Monthly Archives: November 2015

The Anti-Procrastination Project

Tuesday, 1 December, 6-11pm

Writing Center staff and librarians will be in The Ames Library to support completion of student projects/papers/videos etc. If they need help working on video editing – we are there! If they are finishing a poster – Yes! Starting a paper and don’t know where to begin – we can talk them through the research process. Writing Center tutors and Joel Haefner will be on hand to review drafts of papers. ITS staff have agreed to be available for technical questions that may be hanging someone up with creating that special project. Poster printing on demand will also be possible from 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Procrastination Project Directory 2015.pptx

The Immigrant Experience – Nonfiction

Memoirs and personal accounts that illuminate the joys and complexity of immigrant life.
Russian Tattoo

Russian Tattoo

A Memoir
Book – 2015
The Rose Hotel

The Rose Hotel

A Memoir of Secrets, Loss, and Love From Iran to America
Book – 2015
The Prince of Los Cocuyos

The Prince of Los Cocuyos

A Miami Childhood
Book – 2014
Brotherhood

Brotherhood

Dharma, Destiny, and the American Dream
Fresh Off the Boat

Fresh Off the Boat

A Memoir
Book – 2013
Eddie Huang burned his way through American culture, defying every “model minority” stereotype along the way. His book is the immigrant’s story for the twenty-first century; a story of food, family, and the forging of a new notion of what it means to be an American.
Available in some locationsHolds: 3 on 58 copiesPlace a Hold
The Distance Between Us

The Distance Between Us

A Memoir
Book – 2012
Illegal

Illegal

Reflections of An Undocumented Immigrant
Book – 2014
Little Failure

Little Failure

A Memoir
Book – 2014
Purpose

Purpose

An Immigrant’s Story
Book – 2012
97 Orchard

97 Orchard

An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement
Book – 2010
Thoughts Without Cigarettes

Thoughts Without Cigarettes

A Memoir
Book – 2011
Book – 2000, 1999
Funny in Farsi

Funny in Farsi

A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America
eBook – 2004
The Good Daughter

The Good Daughter

A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life
Book – 2011
When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

A Vietnamese Woman’s Journey From War to Peace
eBook – 1989
On Gold Mountain

On Gold Mountain

The One-hundred-year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
Book – 1995
Running for My Life

Running for My Life

One Lost Boy’s Journey From the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games
Book – 2012
Beloved Strangers

Beloved Strangers

A Memoir
eBook – 2014
Not for Everyday Use

Not for Everyday Use

A Memoir
Book – 2014
A Chinaman's Chance

A Chinaman’s Chance

One Family’s Journey and the Chinese American Dream
Book – 2014
Enrique's Journey

Enrique’s Journey

The True Story of A Boy Determined to Reunite With His Mother
eBook – 2013
The Latehomecomer

The Latehomecomer

A Hmong Family Memoir
eBook – 2008
The Cooked Seed

The Cooked Seed

A Memoir
Book – 2013
Alek

Alek

My Life From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel
Book – 2008
Traces the life story of the Sudanese-born international supermodel, describing the civil war-torn childhood that ill prepared her for her life in high fashion, her daring escape to London, and her discovery at a street fair at the age of nineteen.
Not Fit for Our Society

Not Fit for Our Society

Nativism and Immigration
Book – 2010
In a book of deep and telling ironies, Peter Schrag provides essential background for understanding the fractious debate over immigration. Schrag sets the modern immigration controversy within the context of two centuries of debate over the same questions about who exactly is fit for citizenship.
The Other Face of America

The Other Face of America

Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future
Book – 2002
In these essays, Ramos delves into Latino culture throughout the U.S. and seeks to understand what fuels the immigrants’ dreams.
Outcasts United

Outcasts United

The Story of A Refugee Soccer Team That Changed A Town
Book – 2009
A reporter for The New York Times and author of Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer documents the lives of a wildly diverse group of young kids who miraculously unite as a team, against the backdrop of a fading American town struggling to make a haven for its new arrivals–refugees.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collison of Two Cultures
Book – 2012
Misunderstandings between American Doctors and the very traditional Hmong family of a little girl prone to seizures displays exquisitely the cultural barriers that can sometimes hinder even the best efforts.
Strangers From A Different Shore

Strangers From A Different Shore

A History of Asian Americans
Book – 1998
In an extraordinary blend of eloquent narrative history, vivid personal recollection, and oral testimony, Ronald Takaki relates the diverse 150-year history of Asian Americans. Through richly detailed vignettes–by turns bitter, funny, and inspiring–he offers a stunning panorama of a neglected part of American history.

 

“Women from the Lake of Scented Souls”

Thursday, 19 November, 7pm, Beckman Auditorium

International Film Series: “Women from the Lake of Scented Souls”

Presented by Professor of History Thomas Lutze. Due to copyright restrictions, this event is free and open to the IWU community only.

t49186wnpkcFrom the NYTimes: In a rural area of China, a woman makes the best sesame oil in the neighborhood. A Japanese businesswoman wants to buy her oil and proposes to modernize the oil mill. The woman agrees to cooperate. Her son is in love with a local girl, but the girl’s parents don’t let her marry him because of the boy’s epilepsy. However, using the poor financial state of the girl’s family, the woman arranges this uneasy marriage. The film is slow-paced and many story lines remain unresolved, but some viewers might be attracted by the fact that it received the Grand Prize at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

Struggles for Freedom Series: Saeid Golkar, “Manipulated Society: Paralyzing the Masses in Post-Revolutionary Iran”

Thursday, 19 November, 4pm, Beckman Auditoriumgolkar_saeid_300x300

Saeid Golkar, visiting fellow for Iran policy at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a lecturer for the Middle East and North African Studies Program at Northwestern University, will speak as part of a series of talks and films sponsored by the Political Science Department. These events are made possible through generous grants provided by the Betty Ritchie-Birrer ’47 and Ivan Birrer Endowment Fund.

The Ides Series: “The Western Classics in Modern China”

Tuesday, 17 November, 4pm, Beckman Auditorium

bartsch_shadi_printShadi Bartsch-Zimmer, the Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Classics at University of Chicago, will speak, sponsored by Greek and Roman Studies. In the space of the past century, Chinese scholars and thinkers have gone from finding our foundational Western texts inspirational to finding them short-sighted, obsessed with rationality, and responsible for the development of capitalism. Plato himself emerges from Chinese scholarship (somewhat unrecognizably) as the founding source of the West’s worship of profit. This talk will investigate the meaning of these developments.

Friday the 13th and Other Superstitions

believing in magic

Believing in magic : the psychology of superstition

From Amazon: While we live in a technologically and scientifically advanced age, superstition is as widespread as ever. Not limited to just athletes and actors, superstitious beliefs are common among people of all occupations, educational backgrounds, and income levels.

In this fully updated edition of Believing in Magic, renowned superstition expert Stuart Vyse investigates our tendency towards these irrational beliefs. Superstitions, he writes, are the natural result of several psychological processes, including our human sensitivity to coincidence, a penchant for developing rituals to fill time (to battle nerves, impatience, or both), our efforts to cope with uncertainty, the need for control, and more. In a new Introduction, Vyse discusses important developments and the latest research on jinxes, paranormal beliefs, and luck. He also distinguishes superstition from paranormal and religious beliefs and identifies the potential benefits of superstition for believers. He examines the research to demonstrate how we can better understand complex human behavior. Although superstition is a normal part of our culture, Vyse argues that we must provide alternative methods of coping with life’s uncertainties by teaching decision analysis, promoting science education, and challenging ourselves to critically evaluate the sources of our beliefs.

Nature Publications Down, Saturday 11/14

On Saturday 14th November from 4am to 8am the www.nature.com, www.palgrave-journals.com and www.palgraveconnect.com websites will be unavailable for scheduled maintenance.

During this time content will not be accessible. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

Sincerely,

Nature Publishing Group/ Palgrave Macmillan

nature logo

Winning the Battle Against Mass Incarceration & French Film Festival

Monday, 9 November, 4pm, Beckman Auditorium

James Kilgore of the University of Illinois Global Studies Program will highlight why mass incarceration has become a crucial civil rights issue for the 21st century and ways of addressing its consequences. Sponsored by the Center for Human Rights and Social Justice.

Fourth Annual French Film Festival:

Monday, 9 November, 7pm, Beckman Auditorium

La ConnectionDue to copyright restrictions, this event is free and open to the IWU community only.

Tuesday, 10 November, 7pm, Beckman Auditorium

L’ecume des JoursDue to copyright restrictions, this event is free and open to the IWU community only.

Wednesday, 11 November, 7pm, Beckman Auditorium

Le Premier Jour Du Reste de Ta VieDue to copyright restrictions, this event is free and open to the IWU community only.

Thursday, 12 November, 7pm, Beckman Auditorium

French Immersion – Presented by Professor of French Christopher Callahan as part of the French Film Festival (Nov. 9-12). Due to copyright restrictions, this event is free and open to the IWU community only.

International Film Series: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

Thursday, 5 November, 7pm – International Film Series: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”– (2009, Sweden) Presented by Visiting Assistant Professor of German Adam Woodis. Due to copyright restrictions, this event is free and open to the IWU community only.

You may have seen the 2011 Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but did you know it was based on a series of books written by a Swedish journalist, and that it was first published on screen in 2009?

lisbethFrom the Huffington Post:

For the millions of fans who love the goth feminist hacker Lisbeth Salander and have been waiting for David Fincher’s new version of the Stieg Larsson novel to hit the theaters on December 20, it might not even matter how good the film is so long as it hews closely enough to the beloved book.

Luckily, most of the early reviews have been widely praiseful of the new take, and seem especially taken with both Fincher’s meticulous direction and Rooney Mara’s fierce turn as the title character.

“This is a bleak but mesmerizing piece of filmmaking; it offers a glancing, chilled view of a world in which brief moments of loyalty flicker between repeated acts of betrayal,” David Denby of the New Yorker wrote in his controversially early review

Enthusiasts who’ve already seen the 2009 Swedish version may be wondering how Fincher’s new film differs from the original. The difference seems to lie mainly in Fincher’s work, Mara’s performance, and a twist change on the ending.

Justin Chang, writing for Variety noted that the movie was “considerably slicker and more sophisticated piece of film craft than the Swedish production or either of its Nordic TV sequels” and also hews “more faithfully to the novel.”

Read the rest of the comparison here.

Struggles for Freedom Series: “Rosewater”

Wednesday, 4 November, 7pm – “Rosewater” (2015) will be screened as part of a series of talks and films sponsored by the Political Science Department. These events are made possible through generous grants provided by the Betty Ritchie-Birrer ’47 and Ivan Birrer Endowment Fund.

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGOYHIqmmiM

From the NYTimes:

MV5BNjY1NjQ1NjMzNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzU0Mjc1MjE@._V1_SX214_AL_Among its virtues, “Rosewater,” the directorial debut of Jon Stewart, is an argument for filmmakers to start their trade after they’ve looked beyond the limits of their own horizons. This fictional movie tells the story of the real Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-born journalist living in London who was arrested in Iran while covering the 2009 elections for Newsweek. Accused of being an agent for foreign intelligence organizations, he was thrown into the Evin Prison, where he was interrogated and beaten, partly for the surreal reason that he had appeared on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” Mr. Stewart’s interest in the material is obviously personal, but his movie transcends mere self-interest.

Mr. Stewart adapted the movie from Mr. Bahari’s 2011 memoir, which was written with Aimee Molloy and published as “Then They Came for Me” but has been promotionally repackaged as “Rosewater.” The book’s original title echoes the oft-quoted line from the German pastor Martin Niemöller, “Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.” As a famous call to speaking out (originally against Nazism), it underscores the universal tug of Mr. Bahari’s ordeal even as it carries the complicating weight of the Holocaust. “Rosewater” is the better title, partly because, as Mr. Stewart makes clear, it’s the specifics of Mr. Bahari’s story — his voice, memories, fantasies, ghosts and abiding love of Leonard Cohen — that distinguishes it…

Read the rest here.