This event is sponsored by the Confucius Institute, Department of Geography, International Studies and Japan Study Program, and China Program in the College of Arts and Sciences.

True Songs is a record of a series of performances by a group of Japanese artists during the years since the triple disasters of March 11, 2011. Taking inspiration from the classic work by Miyazawa Kenji Night on the Milky Way Train, the event combines song, oral narrative, and spoken word performance. The group has taken the show throughout Japan, from Fukushima to a railroad car in Kyoto. One of the artists, Suga Keijiro, will be in attendance.

***THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED DUE TO DANGEROUS WEATHER CONDITIONS. WE WILL RESCHEDULE AND POST UPDATES WHEN PLANS ARE FINALIZED*** The University of Kentucky Graduate Appalachian Research Community presents the 6th Annual UK Appalachian Research Community Symposium and Arts Showcase on Saturday, March 7, 2015 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the William T. Young Library.  This year's keynote speaker is Lisa Conley, Ph.D. Her research interests focus on foodways, environmental sustainability, and local food politics in motivating the self-provisioning practices of people in rural and urban Kentucky.  Please, find more information about registration or proposal submition here: https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/annual-research-symposium.  The deadline to submit abstracts is February 15, 2015.  Registration for presenters and non-presenters is free.  Undergraduate and Graduate students are welcome to register.

About The Talk: "Networks and north–south partnerships have become prerequisites for much research funding in policy-relevant fields. The objectives vary but usually include levelling the scholarly playing field, improving research quality, building southern capacity and relaying southern perspectives to northern policymakers. Reflecting on a decade’s work in Southern Africa, this paper suggests such initiatives often fall short of their objectives."

Mexico is in a historic moment right now in which change appears to be in the hands of citizens who are demanding an end to the corrupt governance that has resulted in decades of human rights abuses. This lecture will explore violence and activism in Juárez, Mexico focusing on how activists and human rights defenders work to counter a state controlled media monopoly that blames victims for their own deaths.

Bio: Alice Driver is the author of "More or Less Dead: Feminicide, Haunting, and the Ethics of Representation in Mexico" (University of Arizona Press 2015). She recently translated "Abecedario de Juárez," a collaboration between journalist Julián Cardona and artist Alice Leora Briggs that explores and maps the new language of violence in Mexico. 

• Dr. Jennie Burnet, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Louisville, received the 2013 Elliot Skinner Award from the Association of Africanist Anthropology for her book, “Genocide Lives in Us: Women, Memory, and Silence in Rwanda,” (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2012). The association described the book as “an outstanding piece of research and writing (that) makes a great contribution to anthropology, African studies, gender and the treatment of violence.” Her research interests center on Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Africa, and the United States, where she examines structure, agency, and human subjectivity and such topics as race; ethnicity; gender and sexuality; violence, genocide, and peace; and development studies. (Dr. Monica Udvardy is contactperson)