Enjoy some of the highlights and photos from that night!

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This conference is the third in a series comparing two edges of the Islamic world. The first “Islam at the Edges: Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia” was held at Northern Illinois University 30 March 2009, the second “Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia: Islam, Mergers, and Margins” at Malaysian National University 4-5 January 2011, and the third “From the Adriatic to the Sulu Sea: Islam and Identity in Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia” is planned for the University of Chicago for February 10-12, 2012.

Our choice of Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia for the foci of these conferences is motivated by the fact that in each of these regions at opposite ends of the traditional Islamic world Islam is an important historical and social factor that continues to interact with both previous and subsequent cultural traditions and political realities in ways that are informatively comparable. This third conference understands “identities” in the broadest possible manner, and the papers will examine phenomena from music and literacy to politics and spirituality and beyond.

If you are interested in presenting at this conference, please send a title and brief abstract (1-2 paragraphs) to Meredith Clason, Associate Director, Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies (CEERES) ( mclason@uchicago.edu) by November 15, 2011. Notification of acceptance will be given by December 15, 2011.

This conference is sponsored by the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies at the University of Chicago and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University. Both Centers are supported by National Resource Center funds from Title VI of the US Department of Education.

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CSEAS Fall 2011 Reception

As a reminder, CSEAS invites all students, faculty, and staff to our upcoming fall semester reception this Wednesday on October 19 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the Tokioka Room (Moore Hall 319).

Come join us in welcoming new students and faculty in Southeast Asian style!

Date: Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Time: 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Venue: Moore 319 (Tokioka Room), University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa

Food and beverages will be provided.

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Voices of a Decade: Critical Perspectives on the Dekada ‘70
Location: Honolulu, HI USA
Thursday, October 27, 2011, 3:00-5:30
Center for Korean Studies Auditorium

A film by Chino S. Rono based on the critically acclaimed novel by Lualhati Bautista, Dekada ’70 portrays the lives of Filipinos during the Martial Law era. These presentations provide analytical insights on history, gender roles, and the struggle of Filipino youth.

The following papers will be presented:
Footprints of Subversion: Dekada ’70 and Martial Law — Karl Christian Alcover
Julian Bartolome and the Vulnerabilities of Being Male — Karl-Ryan Meyer
Beyond Gender Boundaries: Amanda Bartolome as a Portrait of Filipino Women in Dekada ’70– Jason McFarland
Fragmented Spirits: The Disempowerment and Struggle of Filipino Youth in Dekada ’70 — Joyce Camille Ramano
Romanticizing the Woman: Challenges Facing Filipino Women in the 70s — Jose Mari Barbasa, Jerome Clemente, Mac Neil Moresca, Nescia Pearl Ponce, Krystle Urmeneta
The Circle of Men: Patriarchy and Dekada ’70 — Jam Nicole Cristobal, Chesare Antonio-Reyes, Jerome Balbin, Tai Seng Wai, Jeffrey Aganos
Playing the Giants: Human Rights Violations during Martial Law — Florante Baptista, Alvin Namnama, Sheryl Nillo, Kirsten Kadoyama, Krystle Ann Pastores
Biting the Bullet: On Asserting Freedom through Activism during Martial Law — Brian Thompson, Lucas Brog, Yvette Butac, Vanessa Cadiz, Camille Frieda Cristobal

Admission is free. Open to the public. For inquiries, please contact Dr. Pia Arboleda at pca62@hawaii.edu or (808) 956-5901.

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Heavy monsoon rains have been drenching Southeast Asia since mid-July, causing mudslides and widespread flooding along the Mekong River. Parts of Thailand are now experiencing the worst floods in half a century, as water inundates villages, historic temples, farms, and factories. At least 281 people have been killed in Thailand, and another 200 in neighboring Cambodia. Rescue workers are scrambling to prevent a humanitarian disaster, and Thailand’s prime minister is warning businesses not to use the flooding as an excuse to raise prices. About 8.2 million people in 60 of Thailand’s 77 provinces have been affected by the flooding, and economic losses are so far estimated to top $2 billion. Collected here are recent images of the crisis in Thailand as some 10 million residents in Bangkok keep a wary eye on the approaching surge of floodwater, due to reach the capital in a few days.

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Weaponizing Language: U.S. Counterinsurgency and the Politics of Translation Dr. Vicente Rafael
Co-sponsored with The History Workshop, Department of History
Location: Honolulu, HI USA
October 7, 2:30pm – 4:30pm
Manoa Campus, Sakamaki A201

Summary
Professor Vicente Rafael (University of Washington, Seattle) will present “Weaponizing Language: U.S. Counterinsurgency and the Politics of Translation,” as the next talk in the History Workshop series “War and Society: Considering Justice, Violence, and the Military in History.” Much has been written recently about the rise of counterinsurgency stressing the “protection of the population” as the preferred strategy of the U.S. in its permanent “global war on terror.”

This talk will focus on two of the most prevalent tropes in the discourse of counterinsurgency: the “weaponization” and “targeting” of foreign languages. How is the counterinsurgent notion of languages as “weapons” and “targets” linked to the strategic imperative of deploying translation as a means for colonizing the lifeworld of occupied populations?

How does the American military seek to expropriate the practice of translation through the development of automatic translation systems and exploitation of the mediating power of native interpreters? What are the limits and contradictions to the targeting of speech and the militarization of linguistic exchange between occupiers and occupied? What do these limits on the weaponization of translation tell us about the vicissitudes of counterinsurgency as a strategy for sustaining the U.S. empire? Finally, are there other ways of conceiving translation in ways that exceed the terrifying demands of war?

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Vicente L. Rafael is Professor of History at the University of Washington. His research and teaching specialties include the following fields: Southeast Asia (especially the Philippines), Comparative Colonialism (especially Spain and the United States), and Comparative Nationalism. Professor Rafael also maintains an active interest in the related fields of cultural anthropology, literary studies and European continental philosophy. Through his location in the department of history, he have sought to touch on topics that include language and power, translation and religious conversion, technology and humanity, the politics and poetics of representation.

Event Sponsor
History and the Center for Philippine Studies, Manoa Campus

More Information
Suzanna Reiss and Matt Romaniello, 956-7407, histwork@hawaii.edu

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The Bùi Xuân Phái Prize is given out annually to individuals and organizations who have made outstanding contributions to the city of Hà Nội in the fields of culture, arts, and the betterment of society.

Digregorio noted that “This is the first time foreigners have won this prize. Mike Douglass has been crucial in guiding a process of awakening that has drawn in more and more architects and planners into a way of looking at public space as part of a social process that runs counter to the process of corporatization under way in Vietnam’s cities. Our project reminds younger generations to look back at the past while thinking about what they can do to make Hà Nội more beautiful in the future.”

For an interesting blog piece on Thống Nhất Park go here: http://davidlloydson.com/2011/06/07/74/

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In conjunction with Ramadan celebration, the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Muslim Societies in Asia and the Pacific, School of the Pacific and Asian Studies and the University of Hawaiʻi’s Multicultural Student Services (OMSS/UHM) is sponsoring storytelling with Aman Ali.

CNN ranked it as one of the top stories of 2010. During Ramadan 2010, Islam’s holy month of fasting and reflection, New Yorkers Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq took a roadtrip across America, stopping each evening to break their fasts at a different mosque in a different state. The two drove over 13,000 miles during the trip and blogged about it daily on their site, http://30mosques.com/. During the trip they prayed inside the infamous “Ground Zero Mosque” in Manhattan, got pulled over by a cop in Mississippi, and visited the first mosque ever built in the U.S. in Ross, North Dakota – a town with only 48 people in it. Along the way they met the protagonists of Dave Eggers’ bestselling Zeitoun, Cambodian Muslim victims of the Khmer Rouge, a Pakistani-Mormon couple, and many, many others, all of whom are part of the diverse Muslim-American community. Their journey explores what it means to be Muslim in America today, and serves as a powerful counter-narrative to the media’s image of a monolithic Islam, receiving coverage on ABC News, CNN, Time, NPR, Fox News, the Huffington Post and Aljazeera English.

Speaker Bio:
Aman Ali is a writer and standup comedian. He lives and works in New York. He and his friend filmmaker and advertising copywriter Bassam Tariq are co-creators of the 30 Mosques in 30 States project.

Co-sponsored by:
Shangri La, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Muslim Societies in Asia and the Pacific, School of the Pacific and Asian Studies and University of Hawai’i's Office of Multicultural Student Services (OMSS/UHM). Support for this event is made possible in part with funding from the State of Hawai’i Legislature and the U.S. Department of Education.

For further information or disability accommodations, contact MSAP at (808) 956-6316 or email to msap@hawaii.edu. Advance notice requested. An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution.

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