Thursday Sept. 4, 2014 MG 2001 7 p.m.
A New Ukraine
David K. Robinson, Prof. of European History, Truman State University, Fulbright Professor, 2000-01, Kherson State University, Ukraine
Dr. Robinson has made regular visits to Ukraine since 2000, when he began his year there as Fulbright Professor. He opened his sabbatical last year with five weeks in Ukraine (including Crimea). Soon after he returned home the demonstrations began in Kiev, and he followed events by Skyping friends and colleagues all over Ukraine. He just returned from another two-week visit, as civil war raged in the eastern regions, yet he believes that Ukraine now has a chance, finally, to change for the better. Come hear about Ukraine’s troubled past and promising future.
Readings:
Timeline: http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/28/world/europe/ukraine-fast-facts/index.html?iid=article_sidebar
Ash, Timothy and Timothy Snyder. “The Orange Revolution.” New York Review of Books. 28 April 2005. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/apr/28/the-orange-revolution/]
Snyder, Timothy. “Facism, Russia, and Ukraine.” New York Review of Books. 20 March 2014. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/mar/20/fascism-russia-and-ukraine/]
Maps: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/02/world/ukraine-divided/
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Thursday, Sept. 18 2014 MG 2001 7 p.m.
Learning from Latin American Social Movements
Clifton Ross, bilingual poet, translator, reporter, and filmmaker, and Marcy Rein, writer and organizer, recently completed Until the Rulers Obey: Voices from Latin American Social Movements (2014), a collection of over 60 essays, including one by Truman’s Marc Becker.
The experience of the vibrant Latin American social movements over the last decade shows us that autonomous movements are a key force for change. Autonomy has taken two different forms: one in strategic relationships with the state, and another in large-scale occupations of workplaces, land, and living spaces, organized with alternative forms of governance. With state governments opting for development based on resource extraction, the contradictions between these two forms of governance become especially acute. Clifton Ross has been reporting on Latin American social and revolutionary movements since 1982; Marcy Rein has engaged with a wide range of social movements and organizations, including publications collectives and political campaigns.
Readings:
Ross, Clifton. Venezuela; Revolution from the Inside Out. PM Press, 2008.
——- “Potemkin Venezuela: The Revolution without a Revolution: A Reply to Roger Harris.” Web. http://www.cliftonross.com/#!about1/c1zpq
Harris, Roger. “Venezuela: Supporting a Once and Future Revolution: A Reply to Clifton Ross.” Counterpunch July 2013. Web. http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/26/venezuela-supporting-a-once-and-future-revolution/
Websites
- www.stopesmining.org
- www.minesandcommunities.org
- www.labourstart.org (International Trade Union Campaigns)
- www.rightsaction.org (Honduras)
- www.conflictosmineros.net (Observatorio Conflictos Mineros de America Latina)
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Wednesday Oct. 22, 2014 BH 176 4 p.m.
Creating Life-Sized LEGOs for a Global Village
Marcin Jakubowski, founder of Open Source Ecology, the Global Village Construction Set, and the Factor e Farm, holds a PhD in fusion physics. He was a TED Senior Fellow in 2011-12.
Open Source Ecology, a collaborative of engineers, producers, and builders, has developed a Global Village Construction Set, a set of 50 machines crucial to modern life–everything from a tractor, to an oven, to a circuit maker. Blueprints go online free, so that machines can be built at a fraction of the normal cost. These powerful, self-replicating production tools are designed to build modern prosperity in local economies. The mission of Open Source Ecology is to create a collaborative economic platform that optimizes development, production, and distribution. Prototypes are being built and tested at the Factor e Farm (e as in the mathematical constant) in rural Missouri. Interns are welcomed.
Readings:
Jakubowski, Marcin. “Open-Sourced Blueprints for a Civilization” TED Talk. Web. https://www.ted.com/talks/marcin_jakubowski
Eakin, Emily. “The Civilization Kit: On a Farm in Rural Missouri, a Radical Experiment.” The New Yorker December 23, 2014. Web. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/12/23/the-civilization-kit
Website for Open Source Ecology http://opensourceecology.org/
Vance, Ashlee. “The Post-Apocalypse-Survival Machine Nerd Farm” Bloomsberg Business Week. November, 2012. Web. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/the-post-apocalypse-survival-machine-nerd-farm
An opportunity from Marcin
We are having our MicroHouse Extreme Manufacturing workshop on Sep 25-30
– building on our prior experience:
http://opensourceecology.org/microhouse-workshop-4/
We can give a good group rate.
We are doing an experiment in radical collaboration, in that we are
having the open source community generate the designs for the workshop.
Please see our Design Sprint if you want to see how this works –
http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Design_Sprints
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Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 MG 2001 7 p.m.
Twitter as a Communication Tool in Crisis Situations
Don Krause and Mark Smith, Associate Professors of Communication, Truman State University
A close examination of tweets surrounding the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing focused on how the Boston Police Department employed traditional storytelling, usually reserved for the news media, to narrate the mythical archetype of “hero” in its tweets. That situation is compared with the recent civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo, demonstrating how police and the public have used Twitter as communication tool in time of crisis.
Readings:
Wihbey, John. “The Boston Marathon Bombing: From Emergency Medicine to Twitter Communications: What the Research Has Found.” Journalist’s Resource. April 2014. [Web]. http://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/criminal-justice/boston-marathon-bombings-research-lessons
http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/05/31/twitter-use-2012/