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  • The Successful Inaugural Tuesday Night World Music Record Club Co-Hosted by IGU

    Co-authored by Emilia Intili and Courtney Gosse.

    The Institute for Global Understanding (IGU) co-hosted the inaugural Tuesday Night World Music Record Club on Angelique Kidjo’s album, Celia, on October 20 at 7:30 p.m. This event was moderated by Dr. Meghan Hynson, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology in the Department of Music and Theatre Arts at Monmouth University. Joining Dr. Hynson was a special guest co-moderator, Dr. León García Corona, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at Northern Arizona University, specializing in Latin American Music and Music and Sentimentalism in Mexico.

    The album, Celia, by Angelique Kidjo was a consensus pick due in part to Kidjo’s recognition as Photo of Angelique Kidjo's Album Cover for Celiathe recipient of the 2020 Grammy Award for World Music. Time Magazine has called her “Africa’s Premier Diva.” Angelique Kidjo is a French-Beninese singer, songwriter, actress, and activist who travels around the world advocating for women and children as a goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and OXFAM. Kidjo advocates for women entrepreneurs to help close the financial gap in Africa and has created a charitable foundation, Batonga, which supports the education of girls in Africa. She has always respected and idolized Celia Cruz due to Cruz’s proud African roots. Kidjo’s tribute album to the Cuban “queen of salsa,” Celia Cruz, showcases how Kidjo Africanizes Cruz’s Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean style. Kidjo cross-pollinates her West African traditions with Latin American influences such as merengue, rumba, and cha cha cha.

    Seven songs reinterpreted by Kidjo from Cruz’s work of the 1950s were discussed during the session: “Cucula,” “La Vida Es Un Carnival,” “Sahara,” “Baila Yemaya,” “Toro Mata,” “Quimbara,” and “Bemba Colora.”

    • “Cucula” is a classic ode to the joy of dancing. Dr. Hynson emphasized the use of Cruz’s tagline “Azucar” throughout the song.
    • “La Vida Es Un Carnival” represents the creation of the popular musical genre salsa.
    • “Sahara” depicts the landscapes of North Africa and invokes the Middle Eastern style music that is present within this region.
    • “Baila Yemaya” refers to the Yemaya Orisha (“the mother of water” and “the protector of children and women”) and directly connects the African heritage these two singers share.
    • “Toro Mata” (“The Bull Kills”) alludes to colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.
    • “Quimbara” denotes the unique juxtaposition that Cruz and Kidjo portrayed.
    • “Bemba Colora” references issues surrounding racism. The title, meaning “red mouth,” represents being of African descent and its significance to being voiceless in society.

    Dr. Hynson stated that the purpose behind the World Music Record Club is to listen, learn, and delve into the reality behind musical genres and their connection to complex societal issues with which we may not be familiar. Through the events in this new series, she noted that we can increase our knowledge about what’s happening musically by sharing musical and cultural influences historically and transnationally. This event fulfilled those cross-cultural appreciation and education objectives and was an outstanding debut for this exciting new series.

  • IGU and UCI co-hosted Virtual Global Ocean Governance Lecture Series: Ocean Alkalinization Enhancement in Combating Climate Change

    The Institute for Global Understanding (IGU) co-hosted the Global Ocean Governance Lecture Series on October 12 featuring Dr. Wil Burns, co-executive director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University. The virtual event had more than 100 registered attendees.

    Dr. Wil Burns focused on three major topics: types of climate geoengineering, cutting edge and important initiatives, and international governance of climate geoengineering initiatives. Dr. Wil Burns began by referencing the Paris agreement, which entered into force on 2016 and seeks to hold global temperature increase well below 2 degrees Celsius and preferably at 1.5 degree Celsius. He expresses concerns that temperatures will continue to rise for centuries and such warming could be disastrous to humans as well as ecosystems. If temperatures rise about 3 degrees Celsius it could result in the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which would raise sea-level by 7 meters. This would also destroy all of the coral reefs in the world, which host approximately 1/3 of all ocean species. These specters of climate change impacts of this magnitude have prompted consideration of potential interventions that could buy humanity more time. These interventions are known as Climate Geoengineering.

    “Geoengineering is the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems to counteract climate change” – Oxford Geoengineering Program

    Dr. Burns discussed the two categories of geoengineering: solar radiation management (SRM) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR). SRM reflects a small portion of the Sun’s energy back into space and CDR aims to remove and sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Dr. Burns also discussed the benefits and risks of social radiation management marine geoengineering options, carbon dioxide removal geoengineering options and, governance options for marine geoengineering at an international level. Some SRM options include: marine, cloud brightening, microbubbles/foam. The CDR options include ocean iron fertilization, ocean alkalinity enhancement and artificial upwelling. Dr. Burns also discussed two international treaty regimes that seek to regulate marine geoengineering research: The London Dumping Convention in 1972 and the Convention on Biological diversity. Dr. Burns concluded the lecture by discussing the Paris Agreement preamble.

    “Given our inability at this point or lack of commitment to reduce our emissions to the point that are necessary to meet the Paris Agreement that we need to consider some of the geoengineering options. It will be critical for society to assess the tradeoffs that may occur and to try to put governance mechanisms in place that help us to ensure that if these approaches are deployed they are done in a way that are environmentally optimal and also considers issues of equity and social justice” – Dr. Wil Burns

    A video recording of the lecture, along with the slides, is available here:

  • IGU Partners with World Cinema Series on “Salt of the Earth”: First in New Series of Films to Address Theme of Global Human-Environment Interaction

    Co-authored by Emilia Intili and Courtney Gosse.

    The Institute for Global Understanding (IGU) co-hosted the first film in the 2020-2021 World Cinema Series on Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. With more than 40 people in attendance, the turnout was a great success. This event was moderated by Dr. Thomas S. Pearson, Professor in the Department of History and Anthropology. The faculty discussants for this film were Mark Ludak, Specialist Professor of Photography in the Department of Art and Design and Randall S. Abate, Rechnitz Family and Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy, Professor in the Department of Political Science and Sociology, and Director of the Institute for Global Understanding. The theme of this year’s World Cinema Series is “A Delicate Balance: Global Communities and the Natural World,” which features films that examine the interdependence of human communities and the natural world.

    The film chronicled the work of Sebastiao Salgado, widely regarded as one of the most influential documentarians in the history of photography. He is known for the way he utilizes symbolism, archetype, and myth to portray the human condition. This ambitious film encompassed Salgado’s life events, cultural experiences and encounters, and several of his projects in remote destinations around the globe. As an artist, Salgado emphasizes social advocacy to communicate to a larger audience about the importance of solidarity and community resulting in the improvement of humanity. Prof. Ludak thoroughly and sensitively commented on many aspects of Salgado’s remarkable life and work.

    Another focus of this zoom discussion was based on the documentary’s clarity of the intersection between humanity and the environment. The film portrays the lifestyles of indigenous people and their remarkable capacity to live in harmony amongst their natural habitats. This fundamentally sustainable lifestyle is an important lesson for the rest of humanity in how we can continue to survive and reduce the effects of climate change. In the environmental aspect, this film conveyed the power of environmental restoration as it depicts Salgado and his wife restoring his own family farm in Brazil by planting over 2.5 million trees. This is also beneficial on a humanitarian level in such, by restoring the natural world, we in turn restore our own souls as human beings in the process, which reinforces the message that our natural world is more resilient when humankind works with it.