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Potluck and Discussion
"Modernity" in Transnational Perspective

Sunday, November 1, 1998
5:00-8:00 p.m.
at Susan Friedman's House

Come help kick off the first Border Studies Research Circle Event of the 1998-1999 year. We have many events planned for the year, including a film showings, lecutres, conferencess, and brown-bag discussions. Come for just the potluck to meet and break bread with others interested in Border Studies. Or, stay and participate in the discussion of our first topic for the year. Information on our plans for the year will be available.

Bring: Susan Friedman will provide some wine, soda, and baked chicken. Please bring a dish to share. Bring colleagues, friends, students, or anyone interested in Border Studies. Pass the Word.

Discussion: Mary Layoun (Comparative Literature) and Alicia Kent (English) will initiate discussion of the meanings of modernity in transnational perspective with some brief remarks. We plan to use Arjun Appadurai's Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization as a springboard for discussion of what "modernity" means in our different disciplines and in relation to the different parts of the world and different time periods we work on. "All societies create their own modernity," Jan Nederveen Pieterse writes. What is (or was) "modernity" in the context of your work? How does this particular modernity relate to the cultural geographies of encounter? We recommend that you read Chapters 1 and 3 of Modernity at Large (additional chapters for those with lots of time include 2 and 9). But feel free to participate fully in the discussion even if you are not familiar with Appadurai's book. Copies of chapters are on reserve in Social Science Library, the English Department Reading Room (7188 White), and the Institute for Research in the Humanities.

The Border Studies Research Circle is sponsored by the Institute for Research in the Humanities and the International Institute. Steering Committee members include Susan Friedman (English and Women's Studies), Alicia Kent (English), Mary Layoun (Comparative Literature), Ruben Medina (Spanish and Chicano Studies), Thongchai Winichakul (History), and Neil Whitehead (Anthropology). Contact Friedman (ssfriedm@facstaff.wisc.edu) for further information or to put on the mailing list.