IES conducts outreach activities that enhance the Institute’s visibility on campus and in the local community. In addition to holding numerous talks and conferences (which are always open to the public), IES partially funds the work of the Office of Resources for International and Area Studies (ORIAS). ORIAS’ mission is to develop and strengthen ties between IES and other Berkeley NRCs and K-14 schools and educators. Through its website, newsletter, and workshops, ORIAS disseminates information about events and resources on international topics to California K-14 teachers. Among the resources available from ORIAS are curricular materials, web resource lists, guest speakers, and electronic mentors. During academic years 2008-10, IES funding was used to stage teacher workshops and seminars for the ORIAS Working Group Series, develop curricular materials for the ORIAS classroom resource website, and support ORIAS’ Summer Institutes.
The 2009 Summer Institute, titled “Visible Power: Art in National Life” explored the unique evidence that art supplies for teaching world history themes. IES provided support for general conference expenses and two scholar presentations: “Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century French Painting,” by Professor of Art History Darcy Grimaldo-Grigsby; and “Representing Aliyah: Migration, Memory, and Belonging in Israeli Visual Culture” by NRC Assistant Director Noga Wizansky. The 2010 Summer Institute, “Causes and Consequences of Imperialism,” explored the causes, tools, and legacies of imperialism in world history. In addition to supporting the institute’s development, IES offered research stipends for two presentations on imperialism in the European context: “Teaching about Imperialism in World History” by Professor Joseph Lough of the IAS Teaching Program; and “Roman Imperialism between Republic and Empire” by Professor of History and Classics Carlos Norena.
IES continues to fund teacher working groups held in conjunction with Humanities West (HW), a San Francisco-based organization serving the general public and educators with thematic events featuring expert lectures and panel discussions on history, art, literature, and musical performance. At these events teachers from Bay Area high schools attend two days of presentations and participate in a break-out lunch workshop. In April 2009 UC Berkeley Art History graduate student Camille Matthieu prepared a workshop session on Napoleonic portraiture for an HW program titled “Napoleon: European Culture at the Crossroads.” In October 2010 UC Berkeley Astronomy graduate student Nia Imara prepared materials on astronomy and the study of scientific thinking in international contexts for an HW program on “Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler.” In April 2010 Susan McKillop, professor emerita of Art History at Sonoma State University, led a session on Florence in the early stages of the Renaissance for an HW program on Florence of the Medici.
Between 2008 and 2010 IES collaborated with the European Union Center of Excellence, the Institute of Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies, and ORIAS to organize two workshops aiming to familiarize regional grade 6-12 teachers and community college instructors with the governmental institutions of the EU and the issues engaging it. Participants represented a cross-section of language, area/cultural studies, and history teachers from high schools and community colleges in Northern California. The 2009 workshop was designed to provide them with a general introduction to European values and the reasons for their appeal across the globe. In 2010 the workshop addressed migration and labor issues in the EU. In 2009 IES collaborated with ORIAS and other Area Studies units to stage an additional teacher workshop entitled “Energy through the Ages: Stories of Energy in Social and Political Life around the World.” This session explored ways the topic of energy can help students place science into the context of history, human rights, and development.
During the period encompassed by this Report, IES continued adapting proceedings from yearly conferences into curricular resource materials for K-14 educators. Produced by selected graduate students, this project helps bring new academic research into public school curricula, and provides Berkeley students with an opportunity to apply their scholarly training in educational realms outside of academia. In 2008-09 PhD candidate Sarah Anne Minkin of the Department of Sociology developed a resource packet adapting an IES public outreach program on “Gender, Islam, and the West.” In 2009-10 PhD candidate Katrina Dodson of the Department of Comparative Literature produced resources drawing upon two events organized by the EU Center: a symposium titled “Food: History and Culture in the West,” and a panel discussion of “Food, Culture, and Identity in a Global Society,” featuring Gastronomica Editor Darra Goldstein and USC Professor of Sociology Barry Glassner.
IES also contributed to the UC Berkeley History/Social Science Project (SSHP), an outreach program for high school educators housed within the Department of History. This project provides regional educators with professional development and improved content knowledge, aligned to the California History-Social Science Framework and Content Standards. In 2009-10 SSHP held a series of weekend teacher workshops devoted to the theme of “Religion and Boundaries: Conflicts in World History.” The session addressing Europe was titled “Religion and Power in Ancient Rome” and led by Professor Carlos Norena of the Departments of History and Classics. SSHP also holds summer content institutes which provide educators with forty-four professional development hours. Its 2010 institute, “Technological Revolutions in World History,” offered lectures by two UC Berkeley professors of European history: “Technological Dynamism in Europe, 800-1800,” by Jan de Vries; and “The History of Modern Weapons as Large Technological Systems” by Michael Schuering.
World Savvy is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco and New York which recognizes that mainstream education has not adapted to the realities presented by an increasingly globalized world. It offers a range of services designed to assist teachers integrate global issues into existing curricula. During academic years 2008-10 IES supported World Savvy’s participation in the annual educator workshops on the European Union at UC Berkeley; the International interview project with participants from Italy, Greece, Germany, and Spain; acquisition of resources — films, lesson plans, readings, and teach-ins on Europe; and consulting and resources support for regional Spanish and French language teachers.
In 2008-09 IES faculty and staff organized a year-long public outreach program funded by the Social Sciences Research Council entitled “Gender, Islam, and the West.” The program brought UC Berkeley faculty together with other high-profile scholars, activist-intellectuals, journalists, writers, and filmmakers in a series of off-campus public lectures, film screenings, and discussions aiming to dispel stereotypes about the lives and status of Muslim women in Europe. In September 2008 Professor Tirza True Latimer of the California College of the Arts discussed Parvez Sharma’s film A Jihad for Love at the East Bay Jewish Community Center in Berkeley. In October 2008 Ian Buruma delivered talks at the San Francisco World Affairs Council and at UC Berkeley entitled “Islam and Europe: Multiculturalism and the Challenge of Tolerance.” In October 2008 Eric Dupin, chief editorialist of the French magazine Marianne, and Aracely Araceli of UC Berkeley’s French Studies Department held a public conversation addressing European perspectives on women and Islam at the San Francisco Alliance Française. In December 2008 IES collaborated with the Global Fund for Women to host a panel of scholars and activists speaking to an audience of GFW donors and program officers, campus members and the general public. In February 2009 anthropologists Lila Abu-Lughod of Columbia University and Saba Mahmood of UC Berkeley held a conversation titled “Do Muslim Women Want Rights?” at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. In February 2009, too, Joan Wallach Scott of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton spoke to members of the Sonoma County World Affairs Council and to UC Berkeley faculty and students about the veil controversies in France. In March 2004 IES contributed funding to a film series produced by the Berkeley Pacific Archive entitled “Women’s Cinema from Tangiers to Teheran.” As part of this series Iranian actress and director Niki Karimi visited the Bay area, giving two public talks and visiting a campus class on Iranian cinema and the West. Also in March, poet, author and filmmaker Roya Hakakian spoke to members of Berkeley’s reading community at Black Oak Books. In April 2009 Persis Karim, author and professor of Comparative Literature at San Jose State University, discussed memoir writing by Iranian women in the Western diaspora together with UC Berkeley Professor of Near Eastern Studies Jaleh Pirnazar. The event was held at Diesel Books in North Oakland
Additional information on this series can be found on the SSRC program page of IES’ website, on ORIAS’ resources pages, and in two interviews with Joan Wallach Scott and Roya Hakakian conducted by Harry Kreisler for the online video series “Conversations with History.”
IES produces a newsletter eNews, which is distributed electronically. The IES and EUCE websites receive together an average of 100,000 hits per month and are updated daily. Also available online through the California Digital Library is IES’ extensive working paper series, written by UC Berkeley and visiting scholars under the institute’s sponsorship.
Throughout the year IES organizes and hosts several events designed to bring together students, faculty, and staff to share their work with each other and our community friends. IES hosts “Tea Time” each semester, an informal gathering of IES colleagues and friends who get together for good conversation and a cup of tea. Each October, IES holds its annual reception, “The Fall Festival,” during which the institute introduces its entering graduate students, the chairs of the country programs, new visiting scholars, and IES staff as it formally launches the new academic year.
Teacher Training Programs
Between 2008 and 2010 IES contributed funds to foreign language instructors who teach Western European languages, through contributions to the Berkeley Language Center and travel awards. In Summer 2009, Luis Pascual Cordero Sanchez, PhD candidate in UC Berkeley’s Department of Spanish & Portuguese, traveled to Madrid to attend the course “Analysis and Treatment of Mistakes in the Classroom of Spanish as Foreign Language” hosted by the Instituto Cervantes. In Spring 2009 Inez Hollander-Lake received a grant to travel to the Netherlands for research and networking in conjunction with a textbook that she is currently writing, Dutch for Reading Knowledge.
