CHIASMOS: The University of Chicago International and Area Studies Multimedia Outreach Source [audio]

A two session symposium on academic freedom chaired by Tariq Ali. The growing evidence of outside interference in the hiring process at universities and the recent tenure denials at DePaul University, has prompted leading scholars across the nation to begin to speak out in defense of academic freedom. The DePaul University Academic Freedom Committee, Verso Books, and Diskord Journal sponsored a public symposium chaired by Tariq Ali, editor of Verso Books and New Left Review, and featuring: Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia University), Noam Chomsky (MIT), Tony Judt (NYU), John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago), Norman Finkelstein (formerly of DePaul University), Neve Gordon (Ben-Gurion University), Mehrene Larudee (DePaul University) and Evan Lorendo (DePaul Academic Freedom Committee).

A talk with Robert Amsterdam, founding partner, Amsterdam & Peroff, legal defense counsel for Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In practice since 1980, Mr. Amsterdam has extensive experience litigating and arbitrating corporate disputes in emerging markets, focusing on the areas of individual and corporate human rights. Mr. Amsterdam was retained by Mikhail Khodorkovsky in August, 2003 as part of the YUKOS-Group MENATEP defense team. Since then, he has worked with Russian human rights lawyers to prepare a White Paper on international human rights issues as they relate to the prosecution of Platon Lebedev, Alexei Pichugin and Mr. Khodorkovsky. (Moderated by Thomas Ginsburg, Visiting Professor, University of Chicago Law School.) Co-sponsor: The Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies.

A discussion with Pance Velkov, Macedonian artist and preservationist. "Time and The Sacred" is a collection of photographs which redresses the general lack of knowledge about religious art of the Republic of Macedonia, and at the same time it provides a venue for acquainting viewers with a unique environment in which Christianity and Islam have coexisted for more than six centuries. Created by Pance Velkov with the support of the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in particular the French Cultural Centers of Skopje, the Republic of Macedonia and Sofia, Bulgaria, the exhibit’s objectives are to investigate the complex issues related to the meaning and the future of the sacred heritage of the Balkans. Co-sponsor: Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies.

A panel featuring John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "The Israel Lobby" was originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006. It provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. Now in a work of major importance, Mearsheimer and Walt deepen and expand their argument and confront recent developments in Lebanon and Iran. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

A talk by S.R. Walimbe, Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, Deccan College Post-Graduate Research Institute. From the South Asia Seminar.

Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize. Maathai was elected to Kenya's National Assembly with 98 percent of the vote in 2002 and in 2003 was appointed assistant minister of environment, natural resources, and wildlife. She is the author of "The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience". Co-sponsors: The Division of the Humanities and Rockefeller Chapel.

A talk by Jorge Fernandez-Souza, Magistrate Judge, Professor of Law and former Dean of Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, former Delegado of Delegacion Miguel Hidalgo, and lawyer for Bishop Samuel Ruiz in the Chiapas negotiations (1994 – 1997). From the Human Rights in Mexico Series. Sponsored by the Katz Center for Mexican Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, the Human Rights Program, and the Norman Wait Harris Fund of the Center for International Studies.

A talk by His Excellency Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the U.S.

Session 6 of the conference "Petroleum: Prospects and Politics." Sponsored by the Chicago Society. Co-sponsored by the Student Government of the University of Chicago, The Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, The George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, The Global Voices Fund at International House, The Norman Wait Harris Fund at the Center for International Studies, The College of the University of Chicago, The Office of Community Affairs at the University of Chicago, and The Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies.

A panel featuring Terry Lynn Karl, William and Gretchen Kimball University Fellow and Gildred Professor of Political Science at Stanford University; Miriam R. Lowi, Visiting Research Scholar at Princeton’s Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia; Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science of The College of New Jersey; and Kevin K. Tsui, Assistant Professor of Economics at Clemson University.

Session 5 of the conference "Petroleum: Prospects and Politics." Sponsored by the Chicago Society. Co-sponsored by the Student Government of the University of Chicago, The Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, The George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, The Global Voices Fund at International House, The Norman Wait Harris Fund at the Center for International Studies, The College of the University of Chicago, The Office of Community Affairs at the University of Chicago, and The Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies.

A talk by Brian C. Gahan, Energy Consultant; Chair of the Chicago Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; former Senior Scientist and Manager of E&P Technology Development at the Gas Technology Institute.

Session 4 of the conference "Petroleum: Prospects and Politics." Sponsored by the Chicago Society. Co-sponsored by the Student Government of the University of Chicago, The Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, The George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, The Global Voices Fund at International House, The Norman Wait Harris Fund at the Center for International Studies, The College of the University of Chicago, The Office of Community Affairs at the University of Chicago, and The Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies.