Events and Activities
Over the course of two years, OIP will plan and sponsor symposia, conferences, lectures, films, and cultural events to educate and inform the University and local community about the University’s work in the areas of Africa and Water in the World.
While sponsored by OIP, the initiative is designed to engage the entire University community, including all five campuses. All University units are encouraged to incorporate Global Spotlight themes into their events. OIP is interested in promoting and possibly co-sponsoring these events. Read more about how to Get Involved.
Upcoming and Recent Events
University and community organizations are encouraged to plan events related to Africa and/or Water in the World. To add your event to this calendar, please fill out the Submit an Event form. You can also download Global Spotlight logos to use in your publicity.
 The spotlight highlights events that are sponsored or co-sponsored by the Global Spotlight Initiative. |
| Date | Event Information |
Oct. 3
|
iAfrica: Connecting with Sub-Saharan Art This exhibition is an experiment with different ways to display and explain African art. It comprises about 28 objects, primarily sculptures, drawn mainly from the MIA's permanent collection, shown in various settings. For example, some employ different sorts of captions, with or without contextual photos. The settings explore degrees of the objects' accessibility, offer differing amounts of information, and use of audio-visual aids, among other parameters. (MORE) |
Oct. 16
|
Ruined |
Oct. 27
|
Celebrating 40 Years - African American Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Opening Reception In 1969 the University of Minnesota established the African American and American Indian Studies Departments, the second and first such departments respectively to be founded in the United States. To celebrate the anniversary of this historic event, the University Libraries, with the African American Studies Department and the American Indian Studies Department, have put together a display of archival materials commemorating 40 years of history. (MORE) |
Nov. 16
|
International Film Series
|
Nov. 17
|
ISSS Culture Corps Presents: "Watch Africa" The South African film "Tsotsi" illustrates the harsh realities and social dynamics in poor neighborhoods and shantytowns. |
Nov. 18
|
Presentation by Oromia Student Union & Eritrean Student Association |
Nov. 18
|
Visit South Africa and Botswana through pictures and stories Presented by Helen Mongan-Rallis, Trish O’Keefe, and Paula Pedersen |
Nov. 18
|
Invisible Children Screening: "Together We are Free" Invisible Children is coming back to the U to screen their latest film "Together We Are Free" and to tell us what we can do to the help end the longest running war in Africa. The film follows the course of IC's most recent advocacy event, titled "The Rescue". The event encouraged international youth who truly believe in and value creativity, idealism, and sacrifice to tangibly make a difference by "abducting themselves". These abductions represented the injustice that has been unleashed on east African children who have been taken from their families and forced to become soldiers in a rebel army known as the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army). The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with students and faculty with expertise on the issue and region. |
Nov. 24
|
Screening of the documentary, "Africa: Open for Business" |
Nov. 30
|
Info session participants include MN AIDS Project, Open Arms MN, FACE AIDS student group, Peace Corps, and Alex Marston and Anna Bartels, graduate students who are conducting research on AIDS in Africa. Presentations include:
RSVP to nunnx016@umn.edu or 612-626-8832 |
Dec. 3
|
Stewart Chirova, a Zimbabwe national, is the academic director of SIT Study Abroad's Botswana: Community-Based Natural Resource Management program. He received a bachelor's degree in agriculture from the University of Zimbabwe and a master of science and MPS in horticulture and environmental management from Cornell University. He has worked as a research associate at both the University of Zimbabwe and Cornell, where his research efforts were focused on sustainable agriculture, integrated pest management, watershed management, and geographic information systems. |
Dec. 8
|
Presenter: Claudia Parliament, Applied Economics South Africa faces a variety of challenges ranging from HIV/Aids, poverty, racial tensions to climate change. Universities are key institutions for developing and disseminating knowledge in support of policy responses to these challenges. The Applied Economics Department has developed relationships with the University of the Free State to build research collaborations to address these pressing challenges. This relationship led to a Graduate Student Study Tour to promote collaboration. Graduate students in Applied Economics will discuss their experience on the recent Study Tour and the value of developing research partnerships abroad. The 2Tuesday Series is a monthly event to highlight University of Minnesota activities related to the Global Spotlight focus on Africa and/or Water in the World. |
Dec. 11
|
Access to Justice for Women and Children Victim of War Conflict Ms. Koffi is a judge, with past experience as a prosecutor, and has been a deputy in the Youth Administration of the Department of Justice in Abidjan since 2001. She works with children who are in conflict with the law, authors reports for her Department, and is a human rights educator with a focus on children’s and women’s rights. During the Ivorian Crisis, women and children were exposed to sexual violence and gender inequality, and children were jailed for almost anything. She would like to share her experience and concerns of the many ongoing issues in the Ivory Coast. RSVP to ISSS Cultural Corps. (MORE) |
Feb. 9
|
Presenter: Thomas Fisher, Professor and Dean, College of Design Designers work directly for, at most, 10% of the global population, even though the other 90% need what designers provide – shelter, sanitation, security – even more than the wealthiest few. This has led some in the design community, which has traditionally followed a medical model of practice, to explore a form of practice more along the lines of public health, in which designers develop, in partnership with diverse communities around the world, low-cost, locally built prototypes that can meet people’s basic needs. The speaker will address the possibilities as well as some of the problems inherent in this work. The 2Tuesday Series is a monthly event to highlight University of Minnesota activities related to the Global Spotlight focus on Africa and/or Water in the World. |
Feb. 23
|
The Women and Water Rights: Rivers of Regeneration (WWR) project addresses the precarious state of the world’s fresh water supply and the global need for gender mainstreaming in water management. Through an art exhibition and related programs, WWR underscores the message that water access is a universal human right. (MORE) |
Feb. 24-27
|
34th Pan African Student Leadership Conference 2010 |
March 4-5
|
|
March 9
|
Presenter: Ron Aminzade, Professor, Sociology The 2Tuesday Series is a monthly event to highlight University of Minnesota activities related to the Global Spotlight focus on Africa and/or Water in the World. |
April 28
|
Contact: Fenando Meza at mezax001@umn.edu |
April 29
|
Born in Mutare, Zimbabwe, during the Chipurenga Chechipiri (second war of liberation), Nora Chipaumire begins her first major tour in the United States with her “love letter to Zimbabwe.” A self-exiled artist and Bessie Award winner, Chipaumire is known for her brave, transnational work that investigates cultural, political, economical, and technological identities of African contemporary life. Teaming up with master musician and poet Thomas Mapfumo (and his band The Blacks Unlimited), who is often referred to as “the Lion of Zimbabwe,” the show will be a dynamic hour-long performance of live music, dance, and projected video. (MORE) |