This talk explores the historical and interactional challenges involved in claiming membership in, what for many Puerto Ricans, is an impossible affiliation. I focus on Taíno/Boricua activism to identify a critical space from which to analyze ethnoracial ideologies of Puerto Ricanness, issues of class and education, Puerto Rican nationalisms and colonialisms, as well as important questions regarding narrative, historical memory, and belonging. I consider how these factors impact the projects of language reclamation engaged in by Puerto Rican Taíno/Boricua people.

Far East Deep South is an award-winning documentary feature film that follows the Chiu family on a surprising journey through Mississippi in search of their lost family history. Their journey sheds light on the racially complex history of the early Chinese and the important symbiotic relationship that developed between the African American and Chinese American communities in the segregated South. Together, the family discovers how exclusionary immigration laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 impacted their family, and they learn just how deep their roots run in America. For more information and to register, go to https://international.uky.edu/OCI/far-east-deep-south.

Far from a monolithic population, the contemporary People’s Republic of China is host to a vast array of ethnic and linguistic minority cultures. Minority groups are found in China’s borderlands and recognized autonomous ethnic regions, but also in the factories, fields, mines, and other workplaces that symbolize China’s recent economic boom. This economic expan-

sion is intertwined with migration: both internally within China’s borders, and drawing migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. According to official statistics, there were more than 245 million internal migrants in 2017, with thousands of foreign-born migrants now working in China as well. Few Americans are aware of the minority experiences embedded within China’s economic and political rise. This panel presentation brings together emerging scholars from a variety of disciplines who focus on migrant and minority groups in China. The panel will help students, faculty, and community at the University of Kentucky become aware of the underlying stories of diaspora and migration beneath the surface of modern China. 

Register HERE: https://uky.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iQW3GabIRZaWPpvt2rka4Q

The Facebook Group “Shtisel - Let’s Talk About it” was founded in 2019 by three women in Detroit, MI to discuss their mutual interest in a new Israeli television show recently added to Netflix. As of August 2021, the group has over 33,000 followers. Members use the group to post questions and insights about a broad range of topics related to the television show, including the Hebrew and Yiddish languages, the practices of ultra-Orthodox Jews, and life in contemporary Israel. Drawing on surveys,  ethnographic interviews, linguistic analysis of social media postings, and audio diaries of members as they watch the show recorded via a specially created app, this talk explores how members of the group learn about Judaism from watching and discussing Shtisel. It highlights the capacity of digital media tools like television and social media to create opportunities for a broad range of participants to engage in collective Jewish conversations forged across religious, cultural and international boundaries, and performed through social media. 

Bios:  

Laura Yares is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. Her work explores Jewish education as a site for understanding the ways that Jews have constructed and continue to construct understandings of self, community and other. Her current research includes a book project exploring the growth of Jewish Sunday Schools in 19th century America a contemporary ethnographic study analyzing Jewish learning in cultural arts spaces. 

Sharon Avni is Professor of Academic Literacy and Linguistics at BMCC at the City University of New York (CUNY). She is the co-author of Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community and American Jewish Summer Camps, and is a research affiliate at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis. Her current work includes modern day Hebraists in the United States.

Register here

The International Village Living and Learning Program, in collaboration with the Office of Student Organizations and Activities, is hosting an international film series that is open to the public.

The International Village Living and Learning Program, in collaboration with the Office of Student Organizations and Activities, is hosting an international film series that is open to the public.

Join us for a film screening of The 24th, a historical film written and directed by Kevin Willmott! This film screening will be held virtually followed by a brief Q&A discussion. For more insight on the film, check out this interview.

Read more on Kevin Willmott's extensive works HERE.

Watch The 24th movie trailer!

This event is sponsored by:

• English Department MFA Visiting Writers Series
• International Film Certificate Program
• Gaines Center for Humanities
• UK History Department
• Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies
• Rosenberg College of Law
• Cooperative for the Humanities and Social Sciences
• UK Veteran's Resource CEnter
• William T. Young Library
• UK Office of Institutional Diversity

To register, click HERE! Contact Pearl James for more information.