Monthly Archives: October 2011

Bahraini journalist, Nada Alwadi, to speak on nonviolent resistance and the media

Bahrain: The Current Political and Communication Challenges, A View From the Inside

Nada Alwadi

Bahraini Journalist

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

4:30 p.m.

Science Center Room 101

Swarthmore College (maps and directions)

(view or download a flyer)

Nada AlwadiNada Alwadi was a reporter for Alwasat, the most popular newspaper in Bahrain, a monarchy on a small island in the Persian Gulf. Alwadi covered the pro-democracy protests this spring for several media outlets including USA Today Newspaper.

US backed Saudi Arabia sent troops to help shore up the Bahraini monarchy and suppress the popular uprising. Ms. Alwadi was detained in April while reporting on the pro-democracy movement and was forced to sign a statement saying that she would not write on or engage in any political activities, and was fired from her job.

In her presentation, Alwadi will discuss the Bahraini experience of strategic nonviolence and the importance of Bahrain in building a new Middle East. She will address the media blackout in Bahrain, and the current political and communication challenges facing the country as well as the region. She will relate the untold story of a struggle which was forgotten and abandoned by the world and the international media.

Ms. Alwadi is co-founder of the Bahrain Press Association which seeks to defend Bahraini journalists from government repression.

Sponsors: The President’s Office, Peace and Conflict Studies, the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, History, Sociology and Anthropology, Political Science, Islamic Studies, the Intercultural Center, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Arabic Section of Modern Languages and Literatures

 

Swarthmore Theater Alums on Broadway!

Two Swarthmore Theater Department alums are involved with the Broadway opening of David Henry Hwang’s CHINGLISH last night.  Jeff Sugg ’95 shares credit as Projection Designer for the Broadway production with Shaun Duan after designing the world premiere of the play solo at the Goodman Theater in Chicago last Spring.  Jeff was a founding member of Pig Iron Theatre Company has worked since with The Wooster Group, Moises Kaufman, and performance artist Cynthia Hopkins (who happens to be his wife).  Jeff’s Broadway debut was as the Projection Designer for Kaufman’s 33 VARIATIONS, starring Jane Fonda. He returned to Swarthmore to teach our first Integrated Media Design class in 2005, when he also designed the projections for the Theater Department’s production of Robert Auletta’s THE PERSIANS.  He has regularly returned to campus as a participant in the Swarthmore Project in Theater (SPT).

Also working on the sound design team for CHINGLISH is Charles Coes ’06, a recent MFA graduate in sound design from the Yale School of Drama, who will return to campus to teach Sound Design in the Department of Theater next semester.

Ben Brantley ’77 has reviewed the opening-night performance of CHINGLIGH in today’s NEW YORK TIMES, and other reviews should be appearing in the next few days.

Modern Technique Workshop 11/17/2011

Melanie Kloetzel ’93 will teach a modern technique workshop in the Troy Dance Lab (LPAC 2) on Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 4:30PM.

Melanie is the artistic director of the contemporary dance company kloetzel&co., which she founded in New York in 1997 and which has presented work across the US and in Canada. Her film works have been shown at dance film festivals internationally and her book, “Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces”, is in its third printing from the University Press of Florida. She is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Calgary.  Kloetzel holds an MFA in Dance from the University of California at Riverside in addition to a BA and an MA in History from Swarthmore College and the University of Montana, respectively.

Modern Technique Workshop 11/17/2011

Melanie Kloetzel ’93 will teach a modern technique workshop in the Troy Dance Lab (LPAC 2) on Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 4:30PM.

Melanie is the artistic director of the contemporary dance company kloetzel&co., which she founded in New York in 1997 and which has presented work across the US and in Canada. Her film works have been shown at dance film festivals internationally and her book, “Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces”, is in its third printing from the University Press of Florida. She is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Calgary.  Kloetzel holds an MFA in Dance from the University of California at Riverside in addition to a BA and an MA in History from Swarthmore College and the University of Montana, respectively.

David Sanger of the New York Times to speak on Obama, war, and tech

Obama in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan: How a Decade of War and New Technology Have Changed American Strategy

David SangerCome join us for a talk by David Sanger

New York Times

Chief Washington Correspondent

Author of The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power

Thursday, October 27, 2011

4:30 p.m.

Science Center 183

Swarthmore College (maps and directions)

Sponsored by the President’s Office, Peace and Conflict Studies, and War News Radio

Goodbye, Memphis. Medford, here we come.

The Peace and Justice Studies meetings in Memphis were a success, and Swarthmore was well represented. Ivan Boothe ’05 continues to serve on the organization’s board, and the Global Nonviolent Action database attracted considerable attention. Thanks to the PJSA organizers and Gandhi-King Conference for their hard work.

Next year’s meeting will be held October 4-6, 2012 at Tufts University in Medford, MA (Boston), and hopefully we will be able to take a van from Swarthmore. Stay tuned!

Here are a few pictures (click twice on pictures for full size):

Production Ensemble 2012 Auditions!

AUDITIONS FOR PRODUCTION ENSEMBLE 2012 (THEA 022; Spring 2012)

IVONA, PRINCESS OF BURGUNDIA by Witold Gombrowicz

A grotesque and paranoiac fairytale from 1938.

THURSDAY 11/17 7PM-10 PM and SATURDAY 11/19 2PM-5PM in the FREAR ENSEMBLE THEATER

Director/Professor: K. Elizabeth Stevens

No need to prepare anything for the audition. You will be given scenes to read.

* Auditions are open to all students that have taken Acting I (THEA 002A).

* Participation in THEA 022 fulfills a requirement for all Theater majors and minors.

* Students that have previously done Production Ensemble may audition and be cast again for academic credit, registering for THEA 042 or THEA 06.

* Copies of the script for the production will be made available through the Theater Department Office (13 LPAC) starting Monday, October 31st.

REHEARSAL SCHEDULE:

Production Ensemble rehearses weekly on the following schedule:

Mondays 4:00-7:00 pm

Wednesdays 4:00-10:00 pm

Sundays: 12 noon-6:00 pm

No student will be called to rehearsal for more than 12 hours in a given week. Some students may be called for only 6. It is okay to have a conflict with one of the rehearsal times.

This schedule will be expanded for tech/dress rehearsals and performances March 18, 2011. Performances will take place the weekend of March 23-26. Other than for a post-mortem meeting for the students and faculty involved, the work for the production will be finished by March 26. The production team includes Matthew Saunders as Set Designer, Laila Swanson as Costume Designer, Jim Murphy as Lighting Designer, and Mike Kiley as Sound Designer.
Questions: contact K. Elizabeth Stevens (esteven1@swarthmore.edu, 610-690-6889)

Follow the Peace and Justice Studies Association conference online

The Peace and Justice Studies Association 2011 meeting is being held at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, TN, October 20-23.  The PJSA has partnered with the Gandhi King Youth Conference to design a joint conference this year.

You can follow the conference online. Follow and contribute to the #pjsa-gkc hashtag on Twitter, or watch the conference Livestream embedded on this page. The schedule for the conference is also available online.

Video streaming by Ustream

Atlas.ti training for student research in peace and conflict

atlas.ti

At a recent presentation on “Organizing your data” for senior sociology and anthropology students (including some Peace and Conflict Studies students) who are working on theses, a number of students expressed interest in a further information session / tutorial on using Atlas.ti

Atlas.ti is software designed for organizing multiple forms of research data (text, video, audio, survey, and geo-spatial) to facilitate theorizing and smart retrieval of information. Atlas.ti is available in select computer labs on campus, and personal student copies (for PCs and Macs running Windows) can be purchased at 5% of the cost of a regular single user license. For more information, visit http://www.atlasti.com/

Our next tutorial will be in the SOAN seminar room (Kohlberg 236) on Wed. October 26 at 4:00. Please feel welcome to attend.  It would be helpful if you would register your interest in attending via this simple form at http://bit.ly/n0h9iq

Announcing a new book by Lee Smithey on conflict transformation in Northern Ireland

Unionists Loyalists and Conflict Transformation in Northern IrelandThe Peace and Conflict Studies program announces the release of a new book by Prof. Lee Smithey. Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland is now available from Oxford University Press.

Drawing on almost twenty years of studying and traveling to Northern Ireland, including sustained periods of intensive fieldwork, Smithey focuses on the importance of collective identity change that is central to conflict transformation. He argues that it is important for ethnopolitical division to be addressed from within ideologically committed quarters of divided societies. In this case, he finds that many unionists and loyalists are modifying symbolic and often ritualistic expressions of collective identity that have often been considered divisive, such as parades, bonfires, and murals, and

Lee Smithey

are making them less polarizing. The development and modification of these activities provide opportunities for the incremental reframing of fundamental ethnopolitical ideas and narratives. If you are interested in studying peace processes from grassroots psychocultural angles, this book might appeal to you.

You can read more about the book and order copies at Oxford University Press and Amazon.com (where a Kindle version is available.) A pdf flyer and a mail-in order form are also available.

Here are full links for the U.S., U.K., and Ireland

Find other books by Peace and Conflict Studies faculty at Swarthmore here.