We are approaching a decade of formal democracy in Afghanistan. What is the state of democracy in the country? To what extent do Afghans support democratic institutions and the state more generally? Are there differences between attitudes toward national and local governing institutions? What role does informal governance play? This talk will examine results of a large mixed-methods research project in Afghanistan that explores individual attitudes toward the state and other political institutions in the country.

A symposium by the PA Governor's Advisory Commission on Asian American Affairs and the PA Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED)

Learn about the DCED and its economic development capabilities for Pittsburgh companies.
Network with DCED trade representatives
- Peter O’Neill, Executive Director for the DCED’s Center for Trade Development
- Trade representatives from India, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Singapore
Sunday, September 16, 2012
3 – 4:30 pm
Duquesne University
Rockwell Hall, 5th Floor Room 505 (map: http://www.duq.edu/about/map.cfm)

A great way for students to learn about the opportunities awaiting them on campus, in the city, and even abroad!

Friday, September 28 at 8 PM and Saturday, September 29 at 8 PM. Hot Pepper captures the malaise of young low-level office workers in three quirky scenes set in an office break room. In the sharp and visually vibrant world of write-director Toshiki Okada, twenty-something co-workers wrestle with issues as mundane as selecting a restaurant for lunch or the temperature of the office. Okada mixes dark humor, absurdity, and a disctint musical backdrop by John Coltrane, Stereolab and John Cage to capture the empty and ungrounded nature of Generation Y.

Although they sell vegetables, milk packets, and cigarettes; owners of small roadside grocery shops in southern India might be described as in the business of time-travel. Shopkeepers’ survival depends on their ability to successfully shift objects and obligations between multiple and conflicting temporal systems. Drawing on recordings of interactions gathered between 2005-08, Brown traces how shopkeepers use refrigeration, accounts of debt, and conversations with customers to negotiate and profit from temporal troubles.

Relocation can lead to professional growth and career advancement, but can also lead to work/family conflict. In this talk Connor will present the stories of three Japanese career women whose relocations led to personal crises. These crises resulted from a workplace policy which made periodic relocation obligatory for male and female employees alike. By analyzing how they faced these crises and what gave rise to them, Connor aims to shed light on issues of work-life balance, gender equity, and obstacles to social and cultural change.

In many areas of interaction in India, negotiations and ‘bargaining’ play an important role. This holds true for doctor-patient interactions as well, especially in the case of small-scale practitioners of Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy and other non-biomedical traditions. These practitioners often prescribe a treatment that lies outside of their official medical specialization, which creates a proliferation of various eclectic/hybrid therapeutic forms.

Like most nations, China regulates the content that goes over its airwaves, runs through its printing presses, and is transmitted through its Internet. In July 2009, when tensions in the predominately Muslim population of China’s Xinjiang province escalated into violent riots, Chinese authorities turned off the Internet there. This inspired Jason Q. Ng to devise a computer script to test all 700,000 terms in Chinese Wikipedia to see which ones are routinely blocked on Sina Weibo, China’s most important social media site.

Asia Over Lunch Lecture Series - all are welcome to join and bring a lunch or snack! Abstract TBA.

Asia Over Lunch Lecture Series - all are welcome to join and bring a lunch or snack! Abstract TBA.