upcoming events | past events

Current Events

Spring 2010

Human Rights and Legal Systems Across the Global South: A symposim at Indiana University
Dates: April 9-10, 2010
Sponsored by the African Studies Program, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Center for the Study of Global Change, and the Maurer School of Law

April 9, 2010

9:00am Introduction and Welcome

9:30-11:30am Panel I: Problems of the Universal and the Particular
Moderator: Christiana Ochoa, Maurer School of Law
“Religion and Human Rights: Is there a Crossroads?” - Kamari Clarke, Yale University
“For the Orphan, Dispossessed, and Illegitimate: Human Rights beyond Republican and Liberal Traditions.” - Siba Grovogui, Johns Hopkins University
“The Application of Customary Law and its Implications for Women’s Rights.” - Muna Ndulo, Cornell University

12:45-3:15pm Panel II: Claims in Context
Moderator: Bradley Levinson, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
“Gas Geopolitics and Indigenous Self-Determination Rights in Bolivia.” - Bret Gustafson, Washington University
“Maria da Penha Case and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Contributions to the Debate on Domestic Violence against Women in Brazil.” - Paula Spieler, Fundação Getúlio-Vargas – Rio de Janeiro
“Guilty as Charged: The Trial and Prosecution of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for Human Rights Violations.” - Jo-Marie Burt, George Mason University
“Democracy, Gender Equality, and Customary Law: Constitutionalizing Internal Cultural Disruption.” - Susan Williams, Maurer School of Law

3:15-3:30pm Break

3:30-5:30pm Panel III: Law, Struggle, and the Collective
Moderator: Shane Greene, Department of Anthropology
“The Power of Definition: Brazil’s Contribution to Universal Concepts of Indigeneity.” - Jan French, University of Richmond
“’Culture Fatigue’: The State and Minority Rights in Botswana.” - Jacqueline Solway, Trent University
“Between Global Governance and Indigenous Rights: The Right to Prior Consultation and the Proceduralization of Survival.” - César Rodriguez-Garavito, University of the Andes

5:30-6:00pm Discussant: John Comaroff, University of Chicago

April 10, 2010

9:30-11:30am Panel IV: Rights Across the Global South
Moderator: Alfred Aman, Maurer School of Law
“Sex Equality in Family Law: Religion, Custom, and the State in Comparative Perspective.” - Mala Htun, The New School, and S. Laurel Weldon, Purdue University
“Pluralism, Universality: Putting Rights in Context and South/South Cooperation.” - Erika George, University of Utah
“Community Consultations: The Interplay of Corporations and Communities in the Extractive Industries.” - Patrick Keenan, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

1:00-3:00pm Panel V: The Politics of Belonging and Exclusion
Moderator: Beverly Stoeltje, Department of Anthropology
“Ethnographies of Social and Political Exclusion in Western Mexico.” - Guillermo de la Peña, CIESAS-Occidente
“Citizenship, Autochthony and Exclusion: Paradoxes in Present-day Politics of Belonging.” - Peter Geschiere, University of Amsterdam
“The ‘Right’ to be Trafficked.” - Charles Piot, Duke University

3:00-3:30pm Discussant: Timothy Waters, Maurer School of Law

From the Postcolonial to the Global Postmodern? African & Caribbean Francophone Filmmakers and Scholars in Conversation
Dates: March 1-5, 2010
Location: All events take place in the Black Film Center/Archive, 044B Wells Library (exception is the Friday forum which will be held in Theatre A201)
Filmmakers will attend all Workshops and Screenings.

Monday, March 1st
Afternoon screening, Sugar Cane Alley (Euzhan Palcy), 3-5pm
Evening screening, Wend Kuuni(Gaston Kaboré), 7-9pm

Tuesday, March 2nd
Morning screening, Afrique, je te plumerai (Jean-Marie Teno), 11am-1pm
Afternoon screening, Buud Yam (Gaston Kaboré), 3-5pm
Workshop/Screening #1, Karmen Gëi (Jo Gaï Ramaka) with Akin Adesokan (CMLT), 7-10pm

Wednesday, March 3rd
Morning screening, Clando (Jean-Marie Teno), 11am-1pm
Afternoon screening, It's My Man (Jo Gaï Ramaka), 3-5pm
Workshop/Screening #2, Zan Bako (Gaston Kaboré) with Abdou Yaro (ASP), 7-10pm

Thursday, March 4th
Morning screening, A Dry White Season (Euzhan Palcy), 11am-1pm
Workshop/Screening #3, Sacred Places (Jean-Marie Teno) with Marissa Moorman (HIST), 3-6pm
Reception, 6-7pm
Evening screening, Short Films (Gaï Ramaka, Kaboré, Palcy, Teno), 7-9:30pm

Friday, March 5th
Workshop/Screening #4, SImeon (Euzhan Palcy) with Françoise Pfaff (Howard University), 10am-1pm
Filmmaker/Scholar Forum: Gaï Ramaka, Kenneth Harrow (Michigan State Univ.), Kaboré, Palcy, Pfaff with Eileen Julien (CMLT) and Michael Martin (BFC/A), 3-6pm [Theatre A201]

Sponsored by: College Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI), African Studies Program, Black Film Center/Archive, Dean's Office-College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Provost, Office of the Vice President for International Affairs (OVPIA), Department of Comparative Literature, Department of Communication and Culture, and the Center for Latin American and Carribean Studies.

African Film Series presents: Thunderbolt
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 7pm - 9pm

Roots, Germania? Afro-German Indentity in Context
Screening by Mo Asumang (Germany, 2008, English subtitles) followed by Q&A with filmmaker and TV personality Mo Asumang, moderated by Brigitta Wagner, Department of Germanic Studies
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 7-9 pm
Location: Monroe County Public Library
Introductory presentations by: Michelle Moyd, Department of History and Claudia Breger, Department of Germanic Studies
Co-sponsored by the African Studies Program

Location: Monroe County Public Library, 303 E. Kirkwood Ave.

Cost: Free

Film: Sankofa
Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2009, 6:30pm – 8:30pm

Film: Moolaade
Date: Thursday, March 25, 2010, 7pm - 9pm

Film: Dribbling Fate (Fintar O Destino)
Date: Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 6:30pm – 8:30pm

Fall 2009

Democratic Processes, Violence, and Reconstruction in Africa
Date: September 25, 2009
Location: IUPUI University Place Conference Center, Indianapolis, IN
Panels at University Library Lilly Auditorium, 755 W. Michigan Street.
Sponsored by the Indiana Constorium for International Programs and the Indiana Unviersity African Studies Program, in cooperation with the IUPUI Office of International Affairs

Location: Monroe County Public Library, 303 E. Kirkwood Ave.

Cost: Free

Film: A Long Night's Journey Into Day
Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 7pm - 9pm

Film: Everyone’s Child
Date: Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 7pm - 9pm

Film: Thunderbolt
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 7pm - 9pm

Location: Foster Quad, Harper Formal Lounge, 1000 N. Fee Lane

Date and Time: Friday, October 23rd, 6pm

Location: Special Exhibitions Gallery, first floor

Date: September 26–December 13, 2009

Modest materials transformed into extraordinary objects are the subject of Form and Surface: African Ceramics, Baskets, and Textiles from the William Itter Collection, a special exhibition that opened on September 26 in the IU Art Museum’s Special Exhibitions Gallery. The exhibition features clay vessels brought together by painter and retired Hope School of Fine Arts faculty member William Itter, who has assembled one of the largest and finest collections of African ceramics in the country. Itter’s smaller, but equally beautiful collections of baskets and textiles complement the pottery by extending the dialogue between form and decoration that makes these crafts so appealing to look at. Well over 150 examples of pots, baskets, and textiles from all over sub-Saharan Africa are on display.

Lecture

Date: Friday, October 16>

Time: 5:30–6:30 p.m., Radio-TV Building, Room 251

Lecture by William Itter

Reception

6:30–8:30 p.m., Thomas T. Solley Atrium, first floor, and the SOFA Gallery

Join the Art Museum and the SOFA Gallery as we jointly celebrate the IU Art Museum’s Form and Surface: African Ceramics, Baskets and Textiles from the William Itter Collection and the SOFA Gallery’s William Itter: A Retrospective—Paintings and Drawings 1969–2009. William Itter, painter and professor emeritus in the Hope School of Fine Arts, will begin the evening with a lecture about his work. Concurrent receptions in the Solley Atrium and at the SOFA Gallery will follow, with both exhibitions open until 8:30 p.m.

Lecture: Texts and Textures in African Ceramics

Date and Time: Friday, October 23, 5–6 p.m.

Location: Radio-TV Building, Room 251

Barbara Frank, associate professor of art history at Stony Brook University, IU alumna, and a specialist in African ceramics, will discuss how African pottery traditions can contribute to our understanding African cultural heritage. Her lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of the History of Art’s Robert and Avis Burke Lecture Series and has been scheduled in conjunction with the special exhibition Form and Surface: African Ceramics, Baskets and Textiles from the William Itter Collection.

Collector’s Workshop - Woven Forms: Collecting Baskets and Textiles from Africa

Date and Time: Sunday, November 8, 1:30–3:00 p.m.

Location: Art Museum Conference Room, third floor

Frequently made with related techniques, but with very different results, baskets and textiles are among the most easily appreciated African arts as well as accessible and affordable for collectors. At this hands-on workshop, we will consider what to look for in acquiring these objects, how to learn more about them, and how to display and care for them. The discussion will be led by Douglas Dawson, a longtime admirer of African textiles and baskets and owner of Douglas Dawson Gallery in Chicago; collector William Itter, and Diane Pelrine, Class of 1949 Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. This program is co-sponsored by the Art Museum and the Friends of Art. It is free, but you must pre-register by contacting Tom Rhea (855-5300) or Diane Pelrine (dpelrine@indiana.edu), and space is limited to thirty people.

Noon Talk - Earth and Fire: A Ceramic Artist’s Perspective on African Ceramics

Date and Time: Wednesday, November 18, 12:15–1:00 p.m.

Location: Special Exhibitions Gallery, first floor

Tim Mather, ceramist and director of the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, will discuss techniques and considerations in making African ceramics for this talk that is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Form and Surface: African Ceramics, Baskets, and Textiles from the William Itter Collection.

Special Gallery Talk and Reception - Looking Closely at Form and Surface

Date and Time: Sunday, December 6, 1:30–3:00 p.m.

Location: Special Exhibitions Gallery and Thomas T. Solley Atrium, first floor

Painter and collector William Itter invites you join him for a tour of his African ceramics, baskets, and textiles as he examines the features that make these objects so visually appealing. After the talk, enjoy refreshments in the Solley Atrium. This event is sponsored by the IU Art Museum’s Arc Fund.

Summer 2009

Location: School of Fine Arts, Room 102

Time: 7pm

August 5th - Frontieres (2002, 102 minutes) - Director: Mostefa Djadjam

Seven Africans embark on a perilous journey to enter Europe illegally via the Strait of Gibraltar. On their way across the Sahara to Tangier, they share stories and we learn their reasons for immigrating.

August 12th - 13 Months of Sunshine (2007, 98 minutes) - Director: Yahdego Abeselom

Two Ethiopian immigrants marry so that both can fulfill their dreams of living in the United States. During the thirteen months they spend waiting for her green card, they discover there are more important things in life than green cards and coffee shops.

August 19th - Little Senegal (2001, 97 minutes) - Director: Rachid Bouchareb

After discovering that some of his ancestors were kidnapped and sold as slaves in North Carolina, an elderly man from Senegeal travels to the United States in hopes of reconnecting with his African American relatives.

Spring 2009

Date: Friday, March 6th - Saturday, March 7th

Location: Faculty Club, Indiana Memorial Union

The African Studies Program and the East Asian Studies Center present the "China in Africa" symposium to examine China's ever-increasing financial and political involvement in Africa. Speakers include ambassadors, lobbyists, journalists, and scholars. For a complete list of speakers and agenda, please see the schedule at the link below.

China in Africa Schedule

This program is funded by Title VI National Resource Center grants from the U.S. Department of Education and has been co-sponsored by the African Studies Program, the East Asian Studies Center, and the Center for Business Education and Research.

top