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| Tuesday, February 18 | |
| Textiles Exhibit "Isles of Innovation: Textiles from the Okinawan Archipelago" on display through May 2. This exhibition of Okinawan (Ryukyuan) textiles will center on an extremely scarce book of Okinawan textiles, _Ryukyu no Orimono_, from the UW Rare Book Collection. This book, with actual samples of 59 Okinawan textiles, was assembled and written by Tanaka Toshio. Tanaka would later become the doyen of Okinawan textiles, along with the eminent Mingei (Japanese folk craft) leader, Yanagi Muneyoshi (Soestsu) and Yanagi Yoshitaka. Every two days a new page of this book will be turned so that frequent visitors will have an opportunity to see all the samples in the book. Descriptions of each sample will be provided in English and Japanese. Only 100 copies of this book were originally made in 1939 and only three are known to be in existence today. The UW copy is the only one in the United States; there is another in Okinawa and a third at the Mingei Kan (Folk Craft Museum) in Tokyo. Accompanying the book will be ca. 14 display cases containing vintage Okinawan textiles and one modern work based on Okinawan methods. They will be made of ramie, cotton, silk, and the uniquely Okinawan fiber, basho-fu or banana leaf fiber. Textiles from the largest island in the group, Okinawa, will be shown as well as those from textile-rich peripheral islands, Miyako, Yaeyama, Amami Oshima, and Kume. Through May 2, Suzzallo Library Exhibition Room (first floor). |
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| 7:00 PM | Walker-Ames Lecture "Computational Media and New Literacies: Cognitive, Social and Material Perspectives," Andrea (Andy) diSessa (Chancellor's Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley). "Computer literacy" is an old and much abused term to describe "knowing something about computers." On the other hand, genuinely extending our personal and communal intelligence with electronic media--a deep computational literacy--may be the most promising intellectual transformation that technology can bring to society. The deep literacy metaphor has guided the work of the Boxer Project from its inception, and he will provide an overview in this talk. He will describe the ways computers can "make us smarter," illustrated with work we have done teaching mathematics and science to young students. He will also describe how a computational literacy can change the relationship between students and scientific subject matter, supporting "committed learning," where students feel a personal connection to their work in school. Finally, he'll describe some of the social issues involved in the development of new literacies. In particular, he will explain a "social niches" approach to understanding literacies. UW Department Sponsors: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Department of Architecture, Department of Psychology, College of Education, Center for Engineering, Learning and Teaching. Admission is free. No ticket required. 7 pm, Kane Hall, Room 130. |
| Wednesday, February 19 | |
| 12:30 PM | Scandinavian Studies Lecture "Constitutional and International Human Rights: A Scandinavian Perspective," Carsten Smith (Former Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Norway and Professor of Law, University of Oslo). Carsten Smith has written extensively on issues of human rights and the law. He is the author of seven books and numerous articles. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Nordic Journal of Legal Science, as member of the Board of Nordic Law Conferences, and as member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. He was founding chair of the Sami Rights Commission in 1980-85 and is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He has been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Uppsala, Sweden; the University of Tromso, Norway; and Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Sponsored by the Department of Scandinavian Studies and the School of Law. 12:30-1:20 pm, Condon Hall 135. |
| 3:30 PM | NEW WORKS IN PRINT Marc Lange (UW, Philosophy) will discuss his recently published book, "The Philosophy of Physics: Locality, Fields, Energy and Mass" (Blackwell Publishers, 2002). Lange's book combines physics, history, and philosophy in a radical new approach to introducing the philosophy of physics. Accessible to readers with little background in physics or philosophy, this book allows the reader to wrestle with the metaphysical and conceptual problems that drove innovation in physics, from nineteenth-century electromagnetic field theory through relativity and quantum mechanics. Among the topics treated are action at a distance, the reality of electric fields, energy's character as "stuff" flowing through space, and the meaning of E=mc2. Lange received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1990. He is the author of Natural Laws in Scientific Practice (Oxford University Press, 2000) and his articles have appeared in Philosophy of Science, The Journal of Philosophy, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Studies, and Synthese, among other journals. Sponsored by the Simpson Center for the Humanities. 3:30-5:00 PM, Communications 206. |
| 3:30 PM | Southeast Asia Lecture "Lao Literature in the Context of Lao History and Culture," Contance Wilson (Southeast Asian Studies). Since the end of the Second Indochina War, there has been an international explosion in the study of Lao literature. Lao, Thai, French, British, Australian, American and Indian scholars have all been participating in this endeavor. Of special interest in this expanding field is the placement of Lao literature in the context of both the greater Tai world and that of South and Southeast Asia. The presentation will open with an overview of recent research in Lao literature. It will be followed by two brief case studies. The first examines the influence of Buddhist Jataka Tales on Lao literature. The second is an examination of the Lao version of the Ramayana, Phra Lak Phra Lam, in the context of Lao history in the middle of the nineteenth century, the period in which the version translated by Sakai was written. 3:30-5:00 pm, Allen Auditorium (Allen Library). |
| 4:00 PM | Language Colloquium "The Development of Bilingual and Bicultural Identities: A Narrative Inquiry," Yasuko Kanno (English, University of Washington). Researchers in the field of second-language acquisition and bilingual education have incresingly come to view identity as multiple and dynamic: "identitites" that are contradicotry and change over time. Building on such theoretical orientation, this study investigates the long-term changes in Japanese returnees' linguistic and cultural identitites through an analysis of their narratives. The four students in this study lived in Canada until they finished high school and then returned to Japan in order to attend university. During their adolescence, they held a simplistic, either-or orientation to bilingualism and biculturalism, assuming that one could be either Canadian or Japanese, but not both. However, as they returned to Japan and readjusted to their home country, they developed a more multifaceted view of identity that integrated aspects form both of their languages and cultures. Sponsored by the Department of English. 4:00-5:30 pm, Thomson Hall 119. |
| 7:00 PM | Germanics Film Screening "Was Tun, Wenn's Brennt," Gregor Schnitzler, 2002. Six former anarchists from 1980's Berlin are forced to reunite in the reunified Berlin when a bomb they had planted during their radical days suddenly detonates. The group reassembles reluctantly and must hatch a farfetched plan to save themselves from detection. This new film, starring film-idol Til Schweiger, is a comedy with doses of action, suspense, sentiment, and political commentary. Shown in German with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Department of Germanics. 7:00 pm, Smith 205. |
| 7:30 PM | Comparative Religion Lecture "The Dome of the Rock: From its Creation to Our Age of Confrontation," Jere Bacharach (Department of History). This is the annual Founders Lecture of the Comparative Religion Program. Sponsored by the Comparative Religion Program. For more information, email religion@u.washington.edu. 7:30 pm, Kane Hall 220. |
| Thursday, February 20 | |
| 3:30 PM | Asian Languages & Literature Colloquiu "Research on Contemporary Okinawan Fiction," Davinder Bhowmik (Asian Languages and Literature, UW). 3:30-5:00 p.m., Communications 226. |
| 3:30 PM | Classics Lecture "The Fragile Light of Day: The Secret History of Cicero's Consular Orations," Brian Krostenko (Classics, Univ. of Notre Dame). Krostenko (Ph.D. 1993 Classical Philology, Harvard) is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Notre Dame, having previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago. Krostenko is interested in the intersection of linguistics, literary criticism, and rhetorical theory and practice in Latin literature, especially in Cicero and Catullus. He is the author of "Cicero, Catullus, and the Language of Social Performance" (University of Chicago Press 2000), a work which analyzes the problem of aestheticism in Roman literature and culture from the angle of historical semantics; his next project examines the issues of stylistics, orality, and class in Cicero's speeches. Sponsored by the Department of Classics. Reception to follow. 3:30 pm, Denny Hall, Room 309. |
| Friday, February 21 | |
| 3:30 PM | Linguistics Colloquium "Were there implosives in Proto-Indo-European?," Charles Barrack (UW, Germanics). The central tenet of the Glottalic Theory of the Proto-Indo-European obstruent system is that what has been traditionally reconstructed as a plain voiced stop series can be more convincingly reconstructed as a series of ejectives, which are inherently voiceless. However, the abundant evidence that this series was voiced has led to outright rejection by many of the Glottalic Theory. In an apparent attempt to obviate these objections, Frederick Kortlandt claims to have found ample comparative evidence that this series underwent a change from ejectives to implosives to voiced stops in several branches of Indo-European. In this address evidence will be presented to demonstrate that Kortlandt's implosive model is fraught with implausibility and inconsistencies and should also be rejected. 3:30 pm, Thompson 101. |
| 7:00 PM | FILM SCREENING "The Reckless Moment," 1949 film in English. Presented by Steven Shaviro and Betsy McConnell. Part of the Friday evening series, "Luminous Psyche: Selected Films of Max Ophuls," at the Seattle Art Museum. Presented by the Northwest Psychoanalytic Film Study Group, in conjunction with Cinema Seattle "Talking Pictures." The film will be followed by a presentation meant to encourage thoughtful dialogue from audience members. Sponsored by the Simpson Center for the Humanities, the UW Cinema Studies Department, the Henry Art Gallery, and others. See luminouspsyche.org for more information. Tickets are available through the Seattle Art Museum box office (206-654-3121). 7 PM, Seattle Art Museum. |
| 7:00 PM | POLISH HISTORY LECTURE "Czeslaw Milosz and the So-Called Polish School of Poetry," Bogdan Czaykowski (University of British Columbia). Czaykowski will discuss the fact that a group of excellent contemporary Polish poets, including Szymborska, Milosz, Herbert, and Zagajewski, diverse as they appear to Poles, are often treated by English-speaking literary theorists as a group. It has been suggested that their poetry is a rare synthesis of historical and individual experience, which often results in subtle shades of irony, and a surprising blend of tragedy with elements of black humor. Czaykowski is a historian, literary critic, poet and translator. He is professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he began his career in 1962, specializing in Polish and East European literature and history. Czaykowski's academic work includes critical studies of prominent Polish 19th and 20th century poets such as Mickiewicz, Norwid, Lesmian, and Milosz. Last year he published a masterfully edited "Anthology of Polish Poetry Abroad, 1939-1999". Admission is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Simpson Center for the Humanities. 7 pm, Husky Union Building, Room 106B. The talk will be followed by a wine and cheese reception. For more information, please see http://depts.washington.edu/slavweb/events/PolLecture.htm. |