NEWS/EVENTS FOR UNDERGRADUATES

Each year the College of Letters and Science celebrates undergraduate research at UCSB by hosting a colloquium where students from all over campus showcase their research activities. This year's Undergraduate Research Colloquium is being held on Thursday, May 15, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Corwin Pavilion. This year's event is showcasing 129 poster presentations. We are excited to be able to provide the campus and local community with the opportunity to see firsthand the types of research and creative projects undertaken by UCSB undergraduates from all three colleges. Projects from all colleges and disciplines - the arts, humanities, sciences, engineering, and social sciences - will be presented. We hope you can join us at this exciting event.

NEWS/EVENTS FOR EVERYONE

A music performance by the Music of India Ensemble will be held on Wednesday, May 14, at 12 noon in the UCSB Music Bowl. Scott Marcus and Rob Wallace will lead a performance of North Indian classical music performed on sitars and tablas. This is part of the Spring 2008 World Music Series presented by the Program of Ethnomusicology and the MultiCultural Center every Wednesday at noon. For more information, contact the MultiCultural Center at 893-8411. In case of rain, the event will be held in the Music Room 1145 in the Music Building.

The next Department of Religious Studies Spring Colloquium will be held on Wednesday, May 14, at 3 p.m. in the department conference room, HSSB 3041. Juan Campo will be presenting on "Meccan Transformations: Modernity and Global Productions of Locality." The annual Muslim Hajj to Mecca is often portrayed as an assemblage of ritual practices that have continued unchanged since the 7th century. Professor Campo will question the validity of this portrayal by examining the dramatic transformations that Mecca's pilgrimage landscape has undergone in the last century, together with the new understandings of locality and ritual practice that have been produced as a result of the forces of global modernity. These forces include de-colonization and hegemonic nationalism, secularism and Islamic reformism, commodification, and the mobilization of new technologies and expert systems, including the electronic and print media. He will give particular attention to the role of the Saudi government and the Bin Ladin Group in transforming Mecca's ritual landscape, and the contending forces of homogenization and resistance that this transformation has entailed.

The Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies presents "The Living Goddess of Nepal - Caught Between Divine Right and Communist Might," a talk by Prof. Deepak Shimkhada on Thursday, May 15, from 1-2:15 p.m. in the Orfalea Center Seminar Room, 1005 Robertson Gym. Kumari is a living goddess who is seen as the Hindu Goddess Durga's virgin aspect. This tradition that originated in the second half of the sixteenth century in a remote corner of the world and remained confined to the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal for more than two hundred and fifty years is now threatened with extinction. In the name of modernity some members of the human rights groups and the communist party of Nepal of the Maoist persuasion are pressing for dethroning Kumari from her power, thereby eliminating the tradition altogether. Although the tradition of living goddess is also known in India, the personification of Goddess Durga's maiden virginity in a young girl and the annual ritual associated with her is unique to Nepal. Today Kumari is in the news a lot. What are the roots of the tradition and why she has become a pawn in the games of power struggle are significant phenomena to examine. In this talk Dr. Deepak Shimkhada, a Nepali scholar of religious studies, will share insights into the issues that are being raised in present day Nepal. A film clip from Kumari: The Living Goddess will be shown as a point of discussion.

The next meeting of the Arabic Circle will be held on Thursday, May 15, from 3-4:30 p.m. in HSSB 3030. The discussion of Bursawi will continue.

CONGRATULATIONS CORNER!

Graduate student Leslie Smith is excited to announce that Micah James Smith was born on Wednesday, May 7, at 10:51 a.m. She reports that "our newest red-haired boy weighed 8 lbs and was 19 inches long. He is a most lovely little person with a fiery temper (!), and has his big sister's face and his big brother's hair." Congratulations to the entire family!

LOOKING AHEAD

Graduates: A Fulbright/Fulbright-Hays Information Session will be held on Monday, May 19, from 12 noon-1:30 p.m. in the GSA Lounge, 2502 UCen. Do you want to study or conduct research abroad in 2009-10? Learn about these two prestigious award programs! Please RSVP to Thai Chu at fundingpeer@graddiv.ucsb.edu. Include your name, email address, and department. This event is sponsored by the Graduate Division and the Graduate Students Association.

Graduates: The final Feminist Pedagogy session of the 2007-2008 school year will be held on Monday, May 19, from 1-3 p.m. in the Women's Center Conference Room in the Student Resources Building. The topic is “My Pedagogy is My Body is My Culture.” The body is a critical, yet often overlooked part of the teaching process. In the article "Accounting For My Teacher's Body: What Can I Teach/What Can We Learn?" by Leda Cooks, she states, “We might assume our competence to be rooted in how we teach and how we help others to learn and yet our bodies also reflect the power and desire of the dominant culture.” In this last session we will discuss how the politics of the body shape, constrain and affect the pedagogical experience. This session will also include the presentation of the Charlotte Stough Memorial Prize, the Award for Outstanding Women’s Studies Teaching Assistant of the Year, and the Graduate Distinguished Service Award. Refreshments will be served.

The Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) presents OISS Mondays at the Movies. The theme this quarter is How They See Us!, looking at how international directors see Americans. All films are free and open to the public, and a UCSB staff or faculty member will lead a discussion after the screening. The next film will be shown on Monday, May 19, at 5:30 p.m. in the Student Resource Building first-floor Multi-Purpose Room. Brokeback Mountain (2005), directed by Ang Lee of China, takes a look at "Americans as Cowboys."

 

Submissions to This Week are encouraged. Please submit all information to Sally Lombrozo by 2 p.m. on Thursday for the next Monday's edition (lombrozo@religion.ucsb.edu).