Seminar – 14 October – Maria Lundberg and Yong Zhou

October 6th, 2014 by anna.c
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ALL WELCOME

4.30–6.00 Mond Building Seminar Room

Maria Lundberg and Yong Zhou

Norwegian Centre for Human Rights

Rights of Peoples and Minorities in Development in China

Abstract

The discourse on minority nationalities and development in China has little content with regard to the realization of rights and the rule of law. In view of the challenges that natural resources exploitation and enviromental protection in regional national autonomous areas pose to the cultural survival and the material basis of peripheral peoples and minorities, this seminar shall discuss some obstacles to the institutionalization of group rights in China. A few case studies in relation to projects of hydropower development and ecological resettlements shall be the focus.

The research has been undertaken under the China Autonomy Program at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo.

Climate Histories Interdisciplinary Discussion Series – Seminar programme 2014-2015

September 30th, 2014 by anna.c
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Climate Histories Interdisciplinary Discussion Series

The Climate Histories Interdisciplinary Seminar is about bringing  together and expanding a network of people from different backgrounds (sciences, arts, humanities, and social sciences, as well as people working in policy, media, and industry) to tackle questions about climate and environmental change in the past, present, and future.

The general questions we ask as a network are: Why does environmental knowledge matter? What can we learn about climate change from history? How can different disciplines work together to develop our understanding? (See our website created for a one-year AHRC  network project at http://climatehistories.innerasiaresearch.org/)

The aim of the seminar series will be to share knowledge, start conversations, and work towards new ways of thinking for future research projects.

Michaelmas Term: In this first term we propose to call on the expertise of people who are observing shifts in global environmental conditions and are involved in producing public accounts of those observations.

Programme

Wednesday October 8th  14:30-16:30 Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, CRASSH:

Roundtable Discussion on Fracking – Natalie Bennett (Leader, Green Party UK), David Reiner (Cambridge Judge Business School & Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge), Tim Harris (The Warriors Call, Anti-Fracking Initiative)
Chaired by Susan Crate (George Mason University)

Thursday October 9th  10:00 – 12:00 Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, CRASSH:

A 1 hour talk (followed by 1 hour Q & A) on the subject of ‘Climate change and interdisciplinary anthropology’
Title:
’Anthropological Investigations of the Bottom-Up Complexity and Adaptive Challenges of Change in Contemporary Rural Contexts’ – Susan Crate

Wednesday 22 October Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, CRASSH:

TBA

Wednesday 05 November Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, CRASSH:

Technology, Climate Change, and Engineering Solutions – Herta Nobauer (Vienna)

Wednesday 19 November Room SG1, Alison Richard Building, CRASSH:

Trails and Mapping of Climate Change in North America – Michael Bravo (Cambridge) at Climate Histories

Wednesday 03 December Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, CRASSH:

Communicating Climate Change through Art – Steve Waters (Theatre Director), Edvard Hviding (Bergen) at Climate Histories

2 October 2014 – Learning Pathways through Changing Places: Exploring the Global

September 29th, 2014 by admin
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Learning Pathways through Changing Places:
Exploring the Global

Thursday 2nd October, 3pm to 6pm; Nihon Room, Pembroke College:

Faculty of Education and Division of Social Anthropology

Introduction: Dr Richard Irvine discusses cross-cultural element and initial findings of the pilot study

Part 1: UK

Hildegard Diemberger discusses the Skype cross-cultural exchange between primary schools in Nepal, Italy and East Cambridgeshire followed by Q and A.

Chair: Richard Irvine

Part 2: MONGOLIA

Zulfikar Sarkit  and Amaraa Dorj discuss Education and Change in Mongolia followed by Q and A.

Chair: David Sneath

Part 3: ALASKA

Jana Harcharek is an Inupiaq woman from Barrow, Alaska with decades of experience thinking about the intersections between Inupiaq and Western ways of knowing as they come together in the classroom and the importance for young people to have Inupiaq forms of learning validated.  She has worked with Inupiaq teachers from the North Slope Borough primary and secondary schools to design curricula which reflect Inupiaq modes of learning and knowing.  She will discuss some of the ways her experiences have helped to open up new pathways for learning and teaching.  The talk will be followed by Q and A.

Chair: Barbara Bodenhorn

Part 4: FILM – ONE HOME: The Alaska-Mexico Interchange

Between 2006 and 2011 young people from indigenous communities on the North Slope of Alaska, the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca (Mexico) and the Purepecha region of Michoacan had the opportunity to live together for a month (alternate years in Alaska and Mexico) learning about their respective environments from elders, scientists, resource managers, host families, and each other. Corey Ahnangnatoguk, a young Inupiaq (Eskimo) man made a film about this experience from his perspective. The words, music, and images are his but he has been mentored of by Dustinn Craig, a Native American film-maker from Arizona. The film is a personal exploration of an intense, alternative educational experience which was transformative for many of the young participants. The showing will be followed by Q and A.

Chair: Barbara Bodenhorn

Buddha’s Word: The Life of Books in Tibet and Beyond – EXHIBITION

May 29th, 2014 by anna.c
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Buddha’s Word: The Life of Books in Tibet and Beyond
28 May 2014 – 17 January 2015

Some of the world’s oldest Sanskrit and Buddhist manuscripts – and a gift from the 13th Dalai Lama – go on display from today at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA).

Buddha’s Word: The Life of Books in Tibet and Beyond puts on display for the first time the museum’s astonishing Buddhist artefacts and brings together collections and research from MAA, the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, and the Fitzwilliam Museum – as well as the University Library, the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and Emmanuel and Pembroke Colleges.

Seminar – 3 June – Agnieszka Helman-Wazny

May 23rd, 2014 by admin
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ALL WELCOME

4.30 Tuesday 3 June in the Mond Building Seminar Room

Agnieszka Helman-Wazny

University of Arizona

Text and texture:  Buddhist Scriptures and Tibetan Papermaking Traditions in Light of New Discoveries

Abstract

Tibetans established their own papermaking tradition and created a unique type of paper by using an individual ‘floating’ mould, which is placed on a water surface such as lake, pond, river, or puddle. The specificity of Tibetan papermaking lies in the properties of native plants, the living conditions of peoples dwelling on the world’s highest plateau, and aspects of Tibetan culture that together create a distinctive craft. The high altitude of the Tibetan Plateau and the extremes of its climate make the vegetation distinctive from all other areas of Asia.

This seminar will discuss the distinctive features of Tibetan papermaking technology and properties of Tibetan paper. The talk will be illustrated with examples from still extant papermaking workshops in Central Tibet and the results of the fibre analyses of recently collected papermaking plants and selected Tibetan books from the region. Among others under discussion will be paper identified in Puri Collection manuscripts (now preserved in Tibet University Library) dated as early as ninth century and paper in the earliest surviving xylograph book from Central Tibet dated to 1407 printed under the auspices of the scholar Bo dong phyogs las rnam rgyal (1376–1451).