[Nwsanet] Calendar of Events: 1.29.07

[Juned Shaikh]

1) Jan 30 -  David Butz - Sustainable Tourism and Everyday Life in Shimshal, Karakoram  Himalaya, Pakistan
2) Jan 30 –Vikram Chandra Reads from the ‘Sacred Games’ at Seattle Asian Art Museum
3) Jan 31 – Vikram Chandra at Barnes and Noble Downtown Bellevue 
4) Feb 7 and Feb 13-Mar 20 – Youth Cultures in Asia - Article and Workshop Series.
5) Feb 8 – Ann Gold - "Undominated Regions":  Expressions of Dignity in Rajasthani Narratives
6) Feb 16-17 - Fifth Annual Western Regional International Health Conference
7) Nov 14 – Feb 4 - Vanished Kingdoms and Sacred Portraits from Tibet
8) April 6 – Vedic Cultural Center presents noted singer Hariharan, 
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1)

Jan 30, 2007

Sustainable Tourism and Everyday Life in Shimshal, Karakoram  
Himalaya, Pakistan
By David Butz
Tuesday, Jan. 30, 3:30 PM, Savery 245

This presentation considers the implications of everyday life for the development of so-called sustainable community-based tourism in Shimshal, Northern Areas, Pakistan. It focuses on the circumstances of Shimshal's trekking porters to argue that the sustainability of community-level tourism strategies relies to some extent on their success at complementing the tactics community members develop to incorporate tourism into the exigencies of their everyday lives.

This argument is situated in a more general discussion of the need to avoid abstracting from the scale of the individual to that of the community, and from the realm of tactics to that of strategies, in conceptualizing and operationalizing community-based tourism. Motivation to examine this topic was provided by a report titled “Community-Based Mountain Tourism: Practices for Linking Conservation with Enterprise”, which provides a variety of informative case studies, recommendations and best practices for developing community-based tourism in mountain areas, but which offers no substantial consideration of everyday life; no ontological sense that real human beings have to find satisfactory ways of weaving tourism involvement into lives already brimming with meaning, obligation, fear,  expectation, desire....life.

David Butz teaches social and cultural geography, and qualitative research design. He is currently Director of the Interdisciplinary MA Program in Social Justice and Equity Studies,  where he has taught the required theory and methodology courses.  Professor Butz has a BA and MA from Wilfrid Laurier University and a PhD from McMaster University. He recently completed a SSHRC-funded research project which examined colonial and contemporary labor relations in the mountains of northern Pakistan, and is currently in the midst of a second SSHRC project dealing with the constitution of spatiality in Jamaican reggae music. He has also investigated the implications of corporate restructuring for General Motors auto workers in St. Catharines, Ontario. The three projects are linked by an interest in the geographies of exploitation, resistance and self-representation.

Professor Butz has also published on irrigated mountain agriculture and sustainable development, and is involved with a number of grassroots political and environmental groups in Pakistan’s Northern Areas. He has just completed a three year term on the editorial board of The Canadian Geographer and is co-editor of ACME: An International E-Journal for
Critical Geographies.

For more information contact the South Asia Center at sascuw at u.washington.edu or 206-543-4800
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2)

Jan 30, 2007

VIKRAM CHANDRA reads from his new book ‘Sacred Games’ 
Tuesday, January 30, 7:00 PM at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 E Prospect Street, Volunteer Park

Probably no new literary work in the English-speaking world is being read, reviewed, and discussed more than Vikram Chandra’s breathtakingly wide-ranging new novel, Sacred Games (HarperCollins). First in India, then the UK, and now in the U.S., people are talking about and taking in hand this lively tale of life, death, and intrigues in contemporary India. “‘The game lasts, the game is eternal, the game cannot be stopped, the game gives birth to itself.’ So muses a veteran Indian intelligence officer on his deathbed 
 The games Chandra choreographs in this riveting epic of Mumbai’s underworld are far more profane than sacred, yet they do require some faith 
 Chandra has created a compulsively involving literary thriller by drawing on the Mahabharata and aiming for the amplitude of Victorian novels. He spins webs within webs, portrays a multitude of diverse characters, the complexity of a huge 
metropolis, and takes full measure of how the world really works 
 A splendidly big, finely made novel.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist. For Vikram Chandra, this marks a welcome return to Seattle, as he read at Elliott
Bay for his earlier books, Red Earth and Pouring Rain and Love and Longing in Bombay. Free admission (no advance tickets). The reading is scheduled to take place in Stimson Auditorium. For more information on this evening, please call Elliott Bay at 206.624.6600.

Co-presented by the Elliot Bay Book Company with the SEATTLE ASIAN ART MUSEUM and the SOUTH ASIA CENTER at the JACKSON SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON.

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3)

Jan 31, 2007

Vikram Chandra reads from Sacred Games at Downtown Bellevue Barnes & Noble 
Wed, Jan 31, 7:00 PM

Vikram Chandra will discuss Sacred Games, his third novel, described by the Hindustan Times (New Delhi): "every page is a minor miracle of style, empathy and insight."  Kirkus Reviews said, "Chandra's writing is so elegant and so irresistible, it elevates the classic cops-and-robbers story to new heights." Sacred Games is a literary gritty, modern-day gangster novel set in India. Chandra will be introduced in part by a brief Indian dance performance by a local youth.

Brenda Gurung, host of an annual Diwali Fest and Community Relations
Manager at Barnes & Noble, explains "It's quite a coup for us to host
Vikram, and we're delighted to once again bring together our local South
Asian community."

Chandra was born in New Delhi.  He completed his secondary education at
Mayo College in Rajasthan and an English degree from Pomona College near
Los Angeles.

Event questions?  Contact Brenda Gurung at 425.453.7958 or
crm1915 at bn.com. See also www.vikramchandra.com. 
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4)

Feb 7

Youth Culture in Asia: Articles and Workshop Series

A Seattle Times and UW Jackson School Article Series and Workshop
Series 
February 13 - March 20, 2007
Workshop: February 7, 2007 ~ 4:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Venue: The Seattle Times Building Auditorium, Seattle, WA

For the third year in a row, the Jackson School Asia Outreach Centers have teamed up with the Newspapers In Education program of The Seattle Times to offer a series of articles about Asia (written especially for young readers), a teaching guide, and a complementary workshop. Topics in the five-article series include child labor in India, pastimes in Indonesia, online chatting in Central Asia, and examination hell in Japan. Students will get a glimpse of the challenges and opportunities that confront their peers around the world and make connections to current news.

One week before the series debuts, teachers will have an opportunity to hear experts speak in depth about two of the regions featured in the article series. Craig Jeffrey, Assistant Professor in the UW Jackson School and the Department of Geography, will present on youth and child labor in South Asia. Dr. Leila Madge, former Assistant Professor in the UW Jackson School, will talk about education in Japan. Pat Burleson, master teacher in Asian studies, will introduce the extensive teachers' guide she authored to accompany the series.

Registration: The article series is offered at no cost to educators. To register, visit http://services.nwsource.com/nie/times/educators/index.asp> The Seattle Times Newspapers in Education website and click on "registration," call the NIE office at 206-652-6342, or email nie at seattletimes.com.

The workshop registration fee is $20, which includes clock hours, dinner, and materials. To register, call or email the NIE office. For more information about workshop content, call the EARC at 206-543-1921. Please note: Workshop participants must also be registered for the Youth Culture in Asia article series.
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5)

Feb 8, 2007

South Asia Center Presents:

The Dignity and Subalterns in South Asia Lecture Series
Supported by the College of Arts and Sciences Exchange Grant Program


"Undominated Regions":  Expressions of Dignity in Rajasthani Narratives
By Ann Gold, Professor of Religion and Anthropology, Syracuse University.
Thursday, Feb 8, 3:30 PM, Venue: Mechanical Engineering Building 103

Drawing on stories recorded over a quarter-century of intermittent fieldwork 
in rural Rajasthan, my presentation highlights narrative expressions of human dignity.  I focus on stories told by persons located in degraded or disempowered social positions to see how such oral performances deny or transform essentialized identities to claim worth and transact agency, often in an idiom of devotion. The ways such narratives emerge from and potentially alter the conditions of tellers' and listeners' lives -- in other words how they might contribute to a politics of dignity -- is an open question for discussion.

Professor Gold specializes in teaching and research on Hindu traditions in modern India, religion and gender, religion in the natural environment, and oral performance. Her extensive fieldwork in the North Indian state of Rajasthan has included studies of pilgrimage, gender relations, epic tales of world renunciation, and cultural constructions of the environment. She has received fellowship awards from the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Spencer Foundation. Her current research centers on complex intersections of religious values and narratives with biodiversity conservation in the contexts of seed-saving movements and of sacred groves surrounding goddess shrines. Dr. Gold is also a Professor of Anthropology at The Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

This is the first of a series of presentations on the theme of Dignity and Subalterns in South Asia. Other scheduled presenters are: Anand Yang, Ajay Skaria, Aditya Behl, Sudipta Kaviraj, Cabeiri Robinson, and Craig Jeffrey.
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9)

Feb 16-17

5th Annual Western Regional International Health Conference 
February 16-18 2007, Venue: Various Locations on UW Seattle Campus

Register now for the Fifth Western Regional International Health Conference to be held here in Seattle on the University of Washington campus, February 16-18, 2007.  The conference theme "Global Health Through Different Lenses: Reflections, Perspectives, and Visions for the Future", challenges us to see global health through multiple viewpoints and disciplines and thus will present a diverse and exciting program for all who attend.  Dr. Jim Yong Kim, of Harvard University and Partners in Health will be our keynote lecturer and will present a talk entitled; "The Golden Age of Global Health: An Ethnography in Progress"!

Registrants will have access to over 50 breakout sessions and a pre-conference, Evans School-sponsored, Wolfle Lecture on Friday afternoon (4:30-5:30p) by Dr. Helene Gayle of CARE.  On Saturday evening there will be a special screening of the documentary film Salud! which highlights the Cuban healthcare system.  This conference is organized by an interdisciplinary group of undergraduate, graduate and professional students at the University of Washington with the assistance of various faculty and organizational members of the Puget Sound Partners for Global Health.

Topics at the conference include: Refugees, conflict situations and health, Global health and the environment, HIV vaccine development, Health promotion through the arts, Building new health systems and minimizing aid colonization, Film, film festivals and representation, Health Consequences of the Iraq war, Water quality and human health, Oral health disparities around the globe

To register and for more information on the conference, visit the PSPGH website at www.pspgh.org

Space is limited so do register early as we have reached capacity in previous
Years. Questions, please feel free to e-mail conference co-chairs, Daren Wade, dwade at u.washington.edu and Ashok Reddy, reddya at u.washington.edu.

7)

Nov 4, 2006 – Feb 4, 2007

Vanished Kingdoms and Sacred Portraits from Tibet
November 4, 2006 – February 4, 2007
Venue - Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, UW
Vanished Kingdoms: The Wulsin Photographs of Tibet, China, and Mongolia, 1921-1925 is an exhibit of 39 compelling color images of rare colored lantern slides taken by two young American explorers, Janet E. and Frederick R. Wulsin, Jr., from the collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

Janet was one of the first American women explorers to reach western China, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet. Together they produced this series of superb photographs of the Ta'er, Labuleng and Zhuoni lamaseries, religious ceremonies, and landscapes they encountered during their expedition for the National Geographic Society in 1923. Shown publicly for the first time, this traveling exhibit is organized by PEM in conjunction with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

Vanished Kingdoms showcases 39 stunning prints, on loan from the Frederick R. Wulsin photographic collection at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) commissioned renowned digital artist Fernando Azevedo to create the archival inkjet prints, which reveal, in large scale, the intricately detailed interiors as well as breathtaking landscapes found in the original hand-colored lantern slides. 
Augmenting the photographs of Vanished Kingdoms through February 4, is Sacred Portraits from Tibet, a display of Burke Museum thangkas, large, delicately painted Tibetan religious paintings. Thangkas typically feature portraits of arhats or Buddhist saints and important lamas or Buddhist teachers. Paintings made between the 17th and early 20th centuries demonstrate not only the rich iconography of Tibetan Buddhist tradition, but also the exquisite painterly skills in portraiture and illustration.

The exhibit will include a thangka of the four-armed Avalotitešvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion, painted especially for the Burke by local artist and well-known monk, Dhawa Dhondup Ngoche. One of Ngoche’s own traditional Tibetan Buddhist altars will also be displayed amongst the thangkas in the exhibit.

Sacred Portraits from Tibet is sponsored by the Blakemore Foundation with support from the Hugh and Jane Ferguson Foundation, the Sidney Fund, and the Silk Road Foundation. Vanished Kingdoms and Sacred Portraits from Tibet have the active participation and approval of Tibetan religious and community leaders in Seattle. 
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8)

April 6, 2007

Vedic Cultural Center Presents:

An Evening to remember with noted playback singer Padmasri Hariharan
Friday, April 06th 2007 at 7:30 PM
Meany Hall, University of Washington, Seattle.

Featuring songs from North to South, Geet to Ghazals & popular songs with
Live Orchestra

Suggested Donation(s) (and not limited to):
$25, $35, $50, $100, $250 (VIP) & $500 (VVIP).

Donations ($250 and higher) are now accepted for advertisement in Program
Brochure in color!!!

All proceeds from the concert will benefit construction of VCC for future
generations.

Advance tickets are available online at:
https://www.sulekha.com/ticketsV3/buytickets.aspx?cid=492657

Donations will be matched by Microsoft and other participating companies.

Advance ticket purchases will get preferred seating choice.
For advance tickets & more information please contact:
hariharan2007 at gmail.com

The Vedic Cultural Center (A 501 (c) (3) Non Profit Organization registered in WA), 1420, 228th Ave SE, Sammamish, WA 98075 Ph: (425) 558-4251     http://www.vedicculturalcenter.org

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Juned Shaikh,
PhD Student,
Department of History,
R.A, South Asia Center,
University of Washington.
juneds at u.washington.edu