Doctoral student shares experiences from Nobel laureates meeting

by Renee Meiller, UW Communications

From June 29-July 4, UW-Madison nuclear engineering doctoral student Rachel Slaybaugh was among nearly 500 young researchers from around the world to attend the Lindau Meeting, a unique event in Lindau, Germany, that draws 25 Nobel laureates for lectures, panel and roundtable discussions, and social and networking events.

Slaybaugh, who also is pursuing a Ph.D. minor in energy analysis and policy, is studying the total statistical error present in computer simulations of nuclear systems. (The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Sciences funds her research via the UW-Madison Fusion Technology Institute.) She currently is conducting Ph.D.-related research at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, a research laboratory in Karlsruhe, Germany. Here, Slaybaugh talks about her experiences at the Lindau Meeting.

Q: How, generally, was each day of the meeting structured?
A: Each morning, beginning at 9 a.m., we had three 30-minute lectures from different laureates. Then we had a 15-minute coffee break and usually three more 30-minute lectures. The speakers tended to be at least loosely grouped by topic. On one day there was a panel on climate change and energy during the second portion of the morning. Next we had about two hours for lunch. Every day, the United States had a lunch arranged with other countries that some of the U.S. students could attend. For example, I got to go to lunch with the Chinese delegation, and my roommates got to go with India.

In the afternoon, there was a two-hour discussion session with the laureates. Each person who had spoken in the morning had a discussion section, and we got to choose which one we wanted to go to. Some evenings we had events, and some nights we were free. There was dinner and a dance on the first night; the United States hosted dinner with some laureates on the second night; there was a symphony on the third night; and a traditional Bavarian get-together on the fourth night.

UW–Madison: a great global university of the 21st century

As we enter the 21st century, the criteria of what makes a great, public university are evolving.

Our marketplace now transcends national boundaries. Effective progress in environmental and health concerns hinges on international exchange and cooperation. And even traditionally domestic concerns, such as national security and legal rights, now play out on a global stage.

That’s why UW–Madison has recently implemented a strategy that calls for us to both prepare globally competent students and also to ensure that our campus, through its research and international collaborations, continues to help shape the future of global relations.

It is no longer enough to educate students who are exceptional in their own fields. To prepare graduates to excel in business, healthcare, law, the sciences and more, we must provide them with the interdisciplinary training and a global competence that will help them effectively contribute to our increasingly interdependent world.

Equally important, international students and their families bring to Wisconsin the diverse backgrounds and international collaborations that enhance our community in immeasurable ways. Last year UW–Madison was home to more than 3,800 international students, ranking in the top 20 of research universities nationwide.

“Today, education is the currency of the global knowledge economy,” says Gilles Bousquet, dean of the Division of International Studies. “we’re preparing our students to navigate in an increasingly interdependent world.”

Global Public Research University discussion series – watch the Web cast!

Complementing this development, the Division of International Studies, in partnership with the Worldwide Universities Network and the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Post Secondary Education, has launched a Global Public Research University discussion series.

Broadcast across the world, this biannual discussion with international luminaries in the field, examines the trends, challenges and opportunities that public universities face in response to a dynamic and challenging global environment—and how public research universities can learn from and work with one other.

Our first discussion took place in October 2007, and featured Stephen Toope, President, University of British Columbia and David Ward, President, American Council on Education and Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

To watch the program in full, please visit the UW-Madison WUN Web site.

Interested in receiving up-to-date information about the Division of International Studies and international education? Visit our blog—or better yet, sign up for an RSS feed and receive news as it posts!

Kuwaitis Tour UW For Ideas

From WMTV News 11/28/2007.

Click here to watch the video.

Madison: The UW campus is being used as a model for a new university in the middle east.

Officials from Kuwait University were on campus Wednesday. The University of Wisconsin is one of only six American colleges being looked at as a model of what the 21st century school should look like.

The Health Science Learning Center is the University of Wisconsin’s best example of what the future of education looks like. “The School of Medicine has about a million square feet of space,” says UW Asst. Dean for Facilities Mark Wells.

A handful of Kuwaiti visitors got the grand tour, getting a hands on look at technology and design. They’re from the College of Arts at Kuwait University, which is about to get a brand new campus. “They are building a new university city and consolidating all the campuses in one location,” says Hassan Gardezi, project architect.

Recent sightings: Thanksgiving tradition

From UW-Madison Communications

During a Madison Friends of International Students (MFIS) Thanksgiving dinner, hosts Eng and Bill Braun (left), along with their son Paul (far left), talk with their guests, Shoji Shimomura and his wife, Manami (center); Muhamad Hafizul (far right); and Sun-Hyeh Kung (foreground right).

Conflict Resolution: Swedish and Norwegian Experiences

His Excellency Knut Vollebaek. Ambassador of Norway to the United States
&
His Excellency Jan Kenneth Eliasson, Ambassador of Sweden to the United States, President elect of the United Nations Assembly.

Place: Memorial Union, Main Lounge, 800 Langdon St., Madison, WI
Time: 10am
The Ambassadors are traveling across the United States in 2005 on the 100th anniversary of the peaceful separation of Norway from Sweden. Ambassadors Vollebaek and Eliasson will discuss their experiences and insights in foreign affairs and the United Nations. They will present perspectives of two small countries that played a key role and continue to be proactive in the peaceful resolution of some of the world’s complex and most difficult conflicts.

Norway.
His Excellency Knut Vollebaek has been Ambassador of Norway to the U.S. since 2001.  Previously he served as Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and chaired the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), serving as a key negotiator during the Kosovo war. He has also served in India, Spain and Zimbabwe and was Ambassador to the Central American States, resident in Costa Rica. He has held numerous positions with the United Nations, including Deputy Co-chair of the International Conference on Former Yugoslavia, rapporteur to the Anti-Apartheid Committee of the ILO in Geneva and Director of United Nations Affairs.  He has served as a member of the UW-Madison Dean of International Studies Advisory Board since 2003.

Sweden.
His Excellency Jan Kenneth Eliasson has been Sweden’s Ambassador to the U.S. since 2000 but early in his career was an exchange student in the United States.
Prior to assuming his current position, he was Sweden’s Deputy Secretary of State, a key position in Swedish foreign policy. Ambassador Eliasson has served in Paris, Bonn, Washington and Zimbabwe, and has held high positions in the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm. He served with Olof Palme in the United Nations and as the Secretary-General’s personal representative during the Iran-Iraq conflict. He concurrently served as Sweden’s Ambassador to the United Nations and has worked extensively with U.N. Humanitarian Affairs. Ambassador Eliasson is the President elect of the United Nations General Assembly for its sixtieth session, the first time this position has been held by a Swede.
Co-Sponsors:
–The UW-Madison Division of International Studies.
–Wisconsin Honorary Consulates of Norway and Sweden.

Contact:
Christine Merritt, Communications, Division of International Studies, UW-Madison
Phone: (608) 262-5590, or E-mail: cmerritt@wisc.edu;

Increasing International Visibility: Asian Connections

As a leading global research university, the University of Wisconsin-Madison places great importance on developing partnerships and connections with governments, universities, scholars and alumni around the world.
Well before the term “Asian Century” was coined predicting Asia’s dominance in the 21st century, the campus recognized the continent’s growing political, economic and cultural significance. UW-Madison has a 45-year history of excellence in teaching Asian studies. Over the last year, several new initiatives have underscored the University’s commitment to research and teaching involving Pacific Rim countries.

In December, the Kingdom of Thailand hosted a gathering at the embassy in Washington D.C. of UW-Madison alumni and students in International Studies’ Washington, D.C. Semester in International Affairs. Ambassador Virasakdi Futrakul, who had visited the campus a few months earlier, welcomed guests and spoke of the ties of friendship between the University and Thailand over nearly a century.

In November, the dean of International Studies, Gilles Bousquet, was part of a University delegation that traveled to Asia. In South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, Bousquet deepened connections with prominent alumni and met with UW-Madison students on year-long study-abroad programs in Japan. “I was very impressed by the students’ dedication to Japanese studies and the way they have adjusted to cultural change and Tokyo life,” Bousquet says. At Japan’s Keio and Sophia Universities and Taiwan National University and National Taiwan Norman University, Bousquet explored strengthening collaborations in language and area studies with university officials. This spring, Bousquet will return to Asia, accompanying UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley to China and South Korea.

UW-Madison is especially proud of a new Korean Studies Initiative being led by the Center for East Asian Studies. Enrollments in Korean language and area studies courses at UW-Madison are rapidly rising along with interest in economic trends and international security issues. The goal is to train a new generation of graduates across all disciplines combining linguistic and cultural competence with both historical and contemporary knowledge about Korea. UW-Madison has one of the largest numbers of Korean students of any university in the U.S. – about 700. In addition, a new generation of Korean-American students is seeking more information about their cultural heritage. For more information on the initiative, click here. For news about a nuclear security in northeast Asia symposium held last October, click here.

Last spring, two federal grants through the National Science Foundation coupled with matching institutional funds from International Studies and other campus units, paved the way for innovative graduate study and research in global sustainability, development and the environment. Through the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeships (IGERT) program, a College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) project is targeting biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the eastern Himalayas of southwest China, site of a long-term collaboration between UW-Madison and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

IGERT fellows will travel to southwest China for summer training, language study and field work. Back in Madison, they will tackle actual biodiversity and development issues in interdisciplinary seminars focused on the region. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has committed $1 million of its own to the collaboration, will send students and scientists to Madison to participate, and it will use the results to enhance conservation and improve economic conditions for people who live in the region. For more on the program, click here.

Feature: Eye on Aix-en-Provence

The International Academic Program in Aix-en-Provence, France will celebrate its 45th anniversary next year. Aix is one of IAP’s largest and oldest programs. Since its inception, 850 UW-Madison students have studied in Aix, once the seat of the Kingdom of Provence and now a lively as well as beautiful city of 120,000 inhabitants. This fall, twenty UW-Madison students will journey to Aix for a formative and unforgettable study-abroad experience. Below are two perspectives that capture the essence of Aix, and the important role the IAP program has played over the decades.

1966-1967

UW-Madison alumna, Martha Florey (BA French, ’68, JD ‘83), Assistant Director of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Safety, studied in Aix-en-Provence during her junior year.

It’s difficult to pick out the highlights; the whole year was a highlight. Perhaps the first weeks of immersion in French language and culture, because of the intensity of the experience. We seemed to go through phases in language acquisition. I remember when I began thinking partially in both languages and speaking both poorly.

Aix was a gathering place for students from all over the world. A friend from California had a red VW bug and we spent a lot of time driving around the countryside, to Nîmes and Arles, and to what became one of my favorites - Les Baux de Provence. In Aix we shopped for our food daily, which was unheard of back in the U.S., and visited the specialty fruit and flower markets. We had favorite boulangeries and patisseries. Aix also had a café culture. I always went to the Deux Garçons (we called it “Les 2-G’s”) where fellow students and I would discuss what we would do that evening – go to the ciné, boite de nuit, or nightclub, but not study, oh please no.

All these high points remain part of my way of experiencing the world. The year in France didn’t directly affect my career path since I knew that I didn’t want to be a French teacher, but it changed my understanding of the “speed” of life, and encouraged me to take advantage of new opportunities. We were basically on our own. We had to reach out to strangers – French, American, South African, Moroccan, and more. I sent lots of letters and postcards home, but believe I called the U.S. just twice the whole year.

2006

Courtney Skare (BA History, Communication Arts ’03) is a study-abroad advisor with International Academic Programs.

I recently returned from a wonderful two weeks in Aix-en-Provence, visiting my younger sister, Karin, a UW-Madison junior who is double-majoring in French and International Studies. We spent time together wandering through the Saturday market; we people-watched as we sat in a local café on Aix’s main commercial street, the Cours Mirabeau; and visited the park where Cézanne painted landscapes of Mont Sainte-Victoire. While I took in many of the usual tourist attractions, I also experienced Aix in a different way, through the eyes of a study-abroad participant.

My sister tutors a fourteen year-old boy, her “host” brother in English once a week, and his family invited us to dinner while I was there. I chatted with Karin and other international students in her dorm about their activities in Aix. I also had a chance to see how my sister had grown and changed since she left the U.S. nine months ago. When our rental car broke down and Karin had to negotiate repairs over the telephone, I realized how fluent she had become in French as well as how self-confident. I’m the sibling who normally takes charge; however, as Karin led me through Paris during a weekend trip, I knew she had matured.

As we talked over the length of my trip, I also saw how Karin’s perspective of the world had broadened and how she had gained a better understanding not only of her host country, but also of the U.S. UW-Madison students, not just my sister, are having experiences they will remember for years to come and are learning life skills that will be an asset to their future careers.

Celebrating the Wisconsin-Aix Connection

In early April, over thirty Aix study-abroad alumni, current students, faculty and staff had breakfast at the French House with Jean-Paul de Gaudemar, Recteur of the Académie d’Aix-Marseille and Chancelier des universités, the leading educational administrator for the region.

M. de Gaudemar, along with M. William Marois, Recteur and Chancelier des universités for the Bordeaux area, was visiting Madison to solidify a cooperative educational agreement between the Embassy of France and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Through the partnership, high school students and teachers in both countries will have the opportunity to establish deeper language and cultural knowledge through exchange programs and classroom connections. The partnership will also accelerate the pace of future international study at the university level, and better prepare Wisconsin’s and France’s high school graduates to succeed in a globalized world.

Increasing International Visibility

UW-Madison’s growing reputation as a global research university was very much in evidence this past May when Chancellor John Wiley and Gilles Bousquet, Dean of International Studies, traveled to England for a series of important and exciting international events.

(right) Chancellor Willey and Dean Bousquet at the International Studies Advisory Board Meeting. Photo courtesy of Doug Cornish, Inmarsat Global Ltd.

The Chancellor joined Dean Bousquet and members of the International Studies Advisory Board in London for the Board’s first meeting away from the UW-Madison campus. Board members came from Europe and the Middle East as well as Wisconsin, New York, and Washington, D.C., for the all-day session. “It was a tremendous show of commitment from the board members, and the discussions were very productive,” Bousquet said, adding that members helped formulate new strategies for promoting global competence among UW-Madison students and more extensive business-University links. The meeting and associated activities were graciously hosted by alumni Andy Sukawaty (BBA, ’77), Chairman and CEO of Inmarsat Group Holdings, Ltd., and Paul and Carol Collins. Paul (BBA ’58), is the retired Vice Chairman of Citigroup and Co-chair of the university’s Create the Future Campaign.

(left) Chancellor Wiley greets alumni at the WAA reception in London. Photo by Stuart Edwards, Always Photography Limited.

Another important focus of the trip was a two-day series of meetings with leadership teams at the Universities of Leeds, Manchester, and Sheffield, partners with UW-Madison in the Worldwide Universities Network. The discussions cemented the strong research connections that already exist between UW-Madison and these institutions, but also suggested several new opportunities for innovation and collaboration in an international context.

(above) Chancellor John Wiley, Dean Gilles Bousquet, and Professor Michael Hinden with senior staff at the University of Manchester, at the official residence of Vice Chancellor, Alan Gilbert, second from left. Photo courtesy of University of Manchester.

WUN is a grouping of sixteen research-led institutions of international standing that have created a worldwide research and graduate education partnership. Chancellor Wiley serves on WUN’s executive committee, which also held an all-day business meeting during this trip. Representatives from Europe, the U.S., and China attended to share their perspectives on international education.

The U.K. trip ended with a festive alumni reunion in London hosted by the Wisconsin Alumni Association. Participants were not only happy to reconnect but were also eager to raise the profile of their alma mater as a premier institution internationally. “We are now seeing a powerful alumni network across Europe, an area where we have strong historic ties,” said Bousquet. “Our alums are great advocates for the UW-Madison, its programs, students and faculty, and for the importance of global connectedness.”

(above left) Members of the Dean of International Studies’ Advisory Board. Photo courtesy of Doug Cornish.

Campus events respond to cartoon controversy

Campus events respond to cartoon controversy

by John Lucas, UW Communications

Three campus events have been organized to discuss
the international controversy over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as
a terrorist figure.

The Offices of the Dean of Students will hold a panel discussion
entitled “Free Speech, Civility and the Impact on Campus Climate” at
7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, in 272 Bascom Hall. UW-Madison Interim Dean of Students
Lori Berquam will help moderate a group of students and faculty concerned about
the issue as it relates to the campus community.

” My hope is to bring people together for a thoughtful and educational discussion of these important issues,” Berquam says, noting that the Badger Herald reproduced the cartoon on Feb. 13.

“The university stands by the principals of free expression, but also wants
to give voice to the fact that this episode has been deeply hurtful to Muslims
in Madison,” she adds.

The panel is expected to include Mac VerStandig, editor-in-chief of the
Badger Herald; Mir Babar Basir, president of the Muslim Students Association
(MSA); Adam Schmidt, opinion editor of the Daily Cardinal; Alexis Simendinger, White
House correspondent for the National Journal; journalism professor Dietram
Scheufele; and Tejumola Olaniyan, a professor of English and an expert on political
cartoons.

From 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 22, the MSA will hold its own
educational event called “Campaign for Truth: The Life of Muhammad.” The event
will be held in Tripp Commons in Memorial Union.

The events will include seven
stations with posters and information about the Prophet Muhammad and Islam, as
well as a short movie. Basir, who is organizing
the event, says that the cartoons depicting Muhammad as a terrorist projects
a negative image on all Muslims, and that the Herald should have withheld publication
of the images.

A final event, “Blasphemy and Free Speech: The Danish Cartoons and World Reaction,” will
take place from 4-6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27, in 6191 Helen C. White Hall. The Center
for the Humanities is organizing the discussion and will focus on the cartoon
controversy through an internationalist perspective.

All events are free and open
to the public.

For more information on the MSA, visit http://msa.rso.wisc.edu/

Chancellor John
Wiley issued his own statement in reaction to the cartoon issue
on Feb. 14: http://www.news.wisc.edu/releases/12180.html

Eye on Florence

Over a thousand UW-Madison students have participated in the International Academic Program in Florence since it began in 1982, making the study-abroad program one of the Division of International Studies’ most renowned. Since 1986, students have studied and lived at the Villa Corsi-Salviati, a historic monument located in the village of Sesto Fiorentino, six miles, as its name implies, from downtown Florence. The special location allows students to easily explore the countryside of Tuscany while learning from expert faculty from UW-Madison and its program partners, the University of Michigan, and Duke. Though the Villa has been modernized over the years to include a lecture hall, computer lab, and small library (the Villa even went wireless in 2005), its architectural history still remains visible in the form of frescoes and manicured gardens.

Students participate in the Florence program for a semester, summer, or academic year, and attend special lectures, symposia, and excursions within the city and across Italy. This spring, 33 UW-Madison undergraduates, with majors ranging from art history and journalism to psychology and economics, will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the program at the Villa. UW-Madison alumnus and former resident director of the program, Gino Casagrande, has created an extensive Web site that gives us a glimpse into the unique Corsi-Salviati experience. Click here to view photographs and historical information.

While life at Villa Corsi-Salviati has remained much the same since UW students first took up residence, IAP programs in the region have grown along with increased interest in study abroad. In 2004, IAP, UW-Madison’s College of Letters and Science, and the University of Michigan inaugurated a summer Honors Program at the Villa. The program consists of a spring semester course at the students’ home campus and four weeks of study abroad in Florence. Additionally this summer, UW-Madison art and music majors will have the chance to participate in two new international seminars in painting, and music composition and performance. Although the classes will be in downtown Florence, not the Villa, could there be a more ideal location to learn about some of civilization’s greatest paintings, sculpture, architecture and music? For more information on these three new programs, please visit the study-abroad web site.

From Madison to Kazakhstan: Dr. John Doyle honored

The Capital Times
By Bob Rashid
Special to The Capital Times

ALMATY, Kazakhstan - More than a decade’s worth of work to improve public health by Madison doctors has earned heartfelt thanks half a world away.

A banquet honoring Madison’s Dr. John Doyle and others was held Saturday at the Hotel Dostyk in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Doyle is a professor in the surgery department at the University of Wisconsin Medical School and chief of dentistry and medical director for dental services at University Hospital and Clinics.

In the past 10 years he has traveled to Kazakhstan 25 times to supervise Prime Kare Kazakhstan, a humanitarian aid program. The central Asian country is located south of Siberia and is home to about 17 million people.

More than $4 million has been invested in Prime Kare Kazakhstan by the Concordia Mission Society, an organization within the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran church. Support and volunteers have come from University Hospital and Clinics.

Doyle, the only person outside Kazakhstan to receive its Distinguished Doctor award, was given an honorary professorship in the Kazakhstan Dental Society. About 80 guests including dignitaries from Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Health attended the event.

Prime Kare Kazakhstan was organized after the collapse of the Soviet Union to provide medical care for pregnant women and children in the Almaty Oblast, an area with more than 3 million people.

In 1995, when the first group of Madisonians arrived in Almaty, they found a health care system crippled by lack of money, equipment and basic supplies. Hospitals were literally crumbling with lack of maintenance and some Kazakh doctors had not been paid a salary in years.

A semi-trailer equipped with both dental and medical facilities was built to reach rural areas and provide a base of support for the medical staff. Volunteers from University Hospital and Clinics worked closely with Kazakh doctors in the clinic on wheels and, eventually, some Kazakh doctors were brought to the United States to learn new techniques. To date, more than 300,000 people have been treated.

During perestroika, many central Asian countries saw an alarming rise in sexually transmitted diseases when they opened their borders to international business. To combat the problem in the Almaty Oblast, an STD laboratory was designed and built under the supervision of Dr. Rjurik Golubjatnikov, emeritus chief immunologist of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene and emeritus assistant clinical professor of preventive medicine at UW Medical School.

In partnership with Dr. Utegen Yeshimov, chief physician of Almaty Oblast STD Hospital, Golubjatnikov worked to change Kazakh philosophy about handling sexually transmitted diseases and eventually reshaped the laws governing their treatment. Golubjatnikov was also honored at the reception.

Other Madisonians in attendance and recognized for their continuing work were Dr. Gregory DeMuri, associate professor of pediatrics at UW Medical School, Dr. John Stephenson, emeritus professor of pediatrics at UW Medical School, and his wife, Ellen Stephenson, a registered nurse.

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories//index.php?ntid=56590&ntpid=2

Report: Growing deficits jeopardize U.S. influence around world

Twenty years ago, the United States was the world’s largest creditor nation, unsurpassed in its ownership of assets outside of its borders, even after deducting what foreigners owned inside its borders.

“In the last 20 years, the United States has become the world’s largest debtor nation,” says Chinn, who served as a senior economist for international financial issues on the president’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.

At the end of 2004, U.S. debts to the rest of the world exceeded its assets by about $2.5 trillion - 21 percent of its gross domestic product. This proportion is unmatched by any other major developed economy.

Even if the United States avoids a precipitous collapse in the dollar and an economic recession, the report warns, the nation faces serious challenges. America’s continued descent into greater and greater indebtedness threatens an important source of its influence: the dollar’s role as the critical global currency.

“If the United States does not address its budget and current account deficits, we likely will see economic growth slow and trade friction escalate,” Chinn says. “America’s political and economic influence will decline.”

A current account deficit occurs when the value of a country’s imports is greater than the combined value of exports and income from abroad. The current account deficit is a broader measure than a country’s trade deficit because it considers net income from assets abroad in addition to imports and exports.

The U.S. current account deficit climbed from just less than 3.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2001 to 5.7 percent last year. The fiscal deficits that the federal government has run since 2001 are driving the increase.

Historically, other countries have experienced deficits this large, but the absolute magnitude of the U.S. deficit is unprecedented because the United States - constituting more than one-quarter of the world economy - looms so large. At the same time, the United States has accumulated a record amount of foreign debt. Neither of these trends - in the deficit or debt - shows any evidence of being reversed.

http://www.news.wisc.edu/11663.html

World Music Festival Conversations

In conjunction with the second annual Madison World Music Festival (WMF), the festival, the UW-Madison Division of International Studies and International Institute are co-sponsoring a series of talks about world music and musicians.

http://www.intlstudies.wisc.edu/news/WorldMusicFestival.asp

Africans in India Reveal their Histories in Quilts

Madison will get a vivid impression of the quilts by Africans of India — the Siddis — in an exhibition in the Gallery of Design at the university’s School of Human Ecology.

http://www.news.wisc.edu/11407.html

UW Telescope May Help State Firms

Through a unique partnership, UW-Madison has helped South Africa build and fund SALT, the Southern African Large Telescope, the largest telescope in the hemisphere. The partnership is featured in WisBusiness.com

http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=41914

New Analysis of Pottery Stirs Olmec Trade Controversy

Clearing — or perhaps roiling — the murky and often contentious waters of Mesoamerican archeology, a study of 3,000-year-old pottery provides new evidence that the Olmec may not have been the mother culture after all. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists led by UW-Madison archeologist James Stoltman presents new evidence that shows the Olmec, widely regarded as the creators of the first civilization in Mesoamerica, imported pottery from other nearby cultures. The finding undermines the view that the Olmec capitol of San Lorenzo near the Gulf of Mexico was the sole source of the iconographic pottery produced by the earliest Mesoamerican civilizations. To read more, http://www.news.wisc.edu/11377.html

UW-Madison land tenure expert Thiesenhusen dead at 68

William C. Thiesenhusen, emeritus professor of agricultural economics and agricultural journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former director of the university’s Land Tenure Center, died the weekend of June 25-26 at his residence near Madison. He was 68 years old.

Thiesenhusen was born Feb. 12, 1936 in Waukesha, Wis. and grew up on a farm near Muskego, Wis. He earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education and journalism and a master’s degree in agricultural journalism from the UW-Madison, followed by a master’s of public administration degree from Harvard University. He earned his doctorate in agricultural economics from the UW-Madison in 1965.

Thiesenhusen joined the departments of Agricultural Economics (now Agricultural and Applied Economics) and Agricultural Journalism (now Life Sciences Communication) in 1965, and was appointed to the Land Tenure Center that year. He retired and was named emeritus professor in 1998.

Thiesenhusen devoted his career to teaching and research on issues of agrarian reform and economic development in Latin America and elsewhere.

He lived in Santiago, Chile from 1963 to 1965, conducting field studies for the Land Tenure Center as part of his Ph.D. research. He was involved with the center throughout his career, serving as executive assistant from 1962 to 1963, and as director from 1971 to 1975 and again from 1994 to 1998. The center is an international development research and assistance program that works in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and North America on issues of land tenure and land use, agrarian reform, and rural development.

Thiesenhusen taught two popular courses, Economic Problems of Underdeveloped Areas, and Land Tenure and the Latin American Peasant. He was a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences throughout the United States. He published extensively on the problems of land control, poverty and economic development in Latin America, and authored four books.

Thiesenhusen chaired the economics committee of the Fulbright Scholar Program at the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, and served on numerous departmental and UW-Madison committees. He served regularly as a consultant for the World Bank, United Nations agencies, and other international organizations.

He is survived by his children, Kay of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Gail of Fitchburg; a grandson, Brandon; mother Myrtle of Madison; brothers John (Pat) of Sun Prairie, Art (Bonnie) of Waukesha, and Charles (Earl Charvet) of Kansas City, Mo.; and numerous nephews and a niece. He was preceded in death by his father, Arthur H.; and son, James. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, July 1, 2005, at Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ, 1501 Gilbert Road, Madison. Visitation will be held on Friday from 9:30 a.m. until the time of service at the church. Burial will be private at Forest Hill Cemetery.

http://news.cals.wisc.edu/newsDisplay.asp?id=1284

International Business: Free Trade for Manufacturers: How to Make Free Trade Agreements Work for Your Company.

8:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
The Pyle Center – UW-Madison Campus
702 Langdon St.Room 232, Madison.
This interactive videoconference for Wisconsin and Illinois companies will be broadcast live from Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois. Speaker John M. Kolmer will compare and contrast existing and newly negotiated Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) involving Chile, Singapore, and Australia. Through case studies and group exercises, participants will learn how to properly calculate their company’s regional value content and reduce costs to their ultimate consumer while taking full advantage of the benefits offered by the agreements. Sponsors include the Milwaukee Export Assistance Center, U.S. Department of Commerce, Rural Export Initiative, Wisconsin District Export Council, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the UW-Madison Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and the UW-Madison Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE).

Cost: Free, but advance registration is required. For registration information, please visit:
http://www.bus.wisc.edu/ciber/events/ciberevents.asp?eid=584.

Sachin Tuli
Assistant Director
Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER)
UW-Madison School of Business
975 University Avenue, Room 2266
Madison, WI 53706
Ph: 608.265.4938
Fax: 608.263.0477

http://www.bus.wisc.edu/ciber/events/ciberevents.asp?eid=584.

Torture: Learning to Live With It? Power, the Press, and the Two-sided Photograph

Time: 7:00 PM

Location: Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street

Contact Email: global@intl-institute.wisc.edu

Contact Phone: 265-2631

The lecture is followed by The Media of Conflict and the Cultural Imaginary, a one-day conference presented by the Legacies of Violence Research Circle, on Friday, March 11, 9:00 AM .- 4:00 PM, 206 Ingraham Hall.
http://www.humanities.wisc.edu/programs/otherprogs.html#danner

From 9/11 to the Iraq War: A Firsthand Account of U.S. Policy in the Middle East

Edward Gnehm, former ambassador to Jordan, Kuwait and Australia. Auditorium, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street, 12 noon. Information: bjulrich@wisc.edu.
Sponsor: Middle East Studies.
A Keynote speaker at the International Education Conference: Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. March 11-12, 2005
http://www.soemadison.wisc.edu/elpa/conferences/iec/2005/OverseasVisitors.shtm