Just two info-bits: we will be combining forces with Wendy Chun's MCM class next Wednesday, to hear Tom Keenan speak on jihadist use of new media. Info is below.

Wednesday, April 12, 3:00 p.m., Global Security Seminar Series
"'Where are human rights ...?' Reading a jihadist communiqué from Iraq," with Thomas Keenan, Bard College
Location: Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer Street
http://www.watsoninstitute.org/events_detail.cfm?id=721
Professor Keenan will analyze a communiqué issued by the Army of Ansar al-Sunnah, one of the armed groups operating against the occupation in Iraq, explaining why they assassinated a Kurdish human- and women's-rights activist last October. He will also use videotapes made by Iraqi insurgents and distributed on the Internet in an effort to re-approach the old questions of the relationship between politics and violence, on one hand, and the (new) media and terror, on another.

Sponsored by the Forbes Center for the Study of Modern Culture and Media and the Watson Institute.

And some breaking news: Micahel Klare, Hampshire Prof and Defense Correspondent for the Nation magazine, is going to supplement his talk to the Peace Mission with a short presentation to for our Tuesday screening (5-7 pm) on how to crack the op-ed page (for recent example, see ProJo last week). Info below:

A forum on "How Our Oil Dependency Fuels War" will be held on Tuesday, April 18, at 7:00 PM, at the First Unitarian Church, corner of Benefit and Benevolent streets, in Providence. Keynote speaker is Michael Klare, professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College and author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum. Responders include Katherine Brown, Executive Director of the Southside Community Land Trust, and Barry Schiller of the Sierra Club of RI. The moderator is Karina Wood of the Providence Congress for the New Urbanism. The forum is sponsored by the Rhode Island Peace Mission and co-sponsored by the First Unitarian Social Justice Council. Free and open to the public. For more information, call 724-7700, Ext. 6.

I also wanted to take a poll, to see how many of you might be interested in catching matinee performance of V for V on Tuesday, since Keenan will be showing his clips in class? Let me know,

JDD