And for you west coast folks, a whole lot of events coming up at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
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Film Screening: Budrus
When: Wednesday, April 4, 7:00 PM
Where: 105 North Gate Hall
Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women's contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today.
In an action-filled documentary chronicling this movement from its infancy, Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolence to confront a threat. The movie is directed by award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha, and produced by Bacha, Palestinian journalist Rula Salameh, and filmmaker and human rights advocate Ronit Avni. (MORE)
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Nadav Greenberg, the Outreach and Programming Coordinator at Just Vision Media.
The Horace M. Albright Lecture in Conservation
The U.S. Farm Bill: What’s at Stake?
When: Thursday, April 5, 6:30 PM
Where: Wheeler Auditorium
The U.S. Farm Bill is the single most important piece of legislation determining what Americans eat. Join us for a panel discussion on what’s at stake in the upcoming U.S. Farm Bill with:
Michael Pollan, John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism and Director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism, UC Berkeley
Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture
Ken Cook, President and Co-Founder of the Environmental Working Group
Patricia Crawford, Director of the Atkins Center for Weight and Health and Adjunct Professor, College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley
Moderated by Gordon Rausser, Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley
This is a free, public event. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Free tickets are available at the Wheeler Auditorium Box Office at 5:00 PM on the day of the event. Doors open at 6:00 PM.
This discussion will be recorded and available online after the event.
Event Contact: Sasha Keller | 510.643.1051
Living Portraits of the Human World: A conversation with JONATHAN HARRIS, computer scientist, storyteller, statistician, designer and Cowbird creator
When: Monday, April 10, 1:00 PM
Where: North Gate Hall Library
Jonathan Harris makes projects that reimagine how humans relate to technology and to each other. Combining elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art and storytelling, his projects range from building the world's largest time capsule to documenting an Alaskan Eskimo whale hunt on the Arctic Ocean. He is the co-creator of We Feel Fine, which measures the emotional temperature of the human world through large-scale blog analysis, and created recent projects about online dating, modern mythology, anonymity, news and language.
View the Cowbird website here.
Does Narrative Journalism Have a Future Online?
When: Monday, April 16, 6:30 PM
Where: North Gate Hall Library
A panel discussion with Gerry Marzorati (former editor, New York Times Magazine), Mark Bryant (editor, Byliner) and Eric Ratliff (editor, The Atavist).
******* EVENTS OF INTEREST *******
Primal Ireland: Photo exhibit by Sally Mack
When: March 1-31, 2012
Where: The Faculty Club
The Newgrange Passage Tomb (Bru Na Boinne) is 5,000 years old, its purpose unknown. It had been closed up for untold centuries before its re-discovery in 1699 when the owner began building a road through the hillside, uncovering the front of the tomb. It's on a hillside so rocky that at times it has been used as a quarry.
From 1699 through the 1960s, the tomb was open, people entered at will, carving their names in the stones, removing any grave goods (or anything else) that might have given clues to the purpose of the tomb. It has a "light box" above the entrance which aligns perfectly with the rising sun on the day of the winter solstice. The groups of three carved spirals on the stone in front of the entrance and inside the tomb are comprised of a single line.
Some photos of the exhibit can be seen on Sally Mack's website. All photos were taken on film with a classic Hasselblad camera and printed through an enlarger from the original negatives.
Please contact Sally Mack (photos@sallymack.us) if you would like more information to to see more photos.
"Understanding the Political Landscape: The Use and Abuse of Polls"
Jon Cohen, Director of Polling, The Washington Post
When: Monday, April 2, 12:00 PM
Where: Harris Room, 119 Moses Hall
Lunch will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
Jon Cohen is director of polling for The Washington Post. He is responsible for conceptualizing, implementing and analyzing all Post polls, and co-directs the Post-ABC and Post-Kaiser-Harvard surveys. He instituted the Post’s polling blog, Behind the Numbers, and frequently discusses public opinion on radio and television, as well as online chats. Before joining The Washington Post in 2006, he was assistant polling director at ABC News in New York and associate survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco. He holds an M.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. In addition to reporting on Post polls, Jon is primary editor, gatekeeper and reporter for all public opinion content used by The Washington Post.
Event Contact: 510.642.1473
The Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service presents the 31st Annual Review of the Presidency
Election Year: The Obama Presidency and the 2012 Campaign
When: Monday, April 2, 7:30 PM
Where: 105 Stanley Hall
As President Obama seeks a second term, we examine his presidency and the 2012 election. Is the president to blame for the stagnant economy that has bedeviled his administration? Would any president have been able to engineer a speedier economic recovery? How has the president managed the foreign policy challenges of his time? Has he met the need for symbolic leadership from the president? And what of the Republicans who seek to replace him? Four years after a dramatic election that made American history, what should we expect from the election of 2012?
31st Annual Review Panelists
Andrew E. Busch, Professor of Government and Associate Dean of the Faculty at Claremont McKenna College
John Fund, Senior Editor, The American Spectator and author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy
Anne E. Kornblut, White House correspondent for the Washington Post and author of Notes From the Cracked Ceiling
Paul Pierson, John Gross Endowed Chair, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley and author of Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
Event Contact: 510.642.1473
ASMP NorCal Presents Lee Foster on “Entrepreneurial Travel Photo Publishing”
When: Tuesday, April 10, 6:30 PM
Where: 141 McCone Hall
ASMP member Lee Foster will talk about what he calls “Entrepreneurial Travel Photo Publishing.” Lee hopes to provide ASMP members with practical information and inspiration on how their photo marketing can flourish in a more entrepreneurial manner.
Lee Foster is an award-winning travel writer/photographer, winner of eight Lowell Thomas Awards, the highest prize in travel journalism. All of Lee’s contemporary work in travel writing/photography can be seen at his website www.fostertravel.com. Lee has published 10 books, 3 apps, and 3 ebooks. His work has appeared in all the leading U.S. travel magazines and newspapers, from Travel + Leisure to the New York Times. His partnership with the main worldwide travel book company, Lonely Planet, has presented his photos in more than 225 of their books. Lee’s first “independent” book was his travel literary book (with photos) titled Travels in an American Imagination, which is now out as a print book and an ebook.
Purchase tickets here.
Event Contact: 415.839.3049
The Mugging of Main Street in America: Implications for the World with Robert Scheer
When: Thursday, April 26, 7:30 PM
Where: International House
Robert Scheer, Editor-in-Chief of "Truthdig.com", has built a reputation for strong social and political writing over his 30 years as a journalist. His in-depth interviews have made headlines, including the famous Playboy magazine interview in which Jimmy Carter confessed to the lust in his heart and notable Los Angeles Times interviews with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and many other prominent political and cultural figures. A USC professor and radio personality on Left, Right and Center with Arianna Huffington, Scheer is the author of The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street. Mr. Scheer will speak to the current social, political, and economic climate in the U.S. and its implications for the world today.
Purchase tickets here.
Event Contact: ihprograms@berkeley.edu, 510.642.9460
Philosophy Talk: Live at The Marsh
When: Sunday, April 29 (see below for times)
Where: The Marsh Theatre (2120 Allston Way, Berkeley)
Philosophy Talk, the nationally syndicated radio program that, "questions everything, except your intelligence," is back in Berkeley on April 29th, to record two new live episodes:
At noon, it's "Identities Lost & Found in a Global Age" with U.C. Berkeley English Professor Bharati Mukherjee.
Throughout human history, people have tended to live and die in the same place, or at least the same region, in which they¹re born. Place is an important part of one's identity. But what happens when people are deprived of this sense of place? What psychological effects do emigrants, exiles, and expatriates endure? What happens to the importance of place when community membership can be based on common interests among people linked by email and facebook? Do we risk losing an important part of human life? Or do we gain freedom from the lottery of birth? John and Ken situate themselves with UC Berkeley English Professor Bharati Mukherjee, author of Miss New India and other novels exploring migration, alienation, and identity.
At 3pm, we confront "Hypocrisy" with Lawrence Quill, from San Jose State University.
Hypocrites believe one thing, but do another. Jefferson opposed slavery, but owned slaves. Jesus professed universal love, but cursed an innocent fig tree. Jerry Brown opposes the death penalty, but as governor of California will be responsible for executions. Hypocrites all but vile hypocrites? Surely it was better that Jefferson was a hypocrite, and articulated the case against slavery, than not opposing it at all. Does it take courage to defend a view that you, yourself, don't have the courage or the character to follow through on? John and Ken try to practice what they preach with Lawrence Quill from San Jose State University, author of Civil Disobedience: (Un)Common Sense in Mass Democracies.
Purchase tickets here.
Event Contact: 415.826.5750
