Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin

Sunday, November 27, 2016

A New Book: Theories of the Stranger Debates on Cosmopolitanism, Identity and Cross-Cultural Encounters

By Vince P. Marotta

© 2017 – Routledge

In our global, multicultural world, how we understand and relate to those who are different from us has become central to the politics of immigration in western societies. Who we are and how we perceive ourselves is closely associated with those who are different and strange. This book explores the pivotal role played by ‘the stranger’ in social theory, examining the different conceptualisations of the stranger found in the social sciences and shedding light on the ways in which these discourses can contribute to an analysis of cross-cultural interaction and cultural hybridity. Engaging with the work of Simmel, Park and Bauman and arguing for the need for greater theoretical clarity, Theories of the Stranger connects conceptual questions with debates surrounding identity politics, multiculturalism, online ethnicities and cross-cultural dialogue. As such, this rigorous, conceptual re-examination of the stranger will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in social theory and the theoretical foundations of discourses relating to migration, cosmopolitanism, globalisation and multiculturalism.
Table of Contents  1. Introduction  2. Theories of the Stranger  3. The Death of the ‘Classical Stranger’?  4. Georg Simmel, the Stranger and the Sociology of Knowledge  5. Civilisation, Culture and the ‘Marginal Man’  6. The Hybrid of Modernity  7. The Cosmopolitan Stranger: Mark II  8. The Multicultural Civil Sphere and the Universality of Binary Codes  9. The Cyborg Stranger and Posthumanism  10. Conclusion: Intercultural Knowledge and the ‘Professional Stranger’ 

Fidel Castro: A Symbol of Pride!

By Qasim Sodhar

Parkhnews - November 26, 2016

Fidel Castro, a Marxist-Leninist leader and the founder of revolutionary Cuba, died on 25 November 2016. Castro was a friend and companion of world renowned revolutionary icon Che Guerra. These both comrades launched war against US imperialism but unfortunately Che Guerra died before revolution occurred in Cuba. After Soviet downfall, Capitalist world was thinking that now that was an end of Communism in the world, but it was not true completely. Because, countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam, and China were there who along with few slight changes, maintained communist order in their countries. It is because of Castro government that the Cubans have been getting free education and health facilities. Although there are critics on former president Fidel and current Raul Castro’s governments but still the number of supporters is larger than critics. After demise of Fidel Castro on the one hand, people of Cuba and socialist sentiments of world are in grief and sorrow, and on the other hand, not only opponent powers i.e. capitalist block but at the same time those who were not happy with Castro’s policies like Miami, a city of Florida, where having listened about Castro’s death people came on streets and they celebrated his death by dancing and singing. Likewise, for larger population of Cuba, Castro was a “Perfect Leader” but at the same time, some called him a “dictator.”

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(WEEK 1) Global and Regional Development Graduate Course - TUESDAY 13:05 – 16:45 Classroom: A116

Dear all,

First of all, I am your instructor for this class. PLEASE READ THE SYLLABUS VERY CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU ATTEND THE CLASS and if you have any questions or concerns regarding the syllabus or class structure, please let me know by email or WeChat.  

We will have our first class –Global and Regional Development - starting next week. Every week, you will receive an email regarding a next week class readings and class discussion and I will post the same information on our class website: http://internationalstudiesandsociology.blogspot.com/

For the next week, we will read and discuss the following articles.  

Development
Development and Imperialism Henry Veltmeyer –
Canadian Journal of Development Studies Volume XXVI No: 1 2005
Introduction to Global Issues by VINAY BHARGAVA 
Against Imperialism’s ‘Development’  by Mateo Pimentel – Counterpunch - March 25, 2015
Introducing Globalization and Global Issues By Michael T. Snarr 
Human Development Index 2014 By United Nations Development Program

For next week, please bring a newspaper article related with critical understanding of development in Africa. 
Newspaper Articles: During the semester, you can bring 8 newspaper articles related with our class subjects. You cannot bring more than one article in the same week. You will have to summarize these articles in class and will find the recommended newspapers listed on http://internationalstudiesandsociology.blogspot.it/, under the external links section. Newspaper articles sent by email will not be accepted. Please bring it to class, the first page of the printed/hard copy of the article. You can only bring an article from the selected newspapers, posted on http://internationalstudiesandsociology.blogspot and you will find them under links section. Some of the recommended newspapers are The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, Democracynow.org, Financial Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Pravda, Haaretz, China Daily, and the Economist.

Best to all,

Tugrul Keskin
Associate Professor
Email: tugrulkeskin (at) t.shu.edu.cn
China: 86+15000-465734
Shanghai University - http://en.shu.edu.cn/Default.aspx

Friday, November 25, 2016

Middle East’s Migrant Population More Than Doubles Since 2005

Regional conflict and economic opportunity boost number of migrants from 25 million to 54 million    

By Phillip Connor  


Between 2005 and 2015, the number of migrants living in the Middle East more than doubled, from about 25 million to around 54 million, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from United Nations agencies. Some of this growth was due to individuals and families seeking economic opportunities. But the majority of the migration surge, especially after 2011, was a consequence of armed conflict and the forced displacement of millions of people from their homes, many of whom have left their countries of birth.
The rapid rise in the number of people looking for safe havens and new livelihoods has over the past decade transformed the Middle East into the world region with the fastest growing international migrant and forcibly displaced population, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from United Nations agencies.
All told, the Middle East’s migrant population increased by about 120% between 2005 and 2015. This far exceeds increases in the combined international migrant and forcibly displaced populations over the same period in continental Africa (91% growth), Latin America and the Caribbean (77%) and the Asia-Pacific region (26%).
Europe’s and North America’s migrant populations also grew more slowly over the 2005-2015 period (about 20% in each region), even though Europe received a record 1.3 million asylum seekers in 2015 – many from the Middle East.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Qualitative Sociology: Gender and Globalization Special Issue

Qualitative Sociology: Gender and Globalization Special Issue 

Editors: Manisha Desai, Rachel Rinaldo

Volume 39, Issue 4, December 2016
http://link.springer.com/journal/11133/39/4?wt_mc=alerts.TOCjournals

Reorienting Gender and Globalization: Introduction to the Special Issue
Manisha Desai, Rachel Rinaldo Pages 337-351

In the Shadow of Working Men: Gendered Labor and Migrant Rights in South Korea
Hae Yeon Choo Pages 353-373

“Empowered Criminals and Global Subjects”: Transnational Norms and Sexual Minorities in India
Chaitanya Lakkimsetti Pages 375-396

Ready Rhetorics: Political Homophobia and Activist Discourses in Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda
Tara McKay, Nicole Angotti Pages 397-420

Pharmaceutically-Made Men: Masculinities in Chad’s Emergent Oil Economy
Lori Leonard Pages 421-437

Afterword: Gender and Globalization in Uncertain Times
Leslie Salzinger

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Teaching 1984 in 2016

Every year, one high-school educator converts his classroom into a totalitarian state to teach George Orwell’s book. This year, the lesson feels different. 

Andrew Simmons

The Atlantic - Nov 20, 2016 

My classroom becomes a totalitarian state every school year toward the end of October. In preparation for teaching 1984 to seniors, I announce the launch of a new program aimed at combating senioritis, a real disease with symptoms that include frequent unexplained absences, indifferent reading, and shoddy work. I tell each class that another class is largely to blame for the problem and require, for a substantial participation grade, that students file daily reports on another student’s work habits and conduct; most are assigned to another student in the same class.
We blanket the campus in posters featuring my face and simple slogans that warn against the dangers of senioritis and declare my program the only solution to the school’s woes. Last year, my program was OSIP (Organization for Senior Improvement Project); this year, it’s SAFE (Scholar Alliance For Excellence). We chant a creed at the start of each class, celebrate the revelatory reports of “heroes” with cheers, and boo those who fail to participate enthusiastically. I create a program Instagram that students eagerly follow. I occasionally bestow snacks as rewards.

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Monday, November 21, 2016

Lecture: Human Animals in the Chicago Union Stockyard - Shanghai University

Human Animals in the Chicago Union Stockyard:
A History of Environmental Justice, Migrant Workers, and Middle Class Activism

Agnes Kneitz
Assistant Professor, School of History, Renmin University of China
http://www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/staff_fellows/affiliates/agnes_kneitz/index.html

Shanghai University
http://en.shu.edu.cn/Default.aspx 
99 Shangda Rd, Baoshan Qu, Shanghai Shi, China, 200444
Place: A 602
Date: Wednesday November 23, 2016
Time: 10:00 AM

Election Night (1999) on Racism

Friday, November 18, 2016

Understanding Latin America

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent  
By Eduardo Galeano
1997
New Introduction by Isabel Allende 
Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx. Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hides and wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, and tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe. Weaving fact and imagery into a rich tapestry, Galeano fuses scientific analysis with the passions of a plundered and suffering people. An immense gathering of materials is framed with a vigorous style that never falters in its command of themes. All readers interested in great historical, economic, political, and social writing will find a singular analytical achievement, and an overwhelming narrative that makes history speak, unforgettably. This classic is now further honored by Isabel Allende’s inspiring introduction. Universally recognized as one of the most important writers of our time, Allende once again contributes her talents to literature, to political principles, and to enlightenment.

Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism
By Greg Grandin 
The British and Roman empires are often invoked as precedents to the Bush administration’s aggressive foreign policy. But America’s imperial identity was actually shaped much closer to home. In a brilliant excavation of long-obscured history, Empire’s Workshop shows how Latin America has functioned as a proving ground for American strategies and tactics overseas. Historian Greg Grandin follows the United States’ imperial operations from Jefferson’s aspirations for an “empire of liberty” in Cuba and Spanish Florida to Reagan’s support for brutally oppressive but U.S.-friendly regimes in Central America. He traces the origins of Bush’s current policies back to Latin America, where many of the administration’s leading lights first embraced the deployment of military power to advance free market economics and enlisted the evangelical movement in support of their ventures.  With much of Latin America now in open rebellion against U.S. domination, Grandin asks: If Washington failed to bring prosperity and democracy to Latin America—its own backyard “workshop”—what are the chances it will do so for the world?

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Conference: The Cold War and Latin America, 19-20 November, 2016 Shanghai University


THE COLD WAR and Latin America
19-20 NovembER, 2016
Shanghai

DAte        19-20 NoVEMBER, 2016
VENUE:        New lehu hotel, Shanghai University
ORGANIZERs:  cENTER FOR gLOBAL sTUDIES, sHU
                CONICET, aRGENTINA
                La Universidad Republica de Uruguay           
CO-SPONSER:  ShangHai International CULTURE ASSOCIATION

Conference Program


DAY 118 NOV., FRIDAY
 10:00-20:00  Pre-conference registration
 Venue: New LeHu Hotel, 99 Shangda Road, Shanghai University, Shanghai


DAY 219 NOV., SATURDAY
Chair:  Guo Changgang
8:30 – 9:30 am     OPENING REMARKS Second Floor, Conservatory of Music
               Luo Hongjie, Secretary of Party Committee of Shanghai University
Antonio Martín Rivolta, Consul of Consulate of Argentina
Ceremony of the Appointment of Prof. Jiang Shixue
Fortunato Mallimaci, Guillermo Neiman, CONICET
Ceremony of Donation of Books

9:30 – 9:50 am   PHOTO & COFFEE BREAK


SESSION I   Da Xue Conference RoomNew Lehu Hotel
Chair:  Jiang Shixue
9:50- 10:10 am        Evolution of the USA and Soviet Union’s Strategy of Battlement for Latin America
Xu Shicheng, Researcher of ILAS-CASS(Instituto de America Latina Academia China de Sciencia Social), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Honorary members, Beijing, China
10:10 – 10:30 am   Cold War and “New Cold War”—The Revelation of History to Reality
Yu Weimin, Vice-director of Centre for Cold War International History Studies, Professor of College of History, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
10:3010:50 am   Geography of Armed Struggle: Left and Revolution in South America during the Cold War (1964-1976).
Aldo Marchesi, Director of Centre of Development, University of Republic of Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay
10:50 – 11:10 am   The Influence of Cold War on the Agrarian Reform of Latin America
               Gao Bo, Researcher of ILAS-CASS, Beijing, China
11:10 – 11:30 am   The Argentine Syndicalism in the Context of Cold War: Dynamics and Trends in a World of Transformation
                    Nicolás Damin, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
11:30 – 11:50 pm   Q & A
12:00 – 13:00 pm   LUNCH

SESSION II    Da Xue Conference RoomNew Lehu Hotel
Chair:    Julio Pintos
14:00– 14:20 pm  The US Strategy of Carrot-Stick towards Latin America in the Cold War: What Are the Issues
Jiang Shixue, Director of Centre of Studies of Latin America, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
14:2014:40 pm  The Economic Vision of Colombian Entrepreneurs before Latin American Growth
Rick Fernandez, Postdoc. Center for Global Studies, Shanghai University, Shanghai,China
14:4015:00 pm Latin America in the Global Sixties: A Research Agenda
Eric Zolov, Director of Centre of Latin American Studies, Stony Brook University , The New York State, USA
15:0015:20 pm  The DINCOTE Museum in Lima and Its close
                  Maria Eugenia, Professor of PUCP University, Lima, Peru
15:20 – 15:40 pm   Q & A
15:40 – 16:00 pm   COFFEE BREAK

SESSION III    Da Xue Conference RoomNew Lehu Hotel
Chair: Xu Shicheng   
16:00 – 16:20 pm  The Chilean Left during the Cold War: Five Inflections
Julio Pintos, Professor of University of Santiago of Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile
16:2016:40 pm  Before the revolution. The Anti-communism of Right and the Cold War
               Veronica Valdivia, Professor of Diego Portales University,
Santiago de Chile, Chile
16:40 – 17:00 pm  From Lieutenant Guevara to Wandering Che: the Cold Subjugation of a Warring Messenger from Latin America               
Xie Xiaoxiao, Phd Student of University of Adelaide, Australia
17:00 – 17:20 pm  The Diffusion and the Change of Christian Democracy in Chile – a Brief Discussion on the Reform of President Eduardo Frei
He Xi, Associate Professor of Department of History, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
17:20 – 17:40 pm   Q & A
18:00 – 20:00 pm   WELCOME DINNER


DAY 320 Nov., SUNDAY
SESSION IV   Da Xue Conference RoomNew Lehu Hotel
Chair:  Veronica Valdivia
8:30 – 8:50 am   Artists and Intellectuals during the Cold War: Jorge Amado and His Latin
American Comrades
Marcelo Ridenti, Director of Department of Religion Studies, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brasil
8:50 – 9:10 am  The History and Effects of Public Diplomacy of US to Latin America during the Cold War
              Song Xiaoli, Assistant Professor of IAS-CASS(Institution of American Studies), Beijing, China
9:10 – 9:30 am  The New Left and the Armed Left in Argentina (1960-1980)
Vera Carnovale, Researcher of CONICET, Argentina
9:30 -9:50 am  The Transformation of US Foreign Policies towards Latin America in the
Early Cold War Era
Du Juan, Assistant Researcher of CASS, Beijing, China
9:50 – 10:10 am   Q & A
10:10 – 10:30 am   COFFEE BREAK

SESSION V  
Chair: Eric Zolov  Da Xue Conference RoomNew Lehu Hotel
10:30 – 10:50 am  Approach to the Studies of Venezuelan GuerrillaTruth, Lies and Fantasies about the Armed Conflict in Venezuela
                Neruska Rojas , Master Student, Shanghai University, Shanghai ,China
10:50 – 11:10 am  Evolution on Relations between China and Latin America in Cold War Period
                Wan Yu, Director, Centre for Mexican StudiesSchool of European and  Latin American StudiesSISU
11:10 – 11:30 am   Vincente Rovetta and Nativa Libros---the Diffusion of Chinese Books in Uruguay and Latin America during the Cold War           
   Zhang Kun, Postdoc of College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
11:30 – 11:50 am   The Defence of Latin Americanized Marxism-Review of <Transformaciones de Marxismo>
                   Ye Jianhui, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Zhejiang
Foreign Language University, Hangzhou, China
11:50 – 12:10 am   Q & A
12:10- 13:00 pm     LUNCH

SESSION VI   Da Xue Conference RoomNew Lehu Hotel
Chair: Iris Borowy  
14:0014:20 pm  Argentina Journalist, Writers and Scholars in China after 1949
Salvador Marinaro, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
14:20 – 14:40 pm  The Betancourt Doctrine and the Diplomacy of Venezuela during the Cold War
Jesus Camejo, Master student of Collage of Liberal Arts, University of Shanghai, Shanghai, China
14:40– 15:00 pm  The Shift of Chinese Foreign Policy toward Latin America in the 1970s: A Chilean case study
Li Jiameng , Master of University of Cambridge & Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai ,China
15:00 – 15:20 pm  Relations Cuban-Mexico during the Cold War
Ricardo Heredia, Master Student of College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University
15:20 – 15:40 pm  Argentina during the 1960s
Gonzalo Ghiggino, Phd Student of College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University
15:40- 16:00 pm    Q & A

Lecture
16:00 –17:00 pm  The Rise and Fall and the Internal Logic of Sino-Soviet Alliance during the Cold War
Shen Zhihua, Director of Centre for Cold War International History Studies, Professor of College of History, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China ; Researcher of Wilson International Center for Scholars

17:00 – 17:30 pm   CONCLUSION