Professor Barzman will give the Rosemary Coffey Memorial Lecture, which will be about representations of Saint Francis of Assisi and Islam.

Dr. Hans Wagemaker has made major contributions to educational research and policy in both his homeland of New Zealand and around the world. A 1981 graduate of UIUC in Educational Policy Studies, Dr. Wagemaker now works as the Executive Director for the IEA. The Presentation This presentation will examine some of the factors which contributed to the increase in demand for comparative measures of educational achievement and the role that IEA plays in the provision of international benchmarks of student performance. The IEA has a 50 year history of involvement in the comparative assessment of the performance of educational systems in more than 90 countries around the world. IEA currently conducts studies in Reading (PIRLS), Mathematics and Science ( TIMSS), Technology ( SITES), Civic and Citizenship Education (ICCES) and the preparation of Mathematics teachers (TEDS).

WGGP Spring 2007 Noon Seminar Series

Tuesday, April 17, you are invited to an information session about studying in China. Kyle Westgard, the Institutional Relations director for the Alliance for Global Education programs in China, will be the guest speaker.

Wu Qing is a professor (emerita) at Beijing's Foreign Language University and is currently serving as People's Deputy to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress. She is director of Cultural Development Center for Rural Women, has set up training programs for rural women migrants, helped set up a hot line for women to voice their problems and obtain support, and started a television series about a young woman in Beijing. Recently she appeared in the PBS documentary series "China From the Inside." Wu Qing was a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University and works with many groups in the U.S., including serving on the boards of Global Fund for Women and Gender Action. In January, she participated in the Schwab Social Summit in Zurich and attended the Davos economic forum. In 2001, she received the Ramon Magsaysay award for social service, the first woman to receive the award.

In this presentation I will first examine the use of the term "youth language" with reference to certain practices and ways of speaking French by young people in France, more specifically the youth in certain suburbs of Paris. I will evaluate the comparative importance of linguistic and social factors, wonder whether something structurally new is emerging in the French language with respect to linguistic forms (phonology, lexicon, and grammar) and uses of these forms in everyday practices, and then reflect on how much this so-called youth language is different from historical colloquial ways of speaking. The objectives are twofold: comparing France and the French language to other Western-European situations; and wondering what would be regarded as new in a country so profoundly oriented toward normative attitudes and the ideology of the standard language.

International coffee hours are informal gatherings held from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. every Thursday evening at the Cosmopolitan Club house (307 E. John St., Champaign). At these events, coffee, tea, and homemade ethnic desserts are served. International and American students, club members and non- members, are all welcome. Coffee Hours are good opportunities to meet people from around the world and learn about other cultures. See the current Cosmopolitan Club calendar for a list of the international coffee hours scheduled for the current semester. If you have any suggestions for coffee hours, or if you'd like to volunteer to sponsor a coffee hour, please call the Club Executive Director at 367- 3079.

As co-director of the Villa of Maxentius project, Prof. Conlin of CU-Boulder will discuss the results of the second season of a five-year archaeological excavation and student field-school at the Villa of Maxentius, one component of a monumental imperial complex located on the Via Appia, approximately three kilometers outside the Porta San Sebastiano in the Aurelian Wall of Rome. As the last imperial palace erected in Rome, the Villa of Maxentius occupies a pivotal historical, topographical and architectural place in Rome's epochal transformation from pagan city to Christian capital. Situated on eighty acres, the suburban site includes the remains of a residence, a circus for chariot-racing and a rotunda-like imperial mausoleum. In 2006, a team lead by CU-Boulder and the Comune di Roma completed a seven-week excavation season in the area of the most prominent villa building, the large rectangular apsidal hall that was likely intended to serve as an audience hall in what was the official wing of the palace. The results of our 2006 excavations suggest that the apsidal hall was the site of construction, occupation and destruction from the late first century B.C. to the late fourth century A.D. In 2007 we plan to explore unexcavated areas inside and outside of the apsidal hall to clarify the existence and disposition of any additional architectural features, occupational strata and destruction levels that may help shed further light on the complicated history of this suburban property. We hope to test our initial hypothesis that Constantine the Great, in stark contrast to his actions elsewhere in the city, did not finish or deliberately destroy the Maxentian villa. Our findings may shed new light on Constantine's policies for pagan structures and landscapes in the suburbs of Rome following his triumphant accession in October of 312. Diane A. Conlin (Ph.D. Michigan 1993) specializes in the art, architecture and archaeology of ancient Rome. An expert on Roman marble carving techniques, styles and restorations, Prof. Conlin has published an award-winning book, "The Artists of the Ara Pacis." Her second monograph, "Political Art in Flavian Rome," explores the intersections and multivalent symbolism of style, imperial iconography and Silver Age literature during the reign of Domitian (under contract with CUP). In addition her art historical research, Prof. Conlin is co-director of the archaeological excavations at the Villa of Maxentius on the Via Appia in Rome. Prof. Conlin's archaeological project addresses the design, site selection and eventual fate of this early fourth century C.E. structure built by the emperor Maxentius a short time before his defeat at the hands of Constantine the Great at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312. Prof. Conlin teaches survey courses on Roman art and archaeology and advanced classes on Ancient Italian Painting, Roman Sculpture, Roman Architecture, Augustan Rome and the Topography of Rome.

The goal of the conference is to explore the interfaces between the humanities and high technology with talks by specialists in these areas from the U. of I. and from other institutions. Speakers will explore how the humanities and technology meet now and can meet in the future. Talks will look at how the humanities pursue traditional and not-so-traditional subjects. Speakers will also examine how emerging technologies illuminate and illustrate cultural artifacts. Visualization and virtual reality look at text-based objects of culture, and facilitate and add to interpretation and reading. Talks will also look at the repercussions of emerging "post-human" paradigms by examining new ways of thinking and models of the post-modern. This conference not only produces new knowledge, but also develops innovative approaches to these issues and problems that are central to having an on-going dialog at the U. of I. and elsewhere. The keynote lecture is by Professor Alan Liu (University of California-Santa Barbara) as a MillerComm talk, on Friday, April 20, in 314B, Illini Union at 4 p.m.

Ven con sus hijos a escuchar cuentos en espanol y a divertirte con canciones y actividades.

K-12 Global Educators Conference on Saturday April 21. This event will bring together current and aspiring educators for a day of workshops and discussions, equipping them with the tools to bring global awareness back to their classrooms. The conference will be hosted at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Thanks to the generous support of Northwestern University, Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago, Center for Global Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Open Society Institute, the Ford Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation, the conference is free for all participants. Globalization has remapped the way we live and interact, making the world a seemingly much smaller place. We are longer just national citizens but also global citizens. Take the steps necessary to prepare the next generation for this reality. Learn what you need to know to craft a curriculum that addresses the most pressing international issues of our times. Discover new methods and approaches to these topics. Share your experiences and ideas with other educators. Be a force for educational change. For more information and to apply to be a delegate, please visit: http://www.aidemocracy.org/globaleducation.cfm. Although we have received significant media attention, Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) may be new to you as an organization. AID is a non-partisan organization that seeks to raise awareness in the United States about world opinions of American to counteract anti-American sentiment overseas, with the goal of inspiring greater multilateralism in world affairs. Over the past year, AID has brought together more than 15,000 young leaders to discuss America's role in the world. AID members also have written op-eds in the Washington Post, L.A. Times and Christian Science Monitor, and been featured in the New York Times, C-SPAN's Washington Journal and CNN. For more information, you can visit our website at www.aidemocracy.org.

This symposium will deal with a multitude of questions relating to the significance of the pivotal Battle of the Campus Vogladensis, as it is termed by Gregory of Tours. There, just outside the city of Poitiers, the Visigoths of Toulouse, hitherto the principal barbarian power of post-Roman Gaul, were defeated in 507 by the upstart Franks, ruled by their ambitious king Clovis, a member of the Merovingian dynasty. Subsequently, the Franks expanded their authority over Gaul and became the most influential and significant of the barbarian successor states. The history of western Europe became largely the history of the Franks. The Merovingians gave way to Charlemagne and the Carolingians, who proposed to reestablish the Roman Empire in the west. The Carolingian Empire eventually evolved into the modern nations of France, Germany, and Italy. And it all started at the Battle of Vouille in 507.