Campus film screening: Belarusian Waltz

Wisconsin Public Television, UW-Madison’s Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA), and P.O.V. present a screening of the documentary film

Belarusian Waltz

by Andrzej Fidy

6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 5

4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave.

UW-Madison professor Ted Gerber, director of CREECA will offer comments and lead a discussion following the film.

Belarus has been called “Europe’s last dictatorship.” Since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko has ruled the the ex-Soviet republic with a despotic hand jailing the opposition, shutting down the press and refusing to investigate the assassinations of dissidents. He has virtually silenced his critics - but not one lone performance artist who stages public stunts mocking the dictator’s pretensions. “Belarusian Waltz” is the story of Alexander Pushkin, whose audacious comical exploits find him facing the hostility of police and the consternation of his family. An offbeat tale of postmodern street theater meeting 1930s-style authoritarianism, the film offers a surprising window in the soul of the Belarusian people. This film is a co-production of ITVS International.

Click here for more information.

Diaspora and Cosmopolitanism: An International Conference

UW-Madison Postcolonial, Migration and Transnational Studies
(Part of Worldwide Universities Network [WUN] International Network in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies)

Presents

University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Pyle Center
June 20-21, 2008

Participants

Susan Stanford Friedman University of Wisconsin-Madison, Keynote Speaker
Ladan Affi University of Wisconsin-Madison
Francis Bradley University of Wisconsin-Madison
Aparna Dharwadker University of Wisconsin-Madison
Vinay Dharwadker University of Wisconsin-Madison
Helen Finch University of Leeds
Gabriele Griffin York University
Stephen Howe Bristol University
Deborah Jenson University of Wisconsin-Madison
Eliza Johannes University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ezekiel Kalipeni University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Vicky Lantz University of Wisconsin-Madison
Venkat Mani University of Wisconsin-Madison
H. Adlai Murdoch University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Tejumola Olaniyan University of Wisconsin-Madison
Rory Pilossof The University of Sheffield
Ato Quayson University of Toronto
Vlad Strukov University of Leeds
Nina Sutherland University of Leeds
Andrew Thompson University of Leeds
Jane Wilkinson University of Leeds

Co-sponsors: African Studies Program, Anonymous Fund, Chancellor’s Office, Worldwide Universities Network (WUN)

Diplomats in a Global Age: Panel Discussion

Please join us to hear firsthand how three UW-Madison visiting diplomats-in-residence each dealt with a challenge or crisis that arose during their diplomatic career. The panel, comprised of John Campbell, Alfred Defago, and Florence Chenoweth, will also speak more generally of the challenges faced by ambassadors and diplomats in a globalizing world.

This event is brought to you in partnership by the Division of International Studies and the Wisconsin Alumni Association®.

Tomas Loftus, former ambassador to Norway, will present welcoming remarks. A reception will follow the panel, providing an opportunity to meet the Division of International Studies’ diplomats-in-residence.

Thursday, June 12, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street

This event is free and open to the public.

John Campbell is the former United States ambassador to Nigeria, and is a visiting professor of international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He most recently served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Human Resources.

A career foreign service officer since 1975, Campbell’s overseas postings included Lyon, Paris, and Geneva. He also served as Polcouns at Lagos, Nigeria (1988-1990) and Pretoria/Cape Town, South Africa (1993-96). Assignments at the Department of State have included: dean, School of Language Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, deputy executive secretary, and director of UN Political Affairs.

Florence Chenoweth is the former United Nations Food and Agriculture (FAO) representative to the UN and executive director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York. She is currently a University of Wisconsin-Madison distinguished international visitor. Dr. Chenoweth, a national of Liberia, earned both her master’s degree in agricultural economics (1970) and her doctorate in land resources (1986) at UW-Madison. She became Liberia’s (and Africa’s) first female minister of agriculture at the age of 32, serving from 1977 to 1979. Chenoweth and her family narrowly escaped Liberia after a violent coup, walking across the country to safety in Sierra Leone.

Alfred Defago, the former ambassador of Switzerland to the United States is a visiting professor of international studies at UW-Madison. In addition to his ambassadorship, he has served as consul general of Switzerland in New York. He also served as the director of the Federal Office of Culture, and he was head of the national and economic affairs department of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. Defago earned his doctorate in history and German literature from the University of Bern, and has studied at the University of Vienna, the German Institute in Rome, and the Vatican Library.

Thomas A. Loftus was the special advisor to the director general of the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2005. Previously he served as the United States ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway from 1993 to 1997. Upon leaving, he was awarded the Grand Cross by His Majesty King Harald of Norway, the highest order of the Royal Norwegian Order. Ambassador Loftus served in the Wisconsin Legislature from 1977 to 1991, serving as Speaker of the House for 8 years. Loftus holds degrees from UW-Whitewater and UW-Madison.

The Division of International Studies is the campus unit charged with formulating and implementing UW-Madison’s internationalization strategy. Its mission is to promote international education, scholarship, and collaboration both on and off campus.

For additional information contact Cynthia Williams: cwilliam@wisc.edu or 608-262-3929.

Entering the Global Marketplace: Building a Solid Foundation for International Success

The World Trade Center Wisconsin presents an executive briefing on entering the global marketplace, focusing on building a solid foundation for international success. This interactive briefing will be presented by local practitioners in key areas of international business.

For more details, including an agenda and registration information, please click here.

Date: 6/5/2008

Time: 7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Location:
Wisconsin School of Business
Grainger Hall
975 University Avenue
Madison, WI            

Looking Outwards to the Global World: The Drive for Internationalizing Universities in Hong Kong and Asia

Ka Ho Mok
Associate Dean and Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Hong Kong

Gerry Postiglione
Professor and Head, Policy, Administration, and Social Sciences
University of Hong Kong

8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
The Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street
This program is free and open to the public
Coffee and light refreshments will be provided

This presentation is part of the Ideas and Universities International Video Seminar Series, which is made available on the UW–Madison campus thanks to funding and support from the UW-Madison Division of International Studies, the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Bristol (UK), the Worldwide Universities Network, and WISCAPE in cooperation with the UW–Madison Department of Educational Policy Studies.

The program theme for the spring 2008 semester is “Universities as Organizations: Looking Inwards, Looking Outwards.”

Understanding the Culture of Collaboration: An Exploration of Global Research Partnerships

‘Understanding the Culture of Collaboration: An Exploration of Global Research Partnerships’

Friday, May 9 at 8am at the Pyle Center.

Betty Rambur
Ace Fellow, Office of the Provost
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Dean, College of Nursing and Health Sciences
University of Vermont

Abstract:

Global partnerships with multinational teams are increasingly referenced as a means to approach the world’s most pressing problems. This interactive session details an empirically derived conceptual framework that describes seven distinct types of interinstitutional, multinational research partnerships along a range of increasing faculty risk, decreasing stability, increasing human factors with compounding interaction costs, and increasing time to research outputs. Participants will critique the framework and discuss applications and implications in reference to their fields and institutions.

The PowerPoint presentation will be available on the series Web site.  Please ensure that you have access to these slides locally. The talk will also be broadcast live via Web cast and this link can also be accessed via the Web site.

The Ideas & Universities virtual seminar series is co-sponsored by the Worldwide Universities Network, UW-Madison’s WISCAPE, and Bristol University’s Institute for Advanced Studies.

Human Rights International Book Series features Leigh Payne

The International Institute’s International Faculty Book Series
(formerly the World Beyond Our Borders Book Series)

on Human Rights around the World

presents

Leigh Payne (UW–Madison, Political Science)

discussing her new book

Unsettling Accounts: The Politics and Performance of Confessions by Perpetrators of Authoritarian State Violence (Duke University Press, 2007)

Tuesday, May 6 at 7pm
University Bookstore in the Hilldale Mall (702 N. Midvale Boulevard)

Payne draws on interviews, unedited television film, newspaper archives, and books written by perpetrators to analyze confessions of state violence in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and South Africa. Each of these four countries addressed its past through a different institutional form, from blanket amnesty, to conditional amnesty based on confessions, to judicial trials. Payne considers perpetrators’ confessions as performance, examining what perpetrators say and what they communicate non-verbally; the timing, setting, and reception of their confessions; and the different ways that the perpetrators portray their pasts, whether in terms of remorse, heroism, denial, or sadism, or through lies or betrayal.

Migration and Human Rights Workshop

The Human Rights Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Presents:

The Migration and Human Rights Workshop

with Professor Zolberg and Mr. Ndjankou

Thursday April 24, 2-4pm
206 Ingraham Hall

Professor Zolberg presentation will be entitled: “Moving Beyond Nation-Based Human Rights”

Professor Zolberg is Walter A. Eberstadt Professor of Political Science at the Graduate Faculty of New School University in New York City and director of its International Center for Migration, Ethnicity, and Citizenship. Currently, he is a member of the Social Science Research Council’s Committee on International Migration, as well as of the editorial board of International Migration Review; of the advisory boards of Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales (Paris), Politique (Quebec), and Journal of Refugee Studies (Oxford). He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch / Africa. He was made Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Republic as well as honored by the New York Association for New Americans, and has served on the board of the American Political Science Association.

Mr. Ndjankou’s presentation will be entitled: “ILO’s Perspective on International Labor Migration, Decent Work and Human Rights”

Mr. Djankou Ndjonkou is Representative to the United Nations and Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Office for the United Nations. In 1988, Mr. Ndjonkou was assigned to the ILO Office in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) as Regional Adviser for West Africa. He returned to ILO Headquarters in 1991 as a staff member of the Office of the Director-General. In 1995, Mr. Ndjonkou was given the responsibility to open and manage a new ILO Office in post-apartheid South Africa, a task he completed by the end of 1996, when he was appointed Director of the ILO Office in Beijing (People’s Republic of China) with responsibility for Mongolia, Hong Kong SAR (1997) and Macao SAR ((1999). On September 1, 2004, Mr. Ndjonkou was transferred to the ILO Office for the United Nations in New York as Representative of the ILO to the UN and Office Director.

The Global Public University: Advancing Wisconsin in the World

Globalization, outsourcing, new industry, migration.
Is Wisconsin prepared for the 21^st century?

Tuesday, April 22
8-10:30
5120 Grainger Hall, 975 University Ave

Richard C. Longworth
Senior writer, Chicago Tribune
Author: Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism (Bloomsbury, 2007)

Randall B. Dunham
Chairperson, Department of Management & Human Resources
Keenan A. Bennett Chair
Faculty Director, Center for International Business Education & Research
Wisconsin School of Business

Join Richard Longworth and Randall Dunham for a candid discussion about the future of the Midwest in our increasingly interconnected world – and the role of global public universities and regional collaborations in furthering our standing.

Topics will include the changing face of industry, a re-envisioning of regional economies, and the need for local businesses and governments to foster international perspectives and partnerships.

Part of The Global Public University Series, this program is co-sponsored by UW–Madison Division of International Studies, the Worldwide Universities Network, and the Center for International Business Education and Research. The aim of the series is to promote discussion about the trends, challenges, and opportunities that impact public universities throughout the world and how these institutions can learn from and work with one another, and their communities.

Previous Global Public University Series may be viewed here.

Sylvia Walby: Gender Mainstreaming and Feminist Knowledge Transfer

The European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE) and the Transnational Applied Research in Gender Equity Training Research Circle (TARGET) are pleased to present

Sylvia Walby

Department of Sociology, Lancaster, UK
& UNESCO Chair of Gender Studies

Monday, April 21

Complexity Theory and Intersectionality
10am 8417 Sewell Social Sciences

Gender Mainstreaming and Feminist Knowledge Transfer
Noon-1:30pm 8411 Sewell Social Sciences

Sylvia Walby is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University, UK.  She has been Professor of Sociology in the Universities of Leeds and Bristol, and Reader at the LSE.  She was the founding President of the European Sociological Association; she is the President of the International Sociological Association’s, Research Committee on Economy and Society.  She is one of the activity leaders on Quing, an EU funded project, comparing the different meanings of gender equality in gender equality policies as it intersects with other inequalities across 27 EU +2 countries.  Books include: Gender Transformations (Routledge 1997), Theorizing Patriarchy (Blackwell 1990), Patriarchy at Work (Polity Press 1986) and most recently the jointly edited Gendering the Knowledge Economy (with Gottfried, Gottschall and Osawa) (Palgrave 2007).  Forthcoming is Globalization and Inequalities: Complexity and Contested Modernities (Sage 2008), which uses complexity theory to theorise trajectories of change in multiple complex inequalities in a global era.

Co-sponsored by FemSem

TARGET is a Research Circle on the UW Campus, supported by Global Studies, the International Institute, the Division of International Studies, and by an EU-U.S. Atlantis grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education

Award-winning Filmmaker Pierre Sauvage to Give the Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Masarah Van Eyck, Director of Communications, Division of International Studies, UW­­­–Madison, 608 262-5590

Pierre Sauvage, award-winning filmmaker, producer and screenwriter, will deliver the Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Sauvage will give a lecture titled “Did Americans Fight the Holocaust” on Tuesday, April 15 at 4 pm in the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium (816 State St., Madison).

An Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Pierre Sauvage is best known for his 1989 documentary Weapons of the Spirit which won numerous awards and remains one of the most widely used documentary teaching tools on the Holocaust. An expert on rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, Sauvage is currently focusing on the American experience of the Holocaust.

Weapons of the Spirit will screen on Monday, April 14 at 6 pm in the Browsing Library at Memorial Union (800 Langdon St., Madison).

These events are sponsored by the Global Legal Studies Center and the Division of International Studies and are co-sponsored by the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, the Department of Communication Arts, and the Center for Interdisciplinary French Studies. Both events are free and open to the public.

The Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture is named after a Milwaukee native who was a vibrant and active student at UW–Madison in the 1920s. While living in Germany, Fish-Harnack assisted in the escape of German Jews and political dissidents. She is the only American civilian executed under the personal instruction of Adolf Hitler, for her resistance to the Nazi regime. The Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture is designed to promote greater understanding of human rights and democracy, and enrich international studies at UW-Madison. For further information on Fish-Harnack and the lecture series, please go to www.international.wisc.edu/fishharnack/.

XXX

Global economic issues examined in UW-Madison conference

Some of the most critical issues in today’s world economy will be discussed by top national figures in a University of Wisconsin-Madison conference on Thursday, May 1.

“Global Imbalances and the U.S. Dollar: Doing Business in the World Economy,” will be held at the Fluno Center for Executive Education, 601 University Ave., from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The conference is sponsored by the Center for International Business Education and Research at the Wisconsin School of Business together with the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy and the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs.

Panelists will cover a variety of questions: Will the U.S. trade deficit shrink? Will China, Saudi Arabia and Russia continue to finance our trade and government budget deficits? Will the value of the dollar continue to fall? What are the global implications of the U.S. financial distress? And, how do these issues affect Midwest firms competing in the global market?

“Understanding what is going to happen to the dollar is important because it will affect the competitiveness of Wisconsin manufactured and agricultural products both domestically and in world markets,” says Menzie Chinn, a UW-Madison professor of public affairs and economics and one of the conference moderators. “Business executives also need to be aware of the dollar’s moves in order to take advantage of the opportunities that a weaker dollar presents.”

Speakers will include:

Symposium: Africa Encounters Global China

Presented by the University of Wisconsin-Madison African Studies Program

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

AT&T Lounge, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.

3:00 P.M.

Welcome and Introductions

Gilles Bousquet, Sharon Hutchinson, and Jeremy Foltz

3:15

Is China an Authoritarian Model of Development for Africa?

Edward Friedman, Department of Political Science

3:35

Is China an Engine of Growth for Africa?

Jeremy Foltz and Ian Coxhead, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics

Overt and Covert Wars: Iraq, Iran, and the U.S.

A Series of Events with SCOTT RITTER,

Former UN Weapons Inspector

April 16, 17, and 19, 2008

The Reality of Arms Control: From the Trenches

Madison Committee on Foreign Relations (MCFR) Monthly Meeting

Wednesday, April 16, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

Rigadoon Room, Edgewater Hotel (666 Wisconsin Avenue)

Registration and fee required for this event only. See website for more information.

Intelligence Failure: Why Did So Many People Think There Were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq?

Thursday, April 17, Noon – 1:30 PM

Director’s Room, 4151 Grainger Hall (975 University Avenue)

Free and open to the public.

Human Rights International Book Series features Robert Skloot

The International Institute’s International Faculty Book Series
(formerly the World Beyond Our Borders Book Series)

on Human Rights around the World

presents

Robert Skloot (UW–Madison, Theatre and Drama, Jewish Studies)

discussing his new book

Theatre of Genocide: Four Plays about Mass Murder in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and Armenia (University of Wisconsin Press, 2008)

Tuesday, April 8 at 7pm
University Bookstore in the Hilldale Mall (702 N. Midvale Boulevard)

In this pioneering volume, Robert Skloot brings together four plays—three of which are published here for the first time—that fearlessly explore the face of modern genocide. The scripts deal with the destruction of four targeted populations: Armenians, Cambodians, Bosnian Muslims, and Rwandan Tutsis. Taken together, these four plays erase the boundaries of theatrical realism to present stories that probe the actions of the perpetrators and the suffering of their victims. A major artistic contribution to the study of the history and effects of genocide, this collection continues the important journey toward understanding the terror and trauma to which the modern world has so often been witness.

Questions? Please contact Masarah Van Eyck, Director of Communications, Division of International Studies: mvaneyck2@international.wisc.edu or 608 262-5590

More information is available on the entire series here.

April 2008 – China Initiative Month

Recognizing the importance of China to the economic and political future of Wisconsin and the United States, the Division of International Studies is introducing a UW-Madison China Initiative designed to promote global competence and to advance internationalization with respect to China.

To celebrate the inauguration of the Initiative we present to you a month of activities that are bringing various aspects of Chinese culture, politics and business to Madison.

April 3-6 th Wisconsin Film Festival Series

Undercurrents: Recent Films from China

For locations and tickets please visit www.wifilmfest.org

April 4th East Asian Languages and Literature Department Visiting Scholars Series

Traditional Narration and Literary treatment: Centering on the Narration on the Chinese Cultural Revolution and American Jewish consciousness novels after the Holocaust

Lixin WANG, Professor and Associate Dean of College of Literature at Nankai University, Tianjin, China

2:30-3:30pm, Location TBA

April 9th, Center for East Asian Studies Brown Bag Lecture Series

Global Hot Spots Lecture Series

Don’t miss the spring’s final two lectures

Join Madison-area learners on Friday, April 4 and Friday, May 2 as we continue to look at the ever-increasing role played by global affairs in society. Starting with the environmental challenges facing the earth and finishing up with India’s growing power, these two programs are sure to spark discussion.

April 4 — Living on a Shrinking Planet: Challenges and Opportunities for a Sustainable Future
UW professor Jon Foley will take you inside the latest scientific findings to uncover the planet’s most pressing environmental concerns. And you might be surprised at what he reveals. With the use of state-of-the-art computer models and satellite measurements that analyze ecosystems and the atmosphere, he’ll also offer possible solutions.

May 2 — India as an Emerging Power: A Revolution of Rising Expectations
As the second-fastest growing economy in the world, yet still suffering from high levels of poverty, India is experiencing growing pains. But make no mistake about it; India is growing into a global power. Dr. Sinha, an Associate Professor of Political Science at UW-Madison, will analyze what the rise of India as a new aspiring power means for the world and the United States.

Note: these free lectures will be held in the Memorial Union, beginning at 1:30 p.m. An RSVP is requested.

Register now for one or both of these fascinating lectures.

Please contact Ellen Clarke at (608) 890-1191 EllenClarke@uwalumni.com if you have questions.

Global Hot Spots is co-sponsored by the Division of International Studies and the Wisconsin Alumni Association.

International Faculty Book Series Features Human Rights Around the World

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Wendy Christensen, Communications, Division of International Studies, UW–Madison, communication@international.wisc.edu, 608 262-5590

UW­–Madison’s International Institute Faculty Book Series Features Human Rights Around the World

Celebrating the contributions that UW–Madison faculty bring to the study of human rights, this semester’s book series offers diverse perspectives and voices to shed light on these complex issues.

This popular and long-running book series, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Division of International Studies, the International Institute, and the University Bookstore, brings together avid readers and UW–Madison faculty for public, lively discussions about topics from around the world.

All the talks take place at 7pm at the University Bookstore in the Hilldale Mall (702 N. Midvale Boulevard).

They are free and open to the public.­

Tuesday, April 8
Robert Skloot (UW–Madison, Theatre and Drama, Jewish Studies)
Theatre of Genocide: Four Plays about Mass Murder in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and Armenia (University of Wisconsin Press, 2008)

In this pioneering volume, Robert Skloot brings together four plays—three of which are published here for the first time—that fearlessly explore the face of modern genocide. The scripts deal with the destruction of four targeted populations: Armenians, Cambodians, Bosnian Muslims, and Rwandan Tutsis. Taken together, these four plays erase the boundaries of theatrical realism to present stories that probe the actions of the perpetrators and the suffering of their victims. A major artistic contribution to the study of the history and effects of genocide, this collection continues the important journey toward understanding the terror and trauma to which the modern world has so often been witness.

Hundreds of high school students to participate in World Cinema Day

From UW-Madison Communications 

For the past five years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has welcomed hundreds of Wisconsin high school students and teachers to World Cinema Day, a program of the Language Institute and the Wisconsin Film Festival to raise cultural awareness and deepen understanding of diverse perspectives through international film.

This year, a record number of more than 800 students and teachers from 15 Wisconsin and Illinois schools will participate in the program, scheduled for Friday, April 4, at the historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown Madison from 12:45-3 p.m.

The centerpiece of World Cinema Day this year is the psychological thriller “Fermat’s Room” (Spain, 2007), in which a small group of mathematical geniuses are brought together to solve a great puzzle. The characters quickly face a more pressing matter: solve a series of mathematical puzzles in a minute’s time or less, or be crushed by the room they are locked in.

Participating teachers in World Cinema Day 2008 represent many subject areas: world languages, English, social studies and mathematics. The focus on real-life mathematical puzzles in this year’s film was particularly intriguing to math teachers.

The Global Public University: global reach, local impact [Global Higher Ed]

On 11 March, William Brustein (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Susan Jeffords (University of Washington), two experts on the internationalization of higher education, held a candid discussion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (pictured to the right) about how communities and regions benefit from the global efforts of their public universities.Topics in this two hour-long event included knowledge hubs and economic development, strategic university-community partnerships, and institutional cooperation, among others.

A webcast of the forum can now be viewed online. PowerPoint presentations are also available for download.

A webcast of the previous Global Public University forum, featuring a dialogue between Stephen Toope (President, University of British Columbia) and David Ward (President, American Council on Education), can be viewed at this link, as well. It took place on 9 October 2007.

The Global Public University Series promotes discussion about the trends, challenges, and opportunities that impact public universities throughout the world and how these institutions can learn from and work with one another, and their communities. The event was co-sponsored by UW-Madison Division of International Studies, WISCAPE, and the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), and reflects a desire to enhance strategic thinking about how to more effectively craft institutional strategies in a rapidly changing multi-scalar context. For example, the local/regional/provincial/state responsibilities of public universities, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, creates some interesting challenges for crafting (and legitimizing) an international/global strategy, though in a manner that is supportive of making a “difference in the lives of Wisconsin citizens“. Events like this are designed to to spur on (re)thinking so as to enable institutions to better face these challenges; challenges that public universities around the world will increasingly face, regardless of available resources.

Kris Olds and Masarah Van Eyck