International Accents International Programs | www.uiowa.edu/~intl | spring/summer 2004 | vol. 4, no.2 conference draws scholars from around the world to indulge in intellectual dialogue SERIOUS

Can pleasure be serious? by teresaleasures mangum, ui associate professor in english Appropriately opening on April PCan pleasure be serious? In recent years, my students in Victorian Fool’s Day, the annual literature and culture courses have proven again and again that the resounding answer is yes. To enrich our understanding of novels such as Interdisciplinary Nineteenth- Charles Dickens’ “Bleak House” or Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim,” students dive into The University of Iowa’s outstanding collection of 19th-century Century Studies Conference, which magazines in search of Victorian views of childhood, pets, abandonment, adoption, marriage customs and fashions, street performers, missionaries, focused this year on the topic Buddhism, and colonialism. Carefully turning these crumbling pages, they discover letters of travelers to Africa and India - important locations “Serious Pleasures,” demonstrated for these novels - advertisements for tropical medicines, satiric cartoons again and again that pleasures offer of the authors and their views, reviews of abbreviated and often propagandist theatrical versions of the novels, and witty as well as poignant rich insights into the hopes, fears, comments from Victorians themselves about their reading pleasure. Drawing upon materials that we sometimes too easily dismiss as anxieties, and desires of a culture. “entertainment” or popular culture, students fashion what anthropologists would call “thick description” of the cultural context that gave rise to artifacts like novels which we tend to study in isolation. We enhance our study of the 19th century as students strive to comprehend the past through its denizens’ pleasures. At the same time, students heighten their own pleasure in studying literature by tracing the endless unfolding of popular contexts in which the novels were situated. My own study of Victorian attitudes toward aging and old age dramatically matured, shall we say, when I looked beyond predictable contexts for investigating aging, such as medical and religious literature. Like my students, I found that activities, texts, and images denigrated as foolish pleasures rather than staid scholarship often eloquently expressed feelings about aging. Cartoons, stage stereotypes, the sudden explosion of aging animal “autobiographies,” such as Black Beauty, the plans for Queen Victoria’s two coronation festivities, fashion advice to aging men and women, and characters designed more to entertain than edify, such as Bram Stoker’s undying Dracula or the age-resistant hero of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” vividly illustrated Victorian fears of supporting an aging population, concerns about their own encroaching late life, yet also the longing to age with dignity and the respect of the community. Given my and my students’ serious desire to gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the past, I was especially grateful to bring a group of scholars to The University of Iowa who share our preoccupation with the seriousness of pleasure. Appropriately opening on April Fool’s Day, the annual Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference (INCS) focused this year on the topic “Serious Pleasures.” Performers and panelists repeatedly demonstrated the lessons my students have taken to heart: pleasures offer rich insights into the hopes, fears, anxieties, and figure 1 > (Above) Signora Josephine Giradelli, “The celebrated fireproof desires of a culture. By comparing how different cultures entertained female.” Engraving by C. Williams, Ca. 1818. Reproduced in Richard D. themselves in an international context, panelists also showed how national Altick. “The Shows of London,” Harvard University Press, 1978. identities—and anxieties—are revealed through leisurely pursuits.

SERIOUS PLEASURES: continued on page 10 PA INTING Innovative grant builds BETWEEN understanding between THE international community, LANES local law enforcement

by mansi bhatia

figure 1 > (Above) UI international student Kenny Tan, 18, of Klang, Malaysia with UI police officer Sarah Weil during a ride-along Sunday, November 23, 2003. Photo courtesy of Michael Stenerson/The Gazette. >> Imagine the following hypothetical scenario . . . A University of Iowa international “I think the police officers also student was pulled over by a police officer one night. As the 30-year-old student began to got to know some of our cultures, step out of her car, the officer yelled, “Freeze!” The student kept moving, not understanding “what” she was supposed to freeze. For her it was a sign of respect to step out of the car, but our pride in our joint family ties, for the officer it was an act of defiance. The officer, finally realizing that she was unfamiliar the level of intellect in a non- with the rules, motioned for her to stand still, and she complied. Although this is a fictional scenario, it could become a very real situation in Johnson County – home to English speaking international more than 2,500 international students and scholars who attend The University of Iowa. “ crowd. They have had very little Misunderstandings arise out of miscommunication, or in not having the opportunity to have experiences with individuals from other cultures,” says Claire Cardwell, an international- international exposure, and I am student adviser with the UI Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS). Cardwell has glad to have taken this ride to ward spearheaded a program called “Painting the Lanes for a Better Understanding: Between the International Community in the Johnson County Area and Local Law Enforcement.” off some of their misconceptions This program came to fruition when Cardwell, in collaboration with Johnson County or lack of knowledge.” law enforcement agencies, received a $10,000 grant from NAFSA: Association of International Educators to provide information about American laws to international – Rina Chaudhary, UI humanities student, India students. The grant is matched with $30,000 from UI International Programs. The program that started in June 2003 is providing an opportunity for the international community and local law enforcement agencies to have positive interactions. “Most of the time these two groups come in contact with one another is when there is an arrest or in writing a ticket,” said Cardwell. “The grant provides an opportunity for the international community and law enforcement officials from Coralville, Iowa City and UI Police Departments and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office to have a better understanding of what causes each group to react or behave in a certain manner.” Iowa City Police Chief R. J. Winkelhake believes that this is a good start. “Any kind of interactions with international students will prove to be beneficial,” says Winkelhake. “What an officer perceives as a dangerous situation, the student sees as a courtesy. These are things that can only be learned in one-to-one interactions.” The grant has the following four main components: informational brochures in multiple languages; a Web site providing all the tools for advisors in universities across the country to start similar programs; education workshops; and interactive outreach events and activities. The year-long program consists of a series of activities and events including child-safety seat fittings, jail tours, police ride-alongs and presentations by both international students and police

2 INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS spring/summer 2004 officers. Over 430 officers, community members and international students and scholars have attended these events and workshops. The grant will also fund a brochure that will later be put on the Web site and translated into 11 languages so that dependents of international students and scholars who do not know English, may also benefit from the program. “The brochure will address issues that law enforcement agencies have identified as problems concerning the international community,” said Cardwell. “These include: moving over when an emergency vehicle is approaching; not leaving your child in the car alone; the need for car seats; and arrests for domestic violence.” The idea to apply for the grant came from Cardwell’s experiences two years ago in Kosovo. Cardwell was living in Minnesota when war broke out in the Balkans in 1992, and she was asked by a friend to assist a Bosnian woman who had sought refuge in the U.S. While helping this woman and other refugees, Cardwell realized how confusing it was for people not raised in America to understand U.S. forms, regulations and administrative requirements. Their hardships inspired her to want to work in the region and in 1999, when an uneasy peace Foreign Student was brokered in Kosovo, Cardwell decided it was time for her to go. She worked on women’s issues with an organization called Balkan Sunflower for the first six months of her Sees Officer as stay and later joined the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Friend Not Foe After assisting U.N. police officers working on sexual assault and domestic violence cases in Kosovo, Cardwell came back to Iowa City and joined the Citizen’s Police Academy. The by Mansi Bhatia academy helps promote a better relationship between law enforcement and the Iowa City > How exciting do you think it would be to community and is sponsored jointly by the four area law enforcement agencies. Training ride in the back seat of a police car? Sitting includes department tours and ride-alongs, defensive tactics, evidence collection, drug in the highly uncomfortable plastic seat that investigation, and many other areas of enforcement and operations. had probably held hundreds of prisoners, “Cultural differences exist everywhere, and I could see a huge gap here between the with my feet on mats that had possibly been soiled with drunk college students’ vomit, I police and the international community, comprising not only international students, wasn’t too sure I wanted to go with Iowa City scholars and their families but also immigrants and other diverse populations like African- Police Officer David Droll on a local patrol. Americans and Latinos,” said Cardwell. “I wanted to bridge that gap and help students see Accompanying us, in the plush leather seat the police as someone who they could trust and turn to in a time of need.” up front, was Maneewan Sanubol, from Thailand, who, like me, looked a little Her vision started becoming a reality when police officers conducted PowerPoint apprehensive, albeit very comfortable. sessions for incoming international students last fall. The presentations focused on the As we started our ”tour” of the city, though, following areas: what to do in an accident; costs associated with an accident; taking the our uneasiness gave way to fascination and driving test; and public intoxication. curiosity. We realized that this was going to “I feel the information I presented was useful to the students, and it will hopefully make be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. them feel more at ease should they encounter law enforcement here,” said Lt. Steve Sanubol had confessed earlier that she Hayslett, from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department, who spoke to the was very apprehensive about the ride-along. international student community about the costs involved in an accident. UI Police “Had my mother known I was making this trip down to the police station, she would Officer Brad Allison, who advised students on how to take the driving test, said, have told me not to come,” said the 30- “Interacting with the students lets them know we are approachable and willing to help.” year-old graduate nursing student. The ride-along program in police cars was also a huge hit with international students. Rina I wouldn’t blame her mother for fearing Chaudhary, a 40-year-old UI humanities student from India, believes that police officers are the police. Having been fed a wholesome diet of Hollywood action thrillers in our home countries, we anticipated getting involved in a high-speed police chase. Fortunately, for us, the ride remained mundane. “In our country, we are scared of the police and stay away from them,” said Sanubol, and I nodded my head vehemently in agreement. Strangers until a few minutes ago, we were bonding on the basis of our shared suspicions of the police. Our experiences with corrupt law enforcement officers back home had been anything but pleasant. If stopped for speeding in India, I would be expected to offer the officer some money, listen to the mandatory warning and drive along with a hole in my wallet but without a ticket in hand. “There’s a lot of power that goes into the job,” said Droll upon hearing my narration. “ I can see it being easily abused in some countries.” We witnessed first-hand that the police here functioned very differently. When Droll figure 2 > Iowa City Police Officer David A. Droll and Maneewan Sanubol, a UI student from pulled over two cars on Interstate-80, the Thailand on a ride-along. Photo credit Mansi Bhatia. ticketing procedure took hardly six minutes. Sitting inside the police Chevrolet, seeing benefiting from these increased interactions. “While on the one hand I came to know that they are Droll walk over to the speeding drivers, we also human beings with the same emotions and troubles, I think the police officers also got to know felt like we were watching Candid Camera some of our cultures, our pride in our joint family ties, the level of intellect in a non-English live. There were no unnecessary arguments, speaking international crowd,” she said. “They have had very little international exposure, and no negotiations and no bickering – it was I am glad to have taken this ride to ward off some of their misconceptions or lack of knowledge.” clear that the police respected the legal system here and ensured it was followed. Iowa City Police Officer Steve Fortmann says that although ride-alongs create an Droll showed us the responsible and added responsibility for the officers, he welcomes the increased understanding that humane side of law enforcement. Seeing results from the program. Amadou Ouedraogo, a 43-year-old UI student from Burkina him, not as a police officer, but as a co- Faso, West Africa, says this is an opportunity for police officers to educate people about rider, chatting and laughing for over two the law. “The ride-along helped change my view of the police in a positive way,” said hours made us think about our Ouedraogo, who has been in Iowa City for three years. preconceived notions regarding the police. “From my standpoint, just learning what the international community feels for law It might take a while for the alien in the black uniform to become a friend, but enforcement agencies in their respective countries has shown me why they tend to be this program certainly is a step in the Painting Between the Lanes: continued on page 17 right direction.

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 3 INDIAN CINEMA > > > For more information on The UI Institute for Cinema and Culture, visit: www.uiowa.edu/~istcc

LOCATING of 613 released internationally) appeared on screens throughout India. Posters for the film were plastered everywhere, from slums to five-star hotels. POPULAR The soundtrack, released weeks earlier to generate hits that would be well- known to the film’s first audiences, topped the music charts, and in bookshops a lavishly illustrated volume on the making of the film — which the Indian press, with its mania for acronyms quickly dubbed “K3G” —was selling briskly as a holiday gift item. Across the media, on radio, television, and in Indian newspapers and magazines, “K3G” was ubiquitous. In fact, a professor I met CINEMA IN at the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India in Pune told me that because the film really wasn’t very good he had only seen it twice! When I returned to Iowa City in January, I discovered that “K3G” was still playing in theatres across North America, though you couldn’t have known this from IOWA ads in mainstream newspapers or promos on television. Indeed, as I had by corey k. creekmur come to recognize, the world’s most popular cinema still occupies a curious, >> ON DECEMBER 8th 2001, THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY TRADE seemingly “underground” place in the United States, where widespread journal “Variety’s” box office list of films playing in the United States recognition of the Hindi-language films produced in Bombay (now officially identified the Tom Cruise thriller “Vanilla Sky” as the number one Mumbai) is only now beginning to surface. Unlike other “cult” audiences, moneymaker, grossing $25 million after an opening weekend on more however, which share a secret knowledge of and affection for obscure films off than 2000 American screens. The comedy “Shallow Hal,” earning the radar of most audiences, the international audience for popular Hindi $1.49 million, made the list at number nine, while the French import films may contain close to a billion people, and includes grandmothers and “Amelie” appeared at number 10 after generating around $773,000. However, the chart neglected to include another film that had opened on 73 U.S. screens on December 14th and since earned “Although I have also become a fan $1,010,000, a total that should have allowed it to securely occupy of Hindi movies, my background “Variety’s” number 10 slot. There has since been some confusion over as a film scholar has persistently who was to blame for this oversight. The U.S. office of Yash Raj films, drawn my attention back to this the unreported film’s distributor, claims that when the box-office figures were accurately submitted, “Variety” simply didn’t believe that curious cultural gap: why has such an “unknown” film with an “incomprehensible” title like “Kabhi a popular body of work, which has Khushi Kabhie Gham” could have been playing to packed houses existed for as long as Hollywood across North America, including the Naz8 Cinema in Fremont, cinema, remained largely invisible California, which screened the film to almost 20,000 people that to American movie fans, Western weekend. Whatever the reason for its omission, the first popular Indian film earning a spot within the “Variety” top 10 was almost film critics and historians?” written out of the history of film exhibition altogether by the standard record-keeper of the American entertainment industry. At that moment, however, I was traveling in India, where “Kabhi Khushi taxi drivers who are as devoted in their film viewing as the hip young Kabhie Gham” (which can be translated as “Sometimes Happiness, aficionados who typically define film fandom. Sometimes Sorrow”) could hardly be ignored; a record 400 prints (out Although I have also become an unapologetic fan of Hindi movies, my background as a film scholar has persistently drawn my attention back to this curious cultural gap: why, I wonder, has such a massively popular body of work, which has existed for almost as long as Hollywood cinema, remained largely invisible to American movie fans and, more surprisingly, to Western film critics and historians? This imbalance was dramatized for me a few years ago when I was told that the latest Bombay blockbuster, “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” (“Something Happens”) would have a single screening at a theatre in Cedar Rapids on an early Sunday morning, the only time when the theatre could be rented for a special show. After dragging two of my colleagues out of bed that morning but assuming there was no need for us to rush, we arrived at the theatre just before the film was to begin only to find, as the signs outside Indian cinemas persistently read, “house full.” A kind man, who perhaps thought that these hapless non-Indians were simply lost, offered us his remaining tickets, and we settled into our seats for the movie which, like most popular Indian films, provided a masala (or spicy mix) of songs, laughs, and tears for a full three hours. At the time, I couldn’t help but wonder how and why a film that was unadvertised in local media and which even my more adventurous colleagues and students probably didn’t even know existed could pack a theatre in Cedar Rapids on an early Sunday morning. I’ve since learned that such events are common throughout North America: even as mainstream audiences remain oblivious to Indian cinema, these enormously popular movies are one of South Asia’s most persistent exports, and an important cultural link between what the great Indian author and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore famously distinguished as “the home and the world.” Whenever those who are often identified as NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) watch a Hindi film anywhere in the world – whether in London, New Jersey, North Africa, or Cedar Rapids — they symbolically go home. Like most movie fans that became students and then professors of film studies, I was fascinated by and regularly exposed to prominent national cinemas throughout my formal and informal education. German Expressionism, Italian Neo-realism, the French New Wave and China’s Fifth figure 1 > The 1964 publicity book cover with Raj Kapoor, Vyjayanthimala Generation were all a part of any basic exposure to world cinema, and for a and Rajendra Kumar. Provided by RK Films. while I studied Japanese cinema in addition to the American cinema that was

4 INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS spring/summer 2004 as familiar to me as air and water. Indian cinema time, co-teach a course on popular Hindi film. cinema has frequently played a major role in was a part of my education too, but only through At Iowa I was also lucky enough to sit in on a redefining national identities that were previously the work of a single figure, the Bengali master class on silent Indian cinema taught by visiting marked by indigenous folk arts. At the same time, Satyajit Ray, whose famous “Apu Trilogy” is still scholar Ashish Rajadhyaksha, who compiled the films can travel easily and are often received readily commonly recognized as one of the great first encyclopedia of Indian cinema. As I’ve across national borders. As an associate professor triumphs of post-WWII cinema. Besides Ray, developed Indian cinema as an area of research, in the UI department of cinema and comparative sometimes there were vague rumors of another, I’ve continued to rely on Iowa colleagues, literature, and as the current director of the vast Indian cinema which, it was implied, deserved including literary critic (and major film fan) Priya Institute for Cinema and Culture, I have gladly no further attention. That cinema was massively Kumar of the English department, for my inherited the responsibility to help bring popular and presumably trashy, whereas Ray’s ongoing education in Indian cinema and culture. international cinema to the attention of Iowa films were properly located in art theatres and The South Asian Studies Program has been a rich students, faculty and citizens. The Institute for college classrooms. For decades, this usually source of visiting scholars presenting their exciting Cinema and Culture is especially dedicated to unsupported view (which of course replicated the ideas on Indian cinema and media, and I’ve even offering series (as we have recently) on topics such common treatment of Hollywood films by had the genuine pleasure of returning to the as Greek, Iranian and Icelandic cinema, or on Americans for the first half of the 20th century) student-view of the classroom to study Hindi with Asian versions of film noir, a genre once defined was shockingly effective: it prevented most film Philip Lutgendorf, a UI associate professor of as “uniquely” American. Such series often feature scholars from even glancing at thousands of films Asian languages and literatures. He and I have also North American premieres of films that don’t produced in India during the last 50 years. regularly asked the library to acquire Indian films otherwise circulate in the United States. In my Fortunately, this neglect is finally coming to an on DVD, a format that finally allows one to watch own teaching and research, Hindi cinema offers end, as scholars in South Asia and elsewhere are (and teach) this work in decent versions outside the exciting opportunity to introduce students and beginning to recognize the cultural significance, India. We’re told that these have become among colleagues to a body of work that, for millions of and often the artistic qualities, of India’s popular the library’s most popular items though, again, people, however, needs no introduction. As

inCINEMAdian cinemas. (In addition to the prominent Hindi many people remain unaware of this now someone who has probably already seen too many cinema, equally large film industries produce impressive local collection. While it may still seem movies, I’m still thrilled that some of my all-time movies in the South Indian languages Tamil and odd to study Indian cinema in Iowa, I’ve found favorite films are Hindi movies I only discovered Telugu, and smaller numbers of films are that the resources enabling this undertaking have recently; I also think that many of these, such as produced in a half dozen or so of Indian’s other been easy to locate with just a little digging. Guru Dutt’s “Pyassa,” Bimal Roy’s “Devdas,” or regional languages.) My scholarly interest in Hindi cinema has Mehboob Khan’s “Mother India,” widely I was led to popular Hindi cinema by my love of carried me inevitably to India as well as to London recognized in India as classics from the “golden Hollywood musicals and of the role popular music and conferences on film and South Asian culture age” of the 1950s, should be equally known and plays on contemporary film soundtracks. Popular throughout North America. Most rewardingly, my regarded by Western film scholars. There are Indian cinema conventionally includes elaborately recent work has led to friendships and undoubtedly many others that deserve such regard, “picturized” song sequences in almost every film; collaborations with scholars from around the and so I remain eager to catch up with the performed by extremely popular “playback world who share my determination to bring the thousands of Hindi films I still haven’t seen. singers” (who lend their voices to on-screen longstanding neglect of Indian cinema by Western >>> COREY K. CREEKMUR superstars), film songs are the strong, beating film studies to an end. I’ve discussed Hindi is an associate professor in heart of popular Indian movies, and were the most cinema with professors in the Indian cities of the departments of English immediate pleasure this cinema offered a Delhi, Bombay, Hyderabad, and Pune, with a and cinema and comparative newcomer. However, except for a few random prominent Hindi film director in Ann Arbor, literature at The University glimpses, my full-scale immersion into the world Michigan, and with a famous Indian actor and of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He also directs of Indian cinema didn’t begin until I arrived at playwright and a talented documentary filmmaker at the UI Institute for Cinema and The University of Iowa and met Professor Philip London’s Nehru Centre. In the best circumstances, Culture, and is on the executive Lutgendorf, a scholar of Hindi and of the ancient popular Indian cinema and music unites otherwise boards of International Programs and the Sexuality Studies Program. He teaches courses and has Indian epic “The Ramayana,” which continues to diverse people within South Asia and abroad, and published essays on American cinema, African be read and performed worldwide. Professor I’ve regularly found that the study of Hindi cinema American literature, Hindi film, and representations Lutgendorf, though immersed in traditional Indian – work that by no means reduces the enjoyment I of race, gender, and sexuality in popular culture. culture, was also a recent convert to Hindi experience as a fan – also establishes rewarding cinema, and together we have become fellow cross-cultural bonds, even if I will probably never figure 2 > (left) A rare still from Mehboob Khan’s travelers (sometimes literally) in the world of stop being asked by bemused Indians how I have Humayun (1945) with Nargis aged 16. Provided by Indian film. His informative and witty Web site come to know and love “their” films. Mehboob Productions Pvt. Ltd. figure 3 > (middle) on Indian cinema (www.uiowa.edu/~incinema), Film studies at The University of Iowa has A 1954 film featuring singer and actor Kishore Kumar. Provided by Bimal Roy Productions. figure which I sometimes contribute to, has become an consistently acknowledged the international 4 > (right) Guru Dutt’s 1955 comedy Mr. & Mrs. 55 internationally known resource for fans and scholars importance and impact of cinema as both an art with the beautiful Madhubala. Provided by Guru alike, and in the fall of 2004 we will, for the second form and cultural product. As a modern art, Dutt Films Pvt. Ltd.

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 5 SAMOA > > > Ryan Wells, UI Peace Corps Volunteer

A story of LESSONS Peace Corps by ryan wells LEARNED: service in Samoa The pungent aroma of smoke from cooking Being a Peace Corps volunteer also meant fires, coconut husks and shells burning slowly, dealing with frustrations. wafted gently through the air, often mixed with the I was at times troubled by the place that fresh scent of a morning shower and nearly always education took in the value structure – well combined with the salty texture of a gentle sea behind family affairs, village activities, working in breeze. There were voices in the air as well on these the plantation and celebrating many local days – young men in the plantation gathering holidays. When classes wouldn’t start on time, or coconuts, taro, and breadfruit for the Sunday would end early, or perhaps were cancelled feast; the occasional loud thud of a breadfruit altogether for any number of reasons, I would falling on the tin-roof of my house; men, women wonder what exactly was the point of my being and children talking and laughing as they shuffled there? In time though, I grew to appreciate the down the road to church; and those same people same cultural phenomena that frustrated me. once in the church, filling the air with perfect It was nice to see personal relationships and four-part harmonies. respect for others take precedence for once, Of course, my job in this country wasn’t to even if it was at the expense of teaching at >> I HAD NO IDEA THAT ROOSTERS CROW enjoy the sounds and smells of island life, but to times. And although I could never completely BEFORE THE SUN ACTUALLY RISES. THEY teach high school. Monday through Friday I took shake my American obsession with time, still START CROWING WELL BEFORE, IN FACT. the short stroll from my house to Wesley College getting the urge to glance at my watch, a This was one of many things that I didn’t know (Kolisi Uesele) where approximately 400 students relaxed, less hasty, and generally less until I became a Peace Corps volunteer in attended to the daily chores of high school. I worrisome attitude was a refreshing change. Samoa. I didn’t know the proper way to husk taught upper level physics and math, and also got Ultimately, though, it wasn’t my love of, a coconut; how to weave a basket from palm to teach general science to some of the younger or my frustration with the culture, that I fronds; that pigs would happily eat coconuts students. I eventually resorted to a bilingual remember when I think of my Peace Corps as their daily meal; that on the evening of the Samoan-English classroom for some of these experience, nor is it the sights and sounds first full moon in October, and only then, young students, although every student must take of the islands. a strange delicacy called palolo, marine worms, exams in their second language of English, not I think more often than not of the people come rising out of the Pacific ocean. only to get into the university, but just to get in to that I became friends with, their faces smiling There were other more personal, less the next year of high school. in my memory. I think of my newborn host tangible things that became clear to me as well. I was overwhelmed, not only by my first teaching sister, Andrea – named after my own sister in I learned that time is a relative term, that the job, a new educational system, a new language, and the United States. I think of Maifea and Falole whole world doesn’t view the United States the being a minority for the first time in my life, but at our local store, always ready to chat about way I thought they did, and that personal also by the culture shock of doing it all in an the weather or the latest news from America. I relationships are the best starting point for unfamiliar place with new customs and values. still remember my host family the day I moved understanding each other’s points of view. Soon, however, I realized that dropping coconuts out, dabbing tears from their eyes. And of On this tropical South Pacific Island, every from the tops of trees worked exceptionally well course I remember well my very last day on the day of the week was full of new experiences for gravity experiments, and that the best place to island, taking a taxi to the airport. that I soon grew to appreciate. Sundays were study wave frequencies was down at the beach. As I passed my tin-roofed house one last my favorite. On those days, even after the Much the same way that my teaching methods time, I saw my old students coming to school, crowing chickens roused me from sleep, I adapted to this place, my attitudes did as well. shuffling across the rugby field, book bags over could lie in bed and just enjoy the new world I soon realized that these students were not so their shoulders. The feeling that I should be around me. Since the missionaries arrived different from the ones back home. They didn’t stopping and joining them for the first days of here in the mid 1800s, Sundays have been a always want to do their homework, and they the next school year was overwhelming. Then I day of little more than church, rest, and the goofed around if they could get away with it, but saw him. My year 13 physics student. A young best food of the week. So, in the morning, they also appreciated a fair teacher who made man, who had lived across the road from lying in my bed, I could tell that it was a learning interesting and who gave them a chance me during my entire Peace Corps service, Sunday before even opening my eyes. to continue their education. who wasn’t a stellar student but tried hard.

figure 1 > (top left) UI Peace Corps Volunteer Ryan Wells with a Year 10 science class at Wesley College. figure 2 > (top right) A shoreline view of Tanu Beach on the island of Savai’i in Samoa. figure 3 > Ryan’s host brother, Lupeli, at Matareva Beach. figure 4 > (opposite page) A group of students take time from ‘Culture Day’ to smile for the camera.

6 INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS spring/summer 2004 He was standing next to the road, waving for my taxi to stop. “Taofi faamolemole!” Stop please. Onosa’i (whose name in English means “patience”) ran to greet me. “I thought I missed you. I just wanted to give you these,” he said, while placing two home made ulas, similar to Hawaiian leis, around my neck. “I just wanted to say thanks. I never would have gotten into UPY without you.” (University Preparatory Year.) To get in, you must pass a test in all of your subjects, and for Onosa’i to do it he had to repeat his last year of high school after failing his first attempt at the test, and go through the same physics class with me twice. We shook hands, and I half-mumbled something about him being my favorite student, but I didn’t hug him. I don’t know why - some jumbled mixture of Samoan etiquette, American haste, proud Peace Corps volunteers and Samoan teachers present summer camps for primary school children. happiness, and profound sadness. “Fa Soifua,” I said. Goodbye. Then I instinctively added, “Toe feloa’i.” We’ll meet again. UI Ranks High in I watched the villages pass by as we drove on. Two young children were picking up leaves in front of a yellow and lime-green house, another was Peace Corps Volunteers sweeping off the concrete floor of the ubiquitous open-air Samoan hut. by Mansi Bhatia

At one point the road came really close to the water, nearly touching it, For more than four decades, University of Iowa graduates just as the sun peeked over the horizon. With faint whispers of cloud have been spreading goodwill and knowledge across the around the edges, colors of baby blue and pale rose combined in the sky globe as Peace Corps volunteers. With more than 500 alumni and 460 UI graduates having to begin the day. The water was motionless, reflecting every detail of the served as Peace Corps volunteers since 1961, the UI ranks 23rd morning canvas as I passed one last time. in Peace Corps recruitment among all universities with more It was the same drive that my entire group of Peace Corps volunteers, than 15,000 students. According to Peace Corps data, 49 alumni are currently serving or will soon be serving as Peace Corps all 20 of us, had made our first day in the country– the same time of day, volunteers and 32 alumni are currently in the application process. Nationally, 170,000 Peace Corps volunteers and trainees ranging in age from college students to retirees have served 137 countries in over four decades. Byron Komineck, a UI senior biomedical engineering student, is going to Cameroon, West Africa, in June as a secondary science education volunteer. “I think of the Peace Corps’ new slogan, ‘Life is Calling. How Far Will You Go?’ as if someone blew a tire on the road, would you stop to make sure they were okay, would you stop to help them change their tire, or would you stop and drive them to where they needed to go?” says Komineck who is one of the 7,533 nationwide Peace Corps trainees and volunteers currently enrolled in the program. The UI Peace Corps office at N222 Lindquist Center helps students like Komineck explore avenues to share their skills while they travel, learn a new language, and have an international experience. The office provides brochures, applications, and advice and also has a local representative, Ryan Wells, speak to classes, clubs, and organizations about Peace Corps opportunities. While Komineck looks forward to his future assignments, Scott McNabb UI professor of international and comparative education in the UI College of Education, can vouch for the fact that this volunteer watching the same clusters of villages, the same large, smiling people in experience is the most powerful educational experience one can have. sarongs, the same white-washed churches – but this time I was going in McNabb was in Thailand from 1968 to 1971, teaching English in the the opposite direction. The excitement and nervousness of starting life economics faculty of Thammasat University in Bangkok. “We learn through comparison,” says McNabb. “While we are living in a new country had been replaced by this fulfilled, sad, uncertain and working abroad we have the opportunity to reflect deeply on feeling of leaving. differences in culture, religion, and societal values in ways that rarely happen if you remain in your own society, less exposed to the I had never before had this feeling when leaving a place, especially a place viewpoints of others in the world.” that I had come to call home. I didn’t have a word to describe this feeling K. Eileen Cannon, a Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of because I’d never truly had it before. In fact, I found myself able to Guinea from 1998 to 2001, says, “Before I left for Guinea I had an over-romanticized notion of what ‘suffering’ in Africa meant, describe it more easily in Samoan than in English. I was sad when I had left and I had no idea what ‘poverty’ really boiled down to on a daily my family in the United States to join the Peace Corps, but it was only for basis for people living in developing countries. Subconsciously two years. It wasn’t the same as this feeling. It had something to do with the I had convinced myself that there is no laughter in Africa.” After spending three years experiencing every day lives of the fact that although I had made a small impact on those around me, the polio-stricken people and malnourished children, Cannon, a thing that had changed the most significantly in those two years, by far, was graduate student in the department of linguistics, still found a in the back of a taxi, on his way to the airport. lot of love and laughter in the community. “The people I lived with did not want pity or charity; they The Peace Corps has three goals: to provide skilled workers for wanted only for their culture to be respected. They proudly countries that request them, to promote a greater understanding of tolerated their conditions and continued to do what they could Americans in the countries in which we work, and to promote a better with what they had,” says Cannon. “That experience has very much made me the person I am today.” understanding of those countries back here in the United States. Kimberly Cleveland, a UI Ph.D student in African art history, Although I went solely with the intention of achieving the first goal, the had similar experiences as an English teacher in Catio, Guinea last two became even more important as I left. Bissau, from 1995 to 1997. “I think that volunteering for the Peace Corps is important I will always remember the smell of cooking fires, how to husk a because it gives some Americans the opportunity to learn about coconut, and even the annoyance of roosters crowing before dawn. other peoples of the world, and work on a specific project that However, the relationships that I developed, the people who touched my will benefit those people at the same time,” says Cleveland. McNabb says that in this era of increased international conflict, life and whose lives I touched, the personal, cross-cultural it is important to have greater numbers of people in society understanding that we were able to achieve…these are the reasons that I who have the international perspectives gained by working abroad. was a successful Peace Corps volunteer, and it is this type of Katy Hansen, a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria from 1967 to 1968, witnessed the Biafran War (Nigeria’s Civil War.) She understanding that is needed more and more in today’s world. echoes McNabb’s sentiment. “War never really solves problems, it only creates more. >>> RYAN WELLS is a graduate student in The University Solutions still have to come through reconciliation, negotiation, and understanding,” she says. “In these days where the U.S. is of Iowa College of Education, focusing on international initiating war, I wonder whether we have learned anything by our education. Wells is originally from Adair, Iowa, son of Bill collective world experiences over the last 30 years. Maybe it is and Anita Wells. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Samoa because too few of us have actually lived through the joys and from 1997-2000. Wells has also studied and taught English sorrows of another people. That is what Peace Corps teaches: as a Second Language in Ecuador for a summer. At the that all people deserve respect and love.” university, Wells is the Peace Corps representative and works on a number For more information on Peace Corps at UI, visit: www.uiowa.edu/~pcorps/ or call (319) 335-6447. of international projects such as the WiderNet Project. In the future, Wells hopes to work either in the U.S. or abroad in the field of international education.

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 7

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WEEK & INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS OUTREACH > > > Arn Chorn-Pond >

TRAN> SFORMING EFFECTS UI Outreach Impacts Lives of Everyone from > Elementary Students to Educators by chivy sok & buffy quintero

Nothing could be further from the truth. Through our outreach activities, we extend our resources beyond the boundaries of the campus. UI International Programs (IP) and the UI Center for Human Rights (UICHR), along with many other centers, colleges, and departments, lead the way in providing valuable services to our society and our world. UI INTERNATIONAL DAY Humankind bears witness to incredible developments and benefits from advancement in numerous areas that help to improve our daily lives. Yet, the reality is that countless people around the world continue to live in societies where persistent social ills are part of everyday life. At the UI, there are many opportunities – not only to learn about these issues – but also to explore solutions that empower students, educators and the public to make the world a better place. Each fall for the past seven years, 250 to 300 students have gathered on the UI campus for International Day to learn about human rights issues. Buses arrive from towns figure 1 > (Photo by Modei Akyea) Arn Chorn-Pond (left), internationally recognized human rights advocate and survivor of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge Killing Fields, talks to students at Hoover Elementary School such as Muscatine, West Liberty, Tiffin, during November 2003 as part of a visit to local community to preview International Education Week. Anamosa, Cedar Rapids, West Branch, Columbus Junction, Marshalltown and >> “WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN OUR WORLD, WE DON’T TAKE A VACATION.” Winterset. Middle and high school students This statement was made by Hoover Elementary School sixth grader, Zoe Grueskin, of Iowa attend workshops conducted by UI faculty, City, in response to a reporter’s question regarding her work raising awareness about global students, and staff, as well as community child labor issues. members and governmental officials. It would be easy for Grueskin to feel overwhelmed and discouraged about making a Students are not just passive listeners difference in the world today. at workshops and keynote addresses. When we turn on the television or flip open the newspaper, we are hit by a barrage of They also get to interact with their disturbing news – trafficking of children for sexual exploitation, child slavery, peers from across the state. In 2003, environmental degradation, abject poverty, civil strife, terrorism, lack of clean drinking the planning committee voted on “Our water, and many other social stresses that overwhelm our senses. The challenge then, is to Human Right to Education” as the figure out ways to teach about these issues without paralyzing our thought process and theme to promote awareness about the slipping into the mindset that individual action does not make a difference with these challenges of receiving quality overwhelming global issues. However, at The University of Iowa, we are fortunate to be education in the global context. surrounded by people pursuing academic scholarship. Through outreach programs, we Workshops offered included the utilize these persons to share resources with the general public and K-12 students in Iowa. following: women’s rights and Who better to start with than our future leaders? leadership in education, breaking At The University of Iowa, we have been impressed and inspired by the teachers, librarians, through the perceptions of the Middle parents, and volunteer community leaders who work relentlessly to open young minds to the world. East, modern slavery: child labor in the It is our privilege to share the university’s resources to supplement the work these people do. world, bring your own chair: education The UI has a long history of outreach and service. Former UI President Sandy Boyd and for nomadic children in Nigeria, current UI President David Skorton have made outreach to Iowa a high priority of the UI. acceptance of difference, and children Skorton, known as a “Renaissance Man,” has consistently carried out this commitment within his of war: radio journalism. office and through public addresses. International Day would not be possible In his annual address to the community in September 2003, Skorton observed: without the individuals who believe “How privileged we are to live the life of the mind, to be entrusted with and to use the tools strongly in providing these educational of scholarship and creativity, to realize their transforming effects on ourselves, our opportunities to upper elementary communities, our society, our world.” through high school students. Volunteer Some would say that living the life of the mind means people in academia are more representatives from the UI College of concerned about obscure theories rather than practical everyday lives. Some would say that Education, International Programs, the UI the university setting is an ivory tower, disconnected from the reality that surrounds us. But Center for Human Rights, the Iowa City does living the life of the mind divorce us from the realities of our world? Human Rights Commission, the Stanley

8 INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS spring/summer 2004 figure 2 > (left) A film still of Arn Chorn-Pond, the protagonist of the film, “The Flute Player,” came to the UI campus in conjunction with the Iowa debut of the film portraying his life. figure 3 > (middle-photo provided by Doug Allaire) Scott McNabb, an associate professor in the UI College of Education’s department of Educational Policy and Leadership Studies, talks to Hoover Elementary students in February 2004 about the 50 pounds of donated school items he delivered on the school’s behalf to the Angkor Hospital for Children. He also delivered money that was raised by a bake sale from Marlene Johnson’s students. figure 4 > (right-photo by Modei Akyea) Arn Chorn-Pond and Hoover Elementary teacher Marlene Johnson, share a hug after Chorn-Pond’s talk to her fifth and sixth grade class.

Foundation, Grant Wood AEA, Iowa City Community Schools, awareness about children in armed conflicts. At an age when most and other institutions, constitute the planning committee. Severe teenagers are preoccupied with what sports team to join or the latest budget constraints at the UI and across the nation have made it fashion craze, Chorn-Pond spent his time talking about the challenges challenging to continue these programs. But commitment by faculty, of living through war and his internal conflict of being forced to kill staff, students, and members of the community to share their or be killed. He became the child spokesperson for Amnesty expertise on a pro-bono basis has enabled us to continue these International and helped launch the world concert tour for human programs despite a challenging budget environment. We believe it is rights in the late 1980s, traveling the world with Bruce Springsteen, important to support the students’ classroom teachers and to provide Sting and other musicians who joined forces to bring greater awareness these future leaders opportunities to delve into serious global issues of human rights violations. and, as evidenced below, become problem-solving citizens. Today, Chorn-Pond continues to work for human rights and the On February 3, 2004, three students from Hoover Elementary promotion of peace. His life story was recently captured in a School in Iowa City received the “Outstanding Youth Citizen Award” documentary, “The Flute Player.” IP, along with the UICHR, the from Iowa City Mayor Ernie Lehman. These students learned about Labor Center, and the Bijou, pooled together resources to sponsor the critical international issues during International Day 2003, at the Iowa debut of this award-winning documentary. They invited Chorn- screening of the documentary film, “The Flute Player” and in their Pond to the UI campus as part of International Education Week. classrooms. Over the past year, they focused on learning about child During his time on campus, he met with faculty, students, local labor, and have contributed in their own ways. community members and elementary school students. After Chorn- One of these students, Seth Saeugling, shared the following as he Pond visited their classes during the day, students from Hoover and received his award from city council members: Lucas elementary schools in Iowa City were invited as special guests “Being a good citizen to me means making a difference in our during the evening screening and received front row seats. William world. Our world is a place where people need our help. We cannot Reisinger, interim dean of IP, welcomed everyone to the university and abandon this fact, we cannot turn our backs on the desperate people invited the students to speak with Chorn-Pond after the screening. The who are crying for help…one of the ways to make a difference in the students took full advantage of this opportunity. world is to raise awareness about the different topics that need Despite being on the road for several months and having done attending to. At Hoover, we have made a difference throughout the numerous guest appearances throughout the U.S., Chorn-Pond drew world, by collecting boxes and boxes of school supplies. These tremendous inspiration and energy from the students’ enthusiasm to school supplies were given to needy children in Kyrgyzstan, learn about critical global issues. Through him, the students were able Thailand, and Cambodia.” to personally connect with 300,000 children in Cambodia who are still Seth’s classmate, Zoe Grueskin, another outstanding youth and a forced into these life and death situations. participant in International Day 2003, said a “good citizen is a How do we measure the impact of these outreach and educational dreamer, a goal-setter. Someone who can imagine a way to make their services? Is it doing any good? Have we made a difference? One school, city, state, country, or world a better place to live in, and finds student’s views answer these questions. a way to make it a reality.” LASTING IMPACT The year 2004 will be especially meaningful for both the students Bjorn Hovland, a sixth grader, and one of the 70 students who met and the UI. The committee has voted to dedicate the next Chorn-Pond after the screening, wrote the following poem: International Day’s theme to “International Human Rights, Arts and O Arn, O Arn, O Arn, Culture” in support of Skorton’s declaration of the Year of Arts and Let the Khmer Rouge be darned. Humanities beginning in July 2004. Workshops throughout the day Your country’s call is heard will ask students to ponder over what it means to have a human right And the rest of the world has been lured to arts and culture, and, equally important, how arts and culture have To come to your needing aid. helped us to promote and protect human rights. The day promises to The world is very tough, be fun and exploratory. Young minds will venture to digest and But for some that’s not enough. dissect the rights that make us human and humane. Some strive to make life hell THE FLUTE PLAYER – IOWA STUDENTS COME FACE TO FACE WITH Until the final bell A FORMER CHILD SOLDIER That signals the end of the war. Who better to explain to children the atrocities of war and The bell has long been waited for human rights violations than Arn Chorn-Pond, a Cambodian who As life opens its loving doors. lived through the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields as a child? Chorn- The final price was paid Pond is internationally renowned and respected for his As many lives were laid commitment to social justice. His boundless and borderless Before the solemn eyes of death. passion has allowed him to crisscross the globe, from Cambodia to O Arn, O Arn, O Arn, Palestine to South Africa and places in between. He promotes We promise not to forget. concepts we all cherish – dignity, freedom, peace and justice. As a We promise not to forget. newly-arrived refugee in the U.S., in the early 1980s, Chorn- March 2004 Pond began sharing his tragic life story, hoping to raise greater Transforming Effects: continued on page 16

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 9 SERIOUS PLEASURES: continued from page 1 ith the rise of capitalism and the flow of people to urban centers, 19th-century “pleasures” fueled economies, preyed upon innovative technologies, spawned new institutions and organizations, reinvented fundamental concepts Wsuch as “time” and “public,” and reorganized social life. From international exhibitions to gambling to pubs and prostitutes; from pantomime pageants to colonial durbars to minstrelsy; from circulating libraries to penny novels; from clubs devoted to the new art of photography to the first cinema showings, “Serious Pleasures” seduced audiences across the globe. Increasing opportunities for entertainment, self-improvement, and self-indulgence nurtured the potential for exploitation. Panelists grappled with the significance of black face performances, the display of “freaks” and “savages,” and with the pervasiveness P of racial, ethnic, gender, and national stereotypes in popular theatre, in music halls, and in nonfiction books of travel and anthropology for the armchair adventurer. The exportation of Shakespeare to India and the immigration of l performers and artists from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East increased global traffic in serious pleasures, as did the commerce in drugs, illicit art, artifacts, and human beings. Panelists asked how market forces, technological developments, urbanization, global exchange of goods and forms of art and performance, and emerging “publics”— of which women, the working-class, the poor, people of color, immigrants, colonizers, and colonized people form a significant part—shaped “pleasure” in this period. The conference organizers made a concerted effort to solicit contributions from a panoply of disciplines and world regions. e Participants included sociologists, economists, historians of science, medicine, architecture, theatre, music, and historical anthropologists as well as scholars working in languages other than English. a Collectively, the papers were marked by rigorous attention to the impact of cultural differences. Race, class, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, politics, and geographic and national distinctions all influenced 19th century lives, institutions, and arts. The opportunity to host this exciting conference at The University of Iowa arose from a modest beginning. Our university boasts an adventurous band of faculty members and graduate students whose work explores the 18th and 19th centuries and traverses disciplines as well as geographical locations. In the fall of 2001, Dorothy Johnson, the S director of the School of Art and Art History; Downing Thomas, chair of French and Italian; Roberta Marvin, a scholar of opera who is now director of International Programs’ Office of Grants and Development, Kim Marra, professor of Theatre Arts, and I founded the university- wide Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Interdisciplinary u Colloquium (ENCIS). Our goal was to host two lectures each semester featuring scholarship with an international emphasis by University of Iowa colleagues. Within two months, more than 100 faculty members and graduate students from The University of Iowa, Coe College, Cornell College, and Grinnell College had joined us. r ENCIS members were grateful to receive a grant from International Programs the following year to fund a distinguished lecture series in 18th and 19th century European Studies. We hosted our first three visiting lectures on European entertainments in spring of 2002-03. Topics ranged from the rise of the museum in Europe to haunting stories of a growing international exotic animal trade. In 2003-04, prestigious visitors addressed the expansion of European empires into Latin America, the cultural domination of e Indian readers by British novels, and the impact of global conquest on European painting. The great success of our lecture series inspired us to invite INCS to campus, and we were grateful for generous funding, including an International Programs Major Grant, an Arts and Humanities Conference Grant, a Humanities Iowa award, and support from the UI Graduate College, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, English, History, Spanish and Portuguese and others. Our kind S funders were intrigued by both the unusual and inviting structure of figure 2 > (upper left) Advertisement for Swift cycles. Poster c. 1895 Reproduced in “The Victorian Vision” ed. by John M. Mackenzie, V & A Publications, 2001. figure 3 > (top right) The Geisha. Poster 1899. Artist: Dudley Hardy, Printer: Waterlow & Sons Ltd. Reproduced in Catherine Haill. “Fun Without Vulgarity,” The Stationary Office, London, 1996. figure 4 > (middle left) The Duke of Wellington inspecting caricature of himself. Engraving by William Heath, 1829. Reproduced in Richard D. Altick. “The Shows of London,” Harvard University Press, 1978. figure 5 > (bottom right) Amasis’ An Egyptian Princess Poster 1908. Artist: John Hassall, Printer: David Allen & Sons Ltd. Reproduced in Catherine Haill. “Fun Without Vulgarity,” The Stationary Office, London, 1996.

10 INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS spring/summer 2004 the conference and the diversity of participants, who came from six countries and 12 disciplines and included graduate students alongside faculty members. The format of INCS allows for unusually engaged and productive exchange among scholars, Conference students, and the local community. Unlike many conferences in the humanities at which individuals deliver a series of papers, leaving little time for discussion, the INCS conference structure fosters Draws Scholars vigorous scholarly exchange. Panelists submitted essays in advance, and all conference papers were posted on a protected Web site. During the actual sessions, panelists briskly and inventively presented key From Across questions or insights to launch discussion, for example by projecting slides of related paintings, the Globe cartoons, stage properties, or key personalities. Then the panel and their audience plunged into a whirl of debate, discussion, questions, and friendly challenges so that panelists left with excellent suggestions The annual international conference of for developing their ideas further, and conversations cascaded into coffee klatches and ensuing panels. the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth- These concurrent panels were punctuated by three plenary events. The conference opened with a Century Studies Association (INCS) unique lecture and performance by renowned scholar Derek Scott from the School of Music at Salford brought local and international scholars together to explore the University in Britain. In his presentation, “The Musical Soiree: Rational Amusement in the Home,” variegated forms, the social and Professor Scott delighted the audience by balancing insightful analysis of the role music played in political consequences, and the orchestrating family values and family groups with his own renditions of long-forgotten songs. international alliances and abuses Participants then trouped to The UI Art Museum for a reception in the midst of The University of inspired by the 19th-century obsession Iowa’s stunning collection of European drawings and African art from across the centuries. with “Serious Pleasures.” The second plenary “Crossing Continents in the 19th-Century Magazine,” featured three leading The conference, organized by Teresa Mangum, UI associate professor of scholars in the history of 19th-century magazines. This session illuminated the crucial role texts, images, English and interim associate dean of and advertisements in magazines played in constructing audiences’ perceptions of the political events International Programs, drew more and cultural values of other nations. Thus, each speaker considered the unexpected transnational than 150 participants, including insights discoverable in magazines of the past. Julie Codell, former director of the School of Art at Arizona scholars from Italy, Britain, Canada, State University, demonstrated the wit and subversiveness of colonial magazines published in India. Lisa France and Puerto Rico as well as students and scholars from the UI and Survillo, a professor of Spanish at Pennsylvania State University, fascinated Americanist scholars in our across the nation. midst by detailing the curious interpretation Spanish magazines offered of the plot and politics of Harriet This conference was made possible by Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Our own Kathleen Diffley, of The University of Iowa English a $10,000 International Programs’ Major Department, demonstrated how Britain’s most important pictorial journal, “The Illustrated London Projects Grant and a $10,000 Arts News,” covered the Confederacy during the Civil War, often disclosing British class and national tensions and Humanities Intiative (AHI) Grant. through the responses of an Italian sketch artist-illustrator and of British readers to the American conflict. The conference highlighted the work of The final plenary, “Orientalism in the Theatre,” put the stage on-stage. University of Iowa theatre renowned Iowa scholars who specialize th scholar Kim Marra launched this provocative panel with a look at impresario David Belasco’s theatrical in 19 -century topics including fantasies of “the Orient” on the New York stage, while Edward Ziter of the Tisch School of Performing magazines, museum studies, European art movements, early photography, Arts illustrated exotic and spectacular effects on stage created through new optical technologies. Angela pre-cinematic technologies, European Pao, who teaches in the Comparative Literature Department of Indiana University, looked at colonial opera, theatre history, and popular tropes in European theatre through the lens of contemporary postcolonial theory. Together the speakers music. Also, on display were European offered compelling evidence that the theatre played a pivotal role in bringing the empire—and the drawings at The UI Art Museum, and psychological, often exploitive pleasures of conquest—to the home front in the United States and Europe. magazine holdings of the Main Library’s Special Collections. Of course, conference participants interested in serious pleasures were delighted to learn they too This conference was made possible by a would be indulged, along with the larger community. Therefore, the conference closed in a blaze of UI International Programs Major light, color, and sound thanks to the American Magic-Lantern Theatre. This exciting theatre group Projects Grant, an Arts and Humanities puts on a dazzling demonstration of wide-ranging visual effects created by illuminists in what has Conference Grant and a Humanities come to be considered the most direct ancestor to cinema. The show combines entertainment with Iowa award. Additional support came education by reenacting and interpreting how the slides and magic lantern work, how the slide shows from the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the UI Graduate College, anticipated techniques film depends upon today, and how audiences responded to the shows in Opera Studies Group, the UI School of th th the 18 and 19 -centuries. In a creative blend of discussion and performance, the director Terry Art and Art History, and the UI Borton demonstrated how 19th-century showmen created sequences of slides to narrate stories or Departments of Spanish and to accompany songs, how water and objects sealed between two slides created the illusion of Portuguese, English and History. movement, and how the “double exposure” effect of two slides actually produced a moving image INCS is an international group of before “moving pictures,” among many other techniques. scholars in history, women’s studies, The conference and the topic provided a rare opportunity to promote the rich cultural resources art history, anthropology, science studies, philosophy, various literatures, of The University of Iowa, the excellence of our faculty, and the strengths of graduate programs and other disciplines devoted to the th across the university to student participants who will soon be seeking jobs and to faculty participants interdisciplinary exploration of 19 - on whom undergraduates depend for direction as they apply to graduate school. The conference century culture and its relation to the also offered our graduate students professional experience and opportunities to network with contemporary world. For more senior scholars in their disciplines. Ultimately, unlike the reigning monarch of the 19th-century, information on INCS, go to www.nd.edu/~incshp Queen Victoria, we were amused—and enlightened—by three days of serious pleasures.

>>>TERESA MANGUM is the interim associate dean of University of Iowa International Programs and a UI associate professor of English in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She was the main organizer of the Serious Pleasures conference. Mangum’s work is rooted in 19th-century fiction and periodicals. She is especially engaged by the interplay between novels by well-known writers such as the Brontes, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Elizabeth Gaskell and popular narrative forms such as sensation, detective, gothic, and imperial adventure fiction. Her first book, “Married, Middlebrow, and Militant: Sarah Grand and the New Woman Novel” (University of Michigan Press, 1998), considers the ways feminists argued their politics through plots during the 1890s. More recently, she has been investigating Victorian conceptions of aging—which anticipate our own anxieties about old age. She also shows how human anxieties about aging fuse with the rise of middle-class pet culture in “’Dog Years, Human Fears’ Representing Animals” (2002). Her book-in-progress, “The Victorian Invention of Old Age,” encompasses novels, poetry, medical texts, conduct literature, popular periodicals, paintings, and cartoons, among the many texts that fashioned old age in the last century. Looking ahead, her next two projects unite her interests in periodical literature and India. After assembling a collection of short stories from Victorian periodicals that focus on India, to be titled “Serial Empires: India in Victorian Magazines,” she will explore the ways India was represented in 19th-century magazines in a book tentatively titled “India Ink.” Mangum is the recipient of a UI Faculty Scholar Award (2004-07) and The President & Provost Award for Teaching Excellence.

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 11 INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS’ > > > Writer-in-Residence, Victoria Fomina

Journeying in search of by victoria fomina & translated Im frommo russianr by annatality barker

Editor’s Note: Victoria Fomina, a young voice in contemporary Russian literature and the 2004 International Programs’ Writer-in- Residence, has contributed the following essay, which represents her style of writing. This style grew out of the Russian post-modernist © www.6foot6.com./fr/ literary movement.

I wish to thank everyone with >> IDENTICAL WORDS CAN BE FILLED WITH DIFFERENT MEANINGS, DIFFERENT ENERGIES— University of Iowa International cold greeting, warm greeting. It’s the same with countries, filled with people, possessing special, distinctive energy. In the course of an immense expansion, or a strong compression, a great deal Programs, the entire university gets blended into one organism, one person. This is how one country talks to another country, and the community for making like one person to another. As with everyone, we are prone to be mistaken - to be in the grips of the writer-in-residence experience clichés and stereotypes. A journey is the start of a friendship and an understanding. A journey is like a heart to heart possible for me. I especially want talk, because it is a bridging. It means that a country gives you access to herself, lets you in and, to thank everyone who has unadorned, presents herself in everyday simplicity. Journeys have gifted me with unique experiences and have stealthily aged me. The countries participated in my workshops and of the East lured me and still remain beyond the veil of my dreams. But the European ones readings and who has expressed opened up fully: Germany, suffering from duality and a deep sense of guilt, anticipated all such a strong interest in learning my wishes; France was playful and ironic, as with everyone, always; England - melancholy and tolerant. Holland wanted light unobtrusive relationships that would lead to mutual more about my writing and Russia. visits. Belgium lifted the lid on medieval secrets. Poland pestered me with loveless kisses. Czechoslovakia refused to speak Russian. I showed an interest in Italy, but the beauty Love, turned her back on me. Scotland simply had her way with me - married me, without even showing her face and, as far as I can tell, without taking a good look at mine. America - this girl is not as simple as she appears at first sight. Victoria Fomina America was the first of all countries to recognize in me a resident of Europe. Only an American can say to a Russian: “Oh, you are from Europe!” – solving inadvertently the century old question of Russian self-determination. “America is a country of roads,” noted the cultural attaché at the American Embassy while considering my candidacy. This immediately predisposed me towards America. Russia, as it is well known, is also a country of roads. America aroused my healthy curiosity and inspired trust due to the fact that at first encounter she allowed herself to be touched, exposed various parts of her body: Iowa City and the State of Iowa, Cincinnati, Chicago, Washington, New York, the entire West Coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco, including Big Sur. It was in Big Sur that I understood what New Age meant. It’s when you have a forest, and behind a bush - a latrine. In America even nature is civilized. Back home one simply can do it behind any bush. America is a country of civilized roads and latrines. Russia is a country of impassable snowed-in roads and fragrant bushes, where hungry bears and highway robbers roam. But the landscapes, the same immense expanses, are strikingly similar at times. A native of a small provincial town, in the similarly small Iowa City I felt like Ignoramus in Sun City, where the plain and the high tech found a pretty convincing harmony. (Ignoramus-Neznaika, a character from the Russian book “Neznaika and His Friends” by N. Nosov, encounters many adventures when he moves from the simple Flower City to the urbane Sun City). I fell in love with America. I can’t live without her. At least for the first three days after returning. I pine. Among the university crowd I became an instinctive Democrat. But a couple of my new friends, also cool guys, are die-hard Republicans, because they figure 1 > The cover of Victoria Fomina’s book don’t want to share with “bums.” Perhaps that’s how things should be, and they are entitled, “Letter to the Colonel.” right? They also are my America.

12 INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS spring/summer 2004 My America is in shorts and denim, pot- bellied and pumped. Chicken drumsticks, playing soccer (during the period of perestroika Russia was flooded with American chicken drumsticks which were fondly called “legs of Bush” - the elder.) The eternal “OK,” “hi,” “you’re welcome” and “panel discussion.” My America is chocolate-colored, nourished by African magic, an inimitable embodiment of flowing new styles. My America consists of calm sophisticated towns that mimic refined Europe, but the hamburgers and chips for lunch reveal her origins. It’s comfortable and quiet here, like in a library, and nothing happens. More precisely, everything happens a bit formally and reminds one of something not so long ago forgotten and overcome. I was moved to tears when I saw the signs in a museum in Los Angeles: “Museum display: do not touch.” Are you standing in line? Yes, I am. The line - for freeloaders, just as at home: organized free picnics and all sorts of programs. I like it that America is a country of hybrids. I am Russian, my husband - Scottish, our son - hidden in the ground, that’s why I am figure 2 > (Photo by Mansi Bhatia) Writer-in- an American by definition. constantly engaged in self-digging, and above residence Victoria Fomina disucusses her writing America is a country of active hybrids of the the ground there are only wind, bushes and and cultural aspects of Russia with John Birkbeck Christian persuasion. A very important aspect of roads to distract the eye. Potentially, I have at the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center. Christianity - the striving to live a life as if it’s the everything and even more, it’s just that I don’t only one we have. Everyone works here, self- have much luck, I am unlucky, a bit unlucky. >>> AWARD WINNING RUSSIAN improves; for that reason there is a distance Still, I think if by chance America and Russia FICTION WRITER VICTORIA FOMINA between people which a Russian can interpret as were to face each other in a ring during a served as the 2004 International coldness. But you make a Russian work and he friendly boxing match, thanks to their Programs’ Writer-in-Residence January will quit drinking as well, and, like a good boy, geographic dimensions, pushiness and inner through April. Through this program, will become withdrawn. potential, they would appear in the same world-renowned writers travel around Iowa Here there are brand new churches on every weight category. to conduct readings and workshops at K-12 corner, even three churches on one. They “Relax and don’t complicate things,” schools, public libraries, senior centers and substitute for hobby clubs. Russia, strange as it America says to me. In response I other public venues. may seem, still preserves the Medieval line; condescendingly invite America to lunch, This program is made possible by The churches endured uprooting and survived, nervously counting cents in my pockets. University of Iowa International Programs thanks to stoic mysticism. Is America attentive to me or is she just and through funding by the Stanley-UI We are both free now. But Russian freedom pretending? Or does she, in fact, not even give a Foundation Support Organization and a Title is younger, that’s why it’s flashy and insecure. damn? I am jumping out of my skin in an VI National Resource Center grant from the American freedom is mature, calm and wise outburst of Russian candor. “You know, U.S. Department of Education. with limitations essential for its survival. America, for us you were always the other “This was an opportunity for an We both are relatively young, but Russia is a bit country, I would even say the otherworldly international author to share her unique older, that’s why she had time to make a mess of country. You are the country of dreams and perspectives and gift of writing with the things, and now sits quietly and digests, tail between adventures, unrealizable dreams and reckless state,” said Buffy Quintero, UI International her legs. America, on the other hand, is bushy adventures. You are always so far away, despite Programs’ outreach coordinator. During her tailed and, in its period of blooming, indulges the shrinking world, that an arrival to you can visits to various venues, Fomina read from me with friendship, invites me for yet another be compared with a departure from my own her own works, talked about the art of visit and generously sponsors her invitation. body, like a little death. “Good bye America, writing and discussed her home culture and I am flattered, but try not to ingratiate myself where I have never been,” goes the popular the role of the writer in her culture and her too much, because friendship with a strong Russian song. You bring on sadness, one wants own experiences in the United States. partner risks that one slumps down to the level of to howl at you like at the moon. Traditionally, the Her short stories have been translated into third world countries. For an American, a heroes of Russian novels were shooting, hanging German and Italian, and are included in a few Chinese person is also a representative of and drowning themselves with the words: “I am recent German anthologies of the best prose Europe. I accept the invitation, as if picking up a going - leaving for America” (for example, by Russian writers. Her work has appeared in glove. “For us, you were country number one Svidrigailov in “Crime and Punishment” by prestigious Russian journals, including during the period of Cold War,” America says to Dostoyevsky). Russian emigrants returned to “Znamya,” “Druzhba Narodov,” “Vremya and me, “and now you are just like everyone else.” you to die. You are our post-mortem paradise. My,” and “Strelets.” In 2000 Fomina “It’s just that I am a bit unwell,” I reply. After Our souls inhabit you after death, whereas participated in the UI International Writing such a long and bloody experiment with herself yours, possibly in order to free up space, ascend Program. Through contacts made at the UI. Russia is simply obligated to let go and rest up. to heaven. You are our mirror, you are our her book, “Letter to the Colonel,” was America and Russia are countries of shadow, you are our antipode. It’s nice to keep translated into English by UI doctoral unlimited possibilities. Only if in America you in mind - for balance.” candidate, Anna Barker. everything is possible after a while, in Russia I talk to America, all countries talk to America, Fomina was educated at the Moscow everything becomes possible at the last all countries talk to each other, in a multitude of Literary University and the Moscow Art moment, like a student’s ability to learn inner voices, intertwining, agreeing and conflicting, Theater Institute. She currently works as an Chinese the night before the exam. arguing to the point of madness, winning, editor at the established Moscow publishing America is a bit embarrassed about its wealth discussing and suppressing. And just imagine, in the house, Limbus Press. She is a member of and prefers not to advertise it. Russia, on the course of an immense expansion, or a strong the Union of Writers of Moscow. contrary, throws money to the wind, risking compression, all this gets blended into one For more information or to set up a that she will have to walk the streets tomorrow. organism, one person. And for this one person it is workshop or speaking engagement with a I am, as a matter of fact, always potentially just as vitally important to safeguard existence, future International Programs’ Writer-in- wealthy (“Everything around me is mine” goes harmonize the inner world on the road to spiritual Residence, contact Buffy Quintero at 319-335- the Soviet song), only all my wealth is always enlightenment, as it is for each and every one of us. 0345 or [email protected].

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 13 Revolu- tionizing JUNIOR FACULTY Education DEVELOPMENT ONE SCHOLAR AT A TIME PROGRAM by kent nguyen BRINGS >> A COMPLETED APPLICATION, SEVERAL EXAMS, AND NUMEROUS interviews later, Kamol Mustaev finds himself in a large, but modestly furnished, shared office on RESPECTED the ground floor of the International Center at The University of Iowa. The professor of American postmodern drama and literature from Uzbekistan was able to edge out approximately 1,000 applicants to be chosen as one of the 120 Junior ACADEMICS Faculty Development Program (JFDP) participants in the U.S. this year. The University of Iowa Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies TO UI CAMPUS (CREEES) is one of 57 host institutions across the country. Seven of the participants - including Mustaev - are spending their year doing research, taking classes, and preparing curricula, with guidance from local professors and faculty. “The primary focus [of the program] is the development of teaching materials,” said Russell Valentino, Mustaev’s faculty mentor, CREEES director, and UI associate professor in the Russian department. Every year, JFDP - funded by the U.S. Department of State - gives professors from 15 Eurasian and Southeast European countries the opportunity to acquire additional knowledge in their field of expertise as well as learn different perspectives on teaching methodologies. For Mustaev, being in America presents a perfect opportunity to experience the U.S. educational system and learn new ways he can help improve the evolving educational system in Uzbekistan. “Uzbekistan began to rebuild their educational system in 1991 after they gained their independence from Russia,” said Mustaev. During that time, there was a lack of standardization among the different institutions of higher learning, and many teachers were using different grading systems, which caused much confusion for the students and faculty, Mustaev added. Since then, the country has begun to standardize their curricula and grading methods, which is similar to the percentage points system used by many American professors and teachers. According to Mustaev, the educational system still faces a lack of resources and funding. Although all the students in his home institution of Samarkand State University have access to the 1,500 or so computers, higher priority is given to students pursuing scientific and mathematical degrees. Blythe Burkhardt, instructional programs and research projects coordinator at UI International Programs, helps Valentino administer the “Giving junior faculty the JFDP program on the UI campus. > “We are very fortunate to have several JFDP scholars on campus every year,” opportunity to add, Burkhardt said. “They not only study and learn here, but they also serve as valuable resources by sharing their unique cultures and talents with us.” revise and improve their According to Valentino, a lot of the foundational work for becoming a curricula is a wonderful participant in JFDP is done in the potential participant’s home country. American Councils is an international non-profit organization that administers way to help advance the the program with funding from the U.S. Department of State, Valentino said. The applicants are then asked to take several tests and go through an educational institutions interview. Afterwards, their applications are sent to Washington, D.C. for further review and evaluation. Finally, a list of the applicants accepted into the of developing countries.” program is sent to the host universities so that they can be paired up with a faculty mentor. Kamol Mustaev, professor of American

Initiated two decades ago, the JFDP program has flourished into a highly ] postmodern drama and literature, Uzbekistan respected and very competitive program that garners hundreds of applications from not only junior faculty but also from some senior faculty members. “They call it junior faculty development but many senior faculty apply to come - there are people who have been deans for years wanting to come,” said Valentino.

figure 1 > (left, Photo by Kent Nguyen) JFDP Scholar Kamol Mustaev and his faculty mentor (right) Russell Valentino, director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at The University of Iowa.

14 INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS spring/summer 2004 JF

figure 1 > Kamol Mustaev (middle), volunteers at the Free Lunch Program in Iowa City with assistance from Jeanne Cadoret (left) and another JFDP scholar, Irina Tabanova.

It’s quite understandable why many professors would want to spend a year of their lives in the U.S. Upon first glimpse of his office, Mustaev was quite pleased, “I have a table D and a computer. In Uzbekistan, I am the head of a department, and I don’t JUNIOR even have a computer,” Mustaev recalls. While in the U.S., Mustaev is issued FACULTY stipends to pay for his food and lodging. He also gets reimbursed for any books or materials that he purchases for his classes and also has access to university PDEVELOPMENT services and resources. PROGRAM The participants spend nine out of the 12 months in their host city. The remaining months are reserved for a more independent, directed project in the city of the participant’s choice. 2003-04 JFDP Participants “When we first got here, I thought maybe I could do an internship in a larger city > Kamol Mustaev somewhere in California, but after a while, I decided I wanted to stay in Iowa,” Mustaev is the head of the Russian and Foreign Mustaev said. Literature Department at Samarkand State University in Uzbekistan. His area of interest is Valentino understands Mustaev’s decision, adding “They look around, compare American post-modern drama and literature. the treatment some other colleagues receive [at other universities] and see that the Russell Valentino, director of the Center for UI is a really good place.” Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies Understanding that his time in the U.S. is short and valuable, Mustaev has (CREEES) and UI associate professor in the attempted to make the most out of his experience. Russian department, is his faculty mentor. Taking 12 classes, totaling 32 credit hours, along with additional educational Anzhela Rozova Rozova teaches practical translation at the seminars on topics such as Web design, Mustaev doesn’t want to waste a moment of Khmelnytsky Technological University of Podillia his time. “I’m not sure if I’ll have this opportunity again.” in Ukraine. Rozova is currently writing her Mustaev finds this experience not only valuable on a scholarly and academic level thesis on John Updike’s literature. Her mentor but on a more cultural level as well. at the UI is Christopher Merrill, director of the He has been taking everything from tap and salsa dance and saxophone classes to International Writing Program. literature and drama classes. Severa Sharapova Sharapova is an associate professor at the Mustaev and the other JFDP participants volunteer for the Free Lunch Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies Program every fourth Wednesday of the month. They spend their time washing in Uzbekistan. She is the author of two the dishes, serving meals and cooking. “So many people helped us when we came monographs concerning the foreign policy to America, we wanted to give something back,” said Mustaev. and the cultural, historical and social factors “Many participants are very research oriented. They come to the U.S., they get and image of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Sharapova’s mentor is Brian Lai, assistant their work done and then they go home,” Valentino said. “Kamol is different.” professor in the UI political science department. In an effort to gain more knowledge in areas other than his field of study, Irina Tabanova Mustaev has also volunteered for the WiderNet project, putting computers together Tabanova is an instructor in the department of and preparing them to be shipped to Africa. Mustaev has also increased his foreign languages at Comrat State University in knowledge of grant writing through his work with Roberta Marvin, the Moldova. She teaches several disciplines International Programs grants and development officer. He sees his newfound including lexicology, phonetics, morphology and syntax. Tabanova’s mentor is Catherine Ringen, knowledge in grant writing as a major asset, not only to himself, but also to his a professor in the UI linguistics department. colleagues at home. Tsira Chikvaidze “The primary thing is working on new curricula,” said Mustaev. His main Chikvaidze is an associate professor of history objective when coming to the U.S. was to gain more knowledge in his field of study at Tbilisi State University in Georgia. She is also so that he could advance his course work. However, as he began taking classes and the deputy director of the Center for American exploring the resources of the university, he realized that there was more to Studies at Tbilisi. She is currently working on a graduate curriculum for classes on American education than just lectures. While he has been here, Mustaev has bought hundreds studies. Her mentor is Jane Desmond, UI of DVDs that he hopes will supplement his curricula and enhance his students’ professor of American studies. learning in a manner with which they may not be familiar. Yana Kazakova “The benefit [of having JFPD participants] is that we get all these people that Kazakova teaches courses on communicative come to the classes and change the nature of the classes simply because of their speaking, grammar and lexicology in the presence,” Valentino said. “It’s a kind of enrichment, a kind of luxury that we have Department of Linguistics, Kirovohrad Social Pedagogical Institute “Pedagogical Academy,” because of them.” in Kirovohrad, Ukraine. Her mentor is Giving junior faculty the opportunity to add, revise, and improve their curricula Roumyana Slabakova, a professor in the is a wonderful way to help advance the educational institutions of developing linguistics department. countries, said Mustaev. He explains that although the junior faculty may not have Sanja Graic-Stepanovic much power to change things now, they will have the tools and skills necessary to Graic-Stepanovic is an assistant professor in the allow them to acquire more powerful positions, giving them the opportunity to department of international studies at the University of Belgrade, who visited the UI truly advance their country’s educational system. campus from August through December of As Valentino put it, “The State Department wants the scholars to go back and 2003. Her faculty mentor was John Reitz, law revolutionize their educational system.” professor in the UI College of Law.

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 15 Transforming Effects: continued from page 9 These outreach programs serve as a catalyst for nurturing young minds to directly engage in issues and to participate in the process of finding solutions to complex global issues. Our access to the tools of scholarship and creativity at the UI allow us to provide these valuable outreach services. The commitment by those working at the university and the surrounding communities enables us to develop programming ideas that have a lasting impact on the growth and development of students and community members. Young people are our future leaders. With these educational and outreach activities, we are able to raise awareness of critical global issues and, perhaps, enable these future leaders to help find solutions to some of society’s most persistent problems. >>> FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FLUTE PLAYER, VISIT: www.thefluteplayer.net figure 5 > UI Center for Human Rights deputy director Chivy Sok visiting with Hoover students during International Education Week November, 2003.

>>>CHIVY SOK, deputy director of the UI Center for Human Rights, serves as project director of the $1.2 million Child Labor Research Initiative (CLRI) at The University of Iowa. In her current capacity, she is responsible for all CLRI project implementation and reporting to the U.S. Department of Labor. The CLRI project aims to construct an Internet database of national legislation related to child labor of 25 countries, prepare a collection of essays on child labor issues, develop a series of courses and public education curricula to advance understanding about child labor around the world, organize and host a child labor training conference and commission a series of occasional papers on cutting edge child labor issues. For more information, visit: http://www.uichr.org/ Sok also co-teaches a research seminar, International Human Rights and Child Labor with Burns Weston at the UI College of Law and an undergraduate seminar on child labor with Rex Honey, UI geography professor. She joined the UICHR after five years of working at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights where she was the program coordinator and later program director. Prior to joining the UICHR, she worked as a consultant to the Cambodian Association of Illinois to help in the effort to establish the first Killing Fields Memorial and Museum in the United States. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs with a specialization in East Asia and human rights.

>>>BUFFY QUINTERO is the outreach coordinator for UI International Programs. International Programs reaches beyond the UI campus by providing educational opportunities for K-12 students, teachers, and citizens in the state of Iowa. One of her primary responsibilities is overseeing the International Classroom Journey (ICJ). The ICJ provides presentations by UI international and study abroad students about other countries and cultures in classrooms, loans international curriculum resources to teachers, invites K-12 students to the UI campus twice a year, conducts a week-long summer camp for children, hosts an international writer each year for a three to six month residency, and sponsors a week-long workshop for teachers in the summer focusing on an international topic. This summer’s workshop (June 14-18) taught by Claire Fox, UI associate professor of English, will focus on the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration. For a comprehensive listing of outreach activities and opportunities, visit IP’s Web site at http://www.uiowa.edu/~intl and click on K-12 and Community Programs. Quintero joined the IP staff in 2001. Prior to joining IP, she was a high school art and German teacher in West Liberty, Iowa. Quintero holds a bachelor’s degree in art education and German from The University of Iowa. She is certified to teach art and German in the state of Iowa.

INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS: Interim Associate Provost for Academic Programs and Dean, William M. Reisinger International Programs Interim Associate Dean, Teresa L. Mangum spring/summer 2004 vol. 4, no.2 Director, Diana Davies Publisher: Teresa L. Mangum Office of International Students and Scholars Director, Scott E. King Managing Editor: Lois J. Gray Staff Writers & Copy Editors: Mansi Bhatia, Kent Nguyen Office for Study Abroad Director, Janis Perkins Publication Design & Production: Sarah McCoy African Studies Program Director, Victoria Rovine Web Designer: Modei Akyea Caribbean, Diaspora and Atlantic Studies Program (CDA) Convenor, Michaeline Crichlow To request additional copies of this publication, or to suggest future story ideas please contact Lois J. Gray at Center for Asian and Pacific Studies (CAPS) Director, Stephen Vlastos (319) 335-2026 or send e-mail to [email protected]. Or, Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (CREEES) Director, Russell Valentino you can send materials to Lois Gray, Managing Editor, External Relations Department, International Programs, Council for International Visitors to Iowa Cities (CIVIC) Executive Director, Tom Baldridge 120 International Center, The University of Iowa, Iowa Crossing Borders Program Director, Paul Greenough City, Iowa, 52242-1802. 18th and 19th-Century Interdisciplinary Colloquium, Teresa Mangum ©Copyright 2004, International Programs, The University of Iowa. All rights reserved. Opinions published in Foreign Language Acquisition Research and Education Project/Second Language Acquisition International Accents do not necessarily reflect the views Ph.D. Co-Directors, Kathy Heilenman and Judith Liskin-Gasparro of International Programs or The University of Iowa. To Global Health Studies Program (GHSP) Director, Paul Greenough view this publication online, visit the IP Web site at www.uiowa.edu/~intl/ and click on Alumni and Friends to Grinnell-UI Bridging Project Director, John Nelson find a link to this and past issues. Institute for Cinema and Culture Director, Corey Creekmur International Accents is published twice during the academic International Forum for U.S. Studies (IFUSS) Co-Directors, Virginia Dominguez & Jane Desmond year by University of Iowa International Programs' External International Studies National Resource Center (NRC) Co-directors, Paul Greenough & James Pusack Relations Department. For more information please visit: www.uiowa.edu/~intl/ or contact 319-335-2026. Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Executive Director, Tom Baldridge Latin American Studies Program (LASP) Co-Directors, Mercedes Niño-Murcia, Daniel Balderston, In this issue we would like to thank all of our Michael Chibnik, Claire Fox, and T.M. Scruggs contributing photographers: Modei Akyea, Mansi Opera Studies Group Co-Directors, Roberta M. Marvin and Robert Ketterer Bhatia, Kent Nguyen, Victoria Fomina, Michael Stenerson, of The Gazette, Ryan Wells, Buffy South Asian Studies Program (SASP) Co-Directors, Philip Lutgendorf, Paul Greenough Quintero, and Sandra Barkan. and Fred Smith University of Iowa Center for Human Rights Director, Burns Weston WiderNet Project Co-Directors, Cliff Missen and Michael McNulty

16 INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS spring/summer 2004 IP Congratulates International/Global Studies Graduates International Programs launched its first ever undergraduate major in international studies in fall 2003, and we wish to congratulate the 19 graduating seniors this May who are leaving with an international background. The new major was developed as a multi-disciplinary combination of the existing global studies program and the award-winning area studies programs. This new major offers a unique option to all international studies students: they can choose a combination of generalized international studies courses and thematic or regional concentrations to give them both a global understanding and the power to apply this understanding regionally. Currently, an estimated 200 UI students are enrolled as international studies students. More information on the major can be found at: www.uiowa.edu/~intl/studies/ Graduating seniors from the Chris Loeckle, Iowa City, IA, area of concentration: Graduating seniors from the global international studies program in global artistic traditions and change; future plans: studies program in spring 2004: spring 2004: graduate school for social work. Seungjin Bae, Pusan, South Korea, area Emilia Bristow, Iowa City, IA, area of Kristen Matveia, Marion, IA, area of of concentration: Russia; future plans: concentration: East Asia. concentration: development; future plans: working with an NGO. Callie Chastain, Leon, IA, area of concentration: being a missionary after graduation. Elisabeth Carlson, Lombard, IL, future plans: Europe; future plans: seeking work in related field. Mary McQuaid, Guthrie Center, IA, area of moving to Chicago. Claire Cullis, Cedar Rapids, IA, area of concentration: Latin American studies; future Carla Pierre Gini, Oak Park, IL, area of concentration: global artistic tradition and plans: attending UI College of Law. concentration: development/economics – change and African studies; future plans: Thalassa Neuenschwander, Rosemount, MN, Western Europe/Italy; future plans: working in attending law school. area of concentration: Spanish; future plans: Rome, Italy, for an American university’s study Aaron Greenberg, Wilmette, IL, area of Peace Corps and graduate school. abroad program. concentration: Latin America Studies/ Colin Peterson, Ankeny, IA, area of Perla Gomez, Sioux City, IA, future plans: attend international politics and international concentration: European Studies and graduate school for urban and regional planning. relations; future plans: work, possibly at U.S. international relations/politics; future plans: Carrie Marsh, Sioux City, IA, area of State Department. contemplating graduate programs in diplomacy concentration: environment and natural Lindsey Grieve, Ankeny, IA, interests: studying and hopes to get a job in either the U.S. State resources; future plans: to promote developing countries and how their politics evolve Department or the CIA. environmental sustainability. and are influenced by the rest of the world; Mary-Justine Todd, Burlington, IA, area of Josephine Ngo, Cedar Rapids, IA, area of future plans: she will serve in the Peace Corps concentration: human rights in Africa; future concentration: war and peace; future plans: teaching English in an African nation. plans: graduate school but also looking into researching human rights issues this summer in Bian Li, Ankeny, IA, area of concentration: various non-profit organizations. Europe with Humanity in Action. development; future plans: working in Some students who were enrolled in the global studies Mike Post, Norwalk, IA, area of concentration: investment banking in Chicago. program before fall 2003 chose to remain in the African development; graduating with program and completed their global studies requirements. certificate in global health studies.

Painting Between the Lanes: continued from page 3 afraid of the police here,” said Hayslett. Iowa City Captain Matt Johnson believes that more information never hurts. “Due to the economic realities the city is facing, we are having to use our limited resources differently. Officers have had to pick up on duties that were historically taken care of by community relations personnel,” said Johnson. “But this program is helping us get a broader perspective and the information we are receiving is figure 4 > (above) Lt. Steve Hayslett, fostering a better understanding of the deputy sheriff of international community.” Johnson County Sheriff Department, Jenna Montgomery, an OISS graduate speaks with an assistant who moved to Iowa City last August, international student. believes that officers are excellent community resources and their work demands that they Doing Time, and Bribes.” In this hour-long realized that while in China there is a Bureau of know their community well and the laws that presentation to police officers, international Police in the government, which controls all govern it. “When anyone moves to a new city, students from Ghana, India, Ukraine, China levels of police systems, in the U.S. there seem to one tends to avoid police officers until it is and Sudan shared anecdotes and personal be different systems independent of each other. absolutely necessary to interact with them,” experiences to show how the law enforcement “I am not sure if the police work better here she said. “This program helps the agencies operate in their countries. because of the system, or the system back home international community feel more welcome, “Most of the times when a cop stops you on is bad because of corruption, but I do think this especially in a time when immigration and the streets, you expect to be harassed,” said has been a wonderful opportunity,” said Li. tourism regulations have been tightened.” Modei Akyea, from Ghana. “And the easy way to While both students and officers think this In December, Cardwell organized a student get out of the situation is to bribe the officer.” program is a great way to dispel myths, panel entitled “International Perspectives: Lack In the same presentation, Guangming Du, Winkelhake believes that more people need to of Governmental Infrastructure, Illegal Seizures, from China, explained how, in his country, get involved in the program. “For those officers bribes are given indirectly in the form of gifts who have 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shifts, it is difficult and one could, thus, bypass all the paperwork to be part of such programs,” he said. “I would and get away with breaking the law. like to have every officer involved in this “In our society, bribes are just a way of life,” program at least once a year.” said Svetlana Dembovskaya, a graduate student Chaudhary, a humanities student from India, from Ukraine. “It’s the way work gets done.” says there is no doubt that the program has Coralville Police Officer Ron Wenman was helped international students feel more at ease surprised at how the law enforcement agencies with the police officers. “I think it was a in these countries functioned. “This talk helped wonderful idea to see every aspect of a society me understand why international students are in which you are living. Claire has taken a suspicious of police officers here,” he said. huge responsibility to be the liaison between Yiyun Li, a 31-year-old UI Chinese student, the international community and local law figure 3 > (bottom left) Grant initiator Claire explained how the police system works under enforcement. The fear of the unknown has been Cardwell, Lt. Steve Hayslett, deputy sheriff of Johnson County Sheriff Department, and the control of a central government in China. replaced by the feeling that there is a protector graduate assistant Jenna Montgomery. Li went on a jail tour as part of this program and and it definitely gives you more confidence.”

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 17 Making Today Out of Yesterday by sandra barkan, assistant dean of ui graduate college

Though I now spend most of my time as a dean in the UI Graduate College, I continue, not only to teach, but also to serve on doctoral committees of students in the French department as well as other departments, and to use French regularly, speaking to students, campus visitors and others. There have been many trips to teach and to conduct research in Francophone Africa and France, all of which has built on what I learned in that first trip to France, including the confidence I gained when I realized I could function effectively outside of the United States. As for the other women in my junior year abroad group, they became university professors of French and English as a Second Language, some serving as department chairs or in other university administrative positions; a simultaneous translator at the UN; a lawyer; a chief financial officer at Con Ed in New York who also serves on a college board having gotten a Ph.D. in French; a psychologist; an arts director; a staff member for the Legal Defense Fund; and so forth. The men have served in military intelligence in Vietnam, figure 1 > Sandra Barkan in the university quarter in Paris during junior year or as military translators in southern France; they, too, became professors of abroad, 1962. French, philosophy and other fields, and two were departmental chairs; they >> NEW YORK. MID-AUGUST 2003. We are a group of men and women all were lawyers for the World Bank or for Cartier and Swatch, based in about the same age, who had, for the most part, not seen each other, or Switzerland; an international banker at Bankers Trust, covering the Middle even been in contact for 40 years; but we had one important thing in East and Africa and then working for the Perrier Organization in Curacao, common that had brought us all to New York to spend three intense days Netherlands, Antilles; and a doctor who is a distinguished cancer researcher. together– we had all spent a critical year of our lives together in France as All of us have returned to France many times, for professional participants in the Hamilton College Junior Year Abroad. reasons and for fun. One has lived there for the past 20 years, others Almost all of the 34 initial participants came. One had died shortly for different periods of time. Most of us have stayed in fairly close before the reunion, a few others are now living in France or other distant touch with the families we lived with and the friends we made. places and couldn’t come. But the rest of us had come, because our year in It was amazing how much we had to talk about, how much we agreed that France had been an important juncture for us, and we were eager to share it our “today” was substantially the result of our junior year abroad. There again with those who had been part of it initially. will be another reunion soon, we agreed. To put this one together, the two Hamilton College is a small liberal arts college in upstate New York, which women who had decided that a reunion was called for spent two years finding had one of the early study abroad programs. The director of our program, M. Moreau, taught French at Hamilton College. And a few of the participants in the program were students there. But most of us went to school somewhere else. We were students in large state universities, Ivy League colleges, small liberal arts colleges. We came from as near as Cornell University, my school, or as far away as the University of Alaska. We were studying for degrees in French, but also in political science, history and other fields. We had traveled together to France in a French line ship, because that was how most people traveled to Europe at that time; it was, believe it or not, less expensive than a plane. We brought with us not light cloth suitcases, but massive trunks. For all of us, it was our first trip to Europe. And unless our parents were immigrants or had fought in WW II, it was unlikely that our parents had been to Europe either. At that time, still relatively close in time to World War II, Europe remained rather exotic; we didn’t know what we would be able to buy, so we brought a year’s supply of shampoo, or toothpaste, or even toilet paper, in those massive trunks. Ludicrous to think of today, but that’s the way it was then. Our first six weeks were spent in intensive language training in Biarritz, in Southeast France, best known as part of the French Basque country and a “Because of the impact that my beach resort for the British. Then up to Paris where, as students at the own experiences living, studying Sorbonne, we studied French art, and went to the museums; French theatre, and conducting research and went to the plays; French literature, and scoured the bookstores; French politics, and watched the French police beat up demonstrators protesting the outside of the United States war in Algeria, and generals involved in that war parachute onto the Champs have had on me, I have successfully urged many Elysées as the war drew to a close. We lived with French families (François Mitterand was the brother-in-law students to seek out similar experiences.” of Mme. Delachenal with whom I lived, though at that time he was just all of us, and would never have succeeded without the Web. But now we’re “Oncle François.”) We had French friends. And we discovered, quite found, and we know that we need to talk again soon, that our shared importantly, French food and wine. Cheeses that were nothing like Kraft, experiences must be shared some more. and breads that you couldn’t just crush into balls in your hand. And we Because of the impact that my own experiences living, studying and bought French clothes and tried to look French. conducting research outside of the United States have had on me, I have That was then. Gathered together in New York, we hugged and shared successfully urged many students I work with to seek out similar experiences. stories, and found that virtually nothing we had done in all the years For most of our University of Iowa students, however, study abroad and following our time in France had been more important. All of us used the research abroad represent a substantial financial challenge. Yet these experience and the language skills we had gained in one way or another. opportunities should be available to all. Interestingly enough, the women in the group, most of whom had initially Contributions, even small contributions, to the Office for Study Abroad, planned to be high school French teachers, had become, with one International Programs or to the Graduate College for the T. Anne Cleary exception, everything but. Like many of the other women, after I got my Fellowship for dissertation research outside of the United States, can make an master’s degree in French literature, teaching certificate in hand, I became enormous, life changing difference for our students. There are few other a high school French teacher. contributions that can have a similar impact. But that didn’t last long as, influenced by my husband, I became interested in African literatures. After studying in London, and in an African studies figure 2 > Sandra Barkan in Burgundy, on a return trip to France, May 1976. master’s program at Makerere University in Uganda, I moved on to teaching figure 3 > Sandra Barkan in Paris, June 1991, with Andre Dufour who, with his in a university, eventually getting my Ph.D. in comparative literature. family, has been a close friend since her study abroad year in France.

18 INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS spring/summer 2004 STUDY ABROAD > > > www.uiowa.edu/~uiabroad

SURVEY ILLUSTRATES POSITIVE IMPACT OF

Study Abroad Photonica Windsor, Paul credit: photo by mansi bhatia UI student currently in France reflects on benefits A different culture, cuisine, method of study, people – it is one thing to go abroad on a week-long vacation, and quite another to spend a semester, or even a year, in foreign lands. Why would anyone want to leave the comfort of home for such a long period of time? “I highly recommend going abroad” says Crystal Crow, a UI senior with a French major and Chinese minor, who is currently in Angers, France, for a year through the International Student Exchange Program. “It teaches so many things outside of a language and a culture that are important. I have learned much about myself and my capacities that I didn’t previously know. I am more independent and more confident in myself.” Crow, who is graduating in May 2005, is not alone in her beliefs. 17,000 study abroad alumni interviewed for the 2002 Longitudinal Alumni survey conducted by the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES), agreed that their experience abroad enabled them to learn something new about themselves. The survey measured the longitudinal impact of study abroad on select achievements, behaviors and beliefs. On a scale of one to five, these alumni rated the following as the most influential consequences of their study abroad experience: • allowed a better understanding of own cultural values and biases; • served as a catalyst for increased maturity; YOU’RE • increased self-confidence; • continues to influence perspective on how they view the world; > > > GOING • influenced interaction with people from different cultural backgrounds. “Although the positive long-term impact of studying abroad seems obvious to anyone who’s had the experience, the IES study provides the first statistical evidence of the SOME- influence of international study on key behaviors, attitudes and accomplishments,” says Janis Perkins, director of the UI Office for Study Abroad. WHERE The IES survey also shows that after completing their university courses, 54 percent of these study abroad returnees have worked, or are working, abroad, 40 percent use a foreign language on a regular basis, 55 percent use a foreign language in their workplace setting, six percent completed Ph.Ds and 31 percent remain in contact with host country friends. Perkins says that this quantitative study was much needed. “Based upon anecdotal information, I have often told students that studying abroad increases self-confidence. Now I can state it as fact,” she says. Tell Us How According to the survey, the study abroad experience not only influenced the personal development of these individuals, but it also had an impact on their social outlook. Those interviewed agreed STUDY ABROAD that their experience continued to influence their participation in community organizations, Helped You! continued to influence the choices they made in their family life, caused them to change or refine We want to invite our readers to tell us if their political and social views, enabled them to tolerate ambiguity, continued to influence their they studied abroad (at any university) political and social awareness, and influenced them to seek out a greater diversity of friends. and share how it made an impact on Crow is finding all this out for herself in France where she has encountered some people their lives. Send a brief note to Lois who did not like her because she was an American. “I was very nervous at the beginning Gray, International Accents managing editor, at [email protected] or visit considering the current political situation is touchy. However, I appreciate being able to see a The University of Iowa International different perspective of my country’s foreign policies. It gives me some insight into how stereotypes Programs Web site at www.uiowa.edu/ are formulated between cultures,” she says. “People are people, no matter where you go in the ~intl/ and click on Alumni & Friends to world. Of course, there are differences, but the similarities run deep.” fill out the online form.

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Marvelle. Poster 1901. Artist: Henry Abdy, Printer: Stafford & Co. Reproduced in Catherine Haill. in Catherine Reproduced & Co. Stafford Printer: Henry Abdy, 1901. Artist: Poster Marvelle.

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INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS International Programs | www.uiowa.edu/~intl | spring/summer 2004 | vol. 4, no.2

Serious Pleasures Teresa Mangum, International Programs 1, 10 & 11

Painting Between the Lanes Mansi Bhatia 2, 3 & 17

Locating Popular Indian Cinema in Iowa Corey Creekmur, UI Institute for Cinema and Culture 4 & 5

Lessons Learned in Samoa Ryan Wells, UI Graduate Student & Peace Corps Volunteer 6 & 7

Transforming Lives Through Outreach Chivy Sok, UI Center for Human Rights & Buffy Quintero, IP 8, 9 & 16

Journeying in Search of Immortality Victoria Fomina, Russian IP Writer-in-Residence 12 & 13 > Serious Pleasures Revolutionizing Education One Scholar at a Time The Slave Girl. Poster 1887. Artist: Thomas Phillips, Printer: Stafford & Co. Reproduced Kent Nguyen 14 & 15 in Catherine Haill. “Fun Without Vulgarity,” The Stationary Office, London, 1996. International and Global Studies Graduates 17

Making Today Out of Yesterday Sandra Barkan, UI Graduate College 18