CHIASMOS: The University of Chicago International and Area Studies Multimedia Outreach Source [video]

"Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power" (video)

A talk by Jonathan Mahler and Neal Katyal. In his latest book, The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power, Jonathan Mahler chronicles the challenge to the assertion of presidential power in the designation of enemy combatants. Written with the cooperation of the attorneys who represented Hamdan, Lt. Commander Charles Swift and Georgetown constitutional law scholar Neal Katyal, Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld is the inside story of the historic Supreme Court case and its effe...

"Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia" (video)

The growing instability and resurgence of Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan pose a great threat to U.S. interests and global security. In his new book, "Descent into Chaos", Ahmed Rashid examines the rising insurgency, booming opium trade, and weak governance in Afghanistan, concluding that U.S. strategy in the region has been a complete failure. Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist based in Lahore. He was the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia correspondent for the Far East...

"Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror" (video)

"Our government can make you disappear." Those were the words Steven Wax never imagined he would hear himself say. In his twenty-nine years as a public defender, Wax had never had to warn a client that he or she might be taken away to a military brig, or worse, a "black site", one of our country's dreaded secret prisons. How had our country come to this? The disappearance of people happens in places ruled by tyrants, military juntas, fascist strongmen?governments with such contempt for the ru...

"Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War" (video)

In his book "Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War", Jimmie Briggs book provides a vitally important perspective on the global tragedy of child soldiers. More than 250,000 children have fought in three dozen conflicts around the world. From the "little bees"" of Colombia to the "baby brigades" of Sri Lanka, the subject of child soldiers is changing the face of terrorism. Briggs was awarded the John Bartlow Martin Award from Northwestern University for a story about the Gulf War's impa...

PGE Distinguished Lecture: "Is Development Sustainable? Not Even Close" (video)

A talk by Robert Repetto. Is development sustainable? Certainly not the way the world is now going about it. Major trends are heading straight toward ecological and human disasters and if they are not changed and changed soon, development efforts will fail for billions of people, comprising mainly the world?s most vulnerable populations. Climate change, water scarcities, pollution, population growth, and growing pressures on natural resources that are already extremely stressed reinforce one ...

"Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making" (video)

"Superclass" provides the first in-depth examination of the connections between the global communities of leaders who are at the helm of every major enterprise on the planet and control its greatest wealth. It is an unprecedented examination of the trends within the superclass, which are likely to alter our politics, our institutions, and the shape of the world in which we live. Rothkopf is also the widely acclaimed author of "Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Counc...

"Pens and Swords: How the American Mainstream Media Report the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" (video)

A talk by Marda Dunsky, former Arab affairs reporter for the Jerusalem Post and editor on the national/foreign desk of the Chicago Tribune. As world attention is renewed and refocused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the sixtieth anniversary of its seminal year of 1948, Marda Dunsky takes a close look at how more than two dozen major American print and broadcast outlets have reported the conflict in recent years. Marda Dunsky has developed and taught a unique media literacy course on Am...

"The Next Great Clash" (video)

A talk by Michael Levin. In The Next Great Clash, Michael Levin presents evidence of a global political order on the verge of a historic power shift from West to East. A reemerging China is the only nation with the latent capacity to challenge American hegemony, and Levin demonstrates that such challenges to the status quo usually lead to war. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

"Muslim Peace Building in Conflict Regions of Southeast Asia" (video)

A historical overview of the situation in southern Thailand and southern Philippines is presented, followed by a discussion on peace building efforts in conflict regions. Panelists give special attention to welfare and security issues in these areas. The panel is moderated by Kikue Hamayotsu (Ph.D., Department of Political Science, Northern Illinois University). Panelists include: Kriya Lanputeh (Yala Islamic University), Abdulghoni Suetair (Prince of Songkla University), Pattama Hamingma (As...

Genocide Conference Panel 3: “Confronting Darfur" (video)

This panel addressed the conflict in the Darfur region of The Sudan and the allegations of genocide; the adequacy of the international response to the crises and proffer solutions to end the conflict. Vincent O. Nmehielle, Principal Defender of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and Associate Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Law, Johannesburg, South Africa; Samuel Totten, Senior Researcher (Fulbright Scholar), National University of Rwanda; Genocide Scholar,...

Genocide Conference Panel 2: “Prevention and Response" (video)

This panel will examine the response of home and international communities to acts of genocide. The panel will focus on a variety of responses including legal action, both national and international, social action, and memorialization. It will analyze how these various responses are used to try to stop genocide as it is occurring, restore justice, and prevent genocide in the future. Hasia R. Diner, Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History, Department of Hebrew & Juda...

Genocide Conference Panel 1: “Defining the 'Crime without a Name'" (video)

This panel will compare various instances of genocide and explore the possibility of developing models that can be used to prevent the occurrence of genocide. Marie Fleming, Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University; Juan Mendez, President, International Center for Transitional Justice, New York, & former Special Adviser to the U.N. Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide; Ervin Staub, Director Emeritus, Psychology of Peace and the Prevention of Violence, Department of Psycho...

Francis Deng: Genocide Conference Keynote Address (video)

Keynote address by Ambassador Francis Deng, Research Professor, Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and Director of the SAIS Center for Displacement Studies; Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Special Adviser to the U.N. Secretary General for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. Part of a two-day conference on "Genocide: Crimes Unpunished, Lessons Unlearned."

Roksonaki Concert (video)

A smash hit at the 2002 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Roksonaki pioneered the creation of a unique sound that integrates ancient Kazakh instrumentation with contemporary rock and jazz using motifs drawn from Eurasia's indigenous religious traditions. This tour gives lucky audiences an opportunity to learn about Central Asian culture directly from the source. A program of the Central Asian Cultural Exchange, with collaboration from the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United State...

"The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order" (video)

A talk by Parag Khanna, Director of the Global Governance Initiative of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. In "The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order", Parag Khanna examines the intersection of geopolitics and globalization to argue that America's dominant moment has been suddenly replaced by a geopolitical marketplace wherein the European Union and China compete with the United States to shape world order on their own terms. Mr. Khanna has ...

"The Closing of the ICTY and its Effect on Justice and Accountability in the Former Yugoslavia (video)"

This panel explores how the impending closing of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will affect justice and accountability in the Balkans including: the integration of international human rights standards on a national level, the challenges and opportunities confronting the domestic courts and the role of the media/civil society. Distinguished panelists included: M. Cherif Bassiouni, Distinguished Research Professor of Law at DePaul University College of Law...

"The Sixth Anniversary of the Gujarat Riots" (video)

A talk by Shabnam Hashmi, Managing Trustee and Executive Secretary of Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD) in New Delhi, India. Presented with Professor Steven Wilkinson and Mona Mehta of the University of Chicago. The Gujarat violence was a series of communal riots that took place in the Indian State of Gujarat from February to May 2002, involving violence between Hindus and Muslims. Official estimates of the death toll tabled in the Indian parliament reported 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus...

Displacement Week: "Forum on the University of Chicago and Hyde Park/Kenwood/Woodlawn" (video)

A panel discussion with Susan Cambell: University of Chicago Office of Community Affairs; Bryan Echols: MAGIC; Mattie Butler: Woodlawn East Community and Neighbors.

"One Hundred Years, One Hundred Voices" (video)

As part of "Displacement Week 2008", architect and women's rights activist Neera Adarkar discusses the history of central Bombay's textile area — one of the most important, least known, stories of modern India. Covering a dense network of textile mills, public housing estates, markets and cultural centers, this area covers approximately one thousand acres in the heart of India's commercial and financial capital. In One Hundred Years, One Hundred Voices, Adarkar presents one hundred testimonie...

Displacement Week: "The Effects of Gentrification on Chicago's Communities" (video)

A panel discussion with Jamie Kalven: Writer, Invisible Institute; Tom Walsh: Director of Advocacy and Public Policy, Jewish Council on Urban Affiars; Victoria Romero: President of the Board, Pilsen Alliance. Moderated by Virginia Parks: Assistant Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago.

Displacement Week: "Chicago and the 2016 Olympics" (video)

A talk by Larry Bennett, Political Science Department, DePaul University. Chicago is one of seven finalists seeking the designation as host city for the 2016 summer Olympic Games. Eight years in advance of the Games, several major components of the Chicago proposal have been worked out and have drawn the attention of local residents and the media. Many other parts of the Chicago Olympic plan remain unspecified at this time. Among the uncertainties associated with the Chicago Olympic bid, and ...

"Immigrant Organizations in the U.S.: Opportunities and Challenges" (video)

A talk by Oscar Chacón, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities (NALACC). From the Katz Center for Mexican Studies.

"Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy" (video)

A talk by Ayesha Siddiqa, Islamabad-based independent political and defence analyst and author. Pakistan has emerged as a strategic ally of the US in the 'war on terror'. It is the third largest receiver of US aid in the world, but it also serves as a breeding ground for fundamentalist groups. How long can the relationship between the US and Pakistan continue? This book shows how Pakistan is an unusual ally for the US in that it is a military state, controlled by its army. The Pakistan milita...

"Poverty and Income Inequality in Brazil" (video)

A presentation by Ricardo Paes de Barros, University of Chicago Tinker Visiting Professor, and Researcher at the Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA), a public foundation linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management. This lecture stems from a 2006 IPEA report on the "Recent Fall in Income Inequality in Brazil". This report sought to consolidate the recent and dramatic decline in income inequality in Brazil, evaluate its impact and relevance, identify its main...

"New Partnership Paradoxes in U.S.-China Relations" (video)

Keynote Address at the 2008 China Symposium by Sun Zhe, professor of the Institute for International Studies and Director of the Center for U.S.-China Relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Professor Sun identifies three new "partnership paradoxes" in U.S.-China relations: Trade, Taiwan and Democracy. (1) China and the U.S. today are traversing an economic glacier of mutual interdependence and they have to depend on each other much more than either would probably choose; (2) Taiwan has ...

"Cows, Cars and Cycle-Rickshaws: The Politics of Nature on the Streets of Delhi" (video)

A talk by Amita Baviskar, Associate Professor at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University. As an embodied public sphere, city streets are sites for multiple exchanges between differently located people and things. This talk focuses on cows, cars and cycle-rickshaws as they navigate Delhi's roads, and on the people who own, use and seek to control them. All three have been the subject of strenuous efforts at regulation by courts, citizens' groups and traders' associations. Professor ...

"Human Rights in Mexico: Inside the Labyrinth of Drugs, Elections and Billionaires" (video)

A talk by Sergio Aguayo, professor of political science at the Colegio de Mexico. Aguayo has been one of Mexico's leading public intellectuals and human rights advocates for the past three decades. He has been a professor of political science at the Colegio de Mexico since 1977 and was a founder of the Mexican Academy for Human Rights, the electoral reform organization Alianza Civica, and other civil society initiatives. His weekly newspaper column appears in 17 papers across Mexico and the U...

"The Mind of the Market" (video)

Author and psychologist Michael Shermer explains how evolution shaped the modern economy-and why people are so irrational about money. How did we make the leap from ancient hunter-gatherers to modern consumers and traders? Why do people get so emotional and irrational about bottom-line financial and business decisions? Is the capitalist marketplace a sort of Darwinian organism, evolved through natural selection as the fittest way to satisfy our needs?

"China's Brave New World and Other Tales for Global Times" (video)

A talk by Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. If Chairman Mao came back to life today, what would he think of Nanjing's bookstore, the "Librairie Avant-Garde", where it is easier to find primers on Michel Foucault's philosophy than copies of the Little Red Book? What does it really mean to order a latte at Starbucks in Beijing? Is it possible that Aldous Huxley wrote a novel even more useful than Orwell's 1984 for making sense of post-Tiananmen C...

"The Oil and Glory" (video)

A talk by journalist and author Steven LeVine. Pipeline politics became a modern day version of the 19th Century's Great Game, in which Britain and Russia had employed cunning and bluff to gain supremacy over the lands of the Caucasus and Central Asia. “The Oil and Glory” is the story of how, at the dawn of the 21st century, the game was played once more across the harsh environs of the Caspian Sea. Co-sponsor: Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies.

"The Talibanization of South Asia: Can it Be Stopped?" (video)

A talk by Pervez Hoodbhoy, Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azama University. Dr. Hoodbhoy received his bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, master's in solid state physics, and Ph.D in nuclear physics, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a faculty member at the Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad since 1973. He is chairman of Mashal, a non-profit organization that publishes books in Urdu on women's rights, education, en...

"Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq" (video)

A talk by Dahr Jamail, independent journalist and author. As the occupation of Iraq unravels, the demand for independent reporting is growing. Since 2003, unembedded journalist Dahr Jamail has filed indispensable reports from Iraq that have made him this generation's chronicler of the unfolding disaster there. In these collected dispatches, Jamail presents never-before-published details of the siege of Fallujah and examines the origins of the Iraqi insurgency. Dahr Jamail makes frequent visit...

"Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror" (video)

A talk by David Cole, Professor of Law at Georgetown University. In "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror," Professor Cole and Jules Lobel, two of the country's preeminent constitutional scholars, argue that the great irony is that the Bush administration's sacrifices in the rule of law, adopted in the name of prevention, have in fact made us more susceptible to future terrorist attacks. They debunk the administration's claim that it is winning the war on terror and ...

"In Defense of Academic Freedom" (video)

The growing evidence of outside interference in the hiring process at universities and the recent tenure denials at DePaul University, has prompted leading scholars across the nation to begin to speak out in defense of academic freedom. The DePaul University Academic Freedom Committee, Verso Books, and Diskord Journal sponsored a public symposium chaired by Tariq Ali, editor of Verso Books and New Left Review, and featuring: Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia University), Noam Chomsky (MIT), Tony Judt...

"Bunraku: A Look into the World of Japanese Puppetry" (video)

A look into the world of Japanese puppetry featuring a performance and lecture demonstration of Japanese puppetry and traditional music by members of Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe and Imada Puppet Troupe.

"Legal Defense and Human Rights in Russia" (video)

A talk with Robert Amsterdam, founding partner, Amsterdam & Peroff, legal defense counsel for Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In practice since 1980, Mr. Amsterdam has extensive experience litigating and arbitrating corporate disputes in emerging markets, focusing on the areas of individual and corporate human rights. Mr. Amsterdam was retained by Mikhail Khodorkovsky in August, 2003 as part of the YUKOS-Group MENATEP defense team. Since then, he has worked with Russian human rights lawyers to prepare ...

"Time and the Sacred" (video)

A discussion with Pance Velkov, Macedonian artist and preservationist. "Time and The Sacred" is a collection of photographs which redresses the general lack of knowledge about religious art of the Republic of Macedonia, and at the same time it provides a venue for acquainting viewers with a unique environment in which Christianity and Islam have coexisted for more than six centuries. Created by Pance Velkov with the support of the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in particular the French ...

"The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" (video)

A panel featuring John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "The Israel Lobby" was originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006. It provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. Now in a work of major importance, Mearsheimer and Walt deepen and expand their argument and confron...

Chicago Humanities Festival: Wangari Maathai (video)

Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize. Maathai was elected to Kenya's National Assembly with 98 percent of the vote in 2002 and in 2003 was appointed assistant minister of environment, natural resources, and wildlife. She is the author of "The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience". Co-sponsors: The Division of the Humanities and Rockefeller Cha...

"Indigenous Rights: The Case of Chiapas" (video)

A talk by Jorge Fernandez-Souza, Magistrate Judge, Professor of Law and former Dean of Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, former Delegado of Delegacion Miguel Hidalgo, and lawyer for Bishop Samuel Ruiz in the Chiapas negotiations (1994 – 1997). From the Human Rights in Mexico Series. Sponsored by the Katz Center for Mexican Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, the Human Rights Program, and the Norman Wait Harris Fund of the Center for International Studies.

“Democracy, Governance, and War in Oil Exporting Nations” (video)

A panel featuring Terry Lynn Karl, William and Gretchen Kimball University Fellow and Gildred Professor of Political Science at Stanford University; Miriam R. Lowi, Visiting Research Scholar at Princeton’s Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia; Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science of The College of New Jersey; and Kevin K. Tsui, Assistant Professor of Economics at Clemson University. Session 5 of the confer...

"Petroleum Technology Presentation" (video)

A talk by Brian C. Gahan, Energy Consultant; Chair of the Chicago Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; former Senior Scientist and Manager of E&P Technology Development at the Gas Technology Institute. Session 4 of the conference "Petroleum: Prospects and Politics." Sponsored by the Chicago Society. Co-sponsored by the Student Government of the University of Chicago, The Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, The George J. Stigler Center for the Study o...

"Japanese Education and Society in Crisis" (video)

A talk by Yoshifumi Tawara, Secretary General of the Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21. Part of the Japan at Chicago Lecture Series: Celebrating Protest. Sponsored by the Japan Committee of the Center for East Asian Studies, the Human Rights Program, and the Center for International Studies.

"The Modern Human Rights Movement in Mexico" (video)

A talk by Mariclaire Acosta. Acosta is affiliated with the Organization of American States, co-founder of the Academia Mexicana de Derechos Humanos; founder, Comision Mexicana para la Promocion y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, and former director of Human Rights in the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores. From the Human Rights in Mexico Series. Sponsored by the Katz Center for Mexican Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, the Human Rights Program, and the Norman Wait Harris Fund of th...

"The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor" (video)

Lecture by journalist William Langewiesche. In his book The Atomic Bazaar, Langewiesche investigates the burgeoning global threat of nuclear weapons production. As more unstable and undeveloped nations find ways of acquiring the ultimate arms, the stakes of state-sponsored nuclear activity have soared to frightening heights. Even more disturbing is the likelihood of such weapons being manufactured and deployed by guerrilla non-state terrorists. Langewiesche also recounts the recent history o...

"The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future" (video)

Lecture by Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. While America is focused on religious militancy and terrorism in the Middle East, democracy has been under siege from religious extremism in another critical part of the world. As Martha Nussbaum reveals in The Clash Within, the forces of the Hindu right pose a disturbing threat to India's democratic traditions and secular state. From the World Beyond the Headlines Ser...

"Colonialism, Militarism, and the Political Economy of Transracial Adoption" (video)

A talk by Emi Koyama. Part of the Japan at Chicago Lecture Series: Celebrating Protest. Sponsored by the Japan Committee of the Center for East Asian Studies, the Human Rights Program, and the Center for International Studies.

2007 COSAL: Prose Reading: Salma (video)

2007 COSAL: Roundtable (video)

The Norman Cutler Conference on South Asian Literature (COSAL) honors the life and work of the late Norman Cutler, former Professor of Tamil in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations. Roundtable featuring all participants. Co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Committee on Southern Asian Studies, Division of the Humanities, Franke Institute for the Humanities, South Asia Language and Area Center, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and Center for Ge...

2007 COSAL: Keynote Address (video)

The Norman Cutler Conference on South Asian Literature (COSAL) honors the life and work of the late Norman Cutler, former Professor of Tamil in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations. Keynote Address by A.R. Venkatachalapathy, History and Literary Historiography, Madras Institute of Development Studies. Co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Committee on Southern Asian Studies, Division of the Humanities, Franke Institute for the Humanities, South Asia Language and Are...