“Israel-Palestine: What the Media Leave Out”

On Friday, April 19, at 3PM in ECTR 116, award winning journalist and media critic Alison Weir will discuss what American news media are not revealing about Israel-Palestine. The press is arguably the most powerful institution in the United States; it provides the kinds of information that Americans use to form their conclusions about issues and candidates seeking election. Weir will detail the media’s filtering that prevents the public from receiving the full facts on Israel-Palestine; she will also discuss the systemic and structural causes of the situation.

AlisonWeir

Veteran journalist Alison Weir is the Executive Director of “If Americans Knew,” a non-profit organization that specializes in statistical and factual information on Israel-Palestine and the media’s coverage of the region. Weir is also President of the Council for the National Interest, a group founded 19 years ago by congressmen and ambassadors to work for foreign policies not dominated by special interests. Weir’s speeches have included briefings on Capitol Hill and to the National Press Club and presentations at the Asia Media Summit in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. She has lectured at several universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley and the Naval Postgraduate Institute. Weir is generally considered the foremost analyst on media coverage of Israel-Palestine. Her articles have appeared in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, CounterPunchThe New Intifada, Censored 2005, and the Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. She narrated the award-winning documentary Occupation 101.

 

Alison Weir’s appearance is co-sponsored by the College of Charleston’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Office of Institutional Diversity, and Charleston Peace One Day. The lecture will be followed by an informal reception.

 

Sidney Rittenberg: Screening “The Revolutionary”

 Sidney Rittenberg

Screening: The Revolutionary

Monday, April 15, 2013 at 7:00PM

Stern Center Ballroom

The Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program is sponsoring a documentary screening of The Revolutionary, followed by a lecture from the film’s subject, native Charlestonian Sidney Rittenberg.

Sidney Rittenberg arrived in China as a GI Chinese language expert at the end of World War II. Discharged there, he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and was an active participant in the Chinese communist revolution and its aftermath. An intimate of the Party’s leadership, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he gained prominence at the Broadcast Administration, one of the most important agencies of government. But in the convulsions of a giant country constantly reinventing itself, he twice ran afoul of the leadership, and served a total of 16 years in solitary confinement. He returned to the United States in 1980. –revolutionarymovie.com

The event is co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Program, International Studies, and the School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs. Please encourage your students and colleagues to attend what promises to be a fascinating evening.

rittenberg

 

LTJP 390 Special Topics: “Japanese Novels” in the fall!

LTJP 390 ST: “Japanese Novels” in the fall!

We will read several Japanese novels that are widely considered masterpieces in Japan. The novels we will read are:

Kokoro (1914) by Sôseki Natsume (1867-1916)
The Makioka Sisters (1943-48) by Jun’ichrô Tanizaki(1886-1965)
No Longer Human (1948) by Osamu Dazai (1909-48)
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1952) by Yukio Mishima (1925-70)
Fires on the Plain (1955) by Shôhei Ôoka(1909-88)
The Woman in the Dunes (1962) by Kôbô Abe (1924-93)
Black Rain (1966) by Masuji Ibuse(1898-1993)
The Silent Cry (1967) by Kenzaburô Ôe (1935- )

There’s no prerequisite, and it will count towards the requirements for the Humanities section of the General Education, the Japanese Studies minor or the Asia Concentration of the International Studies major. The assignments will consist of submitting discussion questions, keeping a response journal, and writing three short analysis papers. There will also be midterm and final exams, which are in the short essay format. It’s a discussion class. I hope many of you will take it!