International Institute, Borders Books partner on book series

Beginning this month, the International Institute and Borders Books will partner on an international book series, entitled “The World Beyond Our Borders.” The six-month series will feature UW–Madison faculty discussing their recent books on a variety of international subjects.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for us to bring the UW–Madison closer to the greater Madison area community, and to share our faculty’s knowledge and insights about the world,” says Gilles Bousquet, dean of International Studies.

The talks will be held at Borders West, 3750 University Ave., and will begin at 7 p.m. (A schedule is below. Dates are subject to change.)

The first author will be Michael Barnett, speaking Monday, Jan. 27 on “Bystanders to Genocide: The UN and Rwanda.” Barnett is a professor of political science and director of the International Studies major. He is author of Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda (Cornell University Press, 2002). Barnett, who was a political officer at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations from 1993 to 1994, covered Rwanda during much of the period of genocide. Based on his first-hand experiences, research and interviews, he reconstructs the history of UN involvement in Rwanda.

“This insightful, balanced book reveals an unsettling paradox: in making choices it deemed moral, the UN tolerated the ultimate immorality of genocide,” says Publishers Weekly.

Other talks in the series include:

Wednesday, Feb. 5: Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney
TALK TITLE: “The Kamikaze Pilots and the Aesthetics of War Propaganda”

Ohnuki-Tierney is William F. Vilas Professor at the UW–Madison and author of Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History. (The University of Chicago Press, 2002). Drawing on diaries hitherto unpublished in English, Ohnuki-Tierney describes how highly educated student soldiers “volunteered” to serve in Japan’s tokkotai (or kamikaze) operations toward the end of World War II. Her book is a fascinating study of the role of symbolism and aesthetics in totalitarian ideology, and how the state manipulated the Japanese cherry blossom symbol to convince young Japanese men that it was their honor to die for the emperor.

Thursday, March 13: Myra Marx Ferree
TALK TITLE: ‘”Debating Abortion: Germany and the U.S.”

Marx Ferree is a professor of sociology and acting director of the European Union Center, and is the co-author of Shaping Abortion Discourse: Parties, Movements and Publics in Germany and the US (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Using controversy over abortion as a lens through which to compare the political process and role of the media in these two very different democracies, this book examines the contest over meaning that is being waged by social movements, political parties, churches and other social actors. Abortion is a critical battleground for debates over social values in Germany and the U.S., but the constitutional premises on which arguments rest differ, as do the strategies that movements and parties adopt.

Wednesday, April 9: Florencia Mallon
TALK TITLE: “Writing the Life of a Mapuche Feminist”

Mallon is a professor of history and senior resident fellow, Institute for Research in the Humanities, and the editor/translator of When a Flower is Reborn: The Life and Times of a Mapuche Feminist (written by Rosa Isolde Reuque Paillalef and published by Duke University Press, October 2002). The book chronicles Reuque’s leadership within the Mapuche indigenous rights movement in Chile, and takes the form of a conversation between Mallon and Reuque, making an important contribution to debates on the crafting of Latin American testimonial literature.

Thursday, May 15: Jeremi Suri
TALK TITLE: “Protest and War: The Œ60’s and Today”

Suri is an assistant professor of history and the author of Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente (Harvard University Press, April 2003). The book has drawn national media attention over the differences and similarities between the major protest movements of the 1960s and the comparative lack of protest on current issues such as civil liberties and Iraq.

Monday, June 2: David Leheny
TALK TITLE: “Golf, Playstations, and Package Tours: How Leisure Became Political in Japan”

Leheny is an assistant professor of political science and the author of The Rules of Play: National Identity and the Shaping of Japanese Leisure (Cornell University Press, April 2003). The book examines the Japanese government’s efforts to affect citizens‚ leisure choices. Although the book recognizes the significant political and economic incentives faced by the officials creating these policies, it argues that they can be understood only by linking them to a long-term debate in Japan over national identity. The Japanese, it is commonly accepted, are “unique” and unlike any other nation; by the same token, as citizens of an advanced industrial nation, the Japanese are expected to behave in ways that resemble the activities of Americans and Europeans. Japan’s leisure policies demonstrate that the government has tried to emulate standards and norms of leisure from abroad, tweaking them marginally to make them more authentically “Japanese.”