International Opportunities Bulletin
10 October 2007

Events and opportunities listed below are in order of occurrence
and application deadline (where relevant).

Prepared by the Wisconsin International Outreach Consortium (WIOC).
For more information visit our website or email us.

In this issue:

Meet the Authors: A Conversation with Zakes Mda and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The University of Wisconsin African Studies Program presents "Meet the Authors: A Conversation with Zakes Mda and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie"

An evening of informal discussion and audience Q&A moderated by UW professors Rob Nixon and Tejumola Olaniyan.

Friday, October 12, 2007
Promenade Hall, Overture Center, 201 State Street, Madison

"Voices from a Changing Africa" (Wisconsin Book Festival reading): 5:00-7:00 pm
Meet the Authors discussion: 7:00-8:00 pm
Reception to follow in Promenade Terrace

Free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the UW African Studies Program, Department of English, and Department of African Languages and Literature.

The African Studies Program, in collaboration with the Wisconsin Book Festival, presents Meet the Authors: A Conversation with Zakes Mda and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a unique opportunity to meet and converse with two major African writers. Both authors will be in Madison as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival, and will read from recent works on Friday, October 12, 2007 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. in the Promenade Hall of the Overture Center ( 201 State St.). Immediately following the reading, the authors will participate in an open-forum roundtable discussion, in which audience members will have opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the artists and their work (7:00-8:00 p.m.). This conversation will be moderated by UW professors Rob Nixon (Department of English) and Tejumola Olaniyan (Departments of English and African Languages and Literature). The conversation continues with a reception immediately following on the Promenade Terrace from 8:00-10:00 p.m. This event is cosponsored by the UW Department of English and Department of African Languages and Literature. For more information on this event, please contact Heather DuBois Bourenane, hldubois@wisc.edu.

For the complete Wisconsin Book Festival schedule, visit http://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org.

Zakes Mda is one of South Africa's most prolific writers of fiction, poetry, plays, and literary criticism. Early works, such as Ways of Dying and The Heart of Redness, have been translated into 17 languages, and have won Mda numerous honors and prizes, including most recently the 2005 Notable Books Award of the American Library Association and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Africa Region and the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award. Meanwhile, his copious work for the stage led to a treatise on Development Theater entitled, When People Play People. Cion, his sixth novel, is the first to be set on American soil and features two intertwined narratives. He currently splits his time between the U.S., where he teaches Creative Writing at Ohio University, and South Africa , where among numerous other projects, he is a director of the Southern African Multimedia AIDS Trust in Sophiatown, Johannesburg.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in a university community in Nsukka, Nigeria. After studying Medicine and Pharmacy for a year and a half at the University of Nigeria, she came to the United States, where she earned her BA in Communication at Eastern Connecticut State and her master's degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins. A 2003 O. Henry Prize winner, Adichie was short-listed for the 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing. Her work has been selected by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and the BBC Short Story Awards, and has appeared in various literary publications, including Zoetrope , Granta, and the Iowa Review. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. It was short-listed for the Orange Prize and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and longlisted for the Booker. Half of a Yellow Sun won the 2007 Orange Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist. Adichie was a Hodder fellow at Princeton University in 2005-2006 and is currently doing graduate studies in African Studies at Yale. She divides her time between the U.S. and Nigeria.

Teacher Workshops, East Asian Studies, UW-Madison

Register now for 2 professional development workshops in Fall 2007!
Pre-service teacher education students are welcome.

We still have space in the Saturday October 13 workshop, so register now!

October 13, 2007 –Saturday 8 am – 5 pm
"Exploring Japanese Performing Arts in the K-12 Art Classroom"

A hands-on workshop for K-12 art teachers and other interested teachers. Led by Rochelle Robkin, Art Dept. Chair, Baraboo High School. This workshop will familiarize teachers with hands-on art activities and curriculum resources that teachers can use to help their students learn more about Japanese performing arts (bunraku puppet theater, kabuki and Noh drama). Participants in this workshop are encouraged to attend the second workshop on Nov. 9-10 to learn more about the historical and cultural context for these art activities and how to link them to an upcoming exhibition at the Chazen Museum of Art titled “Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School” (Nov. 3, 2007 – Jan. 6, 2008).

Registration deadline: registrations still being accepted!
Registration Fee: $30

November 9-10, 2007 - Friday 5 – 7 pm and Saturday 8 am – 5 pm
"Using Japanese Prints to Explore Popular Culture from the Age of the Samurai"

A workshop for K-12 teachers of art, social sciences, language arts/literature and Japanese language. This workshop is in association with an exhibition at the Chazen Museum of Art titled “Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School” (Nov. 3, 2007 – Jan. 6, 2008). It will prepare teachers to use the curriculum guide prepared for the exhibition, as well as other local and online resources, to explore the literature and performing arts (bunraku puppet theater, kabuki and Noh drama) of Japan during the Edo period (1600-1868) through popular ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

Registration deadline: October 29, 2007.
 Registration Fee: $30

To register or for more information, see our website.

Sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies and the Chazen Museum of Art with support from a U.S. Dept. of Education Title VI NRC grant.

For more information, contact:

Center for East Asian Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
333 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
608.262.3643

Health and Healing in Southeast Asia - Teacher Workshop

Saturday, November 17, 2007
Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street
Madison, WI

Application Deadline: 31 October 2007

Sponsored by Center for Southeast Asian Studies, UW-Madison and the US Department of Education.

Guest speakers: Yang Tai Vang (Hmong shaman), Kabzuag Vang (Freedom Inc.), Mary Grow (Cultural Anthropologist), and UW-Madison Faculty. Visit with Cambodian community leader Sarith Ou, the head monk, and community members! Experience Khmer culture and cuisine at the Cambodian Buddhist Temple in Oregon, Wisconsin.

Fee: $85

For registration forms and more information, email Peggy Choy at pachoy@wisc.edu.

The Role of Youth in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone

In January 2008, GYPA will be sending 15 American youth to Sierra Leone for GYPA's second annual Youth Summit: "The Role of Youth in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone."

Sierra Leone today stands at a crossroads. Its brutal decade-long civil war ended just five years ago, and its effects are still visible in every corner of the country. However, Sierra Leone is also witnessing a growing tide of democratization, economic growth, and a great deal of overdue international attention and support. Now is a critical time to examine the many questions that remain regarding post-conflict reconstruction, particularly, the role youth can play in solving them.

GYPA's program will give participants a unique opportunity to explore first-hand the post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation processes at work in Sierra Leone. The purpose of the Summit is to engage and promote youth from the United States and Africa as leaders in the efforts to rebuild this war-torn country. Our goal is to expand international youth networks, encourage greater understanding about Africa, and inspire an ongoing dialogue and partnership between promising American and African youth. Participants will tour the country participating in discussions regarding conflict resolution, economic development, HIV/AIDS, transitional justice, democracy building, and gender issues, among others. Students with backgrounds or interests in any of the above fields are encouraged to apply!

Applications are due no later than November 1st. To obtain the official program description and an application contact Lana Kovnot at lana@gypafrica.org with any further questions.

6th Annual International Children's and Young Adult Literature Celebration
Saturday, November 17, 2007 - 9:00 am to 4:30 pm
UW-Milwaukee Hefter Conference Center

"Open a Door... Open a Book...Open your Mind... to the World"

Featuring award-winning authors:

  • Beverley Naidoo
  • Naomi Shihab Nye
  • Kashmira Sheth

The international literature celebration is an all-day interactive workshop for K-12 educators, librarians, students and children's literature enthusiasts, with an aim to internationalize the statewide reading curriculum.

Full Registration: $65
Student Registration: $25 (student ID required)

As in past programs, the registration fee includes a book of your choice by one of the invited authors. The following books will be available:

  • The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo (2000) Grades 5-9
  • Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye (1997) Grades 5-9
  • Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet by Kashmira Sheth (2006) Grades 8 and up

To register, please visit http://wioc.wisc.edu/childlit/.

The registration deadline is October 31, 2007. Seating is limited, so we encourage you to register early! For more information, please visit http://wioc.wisc.edu/childlit/ or contact Nicole Palasz at palasz@uwm.edu.

This event is being sponsored by the Wisconsin International Outreach Consortium (WIOC), Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, and the Milwaukee Public Library, in observance of International Education Week 2007.

Teaching Japanese Arts, Culture, and Society: An AGENTS Workshop for K-12 Teachers
Alverno College, International and Intercultural Center

Through a generous grant from the Japan Foundation, Alverno College is pleased to present the following AGENTS workshop to all K-12 teachers on Friday, November 16, 2007.

While there is no charge for the workshop or the materials, we do ask that participants pay $30 to cover the cost of lunch and breaks.

Note: The schools or school districts of the first twenty-five participants to register will receive a $100 stipend to offset the cost of a substitute teacher for the day.

Interested parties should contact Dimitri D. Lazo at dimitri.lazo@alverno.edu for registration information and other details.

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