Center for South Asia hosts orientation for teachers on Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad

The Center for South Asia continued for the second year to provide training and orientation for 15 teachers traveling to India this summer in the Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad program.

The center, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education and with the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) in New Delhi, provided practical and educational information.

The teachers arrived in Madison for two days jam-packed with lectures, practical information and Q&A sessions, cultural events, and meals in a variety of South Asian restaurants before departing for New Delhi, India. 

The Pre-Departure Program included a South Indian vocal recital by Vanitha Suresh, a meeting local children's author Kashmira Sheth and a display of rare textiles and miniatures by Maya Lea and Drew Stevens in the Chazen Museum of Art.

The teachers also learned a few basic phrases in Hindi from the Center for South Asia Associate Director Lalita du Perron, and listened to some of the best speakers at UW-Madison.

Dr. Mitra Sharafi spoke about Indian history in a highly accessible manner and Dr. Aseema Sinha spoke engagingly on "India: A revolution of Rising Expectations" and Dr Kirin Narayan told a variety of Indian stories.

The Pre-Departure Orientation was organized by Rachel Weiss, Mike Kruse and Matt Sebranek of the Center for South Asia, and attended by UW-Madison alumnus Adam Grotsky, USIEF Director, and USIEF Senior Program officer Girish Kaul.

The Center for South Asia Director Dr. J. Mark Kenoyer gave the welcoming address.

Category: Area Studies
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Center for South Asia celebrates 50th Anniversary (1960-2010)

The launching of Sputnik I in 1957 led to the federal government's most significant participation in modern foreign language and area studies research and training in history – the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958.

The first NDEA grant to expand language and area studies in the UW-Madison Department of Indian Studies was acquired in 1960. With this grant, the UW-Madison South Asia Area Center (later renamed the Center for South Asia) was established.

The Center for South Asia is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year at UW-Madison.

The center, an affiliated  National Resource Center (NRC) Program, conducts a broad range of activities that include instruction, outreach, scholarly research, maintenance of library resources, and teacher training.

Collectively, these activities represent a programmatic effort that focuses on particular regions of the world and the relevant issues connected to those regions, and they constitute a national capacity in modern foreign language training and area and international studies.

UW-Madison actually has the largest number of NRCs in the country: http://www.wisc.edu/international/centers.php

A number of celebratory activities are planned for later in the year, some to coincide with the Annual Conference on South Asia in
October 2010.

For more information, please email Lalita du Perron at 608-262-3209 or duperron@southasia.wisc.edu

Category: Area Studies
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New Hindi language and culture course kicks off

The UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies is now offering an evening course in Basic Hindi and Indian Culture this spring.

Taught by Brajesh Samarth and Lalita du Perron of the Center for South Asia, the course offers an informal and relaxed atmosphere to learn the official language of communication of India's government.

This course is aimed at business people, government officials and anyone with an interest in India.

Approximately 450 million native speakers of Hindi live in India with millions more across the globe.  

Enrollment figures are encouraging and the center is excited about this new opportunity to engage with the larger community.  Learning the basics of Hindi can open a multitude of doors across the South Asian subcontinent.

For more information:  http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/classes/language.htm#hindi

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+700 Wisconsin high school students, teachers participate in World Languages Day

On November 18, 2009 the Language Institute hosted over 700 Wisconsin high school students and teachers at the ninth World Languages Day held on the UW-Madison campus. 

The popular outreach program introduces Wisconsin students to languages and cultures around the globe through workshops, presentations and performances led by UW-Madison faculty, staff and students. 

Workshops at World Languages Day span the globe and this year's event included:

• "Icons and Idols: A Journey into Argentine Popular Culture"
  
• "Write Your Name and Say Hello in Russian!"
  
• "Journey to the West, and through Chinese Characters"
• "Bollywood and Beyond: Hindi Songs in North India"
  

World Languages Day continues to be a popular field trip opportunity for high schools, attracting new schools each year.  This year, eights schools of 27 attended for the first time. 

Through World Languages Day, high school students discover and take home new interests that they might pursue in their future studies. 

One teacher said of the experience, "World Languages Day gave my students a taste of a college campus and opened their eyes to what was available for them to learn."

World Languages Day was made possible by the generous support of the College of Letters & Science Anonymous Fund; African Studies Program; Center for East Asian Studies; Center for European Studies; Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia; Center for South Asia; Global Studies and Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies. 

Category: Area Studies
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Nov. 21: 8th Annual Int'l Children's and Young Adult Literature Celebration

"Open a Book... Open a Door... Open your Mind... to the World" is an annual celebration of International Children's and Young Adult Literature sponsored by the Wisconsin International Outreach Consortium.

The all-day celebration will be on Saturday, November 21, featuring threeaward-winning authors Sylviane Diouf, Rachna Gilmore and James Rumford, and a scholar of Russian History, Kelly Herold.

The opening speaker, Megan Schliesman, is a librarian at the UW's Cooperative Children's Book Center. Sixy-five participants from Wisconsin and Illinois will attend this year's event.

Held in celebration of International Education Week, a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education, the aim of this workshop — designed for teachers, school and public librarians, students and faculty of education and library science — is to encourage the internationalization of school curriculum by incorporating literature about cultures from around the world that depicts unbiased and educated information.  [Read More]

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Celebrated Indian director, playwright, screenwriter visiting campus 10/19-25

The Department of Theatre and Drama and the Center for South Asia are honored to welcome celebrated playwright, actor, director, and screenwriter Girish Raghunath Karnad to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, October 19-25, 2009.

Karnad has been a commanding presence in Indian theatre, film, television, and cultural life more generally for more than four decades

His unique position as a front-rank playwright, media celebrity, and public intellectual rests on the skill and imagination with which he has balanced his various artistic and cultural roles.

He received numerous awards and honors, including the Bharatiya Jnanapith Award, the Kalidasa Samman, the Padma Shri, and the Padma Bhushan. He has also served as Director of the Film and Television Institute of India (1974-75), Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi (1988-93), and Director of the Nehru Centre (2000-03), and he was recently appointed a World Theatre Amabassador by UNESCO's International Theatre Institute.

Full schedule of events.

Category: Area Studies
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Workshop offered to middle, high school teachers: "The British in India: Art, Culture and Society"

The Center for South Asia is offering a workshop for middle and high school teachers in conjunction with "Delight in Design: Indian Silver for the Raj" an exhibit currently on display at the Chazen Museum of Art.

The workshop, "The British in India: Art, Culture and Society", aims to question the impact of the British on the social production of arts and music, as well as their influences in Indian social customs, legal history and mapping of the subcontinent. 

[Read More]

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