In this issue:
Center for South Asia Book Club
Monday, November 2nd
Check T.I.T.U in the Memorial Union
3:30-4:30 p.m. and 4:30-5:30 p.m.Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Sea of Poppies is set in India in 1838 just before the first Opium War. A disparate group of people leaving behind their pasts find their way to the Ibis, an ex-slave-trading ship bound for Madagascar with its cargo of coolie indentured servants and criminals. On board is Deeti, who was saved from her opium-addicted husband's funeral pyre, a bankrupt raja convicted of fraud, and a second mate, Zachary, who is the son of a freed American slave. As they set sail with a captain who'd rather smoke opium, a disaffected crew, the passengers mix language, cultures, and identities looking for a new start on life. The Opium Wars, however, aren't the only storm on the horizon for the Ibis. Amitav Ghosh's novel has received mixed reviews with The Independent saying, "Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies, the first volume in his 'Ibis trilogy', revisits in new, breathtakingly detailed and compelling ways some of the concerns of his earlier novels. Among these are the incessant movements of the peoples, commerce, and empires which have traversed the Indian Ocean since antiquity; and the lives of men and women with little power, whose stories, framed against the grand narratives of history, invite other ways of thinking about the past, culture and identity."
NY Times Book review
NPR InterviewPlease RSVP: rweiss@southasia.wisc.edu
International Children's and Young Adult Literature Celebration November 21- UW-Madison Campus (Memorial Union)
The International Children's Literature Day is an all-day interactive workshop for K-12 educators, librarians, and children's literature enthusiasts, with an aim to internationalize statewide reading curriculum. This event is being sponsored by the Wisconsin International Outreach Consortium (WIOC).
The 2009 Celebration wil feature Sylviane Diouf, Rachna Gilmore, Kelly Herold, and James Rumford.
For more information and registration, please click here.
Euro Challenge 2010 Is Now Open!
The European Union Center of Excellence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is pleased to announce that Euro Challenge is now accepting applications for its 2010 competition. The Euro Challenge is an opportunity for student teams to learn about the new European currency, the euro, by examining one country of the euro area and making a presentation on the impact the euro has had there.
Wisconsin 9th and 10th grade classes will have an opportunity to participate in a national competition and possibly win some amazing prizes. Now in its fifth year, the 2010 Euro Challenge continues to expand nationally, with up to 100 teams from various regions in the United States competing for cash awards made possible by The Moody's Foundation.
Applications are being accepted until December 15, 2009.
For more information please see the EUCE website or contact Csanád Siklós (Assistant Director, European Studies Alliance): Email: siklos@wisc.edu, Phone: (608) 265-4766.
Berlin Wall 20th Anniversary - Web Resources Page
The Center for European Studies (CES) and the Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA) have created a designated webpage to mark the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Developed as part of the K-12 teacher workshop run in June, the webpage now boasts links to over 70 resources (websites, news articles, audio and video clips) relating to the Cold War, the events of 1989, and their aftermath.
For more information please feel free to contact Csanád Siklós (CES): email: siklos@wisc.edu, or Nancy Heingartner (CREECA): email: outreach@creeca.wisc.edu.
International Education Project Examples Needed
A Task Force of the DPI's International Education Council is collecting exemplary curriculum in international education. Does your classroom, school or district have something going on that would be helpful to others? Projects, units and activities, important initiatives—if so,please consider submitting ideas. Our idea is to post videos and curriculum on a webpage to be accessed by interested teachers and administrators.
We NEED you to promote yourself! Let us know what you are doing that is exciting, and that you think might be of interest to others.
Visit the BLOG on the FIE homepage to submit ideas (scroll down to "New Friends of International Education Blog").
Feedback, questions or accessibility issues: Webmaster
Copyright © 2009 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System