2016-2017 Events
Sunday, April 23rd
In Algeria They Know My Name
4:30 PM, Black Box, Theatre
This play is written and performed by Taous Khazem ’03 and directed by Zaraawar Mistry. In Algeria, they say you don’t marry one finger, you marry all ten. In this heartfelt and humorous one woman play, Minnesota raised Taous Khazem travels to her father’s homeland to work as a theater artist, and unexpectedly falls in love with an Algerian clown. Caught in between traditions, religions and misconceptions, Taous struggles to find a sense of belonging in a foreign land, but ultimately discovers a fresh meaning of home, family, art and bicycle rides.
Thursday, April 13th
“The Burkini: a roundtable about what the veil means in France”
6:30-8:30 PM at the Alliance Française in Minneapolis.
Alliance Française and the Department of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota present a round table discussion about the current controversies in France regarding wearing the veil and burkini. The discussion will be led by three professors of French, Anne Berger, Hakim Abderrezak and Bruno Chaouat.
The discussion will be in French.
The event will take place at the Alliance Française and admission is free.
Monday, March 27
“Trump, Brexit, and the French Presidential Elections: A Historical Perspective on Racism and Xenophobia in Europe.”
4:45 PM, Neill Hall 401
Jessica Pearson
In the summer of 2016, Britain’s decision to leave the European Union unleashed a new wave of xenophobic nationalism in Europe. In the wake of “Brexit,” right-wing parties in Europe such as the United Kingdom Independence Party, Germany’s AfD, the Alternative für Deutschland, and France’s National Front have capitalized on recent terrorist attacks, higher rates of unemployment, and the influx of refugees to mobilize anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and anti-Semitic rhetoric and policies. While recent global events have galvanized European xenophobia, these movements have important historical precedents. This talk will explore the roots of the present-day European racism by contextualizing it in the history of global decolonization after 1945.
Monday, November 7
“Dalia an Odyssey – a poignant and playful tale of exile”
4:45 PM, Neill Hall 401
Bernard Salva
A teenage Somalian girl, landing secretly in Canada to escape a forced marriage, meets up with Albert, a crazy vagrant who’s deeply in love with theater.
Bernard Salva’s Dalia – an Odyssey, written and performed in Edmonton (Alberta) in 2014, brings a new aspect to the landscape of franco-albertan culture with a cross-cultural stage. Though its heroine travels from one tragedy to another, the play celebrates also the joy and vitality of theater, whose constant call is to live as one, through the exuberance of a poetic human connection. The play-within-a-play, and the character of the idiosyncratic Albert who wrote it, exemplify this vitality.
Bernard Salva is a French actor, director, playwright and drama teacher. He has taught at Campus Saint Jean University of Alberta since 2003.
Wednesday, November 2, 4:45 PM, Neill Hall 401
“Scripting Revolution, Fractured Time, and the Construction of Ethical Citizens”
Daniel Brewer from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
As event, idea, and experience, modernity has been described as involving a crisis in political and ethical life. That crisis also involves a reconceptualization of the notion of time. How can the French Revolution and its problematic legacy help us understand that modernity? In the wake of the Revolution and the advent of modernity, to what extent does the notion of the ethical subject (the “virtuous citizen,” in revolutionary parlance) remain intact?
Tuesday, September 27 at 4:45 PM in Neill Hall 401
“Brexit: Demise? A New Start?”
Catherine Guisan
This lecture will explain the Brexit process (the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union), its origins, current state, and what to expect in the coming years, from the points of view of British, EU and US interests. It will offer some comments also on the role of direct democracy in European integration. Indeed, there are several kinds of direct democracy, an issue little understood or discussed, but which matters politically a great deal. Finally, should we consider Brexit as signaling the demise of the European Union or could it mark a new start? Obviously, opinions will vary on this question. However, knowledge of the political mindsets of the 1950s pioneers of European integration reveals that Brexit might be considered a new start as much as a demise. A QA session will follow the lecture.
Catherine Guisan, PhD, is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and affiliated faculty to the Master of Human Rights Program at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She has taught in five European universities also, including European University, Saint Petersburg, Russia as a 2013 Fulbright Scholar. She is the author of Un sens à l’Europe: Gagner la Paix (1950-2003) (Odile Jacob, 2003) and A Political Theory of Identity in European Integration: Memory and policies (Routledge, 2011). Her research interests include applied political theory, the formation of collective identities in new polities, the responses of civil society to political conflicts, and the politics of reconciliation across the European continent. She has published articles and book chapters on these topics, and is currently completing an article on Russian “usable pasts” and democratization.