East Asian Civilization I – Asia through Texts, Images & Objects
Dr. Serinity Young
EAST 235-AT3RA Hours: By appointment
Spring 2012 syoung@qc.cuny.edu
Classes will be held at Queens College
Tues/Thurs 3:05-4:20
This interdisciplinary course surveys East & South Asian Civilization through the objects in daily use, the images seen and texts read or heard. We will survey texts, images, films and objects throughout the Himalayan range (Northern India, Nepal, Bhutan & Tibet), China, Korea and Japan. The focus of the course is on historical, technical, political, religious and artistic developments that created the material culture of South and East Asia. Specifically, the course is divided into five sections: (1) Food, Clothing & Shelter; (2) Books & Printing; (3) Relics, Amulets, Ritual Objects & Costumes; (4) Pilgrimage & Processions; and (5) Warfare: Armor, Weapons, & Strategy.
Since Queens College is celebrating the Year of India, there will be several lectures and performances on campus that can be attended for extra credit in the course.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The purpose of this course is to develop your critical reading and thinking skills so that you are able to discern the ongoing cultural, religious and political complexities in Asia. You should come away from this course with a heightened awareness of how material culture reveals what is important to particular cultures, religions and politics as well as a deepening of your historical and artistic understanding of East and South Asia.
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is pleased to invite you to its production of
Massacre (Sing to Your Children)
written by José Rivera
directed by Brian Mertes
José Rivera is the author of the Oscar-nominated screenplay The Motorcycle Diaries & is a two-time Obie Award Winner.
This Off-Broadway production at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place) features phenomenal actors who have appeared in major films and television shows such as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and “Boardwalk Empire”, as well as countless theatrical productions!
They are offering $10 DISCOUNTED tickets for the following performances:
-Wed. 4/4 at 8pm
-Thurs. 4/5 at 8pm
-Fri. 4/6 at 8pm
-Sat. 4/7 at 8pm
-Sun. 4/8 at 3pm
-Mon. 4/9 at 8pm
-Wed. 4/11 at 8pm ***EXCLUSIVE TALKBACK WITH PLAYWRIGHT AND CAST FOLLOWING THIS PERFORMANCE***
-Wed. 4/25 at 8pm ***EXCLUSIVE TALKBACK WITH PLAYWRIGHT AND CAST FOLLOWING THIS PERFORMANCE***
-Fri. 5/9 at 8pm ***EXCLUSIVE TALKBACK WITH PLAYWRIGHT AND CAST FOLLOWING THIS PERFORMANCE***
LOCATION: Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
224 Waverly Place NY, NY 10014 (1, 2, 3 trains to 14th st. or A,C,E,B,D,F,M to W. 4th)
To reserve your $10 DISCOUNTED tickets, visit www.Rattlestick.org , click on the MASSACRE graphic, and enter the discount code, BC10
or
to avoid online service charges, call (212) 627-2556 and mention the code.
Massacre (Sing to Your Children)
Written by JoséRivera
Directed by Brian Mertes
Featuring:
Jolly Abraham, Brendan Averett, Dana Eskelson, Jojo Gonzalez, William Jackson Harper,Adrian Martinez (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), Sona Tatoyan, Anatol Yusef (“Boardwalk Empire,” Richard III)
ABOUT THE PLAY:
Massacre (Sing to Your Children) takes place in a small New Hampshire town, where seven friends conspire to murder their mysterious neighbor Joe. On the night of the killing, as they confront the many meanings of their crime, and they finally relax and laugh and love again…there’s a knock on their door…
Born to Giglio with alumna Stephanie Trudeau and
Danny Vecchiano, Leader of the Vecchiano Festival Band
Thursday, March 29, 7:00 p.m.
Join CUNY BA alumna (2004), Stephanie Trudeau, and Danny Vecchiano, leader of the Vecchiano Festival Band, for an exploration of the roots and traditions of Brooklyn’s Giglio Festival. Trudeau, a 2005-06 Fulbright to Italy (“Festa, Family and Food”), will present, with photos and commentary, the history and cultural significance of the Giglio Festival celebrated in Nola, Italy and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Vecchiano will perform festival music.
This event is part of BHS’s spring series, Inventing Brooklyn, which examines key people who have influenced Brooklyn and highlights cultural trends rooted in Brooklyn’s rich and diverse history. Tickets $10/$8 BHS members.
The dance of the Giglio is a 1600-year-old Italian celebration that combines folk art, “popular spirituality,” and cultural identity in both Italy and the Italian-American community of Williamsburg. The week-long celebration of music, food and pageantry, happening in a Brooklyn neighborhood, reenacts a powerful tale of heroic sacrifice and home-coming: the historical tale of St. Paulinus, who saved Nola’s men from enslavement by North African conquerors in the fifth century.
The Giglio festival was brought over by the Nola immigrants who settled in Williamsburg more than one hundred years ago. In Nola, the 75-foot Giglio is still danced on the Sunday on or nearest June 22; in Williamsburg on the Sunday after July 4th.
Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
www.brooklynhistory.org
In April, Oxfam America will select 50 incredible undergraduates from the U.S. and around the world to be part of its national leadership program, the CHANGE Initiative (www.oxfamamerica.org/change). CHANGE offers students the opportunity to develop essential leadership skills as social change agents, while encouraging civic engagement and heightening their awareness of their own cultural worldview. It further gives students the resources they need to become advocates and make a difference in the global fight against hunger, poverty, and injustice.
Students selected as CHANGE Leaders:
Connect with Oxfam staff and have access to expert skills based training, resources, materials and year-round support;
Engage in community service & advocacy efforts that address critical community needs;
Find their own leadership identity;
Develop confidence and the skills to effect positive, lasting social change, and
Become part of an active and growing, global network of peers and alumni working on social justice issues.
We are recruiting for CHANGE Leaders to serve on their campus during the 2012-2013 academic year. They are invited to attend an all-expense paid leadership training in Boston, MA in July. Below is a quick blurb that can be shared with students in an upcoming newsletter, blog, or email about leadership opportunities:
“Any undergrad students looking for a way to address poverty, hunger, and social injustice AND support Oxfam on their campus?! Join a network of student leaders and create positive change on your campus, promote actions that create understanding of the linkages between the local and the global community, and discover your leadership identity. Become an Oxfam America CHANGE Leader! Apply by April 2nd! www.oxfamamerica.org/change”
Applications for the third cohort are due in January!
This Fellowship provides career and leadership development, including a $2500 stipend, for first generation college students.
Applicants must be first generation college students (their parents may not have obtained a baccalaureate degree), and must be academically strong (the average gpa is 3.2 but students with lower gpas who demonstrate strong academic and leadership potential are encouraged to apply). Students must have earned at least 12 credits by March 1, 2012 but should not have risen above sophomore status. Please see the website for other eligibility information. (www.newyorkneedsyou.org)
CUNY students from 16 campuses represent 75% of the 150 students selected for the first two cohorts.
Alex Gueron and Liz Schaible
Last year, when Elizabeth Schaible, Assistant Professor and Chair of the Department of Hospitality Management at NYCCT, became a faculty mentor for a CUNY Baccalaureate student, Terese Savory-Connors, http://cunyba.gc.cuny.edu/blog/therese-savery-connors-food-service-administration-for-disaster-relief/
I was made aware that she was not only a mentor, but also the mother of a CUNY Baccalaureate student, Alexander Gueron.
Alex, whose home college is CCNY, is pursuing two concentrations (“Photography” and “Music”) with the expectation, according to his application essay, of “marrying music and the visual arts” in order to become “a well-accomplished artist, photographer and creative director” and “to give back to the community by working with young kids and open their minds to the(se) worlds.”
While Professor Schaible is mentoring a CUNY Baccalaureate student two other professors, from City College, Stephen Jablonski (Music) and Becca Albee (Art) are mentoring her son, Alex. What goes around comes around and we could not be happier with the results!
Barbara Syrrakos is a faculty mentor for Bella Moshkovich, who is pursuing an area of concentration in “Social Change.” Apart from mentoring Professor Syrrakos has also recommended students to CUNY Baccalaureate, for which we are most grateful.
Professor Syrrakos, who is a full-time lecturer in the Department of History at The City College of New York, teaches courses in world civilizations and modern Europe. Her research focuses on the intellectual underpinnings of the European Union and the historical processes that have led to its creation. She was a Fulbright scholar in residence in Brussels to research agricultural policy and democratic practices in the EU, drawing on her training in history and political science and her background in journalism. She has lived in and traveled in Greece for over twenty years and has presented her work at the London School of Economics and other venues. She is now working on revising parts of her dissertation dealing with farmers, policy formation, and theories of deliberation for publication.
In the meantime, she has published an article, “Creating a Course on the History of Food and Farming: A Teacher’s Diary,” in the November 2011 issue of the American Historical Association’s Perspectives on History.
The 2011 CUNY Nobel Science Challenge: The Science Behind the Prize
A Competition for CUNY Undergraduate Students
The Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, and economics were recently announced. You are invited to describe in 1000-1500 words, the scientific concepts behind the work for which one of the 2011 Nobel winners received their respective prize and the present and future significance of the research to humanity. The outlines must make the science accessible to the lay person.
The essays will be read and judged by a distinguished CUNY faculty committee. Three prizes will be awarded in each category (physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, and economics) and one additional prize will be awarded to the best essay submitted.
Prizes
First Prize: Apple iMac Computer
Second Prize: Apple iPad II
Third Prize: Amazon Kindle wireless reading device
First Prize winners from each category will be forwarded to a second faculty committee that will select the Grand Prize winner for the best essay submitted overall. Please note that previous first prize winners are not eligible for this year’s competition. The Grand Prize winner will receive $3,000.
Essays must be submitted by December 9, 2011. They should be in Microsoft Word or PDF format and submitted by email with subject heading “CUNY Nobel Science Challenge –your essay category” to: cuny.nobel@mail.cuny.edu
Questions may also be submitted to the email address above.
Please note:
Essays must be your own original and independent work.
Essays will be judged on accuracy and clarity.
Challenge is open to all first degree undergraduate students currently registered in a degree program at CUNY.
When you submit your essay, include in your college, major (declared or intended), class standing (freshman, sophomore, junior or senior) and the best telephone number where you can be contacted.
Winners will be announced in February, 2012.
For more information, visit http://www.cuny.edu/research.html
August 25, 2011
The presidential campaigns already in full swing and now former Vice President Dick Cheney’s memoir about to be published, in which, according to the NYTimes, he praises Mr. Bush as “an outstanding leader,” but acknowledges that the administration underestimated the challenges in Iraq prompts me to remember a New York Times Magazine article of 2004 in which an “unnamed Administration official” told Ron Suskind, the reporter, that ‘We’re (that is the United States under the Bush white house) an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. While you’re studying that reality we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…. and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.’”
The unnamed official with the nickname Bush’s Brain, was not Dick Cheney but none other than Karl Rove, the architect of the now infamous victory scene of May 1, 2003 on the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego, where the President, in a flight suit, swaggered across the flight deck and, beneath a banner marked “Mission Accomplished,” declared: “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” The scene could not have been more Hollywood inspired and indeed that vast aircraft was a stage that Rove had turned in a complicated maneuver so that the skyline of San Diego, a few miles off, would not be glimpsed by the television audience.
Reality and truth in a Roveian (and apparently a Cheneian) universe, therefore, is the handmaiden of power, to be manipulated and distorted to such an extent as to become a kind of shadow reality that is more compelling than the original.
What, you may ask, has any of this to do with why we are gathered here today. My answer is, “everything”.
You have decided to pursue an academic journey that will take you into the heart of questions about reality and truth, regardless of the specific concentration you may choose. And, we are here to help you through it so that you will continue to be responsible, levelheaded citizens of the world with knowledge to strive for truth, and when it is found, to act with courage and determination.
We are entering into precarious times so it is more important than ever that we all become active members in the dialogue that forms our collective mission. I truly believe that CUNY Baccalaureate, in no small way, plays a positive part in your personal histories but also in the future of our nation and the world.
We indeed are asking a lot of you, I know, but you are an extraordinary group of people with whom we have complete confidence.
Your independence and thinking-out-of-the-box mentality are reflected in your proposed areas of concentration that include, among other equally impressive proposals:
Neuroscience and Architectural Theory
The Psychological Dimension of Religion
Visual Storytelling
Infant Development and Psychology
Medieval Art and Architecture
Japanese Media and Translation Studies
Biochemistry
Human Rights and International Affairs
Family Health
Performative Sociology
Urban Sustainability and Community Development
These are only a few of the remarkable academic pursuits you will be exploring through CUNY Baccalaureate.
We truly could not be prouder of you and are here to help in any way we can for you to achieve your academic and personal goals.
