Empire Conference Day 2

Sorry I am not at my best at the moment....see my twitter re: 102 degree temp.

Needless to say we did not get much sleep during the weekend, but it was fun! On first full day of the conference we had breakfast there (muffins and the like). The first group I had the opportunity to listen to was "Asian and Western Convergences Around Identity,
Culture, and Gender": we heard about Der Ling: Manchu Princess and Bridges or Breaches: Chinese Bloggers Writing in English. Both were interesting

The Second group was "Technologies of Culture, Power, and Liberation" ( I missed Dr. P's presentation but I heard it was the best one). In the one I saw we had The Megalomaniac vs. The Landscape: The Critique of Western Imperialist Politics in Mainstream Cinema and REMIX! Negotiating Assimilation, Identity, Secularism, & Otherness the Second Time Around: The subculture of Desi Music in Bend it Like Beckham and Born Confused both were interesting.

For lunch there was rice and beans with corn tortilla's (since it was a Friday during Lent none of the meat, that's okay, you know me I am not a big meat eater anyway).

The next session was "China as an Open Empire: Ideology, Network, and Knowledge about the Outside World" (lots of China! The finally presentation was what I wanted to hear). Following the Tracks of Yu: Discourses of Imperial Territory in Song China, An Open Empire: Ruling Ideology and the Cultural Network of Yuan China, A Ming China Key: Wang Zheng and His Cross-cultural Dissemination, and Constructing Empire and Nation: The Symbolic Importance of Tibetan-Buddhist Temples and Roman-Catholic Churches in the Qing and Modern Eras. most of these were presented by people from China, so that was fun. The final presentation of this section I wanted to talk to the professor, but nature called.....sigh.

The final group of the day was "Twentieth Century Explorations of Gender, Ethnicity,
Power, and Militarism". One of my fellow students, Heather, was presenting here :-). Imperialism and Gender in Italian Fascist Ideology and Propaganda, 1925-1926 and Women’s Networks of Resistance to Military Dictatorships in Argentina and Chile (this one was Heather's. She did a great job!).

Then dinner - for us vegetarians (plus it was a Friday of Lent) we had this great ravioli pasta with grilled vegetables and alfredo sauce plus a salad. For dessert it was cheese cake with strawberries.

And the final event of the evening (several of us students were excited about this one): “Russia: Challenges to the Post-Imperial Migration State” presented by Mikhail Alexseev. Dr. Alexseev is a Professor at San Diego State in the Political Science department (International Relations, Comparative Politics/Post-Soviet Studies; American Politics). For more info on Dr. Alexseev check out the following websites: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/polsciwb/people/faculty/alexseev_m.htm or http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~alexseev/Alex.html.

He was the best speaker of the day and he kept every ones attention. He was kind enough to sit with a small group of us afterwards and was able to answer a couple of questions before we got kicked out. :-) As soon as we got back to the hotel we were googling his name! Impressive resume. He has some books out, however, they are currently out of my price range :-(. I did find some articles though! I have found a mentor from afar....sigh.

Anyway. I should at least try to eat something and try to focus on my paper(s)....there is always hope....

Peace! C-