and teachers discovered no amount of reading was adequate preparation for lived reality, and no research could address how it feels to be so warmly welcomed, or how to get beyond language barriers and get to know their hosts and the children. By all accounts, the trip exceeded everyone’s expectations. This international service-learning trip,

organized by the Center for Global Studies, involved working on community improvement projects at Batey Libertad in the Cibao region of the Dominican Republic. A batey is a predominantly Haitian migrant worker community, but Dominican families also live there. Home to about one thousand residents, Batey Libertad is located on a little plot of government acreage surrounded by private land and rice fields. Most of the residents live in tin shacks; there is no running water or sewage system in the community and electricity is erratic and off-the-grid. The region, once dominated by sugar cane plantations, is now devoted to rice. A rice factory, where some of the residents work, is situated across the busy street from the community. The Center for Global Studies was fortunate to connect with Jon Erickson, associate professor of environmental economics at the University of Vermont, who has ongoing projects with residents of Batey Libertad. Through his assistance, our group of students and teachers was able to work directly with community members who are actively involved in a visioning process that identifies local needs and community-wide goals. While the community does not receive government services and doesn’t have an elected government, there is a coherent organizational and decision-making structure. The community—not outside charities—decides which family receives a new house, where to plant trees, and what goals to set for the future. Participating students and teachers raised funds to work on several projects identified by the community. Fundraising efforts covered the purchase of cement, cinder blocks, roofing, timber, paint, and all supplies necessary to build a replacement house for a family in the community and to pay for a project foreman and skilled laborers from the community to assist. Like most residents of Batey Libertad, the family of eight, five of whom live at home, had a small, dark one-room shack made of recycled tin signs and siding. Students raised money by selling fair-trade coffee grown at Finca Alta-Gracia, a sustainable coffee plantation supported by the Dominican author Julia Alvarez. The other projects included planting trees in the community, collecting garbage from land that will become a communal garden, and helping with a candle-making enterprise run by community women. The candle-making activity is an outgrowth of work with the community by Jennifer Shoaff Schoder, a doctoral student in anthropology at Illinois and indispensable coordinator for this trip. Candle sales raise funds for local women to purchase residency visas or fund community improvements. The group also participated in Futbol Para La Vida—an HIV/AIDS education and prevention program linked to soccer that began in Africa and is being adopted in Caribbean communities. Perhaps most importantly, trip participants spent part of each day at the batey conversing, assisting, and interacting with their host families. The group also took educational side-trips to Santo Domingo—a UNESCO World Heritage site; Finca Alta Gracia—a sustainable, fair-trade coffee plantation that supports a literacy center; Puerto Carabete—an opportunity to see the importance of tourism to the country’s economy; and Batey Caraballo—a comparative look at conditions at a sugar cane batey. In addition, the group learned about activities of NGOs and service organizations working in the Dominican Republic, including PLAN International, the DREAM Project, and the Peace Corps. The 13 student participants ranged from freshmen to seniors enrolled in Urbana at University Laboratory High School and Urbana High School, and in Chicago at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School and Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center. The teachers taught foreign language, social studies, English, science, and alternative education. Because the daily activities had such a personal impact as well as global and social implications, each day ended with a moderated group discussion to reflect upon and process the day’s experiences. Families could read about the day’s activities on a blog set up by the Online Gargoyle, a publication of University Laboratory High School. The archive of postings is available on the main page of the International High School website: http://www.ips.illinois.edu/ihs, or at http://www.uni.illinois.edu/gargoyle/dominican republic/. Support for this international service learning project was provided by the International High School Initiative, the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), the Chancellor’s Civic Engagement Task Force, the U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant program, and the Center for Global Studies.

Vacationing with Lenin and the “Colonel”

2007-11-28T21:06:09Z

E.B. Holschuh, Russian teacher, Mansfield High School, Texas

photo by Ron Pope

In June–July 2007, the Russian, East European and Eurasian Center organized a Fulbright-Hays group seminar in Russia for 15 K–12 educators. The teachers came from 13 different states, including Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Texas. For more information, including the trip photo diary and teachers’ blogs, see www.reec.illinois .edu/outreach/fulbright.htm.

I am a high school Russian teacher in Mansfield, Texas, part of the growing megalopolis that is the Dallas–Ft. Worth Metroplex. Being one of only a handful of public school Russian teachers in the entire state (at last count there were seven of us) doesn’t allow for much interaction with colleagues or occasions for Russian-specific educator training. Occasionally, a special opportunity comes along, like the one I found in the Winter 2007 issue of the CARTA (Central Association of Russian Teachers in America) newsletter for a Fulbright-Hays seminar in Russia for K–12 educators called “Understanding Russia through Everyday Life,” organized by the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After receiving the acceptance notification, I excitedly made plans for only my third visit to Russia—I had been to Moscow and St. Petersburg twice before. The focus of this trip was the historic city of Vladimir (about 110 miles east of Moscow) and the surrounding region, including the ancient city of Murom (about 80 miles beyond Vladimir). After a few days of informative pre-departure lectures by REEEC faculty on the Urbana campus, 15 American teachers (for the majority of whom this was their first trip to Russia) were off to spend four weeks in Russia. After arriving in Vladimir, our group was busy with lectures on politics, history, and economy and excursions to monasteries, factories, and farms. The American Home was the staging point for all of our in-country activities. The American Home is a unique institution—it is actually a 15-year old, typical single-story American house, complete with a white picket fence and a very un-Russian manicured lawn, in the center of an ancient Russian city. It exists as a beacon of American ambassadorship, with English language instruction and community outreach programs, under the watchful eyes of its American founder and caretaker, Ron Pope, a political science professor at Illinois State University and our in-country seminar director. As a language teacher, my most important goal for the trip was to have the fullest opportunity to practice my Russian. During the time in Vladimir, basic language lessons were part of the program for the group, but the staff at the American Home generously arranged one-on-one conversation sessions for me with native-speaking instructors. Moreover, befitting the seminar theme of everyday life, we lived with host families in typical Russian apartments. I had requested that I be placed with a host family that didn’t speak any English, and that’s just what I got. In Vladimir, I lived with a very hospitable woman named Katya and her dog and cat in a 4th floor apartment about a two-mile walk from the American Home. In Murom, my host family was a kindly retired Soviet Army colonel and his wife, an elementary school teacher. While my stay with Katya was very enjoyable, “The Colonel” (as we came to call him) and his wife delivered an unbelievable dose of the Russian experience—culture, hospitality, and language practice—in little more than a long weekend, four days to be precise. The time we spent at The Colonel’s dacha (his “country place” about 20 miles from his apartment), the gem of which was his banya (Russian sauna) which he had built himself, was without a doubt one of the most memorable experiences I have ever had in Russia. In all, my Russian got quite the workout during my time in Vladimir and Murom. From Murom, we traveled to St. Petersburg and Moscow to visit famous Russian landmarks. We had wonderful tours of the Hermitage and the Russian Museum by museum scholars. The visit to the memorial commemorating the siege of Leningrad was unspeakably moving. On a lighter note, what I thought might have been a high point for me in Moscow–to see Lenin in his mausoleum in Red Square–turned out to be rather anticlimactic. After a long wait, I had 30 seconds with him, or the waxy replica of him. I guess, I can now say I’ve been there. The five weeks went by in a flash. The entire seminar, from the initial meetings in Illinois to the last night in Moscow, turned out to be my best trip to Russia and was, by far, the most productive experience I have had as a high school Russian teacher. While I was the only language teacher on the trip, the interaction with a great group of American teachers from all over the country was an education in itself. I returned feeling re-invigorated as a teacher and “re-calibrated” as a Russian speaker. I simply could not wait to start the new school year and share with my students all that I had experienced, from visits to 12th century cathedrals to stories about Katya and the Colonel. While few American high school students are familiar with the map of Russia, I can guarantee that 50 of them in North Texas know exactly where Vladimir is…and why. I am sure I speak for the other 14 teachers when I say that we were all enriched by our experiences in Russia. We, as well as our students, are thankful for the opportunity that REEEC at Illinois, the American Home in Vladimir, and Fulbright-Hays provided.

Fall Symposium Highlights Illinois-India Connection

2007-11-28T21:08:01Z

What does the 21st Century hold for India’s growing economy? How will the world’s largest democracy handle supporting over a billion people in the future? These and other questions will be addressed when the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosts India Sixty: The Critical Questions, a symposium running November 2-3, 2007, at the Illini Union. To honor the 60th anniversary of India’s independence, Illinois faculty, as well as speakers from around the United States and Asia, will conduct six panel discussions on India’s past, present, and future. Topics will range from the subcontinent’s emergence as a major world economy and a technological and nuclear power to women’s rights and cultural heritage conservation. The symposium, which is free and open to the public, is among the latest connections between Illinois and India, which have included involvement in the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur and agricultural universities at Pantnagar and Jabalpur. A goal of the symposium is to expand these productive connections between the university and India. For more information, please visit the conference Web site at http://www.psames.illinois.edu/India60/ .

Body Language and How it Can Help (or Hinder) You

2007-11-28T21:09:05Z

Allison Walter, Campus Protocol Officer Imagine this—you’re sitting in a café in Saudi Arabia. When the server comes over to ask if you’re enjoying your coffee, you give him a thumbs-up because you’ve just taken a large sip. The next thing you know, the server becomes incensed and begins shouting at you angrily. What’s happened? You didn’t even open your mouth! Like spoken language, body language, communication through voluntary or involuntary body movements, can differ between cultures. Simple gestures such as crossing your arms or giving the aforementioned thumbs-up can be interpreted in a myriad of ways. Being conscious of your body language is crucial to effective communication, not to mention making sure that you don’t have a glass of water thrown in your face unexpectedly. Have you ever considered why someone may make huge hand gestures when she talks, while another keeps her hands clasped neatly in her lap? Or, when watching a father and his son, they make the same facial expression when they are surprised? That’s because body language is a combination of genetic and environmental factors. This is how we can account for body language variances between cultures. As we learn and grow, some gestures seem to come naturally, like smiling, but others we learn by watching the world around us. By observing the reactions of others to the gestures, we learn their meaning and their proper usage. Do gestures have one absolute meaning? Usually not. The meaning of a gesture can vary based on context, just like spoken language. Take a common gesture, such as crossing your arms. This could mean that you are trying to unconsciously create a barrier between yourself and the person you are speaking to, you could be seriously pondering a question that was just posed, or maybe someone was overzealous with the air conditioning that day and your arms are cold. Because gestures can be ambiguous, it is important that you are aware of what you are doing with your body and the possible meanings it can have. Conversely, learning possible meanings of different gestures can be advantageous when it comes to understanding what others are trying to communicate to you. Keeping in mind that gestures vary by region, here are a few general tips on how to ascertain someone’s feelings based on body language (from “Proxemically Speaking—Body Language in Interviews” by Julie Spencer). Disbelief can be indicated by: • An averted gaze; • Touching the ear or scratching the chin; • Eyestrain, itchiness; • Wandering eyes, or eyes that stare away for an extended period. Boredom can be indicated by: • Head tilting to one side; • Eyes looking straight at the speaker but becoming slightly unfocused. Lying can be indicated by: • Touching the face; • Putting a hand over the mouth; • Pulling at the ears; • Scratching the nose; • Casting eyes down, or looking downward to the left; • Shifting in the seat; • Wiping hands on trousers to get rid of sweat or fidgeting with hands. Anxiety can be indicated by: • Massaging temples; • Different than normal breathing rates; • Hunched shoulders; • Nervous head movements. So what if you’re traveling to a new place and you are unfamiliar with acceptable body language? Here are a few things you can do: Do you homework. There are numerous reference books available to help you understand appropriate body language for the area you’re going to visit. “Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands” and the “Put Your Best Food Forward” series both list body language tips by country. Observe your surroundings. While you’re out and about, take a look around. What do people do when they’re greeting someone or saying goodbye? How close do people stand next to each other? What kind of gestures are people making with their hands when they talk? Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but in this case, it can be helpful in clearly and effectively expressing yourself. Be flexible. Because body language differs from region to region, you may find that some things may make you uncomfortable. For instance, you may not be accustomed to the amount of affection shown between friends in certain countries (or, in some cases, lack of affection shown). Do your best to be understanding of these differences and act accordingly. If all else fails, a warm apology always helps. It is impossible to avoid a gaffe every once in a while. When you do something that has clearly insulted someone else, be quick with a heartfelt apology. Explain that you did not understand that your action was offensive and that you will avoid it in the future. I find that people are usually able to forgive if they understand that you have good intentions. Do you have a protocol question that you would like to see featured in the World of Protocol? Email us at int-eng-prot@illinois.edu.

The University Provides Police Training for 2008 Olympics

2007-11-28T21:11:06Z

Virginia Waaler, Director, China Executive Leadership Program and Allison Walter, Assistant Director, International Engagement, Communications and Protocol

The China Executive Leadership Programs (CELP) and the Police Training Institute (PTI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were recently selected to provide a public security program for police officers from the city of Qingdao, China, a coastal city slated to host the sailing events for the 2008 Olympic Games. CELP has provided executive education programs for managers and directors from Chinese organizations since 1993, hosting over 3,000 participants in over 140 programs. Virginia Waaler, director of CELP, received the initial request from the city of Qingdao. “Qingdao contacted us directly because we had previously provided several public administration programs for their city,” said Waaler. When she learned of their interest in a public security program, she and Nianhua Wang, representative of the China Training Programs, contacted Tom Dempsey, director of the Police Training Institute.

PTI has a long history of international training and exchange of law enforcement trainers and educators, primarily with law enforcement academies in the United Kingdom, Russia and Ukraine. Current active exchanges are with the University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Dnipropetrovs’k, Ukraine and the University of Madras, Chennai, India. The Qingdao program was unique due to the worldwide visibility of the project, but PTI worked with public officials to ensure that the “Public Security Bureau Anti-Terrorism Specialist Delegation” of Qingdao police officers received the most comprehensive training possible. The delegation of 20 officers was selected by the city of Qingdao’s human resources department, the city Foreign Expert Bureau and the city Public Security Bureau. Officers were chosen through a strict set of criteria, including age and fluency in English. Once selected, the group participated in a closed two-month English training course before traveling to Illinois. When the delegation arrived, CELP held an orientation that provided necessary information for their time on campus. “All of our groups receive an overview of the program, [information on] the history of the University and Champaign-Urbana, a campus tour, and Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District bus passes,” said Waaler. After orientation, the delegation attended lectures by PTI staff, counterterrorism experts, U.S. Olympic security officials, and guest speakers from various police departments, including Champaign, Urbana, and the University of Illinois. Lecture topics included an overview of American policing, waterborne security, Olympic security issues, international perspectives on terrorism, and law enforcement intelligence gathering. In addition to lectures, the delegation also learned how to operate various types of anti-terrorism equipment and visited Champaign and Springfield public safety agencies, including the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois DNA Lab. At the conclusion of the eleven week campus program, the delegation traveled to former Olympic sites in Atlanta, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Salt Lake City. Wang accompanied the group and made arrangements for them to meet various local officials, tour Olympic sites including the Olympic Museum, and to see a mobile command center. “I think there is a brotherhood of police officers and they strive to do their best to make everyone feel welcome, honored and appreciated,” said Waaler. “In St. Louis, I believe [the delegation] had quite a police escort into town.” At the conclusion of the program, the delegation was honored at a graduation luncheon and received certificates from the University of Illinois China Executive Leadership Programs and the Police Training Institute. Associate Provost for International Affairs William Brustein and Waaler later met the group in Qingdao and had the chance to speak with them about their experience with the program. “I greatly enjoyed meeting with the delegation from Qingdao and was impressed with the group’s enthusiasm for their time spent at Illinois,” said Brustein. “They are excellent ambassadors for the University and are part of our efforts to enhance China’s drive to improve the quality of life for millions of Chinese. We are honored that CELP and PTI were chosen to provide valuable training for an event as prestigious as the 2008 Olympics and look forward to further strengthening the crucial bond between Illinois and China.”

Illinois International: A Different Global Perspective

2007-11-28T21:12:46Z

“A cross between ‘Charlie Rose’ and ‘Meet the Press,’ with a healthy dose of Midwestern practicality.” This is how the staff of International Engagement, Communications and Protocol (IECP) describes its most recent media project, “Illinois International.” Illinois International is a 30-minute television program aired on Sunday mornings on Insight Cable Channel 2. The program runs for five months with a new program being produced each month and airing each week on Sundays during the month. The program is designed to discuss a variety of timely global issues, raising awareness both on campus and within the Champaign community. Last season’s programming included discussions of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program; US-Sino relations; global diaspora; global pandemics; and the state of global affairs. This season’s programming will be linked with the upcoming 2008 US presidential elections and cover such topics as US-Russia Relations; Petro-politics; Iraq; US Foreign Policy; and food security. Where it is able, the program uses University scholars to address various global issues. When University faculty is not available, the program uses other experts with affiliation to campus units. “In most cases we have access to faculty well respected in their research fields,” says Jacques Fuqua, director of International Engagement, Communications and Protocol and host of the program. “On rare occasions, we run into a situation where the depth of on-campus knowledge isn’t there, as we did when we wanted to discuss the future of US-Sino relations. As a result, we decided to invite Professor Michael Chambers to join us, department chair of political science at Indiana State University, who is also an affiliate member of the University’s East Asian and Pacific Studies Center.” Last season’s programs featured such Urbana faculty guests as Professor Gale Summerfield (director, Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program); Professor Ilana Akresh (department of sociology); Professor Julian Palmore (department of mathematics); and Visiting Professor Rajmohan Gandhi (Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and director of the Global Crossroads International Living/Learning Community). The idea for such a program has been a long time coming according to Fuqua. “I wanted to put together such a program in my previous posting as associate director of the East Asian Studies Center at Indiana University, but the geographical area of coverage was too narrow. With a broader mandate at Urbana, however, the idea made sense.” Fuqua readily acknowledges that none of this would have been possible without critical financial support. “No matter how good an idea is, without adequate funding it simply won’t get off the ground. We were quite fortunate that Ms. Susan Little Abbott, executive vice president of Busey Bank, agreed that we had a good idea and was willing to assist. Through the timely support of Busey Bank, along with the University’s East Asian and Pacific Studies Center and International Programs and Studies, we were able to move from the concept to execution in rather short order,” says Fuqua. This season IECP plans to extend geographical coverage of the show to include Springfield and Decatur.

Japan House

2007-11-28T21:15:00Z

Kimiko Gunji, Director, Japan House

A different kind of classroom exists on the southeast edge of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus, near the fields of the Arboretum and the Veterinary Medicine complex. In contrast to standard classrooms with the requisite trappings of tables, desks and technology, Japan House offers tranquil gardens and the serenity of a traditional Japanese home. It exudes the aesthetics of centuries-old Japanese culture: the hushed sounds of men and women in kimonos performing the traditional tea ceremony; the scent of burning incense wafting throughout the structure; and fragrant buckets of flowers awaiting the intricate and precise shaping and pruning they will undergo during Ikebana (flower arranging) as they are transformed from nature to art. There is the bright green of the matcha (tea) used in performing the traditional tea ceremony, juxtaposed against the soft colors of the tatami mats and the translucence of the tearoom screens used in its three tearooms. Amid this serenity emanate the sounds of learning—learning through classes and performances of traditional Japanese arts: Ikebana; Chado, or the Way of Tea; calligraphy as well as Zen philosophy; and Japanese aesthetics. Japan House facilities and classes are open to the general public, from grade-schoolers to senior citizens, and is indeed a very busy–and very special–place. It has not, however, always enjoyed its present facilities. First created in 1976, it began operations in an old, remodeled Victorian house on the edge of campus. The current facility was built in 1998. As one of five outreach units of the College of Fine and Applied Arts, Japan House promotes the related missions of education and public engagement outlined by the College and University, and as such undertakes several important supporting missions of its own. The first is to provide an academic, cultural, and natural setting for fostering an appreciation of Japanese culture and related Asian cultural concepts. Built around the concept of Chado, Japan House is a center for teaching and learning about Japanese art and culture. But since its inception, the staff has worked toward a broader goal: promoting cultural tolerance and respect. The lessons learned at Japan House go well beyond the immediate subject matter. Students gain an important sense of cultural tolerance, intellectual curiosity and a global sense of “self,” three attributes crucial in their development as productive global citizens. Programming at Japan House consists of not only academic courses, but also fall and spring open houses at which the tea ceremony is performed and presentations on different aspects of Japanese culture are offered; workshops by visiting artists on topics such as calligraphy; bus tours to regional sites such as Japanese gardens or museums; and many other events. Japan House also regularly collaborates with other units on campus, such as the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and Krannert Art Museum to sponsor programs. This year Japan House joined with the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts to present the National Bunraku Theatre of Japan on October 6, 2007. This was a rare opportunity to witness a performance of bunraku, or traditional Japanese puppet theater, recognized by UNESCO as one the world’s great intangible cultural heritages. This preeminent 300-year-old national Japanese theater troupe made its first full scale U.S. tour in almost two decades to only a few select locations, including Boston, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Chicago and Urbana-Champaign. Regularly scheduled Japan House programming includes tea

ceremonies, which are available on the second and fourth Thursday afternoon of each month August-May and require reservations and a small fee. Tours of our facilities, however, do not require reservations and are free. These are offered every Thursday afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00 and on the third Saturday of the month from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. The gardens are always open for visitors (the Tea Garden is closed during icy weather but the Dry Gardens are always accessible). Please visit our website at http://www.art.illinois.edu/galleries/japanhouse/index.cfm for more information or check the Japan House blog at www.japanhouse.typepad.com for news and images of the gardens.

Development and Human Rights in Senegal

2007-11-28T21:16:45Z

Rachel Sauer, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alumna

photo by Rachel Sauer

Sunday morning, November 26, 2006 started out with a buzz of excitement in the air. Everyone in the village of Kouthiaba was preparing for festivities unlike any the village had ever seen. People in this small rural community in the middle of Senegal’s largest province were unaccustomed to large numbers of visitors. On this morning, Kouthiaba was the center of attention when representatives from 110 communities across the region gathered to celebrate and

publicly declare the abandonment of Female Genital Cutting (FGC) and child marriage. Music, dance, speeches, and skits accented the day and demonstrated people’s commitment to their collective decision. Reaching such a consensus was not easy, but participants believe that the change will be sustainable because everyone understands the negative consequences of the traditions, and the decision to abandon them was made by community members themselves. Declarations such as the one in Kouthiaba are becoming more prevalent throughout Senegal and other parts of Africa as awareness about human rights and development spreads. During a year studying abroad, I was able to not only witness the declaration in Kouthiaba, but to actively participate as an intern with Tostan, an non-governmental organization (NGO) working effectively for this positive change. Through my internship, I learned a lot about development, human rights, and especially FGC. Tostan focuses on non-formal education in Africa while taking a holistic approach to community development, literacy, management skills, and micro-credit. Always taught in the local language, lessons are culturally sensitive and facilitators build a strong trust with community members before approaching controversial subjects. Tostan never tells people that they should abandon traditions, but bases its programs on the idea that people will bring about change themselves once they understand the consequences. Tostan focuses on non-confrontational methods of change and community-led development that continues long after the program has officially left the community. In 1999, the government of Senegal passed a law making FGC illegal and Tostan protested it. I was surprised when I learned this, but some of my Senegalese friends explained that people who face new ideas initiated from outside their culture often view such change as an imposition of Western values on their communities. Despite lawmakers’ good intentions, people may feel defensive and adhere more strongly to their traditions, thus ignoring new laws. Female Genital Cutting is being introduced in parts of Africa as a ‘return to traditional African values.’ In order for change to be sustainable, it has to come from the people who are changing their way of life and everyone must thoroughly understand the reasons behind the change. In the United States, we generally rely on the government to maintain order, but governments in developing countries are often not as powerful. New laws can be difficult to enforce in a country like Senegal where power is decentralized. Like many developing countries, Senegal is divided by borders arbitrarily drawn by colonial powers that ignored religious, ethnic, and cultural lines. As a result, many people feel a stronger connection to their own village, religious leaders, and community than to the national government. Communication in Senegal is limited; roads to the interior are poor and many villages do not have access to printed news or other forms of mass media. Many people do not even know about the law against FGC, and many that do, ignore it. There are not enough law enforcement officers to monitor every village, and even if they could be present, it would be impossible to determine who to hold accountable: the cutters themselves, who are fulfilling a role and could be replaced; the mothers who request the procedure for their daughters; the fathers with authority over the family; the potential husbands who refuse to marry a girl who isn’t cut; the community members that may refuse to eat the food prepared by a girl who is uncut; or the religious leaders who claim that God cannot hear a girl’s prayers unless she is cut. When a community practices FGC, it is the entire population that practices. Reasons for cutting are numerous and, contrary to popular belief, are not always about controlling a woman’s sexuality. Many people believe that the tradition is: a religious requirement, passed down from and honoring ancestors; a coming of age, to prepare for marriage; to ensure virginity until marriage; to safeguard against unwanted pregnancy; to ensure faithfulness to a husband; to increase a man’s sexual pleasure; to protect against rape; to produce medical benefits; or to ease childbirth and menstruation. Overall the tradition is generally thought to be in the best interest of girls. Cutting is often attributed to Islam, though the Koran never mentions it. Throughout the world the tradition is practiced by Christians, Jews, and animists as well, most of whom live in or come from Africa. Abandonment is complicated and even when people do understand the negative consequences, FGC is generally an issue of social acceptance, without which a girl may never marry, have children, or even prepare food for others. All things considered, it may appear to be the lesser of two evils. The type and severity of FGC varies by region and group. Consequences of the practice have many variables, but one of the most common objections to any kind of FGC is that it violates the human right to bodily integrity. Among the negative physical consequences are pain, hemorrhaging, infection, the transmission of HIV and other diseases, difficulty with menstruation and control of bowels, infertility, complications with birthing, brain damage to infants, stillbirth, shock, excessive pain during sex, or even death. Since all women in a practicing community are cut, there is no comparison and people often do not draw connections between these problems and the practice. Tostan teaches people about the negative consequences of FGC and tries to create a safe environment where people can talk openly about their experiences. Because it is a social issue,Tostan emphasizes community ties to spread its message. Through a system of organized diffusion, each participant in the Tostan program adopts a friend or family member to teach the day’s lessons and each participating community adopts at least one other. Though not directly facilitated by the NGO, Tostan works together with UNICEF to support public declarations such as the one held in Kouthiaba. Once a critical mass of an intramarrying population declares its abandonment of FGC, the social norm changes and it becomes a matter of honor to abide by the public promise. This makes it possible for an entire population to abandon the practice, confident that the abandonment is now what is in the best interest of girls. Female Genital Cutting and other human rights concepts have many facets and change can be difficult to bring about. My experience working with Tostan exposed me to many aspects of development and many ways to ensure that it is in the best interest of the populations involved. Good intentions do not always create positive outcomes, but getting involved and understanding the communities helps. For more information: Tostan: www.tostan.org 2007 Hilton Humanitarian Award Page: http://www.hiltonfoundation.org/press_release_details.asp?id=59%2

Social Work Launches Program in India

2007-11-28T21:19:16Z

photo courtesy of Barry Ackerson

This summer the School of Social Work launched its first study abroad course for students in its masters program. Associate Dean Barry Ackerson accompanied students to Bengal province in India. The course was offered in conjunction with the Department of Social Work at Visva-Bharati University. Dr. P.K. Ghosh served as site coordinator and practicum supervisor. His assistance and hard work were vitally important to the success of this learning experience.

The course was designed as a six-week practicum experience for the students, in contrast to the more typical two-week study-tour courses where students primarily visit various sites. This was done so that the students could give back to their host communities as a service learning experience. Dr. Barry Ackerson Our primary learning objective was to observe and experience how non-governmental organization (NGO) social service agencies operate in both urban and rural India. This was the first trip to India for all of us, so it also provided a very rich cultural learning experience. Students visited several social service programs in Kolkata (Calcutta) as well as an orthopedic hospital funded by the government. We then traveled to small towns and rural villages in the Santiniketan/Sriniketan area. Students spent a few days attending seminars at the Department of Social Work at Visva-Bharati where they learned about social work and cultural issues in India. After visiting several rural agencies and schools, students were placed for a month-long practicum. Many of them split their time between two sites during the day. The final week of their stay they spent traveling across northern India on a cultural tour of the country. Kafi Moragne During my six week practicum in India, I learned a great deal about the diversity of Indian culture and society. It was an incredibly rewarding, sometimes challenging, but overall amazing experience that I am grateful to have taken part in. I spent most mornings working with a small orphanage in the village of Santiniketan and afternoons working at Amar Kuti, a women’s rural development organization. My time spent at the orphanage under the supervision of “Supriyda” Tagore and “Prashantada” Ghosh was perhaps the best aspect of my trip. Some mornings I would sit in on the children’s English lessons and be amazed at how “little” English they claimed to know. The children’s eagerness to learn the nuances of the English language were best exemplified in their wonderful production of The Bishop’s Candlesticks, where all the children, even the youngest, showed a heightened understanding of theatrical humor. Additionally, I would often ask the children to switch roles with me, allowing them to teach me Bengali. Elena Chiappinelli We began our India experience in Calcutta, residing at the Ramakrishna Mission, where I noticed an effort toward encompassing all religions and embracing diversity. Throughout our time we were part of many discussions about social work within the context of Indian society & culture. We visited many organizations, giving us exposure to both rural and urban development programs and grassroots-level work in education, sanitation and the environment, agriculture, self-help groups, women, children and family welfare, and advocacy. I noticed the devoted efforts of community and agency/organization leaders, particularly in the rural community. Most organizations seem to have a strong cultural and/or religious base. They also had well-developed missions and solid organizational structures, helping them to maintain quality, sustainable services. During my practicum, I spent my mornings at Sishutirtha Orphanage. The general mission of the small orphanage is to provide a safe, familial environment for the children of severely impoverished families who could not otherwise support them. The goals of founder and director, S. Tagore, is to ensure a safe and loving environment for every child and to help the children find their own unique paths to self-actualization and economic self-sufficiency. To complement the familial environment of the orphanage is a rigorous academic schedule that will prepare the children for a variety of future professional and social challenges. In the tribal areas, many tribe members who have left to become educated return to use their knowledge to help with the positive progression of their community. I saw this often when visiting tribal villages during my practicum at Amar Kutir, where I spent my afternoons. The Amar Kutir Society was founded upon the freedom movement of India and is now a self-supporting, voluntary organization working for rural artisans. The missions of Amar Kutir include the development of rural peoples and villages; education, training, and employment; enhancing the capacity for income generation amongst village people; and the empowerment of village people to facilitate change within their own family lives and community. I was often reminded of the difficulty of leaving the U.S. measuring stick behind when in an environment so totally different. I was able to work with self-help groups in Amar Kutir, which are formed by peers who have come together for mutual assistance in satisfying a common need, overcoming a common handicap or problem, and bringing about desired social or personal change. The members of such groups perceive that their needs are not, or cannot be, met by existing social institutions. Self-help groups emphasize face-to-face social interactions and the assumption of personal responsibility by members. They often provide material assistance, as well as emotional support; they are frequently ‘cause’ oriented and promulgate ideology or values through which members may attain an enhanced sense of personal identity” (Katz & Bender, 1976). The empowering nature of Amar Kutir creates sustainable employment and income generation opportunities while maintaining traditional art, craft, and cultural heritage. Sharrell Hibbler When I decided to embark upon this educational journey to India, my ultimate goal was to return to the University of Illinois with a thorough understanding of how Social Work manifests itself within the social context of India. Dr. Ghosh of Visva-Bharati coordinated a well organized visit of several non-governmental and governmental organizations. These organizations included CINI (Child in Need Institute), NIOH (National Institute for the Orthopedic Handicap), Amar Kutir, and Sishutirtha Orphanage. While visiting these organizations, I was impressed to see that several of both the NGOs and GOs were providing the highest quality of care accessible to their client populations with very limited resource structures. When evaluating social work in India, I tried my best not to be ethnocentric and use the U.S. as the measuring stick by which I judge other cultures, and their service delivery methods. However, it was very hard not to observe and take notice of obvious similarities and differences. My field practicum experience involved visiting and interacting with children at the Sishutirtha Orphanage in the morning; afternoon hours were spent observing self-help groups (SHGs) at Amar Kutir, society for rural development. I learned the most through these interactions with the orphans, SHG members, and Visva-Bharati’s Social Work scholars. At the orphanage I learned a lot about the process of self-identification for orphans living in orphanages. There was an apparent difference in the U.S. conception of self-help groups and the SHGs that we observed in Amar Kutir. In the U.S., self-help groups function primarily as a means for developing a support network, healthy coping mechanisms, and for the purpose of learning new socially acceptive ways of self-expression. The SHGs of Amar Kutir seemed to be more like “small work groups” where artisans helped each other to finish the production of goods for the purpose of sale. Income generation was the centralized focus for the self-help groups of Amar Kutir. I learned the most about Indian culture by conversing and interacting with the scholars of Visva-Bharati. Through these conversations I began to get a better picture of what Social Work looks like and what it means to the people of India. All in all, my study abroad experience was challenging, engaging, yet rewarding. Jessie Mackey After the bustling start of our trip, which began in the crowded, chaotic city of Calcutta, it was very calming to work at a non-government school (NGO) in the village of Ghosaldanga. Non-government schools in India are privately funded and have more freedom in curriculum and schedule than government schools. I spent most of the day at the NGO and about an hour in the afternoon at a government school (GO). It was vital for my analysis and overall experience to be exposed to both schools in order to recognize differences. The GO was extremely structured, rigid, crowded and not a conducive environment for learning. The NGO I worked at was for children in grades kindergarten through sixth grade. All of the children are from the Santal tribe. The positive features of the NGO are countless and it is impossible to capture the passion and commitment this school embodies in this short article. The mission of the NGO is to prepare children for government school by encouraging expression of Santal culture, teaching Bengali (the language of instruction at the school, even though students’ native tongue is Santali) and providing extra resources and help in academic subjects. The condition, happiness and camaraderie of the students, the extensive parental involvement, students’ pride in their Santal traditions and sustainability of the school for over 10 years are all proof of the NGO’s success. During my practicum, I had the privilege of working closely with a group of 11 students at the NGO. They were in grades five and six and lived at the school during the week. They stayed in a tiny, modest hostel behind the school’s outdoor classrooms, giving them the title “hostel students.” Their families all live within a few miles but the hostel provides a stable environment for meals, adult and peer support, and academic focus. Hostel students spoke very little English so I was nervous at first and thought I would be limited in the activities I could do with them. I spent the mornings teaching English and learning Santali, practicing math (the universal subject), playing hangman on the chalkboard, and drawing pictures. In order to get physical exercise we would walk to an open field to play and exchange knowledge on different games. I deeply enjoyed the days I spent with these children, as they were enthusiastic, bright and welcoming. On the surface, the attitude of the hostel students would not reveal any worries or challenges. However, in my conversations with teachers at the NGO and my own observations I found that there are plenty of challenges and barriers to education. Language is a barrier to education for Santal children and a barrier to receiving academic help from their parents. As mentioned above, most parents and children speak Santali but the teaching medium in most schools is Bengali. Poverty threatens education because some children will have to go work in order to support their families, dropping out of school. Other families cannot afford simple school supplies necessary for instruction. Poverty also makes any education past high school, or paying for a more quality education, extremely difficult. Some cultural aspects such as early marriage (which is a common cause for school drop out) and low to modest academic expectations of women also affect success in education. This synopsis does not even come close to describing everything I saw, learned and contemplated while in India. I hope it does, however, begin to describe how invaluable this experience was to my personal development as well as my professional development as a school social worker.

University of Illinois Student Named Luce Scholar

2007-11-28T21:43:36Z

David Schug, Program Director, Scholarships for International Study After six years of positively impacting the University of Illinois and Champaign-Urbana communities as a student and volunteer, Ryan Dick is taking his talents to China for a year as a Luce Scholar. It had been ten years since an Illinois-nominated student received this prestigious award. The Luce Scholars Program annually provides full stipends and internships for 18 young professionals nationwide to live and work in Asia for a year. Dating from 1974, the program’s purpose is to increase awareness of Asia among America’s future leaders. Students, such as Ryan, and recent alumni may be nominated from a select group of 67 colleges and universities, including the University of Illinois. Ryan was nominated based on his record of high achievement, outstanding leadership ability, clearly defined career interests, and evidence of potential for professional accomplishment. Ryan completed both his undergraduate and Master’s degrees from Illinois’ School of Architecture. In addition to working as a research assistant, teaching assistant, and student organization leader, he undertook internships working with a building consultant, an engineering and research organization, and an architectural firm during his summers as a student. As an architect, Ryan plans to focus on sustainability. He believes his studies in structural engineering and architectural design will make him better able to design sustainable architecture. After consulting with Ryan, the Luce Foundation has placed him at Tongji University in Shanghai. He will spend the year working with the university’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning, the largest architectural teaching program in China. Ryan will co-teach classes for freshmen and sophomores and will assist the Foreign Affairs Office. He also hopes to gain some exposure on the World Expo 2010 project, which showcases sustainable architecture and planning. In addition to intensive language training in Mandarin, the Luce Scholars program is providing all travel expenses, a stipend of $22,000, and a cost of living and housing allowance for his time in Shanghai. After completing the Luce Scholars Program, Ryan plans to join a multidisciplinary firm where he believes projects are of a scale that can influence change.

Resources for K-16 Teachers

2007-11-28T21:51:48Z

Center for African Studies Center for Global Studies Center for International Business Education and Research Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies European Union Center Russian, East European and Eurasian Center

Center for African Studies The Center for African Studies’ Engagement and Outreach Program is designed to increase public knowledge about Africa and to enhance the broader community’s understanding of African peoples and cultures. Our programming serves K-12 schools, community colleges, the media, community groups, the business community, and the general public. For more information, please contact the center at african@illinois.edu. New Resources in African Studies New Africa Resource Kits for Elementary Schools Trying on a school uniform, using adrinkra stamps, or handling a calabash, akuba fertility doll, or prayer beads can stir a child’s imagination when a topic seems otherwise abstract or distant. Harbert Jones, an K-5th grade fine arts teacher, and Marcia Richards, a 5th grade classroom teacher, worked on three touch kits and curriculum units that would help bring African materials, history, and society to life in elementary school classrooms. Working with African Studies and the Krannert Art Museum, they sorted through numerous artifacts and books this summer. They compiled materials that would intrigue young learners and fit into the curriculum. They narrowed the resources down to units on “Fine Arts and Islam in West Africa,” “Children’s Lives in Ghana,” and “Textiles in Africa.” The units include a diverse collection of resources—books, games, toys, fabrics, outfits, proverbs, household objects, and paintings. The objects are also cross-referenced between texts, images, and curriculum projects. The kits will begin to circulate in 2008. Contact: Krannert Art Museum at (217) 333-8218. Children’s Africana Book Awards 2007 The Outreach Council of the African Studies Association is pleased to announce the winners of the 2007 Children’s Africana Book Awards. The council annually honors outstanding authors and illustrators of children’s books about Africa published in the United States. Best Book for Young Children 2007: I Lost My Tooth in Africa, by Penda Diakite and Baba Wague Diakite (illus.). Scholastic Press, 2007. I Lost My Tooth in Africa is a vibrant, lively story about eight year old Amina, who takes a long journey from America to Africa to visit her family in Mali. When Amina looses her tooth in Mali, places it under a gourd and tangles with the African tooth-fairy, she learns that growing up is also about responsibility. Best Book for Older Readers 2007: The Illustrator’s Notebook, by Mohieddin Ellabbad. Groundwood Books, 2006. The famous Egyptian illustrator Mohieddin Ellabbad presents his “notebook” which shares how he grew up and took on his profession. He uses text, photographs, drawings, and Arabic script to communicate his aspirations as an artist. Most compelling are the questions he raises for readers, such as “Where do stories come from?” and “How does the way you feel affect the way you draw?” Younger readers will be delighted by how he combines images and shows the change in his country over time. In this wonderfully creative and unique book, Ellabbad offers Egyptian history, breaks stereotypes, shares his personal story, and inspires readers to reflect upon their own experiences. Honor Book for Young Children 2007: My Father’s Shop, by Satomi Ichikawa. Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 2006. In Satomi Ichikawa’s delightful and colorful story, we follow the adventure of young Mustafa as he learns about his father’s trade as a rug seller in a southern Moroccan town and about communicating with others, which in this case, are tourists from around the world.

Center for Global Studies The Center for Global Studies (CGS) supports research and outreach on the impacts of globalization—an ever-widening process of increasing interdependence of peoples and states that puts the world at risk, yet opens new and exciting opportunities for improvements in the lives of people everywhere. As a Department of Education funded National Resource Center, CGS offers global studies educational opportunities to the university community, K-12 teachers and students, and the public; and offers grants to support learning advanced language skills and understanding of other cultures. CGS also administers the International High School Initiative. For more information, please contact Karen Hewitt, Outreach Coordinator: khewitt@illinois.edu, 217-244-0288 or visit the Center’s Web site. Global Studies Resources for Educators American Forum for Global Education This site is not the most current, yet it still provides a searchable database of teaching materials and full-text access to Issues in Global Education/Occasional Papers. Registration is required to use the database, but it is free of charge. Caretakers of the Environment International This site is a global network for secondary school teachers and students interested in environmental education. The group holds annual conferences around the world and provides links to their online journal, The Global Forum. CyberSchoolBus Created by the United Nations, this Web site offers curriculum materials and links to information sources both teachers and students can use in the classroom. The site also highlights international conferences or competitions for students. Education Planet Education Planet offers a listing of links related to global education. Lesson plans are included on the Web site, but require a paid membership. Global Education Checklist The Global Education Checklist was developed by global education professionals and complements the state and national international studies teaching standards. This is a link to an article featured in No. 173 of the Occasional Papers from the American Forum of Global Education (2002-2003). GlobalSchoolNet This site offers online project-based learning activities on the international level that teachers can incorporate into their curriculum. The Collaborative Learning Center links to information and resources on specific technologies used in some of the projects. Upcoming international conferences and events for students are also listed. iEARN iEARN unites K-12 educators and students across the globe by jointly working on classroom projects using the Internet and other new technologies. iEARN offers online professional development courses; costs to participate in iEARN depend on the educator’s location. Outreach World This site offers searchable curriculum resources, travel opportunities and event listing related to teaching international and area studies and foreign languages for K-16. Model UN Program This site fosters the development of Model United Nations, which is an authentic simulation of the U.N. General Assembly and other multilateral bodies. Peace Corps’ World Wise Schools Sponsored by the Peace Corps, World Wise Schools contains free lesson plans, multimedia, service learning, enrichment programs and educational standards on incorporating international studies in the K-16 classroom. PlanetEdu This site contains links to a variety of international studies resources, including links to graduate school programs, internships, travel aboard opportunities and more. Use the search option to see more results. Telecollaborative Learning: Global Awareness This article is a feature on telecollaborative learning activity between middle school students in the Canada and Israel. The article is featured in the archives of Education World (www.education-world.com). Thinkfinity This site offers a variety of standard-based educational content for K-12 educators through the Lesson Plan Index. The site also promotes professional development with continuing technology training.

Center for International Business Education and Research The Illinois Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), one of 31 national resource centers for international business, is a leader in designing and delivering programs that equip future business leaders with language skills, cultural awareness, and the specific business skills needed to be at the vanguard of international business management. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Illinois CIBER coordinates seminars and workshops for professional audiences; funds faculty research on international competitiveness; underwrites development and delivery of new business foreign language courses; develops and sponsors overseas experiences for undergraduate and graduate students; supports an annual international business case competition; serves as a resource for the business community through its Web site, conferences, and consulting; and administers the Certificate in Global Business Culture with Area Specialization. For more information, please contact the center at ciber@business.illinois.edu or visit our Web site. International Business: Exercises, Mini-Cases, and Mini-Research Projects, is a book written by Gary Lefort, a professor at American International College in Springfield, MA, that is targeted for high school students. The book was funded by the University of Connecticut Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and is designed for student use. It features a compilation of international business exercises, mini-research projects, and mini-cases that have been developed to enrich the student’s learning experience in the classroom. The book covers many topics, including international business, cultural diversity, international financial management, and international law. There are 15 exercises which are broken down into word puzzles, crossword puzzles, and flow charts that try to make learning international business fun; five mini-research projects which are designed to get the student more involved in the classroom and to reinforce what they have learned in class; and 20 mini-case studies which are designed to bring the real world to the classroom. This book is a valuable resource which will help students get more involved in the classroom, and to see the linkage between what they are learning in the classroom and what is happening in the world. The University of Connecticut CIBER can provide copies at a cost of $35 (add $2 for the instructor’s manual CD). They may be reached by telephone at (860) 486-5458, by email at ciber.general@business.uconn.edu or by mail at 2100 Hillside Road Unit 1041, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-1041.

Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies In consortium with the Center for Latin America Studies at the University of Chicago, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at Illinois is a National Resource Center for Latin American Studies funded by the U.S. Department of Education through the Title VI program. The combined resources of the consortium provide one of the largest concentrations of human and material resources on Latin America in the United States. The center’s mission is to increase knowledge and awareness of Latin America and the Caribbean in the educational community and the general public. CLACS Outreach Library CLACS has launched its first outreach library with the goal of assisting teachers and patrons with K-12 materials on Latin America. All materials below, among many other resources, are available at our library. For more information, contact Outreach Coordinator Renata Johnson at renata@illinois.edu or (217) 244-2790, or visit the Web site. Books Kaufman, Cheryl D. 2002. Cooking the Caribbean Way. Lerner Publications Company. Cooking the Caribbean Way serves up tantalizing recipes for hearty stews, refreshing coconut ice, sweet potato pone and more. Also part of our CLACS Outreach Library: Cooking the Brazilian Way, Cooking the Mexican Way, Cooking the South American Way, and Cooking the Central American Way. Age: K-12. Brown, Monica and Parra, John. 2005. My Name is, Me Llamo, Gabriela—The Life of, La Vida de, Gabriela Mistral. Luna Rising Books. This bilingual book is a beautiful tribute to Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American to win a Nobel Prize of Literature. A diplomat and educator, Mistral taught her students about the power of words and the importance of following their dreams. Age: K-5 Films Mexico for Children. VHS. Directed by Fink Productions. Schlessinger Media, 2004. This is a three-volume set about Mexico’s culture, geography and history. Volume 1, The Culture of Mexico, focuses on the rich cultural heritage of Mexico and how it affects the daily lives of its citizens. Students will find that Mexico’s indigenous people and Spanish rule have influenced the ceremonial dress, folktales, foods, and holidays of Mexico. Volume 2, The Geography of Mexico, focuses on how Mexico’s geography has shaped its history, society, and culture. Travel from the desert in Sonora to the lush rainforests of Chiapas and learn about diversity of the Gulf Coast region. Volume 3, The History of Mexico, focuses on the obstacles that Mexico has overcome throughout history to become an independent, self-governing nation. Running time: 24 min. Age: Elementary School Spanish History—A Continent Conquered. VHS. Produced by Ed Dubrowsky. Video Knowledge Learning Library, 2004. From the Caribbean Sea to the tip of the continent of South America, the history, power and culture of Spain lives today, and is to be seen from one end of the continent to the other. Who are the people of Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile today? This program presents a look at the Hispanic nations of South America. Recommended by the New York City Board of Education. Running time: 28 min. Age: Middle and High Schools.

Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies The Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (CSAMES) is a U.S. Department of Education-designated National Resource Center for the study and teaching of the Middle East. As an area studies program, our research and teaching covers a very expansive part of the globe, a region that is home to about one-fifth of the world’s population and the cradle of some of the world’s oldest religions and civilizations. The center’s mission is to facilitate scholarship on South Asia and the Middle East by regularly organizing lectures, symposia and conferences. Middle East Outreach Our outreach program reflects our commitment to help increase awareness about the countries that comprise the Middle East, deconstructing popular religious and cultural stereotypes; we offer a variety of pedagogical tools to introduce different facets of the life in Middle Eastern nations in K-12 classrooms. These curriculum units on culture and daily life in the Middle East are resources structured for flexibility to be used individually or in conjunction with other units we have developed. Our modules focus on the diverse cultural heritage, scientific and economic developments and literary achievements of 28 countries that together form the larger Middle East. We have an annotated bibliography for our small library collection and a list of other artifacts available for borrowing. For every module, we have tried to provide a bibliography of additional materials to enhance the teaching of that particular unit. For more information, please visit our Web site. How can these units be used? Our curriculum units are designed such that they can be used as is or downloaded and fine-tuned to suit the appropriate intellectual level of engagement as required by the teacher. Each unit has an informative component which can be treated as a resource for comprehensive information for middle school classes or as a starting point for research into a particular subject for the higher grade levels. The lesson plans are interactive and informative and formatted such that they can be printed out for direct use in classroom instruction. Fact Sheets, Capitals, Flags and Currency Catalogued country-wise, these individual sections provide information like the population, ethnicity, climate and language for 28 countries. They offer snippets of information on the various capital cities along with crosswords and word finds to get every student actively involved. The flags section illustrates each country’s choice of colors and insignia and examines the reasons behind these choices. The currency section similarly offers basic information on currency bills for all countries and shows the comparative exchange rate with the US dollar. Other Units We have a varied blend of cultural, social, traditional and religious issues that we discuss in relative depth to entice a curious mind into wanting to learn more. We offer several hands-on activities, like making a Ramadan lamp or use popular gaming to involve the student traveler in their intellectual journey through the Middle East and the Islamic world. Using literature, history, geography, and science we have adapted these units to be effective ambassadors for the socio-cultural heritage of these nations, heralding a deeper understanding of unknown cultures.

Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies The Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (EAPS) is the steward of campus-wide teaching, research, programming, and outreach on East Asia, as well as Southeast Asia and the Pacific. EAPS is currently a National Undergraduate Resource Center devoted to the enhancement of campus undergraduate teaching and learning on East Asia and to outreach programming on East Asia for educators, the public, and media and business professionals. EAPS serves over 100 specialists on East Asia, as well as more than 30 off-campus affiliates across the state. For more information, contact Anne Prescott at aprescot@illinois.edu. 2008 Beijing Olympics Focuses Interest on Modern China—Resources for the Classroom With the Beijing Olympics less than a year away, all eyes seem to be focused on China these days. Using the Olympics as a springboard into discussions about modern China is a great first step, but where do you go from there? With all of the resources available, how do you know what’s good and what isn’t? First, there are many outdated books and videos circulating. Over just the past ten years, China has changed dramatically; the changes since the late 1970s are mind-boggling. So the first hint is to look at the copyright or production date. Some older materials might have value when discussing the dizzying speed of changes in China, but many students (and teachers) think that what they see or read about 1980s China is the way it is today. One of the most common reactions of American visitors to China is, “Where are the Communists?” Expecting to see hordes of people dressed in bland Mao jackets and riding bicycles (images still circulating in outdated resources widely available in the US), they’re surprised by the cell phones, Starbucks, and Buick dealerships. So how does a teacher find up-to-date information? A great place to start would be to talk with one of the Chinese scholars that EAPS hosts each year through the Freeman Fellows program. This year we have ten young professors from a variety of disciplines, all of whom speak excellent English, on our campus until June 2008. All of them are more than willing to talk with teachers about what China is like today, and it may be possible to schedule classroom visits as well. To arrange a meeting or classroom visit, contact EAPS at eaps@illinois.edu or (217) 333-7273. Please let us know what and where you teach. Another place to go is the Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS). Teachers in the immediate Urbana-Champaign area may visit their office at 805 W. Pennsylvania Ave., and browse through their collection of videos, DVDs and curriculum units on China. Anyone can use their Web site to browse their extensive database, which includes reviews of materials and lesson plans. For more personalized assistance, they also welcome phone inquiries at (888) 828-2367. Of particular interest might be the following videos, DVDs and CD-ROMs which focus on China and were produced since 2001. More information on all of them is available on the Web site. Contemporary Chinese Societies: Continuity and Change This highly-rated CD-ROM from 2001 has materials that are adaptable to any grade level, from elementary through college. An extensive review of this item is available on the AEMS website. The Enduring Legacy of Ancient China: Primary Source Lessons for Teachers and Students is for 5th-9th grade students. With self-contained lessons, this curriculum unit offers teachers the flexibility to use any or all of the lessons in any order they choose. Carefully selected authentic materials give students a unique opportunity to learn from original sources. The unit includes more than 250 full-color images, texts, and music. China from the Inside This PBS series of four documentaries (Power and the People; Women of the Country; Shifting Nature; and Freedom and Justice) looks at China through Chinese eyes. An added bonus is the educator resources available on the Web site. China’s Mega Dam from the Discovery Channel The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China is the largest public works project in the history of mankind. The Discovery Channel cameras were granted exclusive access to the site, and this film documents the dramatic effects this massive construction project has and will have on the surrounding countryside. A State of Mind Although it’s about North Korea, not China, it is a very revealing look at the inner workings of mass games and might generate interesting discussions on the function of the Olympic games in modern society. There are also numerous Web sites with lesson plans and more. One of the best is the Asia Society’s Ask Asia. Other useful links can be found on the EAPS Web site under “Links for Teachers” (www.eaps.illinois.edu; click on “links” and then “for teachers”). And as always, the staff at EAPS is ready to help you find the answers to your questions. You can contact us at eaps@illinois.edu or (217) 333-7273.

European Union Center The European Union Center (EUC) serves as a bridge of exchange and understanding between residents of the United States and member states of the European Union (EU). The center brings together faculty and students from across campus to promote the study of the EU, its institutions and policies, and EU-US relations. Working with other campus units and other institutions, the EUC also creates and delivers high-quality programs that serve Illinois businesses, policy makers, high-school teachers and students, and the general public. As one of the most comprehensive EU Centers in the US, the center is the focal point on campus for teaching, research and outreach programs on the EU. For more information, please contact the center at (217) 265-7515. About the European Union The European Union is a colossal giant of bureaucracy, programs, administrators and constituents. Its very nature—27 independent nations ceding parts of their sovereignty to form a “supernational” state—demands an interdisciplinary approach from educators and scholars. The European Union encompasses many fields, including political science, international relations, economics, law, trade, agriculture and finance. At times, the amount of data to sift through can at times seem overwhelming, but there are ways to avoid confusion and the European Union Center can offer several good places to start. Online Resources Europa.eu is the portal site of the European Union, and the first place to check for official legislation and treaties of the EU. It provides coverage on breaking affairs and is a solid resource for many basic facts. A few particularly helpful pages within europa.eu are: Europe: Panorama This page gives a brief and simple overview of the European Union. Europe: 12 Lessons This page delves a little more into the basics of the EU. It covers necessary background information, from explaining the history of the EU to deciphering Eurojargon, breaking up the pieces into 12 clear and accessible sections. Euobserver.com is an online newspaper with a cast of international contributors. Always up-to-date and constantly changing, it is a particularly good place to look for opinion pieces specifically dealing with the latest EU news from those who live within the EU. European Union—Delegation of the European Commission to the USA A Web site about the European Union geared specifically toward American citizens. Café Babel Europe’s current affairs magazine. Heavy on culture and introspection of Europe’s past. Local Resources The European Union Center has a select library of European Union materials, including books, pamphlets and videos. A list of materials can be found on our Web site. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has an extensive collection of European Union materials, including the Law library’s collection of European Union documents. A good place to search the University’s library resources for European Union information is the European Union Library Resource Center. This page was created with a particular design to help the researcher through statistical data. Also available through the University library is WorldData, which provides current and thorough economic and market data. It is a comprehensive database covering 150 countries in 45 regions. It can be found within the Online Research Resources from the University Library Gateway.

Russian, East European and Eurasian Center The Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center is a U.S. Department of Education-designated National Resource Center, committed to providing information and service to K-16 teachers. If you are interested in the center’s workshops, onsite presentations, or curricular materials, please contact the center at reec@illinois.edu or visit the REEEC Web site. The Web site features a special section for K-12 teachers under Outreach, which includes an extensive annotated bibliography of resources, information on the center’s multimedia lending library, annotated links to relevant Web sites, and more. Print resources Dando, William A. Russia, 2nd ed. Chelsea House, 2007. Grades 9-10. The textbook presents a geographical perspective on tsarist Russia, the USSR, and the current Russian Federation. The book concludes with short, largely optimistic chapters on reconstructing socioeconomic unity and Russia’s great potential. Ericson, Jr., Edward and Daniel J. Mahoney (eds). The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings 1947–2005. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2006. This reader, compiled with the cooperation of the Solzhenitsyn family represents in one volume a significant selection of Solzhenitsyn’s voluminous output. Goldman, Minton. Global Studies: Russia, The Eurasian Republics, and Central/Eastern Europe, 11th edition. McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2007. This latest edition features country report essays and maps as well as relevant articles. Hollander, Paul (ed). From the Gulag to the Killing Fields: Personal Accounts of Political Violence and Repression in Communist States. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2006. This volume is the first to collect, country by country, the writings of forty-two individuals who share their experience of life under Communism, both past and present. Minahan, James. The Former Soviet Union’s Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook (Ethnic Diversity within Nations). ABC-CLIO, 2004. A useful reference book on diverse ethnic groups in the former Soviet Union. Moore, Andrew. Russia. Chronicle Books, 2005. A stunning book of photos of Russia today. Smorodinskaya, Tatiana et al. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture. Taylor & Francis Group, 2007. This single volume on Russian culture, in which the editors define contemporary as from Stalin’s death in 1953 to the present day, includes more than 1,000 entries. Film Resources Animated Soviet Propaganda: From the October Revolution to Perestroika. Jove Film, 2006. Fascinating 4-dvd collection of Soviet animated propaganda films. Most shorts are under 15 minutes, so it would be easy to pull out one or two for teaching purposes. With English subtitles. Families of the World Series: Families of Russia. Master Communications, 2005. 30 minutes. Gr. K-6. A view of everyday lives of two Russian children and their families, one living in a city and other in the countryside. The video would be useful for elementary/middle school classroom. In English. Web sites Russian Chronicles A journalist and photographer travel from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg in 1995, filing interesting personal stories and pictures directly onto the webpage. They filed excellent pieces, especially “100 Years of Revolutions” under Road Stories—St. Petersburg. Russian Chronicles—Ten Years Later The same journalist from 1995 returns to Russia in 2005 with a photographer to see if she can retrace her steps and interview the same people from the 1995 Chronicles (see above). Participating teachers’ blogs from the REEEC Fulbright-Hays seminar in Russia are full of interesting stories about Russian everyday life. REEEC-developed Lesson Plans A module on “Russian Energy in the Modern World,” developed in conjunction with the Center for Global Studies Lesson plan for “Integrating Literature into the Study of Russian History,” by Jessica W. Barranco, Phoenix Country Day School, Arizona