Emory in the World Fall 2008

in the world Fall 2008

Emory University Since 1836 Atlanta, Georgia USA

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(Above) In the Grand Salon of the Hôtel de Ville, Jean Plantu (right) and Mike Luckovich (left) entertain some 800 guests with cartoons of political leaders; (Right Top) Jean Plantu, Holli Semetko and Mike Luckovich before the backdrop of the winning cartoon

by Benjamin Ilunga Yumba from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a dramatic drawing of an African boy peering through a wire fence his large blue eyes sparkling with bright yellow stars of the EU flag; (Center) Hôtel de Ville, the splendid City Hall of Paris, was rebuilt in 1882 after many of the city’s treasures and archives were destroyed by fire in the 1871 revolt of the Paris Commune.

The building officially has two purposes : to serve as the seat of city government and as a place for public and voluntary associations to hold receptions.

ess than a week before the historic U.S. presidential election, the splendid City Hall of Paris (“Hôtel de Ville”) was the venue for an evening that brought together Emory alumni, friends and hundreds of leaders of national platform NGOs from developing countries, under the auspices of the French presidency of the European Union. The Mayor of Paris, Coordination SUD and Emory University cosponsored the evening’s activities that included cartooning by award-winning Jean Plantu of Le Monde and Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the presentation of awards to young cartoonists and journalists from the participating NGO nations, and a new Cartooning for Peace exhibition on “Perspectives of Europe” from around the world. My role was to highlight Emory’s commitment to international in the work of The Carter Center, the Institute for Developing Nations and the Global Health Institute. As I introduced the cartoon-off, I lightheartedly pointed out that the European Union and Emory University share not only the same colors (blue and gold) but also the same initials.

In this issue, Emory in the World brings perspectives from around the world. Taiwan, Italy, Liberia, Germany, Egypt and Korea represent just some of the places, people and partnerships featured inside. Read too about the latest pioneering research on stress reduction to come out of the Emory-Tibet Partnership.

As we go to press, Emory University hosts a unique Tutankhamun exhibition at the Atlanta Civic Center with photographs from the excavation on display at the Carlos Museum from November 15, 2008 to May 25, 2009. The remarkable journey by which this exhibition came to Emory is recounted in this issue.

To access this issue of Emory in the World online, go to www.international.emory.edu where you will also find links to Emory’s international institutes, centers and partnerships.

Holli A. Semetko, PhD Vice Provost for International Affairs Director, Office of International Affairs & The Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning Professor of Political Science

Emory University Since 1836 Atlanta, Georgia USA

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2 Dr. Chan Lien on Taiwan’s Progress

14 The Story Behind Tutankhamun

A former Vice President discusses the economics of change.

Emory brings The Golden King to Atlanta.

4 The First Ten Years

18 A Semester in Seoul

A trans-atlantic friendship becomes the model for university partnerships.

Dr. Carl Holladay shares his experiences teaching in Korea.

6 Combating Gender-Based Violence in

20 South Africa’s Greatest Challenge

Liberia

The Institute for Developing Nations addresses violence against women.

8 The Realm of Enchantment

Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge discusses partnerships that strengthen the nation’s health.

22 East Meets West in Study on Effects of Stress

Matthew Morris discusses an international colloquium on the ancient Legend of Mélusine.

Study demonstrates “Lojong” method can improve health and happiness.

12 A European Spring Break

24 Confessions of a Young Novelist

Students explore the European Union during a trip to Berlin and Brussels.

Umberto Eco delivers a three-part series as part of the Richard Ellman Lecture Series.

Office of International Affairs | Box 52, Administration Building, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 30322 Tel: 404.727.7504 Fax: 404.727.2772 | www.oia.emory.edu Editor: John Jowers, Editorial Board: Holli Semetko, Mari Frith, Julie Darby, Evan Goldberg, Rafal Raciborski, Laurent Stemmler Designer: Saba Sungar, blendedimage.com | Cover: Tutankhamun Shabti Photo: ©Sandro Vannini

Dr. Lien Chan on Taiwan’s Progress

By Dr. Holli Semetko

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remarkable statesman and renowned scholar, Dr. Lien Chan’s bold “journey of peace” to the Mainland in April 2005 captured the attention of the world by starting the first dialogue in more than half a century between the Kuomintang Party (KMT) of Taiwan, the Republic of China, and the Chinese Communist Party of the People’s Republic. Speaking at Peking University, his mother’s alma mater, he respectfully acknowledged that some at home criticized his historic journey. In an eloquent and passionate speech, Dr. Lien moved above the political fray to call for “a win-win future” based on “plurality and tolerance,” “mutual help and benefit,” and “maintenance of the status quo and adherence to peace.” His call for cooperation to bring greater prosperity also brought hope for peace across the Taiwan Strait.

Fast forward three years to April 2008 in Atlanta, just one month after Taiwan’s historic election campaign that ushered the KMT back into the presidency after eight years out of office. Hundreds came to hear former Vice President Dr. Lien Chan speak at Emory University. His speech on the triangular relationship between Beijing, Taipei and Washington D.C. reflected his continued dedication to peace and stability in East Asia. At Emory, Dr. and Mrs. Lien met President James Wagner, Provost Earl Lewis, Emory College Dean Robert Paul, and a number of key faculty in East Asian Studies which cosponsored their visit with The Halle Institute. Dr. and Mrs. Lien also celebrated their visit to Atlanta with members of the large and growing local community as well as businesses in Atlanta’s Taipei Economic and Cultural Organization (TECO).

Educated in the U.S. with doctoral and master’s degrees in political science from the University of Chicago, and his bachelor’s degree from National Taiwan University, Dr. Lien and Mrs. Lien, who holds a master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Connecticut and an honorary degree from St. John’s University, have two sons and two daugh-

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(Top) Dr. Lien waves to the hundreds of faculty and students that gathered to hear him speak; (Center) Faculty and students with Dr. and Mrs. Lien; (Bottom) Dr. Lien presents Emory’s President Wagner with a modern work of art.

ters, each accomplished in their own fields of study. Pictures, transcripts and video of Dr. Lien’s speech at Emory University can be found www.halleinstitute.emory.edu.

Chen Shui-bian administration. When President Ma took his first state visit to Latin America, he transited through the U.S. without giving the Bush administration any cause for concern.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. and Mrs. Lien again in June 2008 in Taipei, over a dinner they kindly hosted to introduce Emory University to a number of prominent leaders in higher education, science, business and public policy. Dr. Lien’s toasts to the future growth of Chinese studies at Emory University were well received by all. It was a magnificent twelve-course meal that sustained me throughout most of the next day when I visited the remarkable National Palace Museum that is home to a breathtaking collection of centuries old Chinese porcelains and decorative arts.

The Ma Ying-jeou government also lifted restrictions on currency exchanges. Since the end of June, the New Taiwan Dollar (NT) and the Chinese Yuan (RMB) have become convertible in the Republic of China for the first time ever. This benefits not only Mainland tourists but also Taiwanese businessmen returning to Taiwan. The Ma administration has also reached the decision to recognize academic credentials from Mainland universities beginning next year. This will allow students from the Mainland to conduct graduate studies at universities in Taiwan. These two unilateral measures further thaw the once icy ties with the Mainland.

In an exclusive interview with Emory In The World, I asked Dr. Lien about some of the latest developments the 2008 election.

What has been the immediate impact of the election?

Recent developments in Taiwan, the Republic of China, have moved the nation towards greater harmony and security.

The Kuomintang Party (KMT) has returned to power after eight years in opposition, 2000-2008. The KMT won landslide victories in both the legislative elections last January and the presidential election last March. Ma Ying-jeou, who succeeded me as Chairman of the KMT, was inaugurated as President on May 20th.

The new KMT government has adopted policies towards the mainland of China, which are in stark contrast to those of the previous administration. Whereas the previous administration did its utmost to isolate the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and ferment mutual animosity, the current administration has succeeded in bringing the two sides closer and promoting peace, development, prosperity and win-win situations.

What specifically has changed in the cross-Strait situation?

Since June cross-Strait talks have been resumed through the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS). SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and ARATS President Chen Yunlin reached agreement on the inauguration of direct weekend cross-strait charter flights and a wider opening of Chinese tourists to Taiwan. And since July, regular weekend charter flights have been in place, and Taiwan has opened its doors to over 15,000 Mainland tourists as of September. These developments bode well for peace across the Strait and help promote mutual trust.

The SEF and ARATS have agreed to a second round of talks by the end of the year. Issues to hammer out include the expansion of weekend passenger charter flights, the establishment of new flight routes, cargo charter flights, direct shipping links, and cross-Strait cooperation in combating crime and disaster relief.

Even joint oil exploration cooperation may be discussed.

What in your view are the major accomplishments of the first several months of President Ma’s administration?

The newly elected Ma Ying-jeou government has re-established, to a large degree, the mutual trust between the United States and the Republic of China, which eroded considerably during the

Through all of this, we have upheld the core values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law... We hope one day in the future, the governments in Taiwan and the Mainland can see eye-to-eye on matters large and small.

Society has become more harmonious. Confrontations between the Green and Blue camps have dwindled. Even the prosecution of various scandals involving numerous members of the former administration and their family members is being handled in accordance with a manner befitting democratic institutions. Politics has been put on the back burner and the serious business of dealing with day-to-day concerns has taken its place.

How has Taiwan been affected by the current global economic downturn?

Taiwan is not immune to the global economic downturn, rising fuel costs and commodity process, or the recent banking crisis.

In addition, Taiwan has been hit by one typhoon after another and melamine-tainted dairy from the Mainland have recently been pulled from the shelves. There is no shortage of pressing issues which are more important than political bickering.

Do you have any closing comments for Emory in the World readers?

The above observations are only skin deep and miss a key point.

Through all of this, we have upheld the core values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. By doing so, the Republic of China continues to hold the moral high ground. We hope one day in the future, Chinese everywhere will be able to enjoy the aforementioned core values. We hope one day in the future, the governments on Taiwan and the Mainland can see eye-to-eye on matters large and small. We hope one day in the future, the people of all nations can put aside their differences and learn to work together towards a better world. a Holli Semetko, PhD is the Vice Provost for International Affairs and the Director of the Office of International Affairs & The Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning.

For more on Dr. Lien’s visit, please go to www.halleinstitute.emory.edu EMORY in the world

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his 4th of July, instead of watching fireworks and celebrating America’s independence, a group of Emory faculty, staff and students chose to spend the holiday in Siena, Italy dining with colleagues, celebrating “Education, Collaboration, Innovation” and the first ten years of the cooperation agreement between Emory University and the Università degli Studi di Siena (the University of Siena, a.k.a. “Unisi”).

The morning began with an official signing ceremony in which Emory President James Wagner and Siena’s Vice Rector Professor Vittorio Santoro reinforced the agreement already in place for the past ten years and solidified a commitment for the future exchange of students and faculty.

The day’s festivities continued with a series of presentations from illustrious Emory and Siena representatives, including President Wagner and Dr. Dennis Liotta from Emory’s Chemistry Department, as well as Francesco Ricasoli, CEO of Barone Ricasoli Agricola Spa, a vineyard in the Chianti region near Siena, and Dr. Rino Rappuoli of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics in Siena.

By Kristi Hubbard

The activities culminated with President Wagner’s visit to the Emory Chemistry Studies summer study abroad program where he heard from the students about their life-changing and scientifically inspiring study abroad experience.

The History of the Partnership Emory’s collaboration with the University of Siena began well before Summer 2008. Today’s partnership grew out of a relationship that spans more than a decade, between Judy Raggi Moore from Emory’s Italian Studies, Luigi Marzilli from Emory’s Chemistry Department, and Renzo Cini from the University of Siena’s Chemistry Department. Since that time, numerous other Emory faculty have been involved in the evolution of the partnership, including Preetha Ram, Daphne Norton, Matthew Weinschenck, Tracy Morkin, and Michael McCormick. The program would not be where it is today without the extraordinary efforts of the Unisi Chemistry faculty – namely, Renzo Cini, the driving force behind Unisi’s involvement, and Gabriella Tamasi who has been with the Emory summer program since its inception and who was also an exchange student at Emory during Fall 2005. These faculty and their colleagues have provided the energy, infrastructure and academic support needed to take the partnership from its early beginnings as a semester exchange program to its current summer program configuration grounded in the study of Chemistry and scientific inquiry.

The First Ten Years

By Kristi Hubbard

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The Study Abroad Programs Emory’s Chemistry Studies summer program was created in 2004, stemming from the desire of Emory College and its Center for International Programs Abroad (CIPA) to diversify the options for study abroad students in general and to create offerings for under-represented science students, since they typically do not study abroad as often as humanities and social science majors.

While in Italy, the Emory students observe and conduct experiments with Italian students and faculty in the Unisi laborato-

ries and also take field trips to places like Colle di Val d’Elsa (best known for glass factories and crystal production), San Gimignano (a medieval hill town in Tuscany) and Florence.

According to Nicholas Justice, this summer’s program assistant and a 2006 program participant, “The summer program gives Emory Chemistry students the opportunity to learn scientific concepts not readily accessible to them at Emory, like the rigorous methods of laboratory wine analysis or the techniques of restoring major pieces of Italian Medieval and Renaissance artwork.”

CIPA also offers a longer study abroad experience for Chemistry majors. This semester study abroad program offers qualified students the opportunity to study Italian in an intensive one-month program at the Università per Stranieri di Siena (“School for Foreigners”), spend a month interning in the wine-making industry at the Barone Ricasoli vineyard, and then study and research chemistry in the Unisi laboratories, earning credits towards the Emory degree.

“The semester program is an even more rigorous immersion in the Italian scientific community and Italian culture in general. I found that my experience really turned me onto the joys of being a researcher and also opened my eyes to the importance of international cooperation in science. It’s really exciting to share and to learn about different approaches and methods, and in the end the experience makes you a more autonomous, more independent, and a more human scientist,” explained Justice.

Unisi at Emory During late Summer 2008, Unisi Chemistry faculty Gabriella Tamasi and Agnese Magnani led a group of six Unisi graduate students to Atlanta for a three-week program. The Italian group was heartily welcomed by the Emory Chemistry department whose faculty hosted a series of scientific activities, lectures, and lab tours. Academic field trips included tours of the CDC and Yerkes Primate Center, FOB synthesis at Kennesaw State University, and demonstrations in the labs of Coca-Cola.

The Unisi students also had a taste of Atlanta through excursions to a Braves game, Stone Mountain, and Little Five Points.

Not only was the program of educational and cultural benefit to the Unisi students, but it was also an opportunity for Emory faculty and students who might never participate in a study abroad program to have part of the experience brought to them. It was also a great way for the Emory students who had been in Siena over the summer to give back to their former hosts. A partnership that already offered strong science opportunities for Emory students has now evolved into a pioneering relationship, establishing Emory as a study abroad destination for Italian students.

The Model Partnership Why study science abroad? Why Siena? Preetha Ram, assistant dean for Science in Emory College’s Office for Undergraduate Education, states, “When students work in research labs and interact with faculty and research groups abroad, they not only learn new science skills but also return with new professional

Scenes from Siena Italy, including President Wagner and Siena’s Vice Rector Professor Vittorio Santoro signing the interuniversity agreement (middle left), and Emory students at the University of Siena during a study abroad trip (bottom right)

networks that are sure to benefit them in their later professional years. As we searched for strategies to encourage young scientists to broaden their horizons and acquire an appreciation for different cultures, in addition to learning about atoms and molecules, we found a visionary partner in the University of Siena. Together we designed the programs that present a rigorous and integrated perspective of science and global cultures, and together we uncovered obstacles and found strategies to bridge the gap of two educational worlds.”

According to Philip Wainwright, CIPA’s executive director and Emory College’s associate dean for International and Continuing Education, the relationship between Emory and Unisi is a true partnership between two world-class institutions. “Our institutions can be justifiably proud of what has been created by this partnership, and we look forward to a promising future of collaborative programming that will build upon these strong foundations.”a Kristi Hubbard is the director of the Center for International Programs Abroad.

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In Monrovia, Liberia, billboards such as this one are part of a public campaign to end violence against women.

Combating Gender-Based Violence in Liberia

By Dr. Sita Ranchod-Nilsson

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ll around the world, violence against women – ranging from rape and sexual assault to human trafficking and domestic abuse – is on the rise. It can be especially devastating in low-income countries, where high levels of violence against women keeps many from generating income, taking care of their families and fully participating in their communities. Violence tramples women’s human rights, and undermines their communities’ prospects for economic and social development.

Over the past several months, Emory’s Institute for Developing Nations (IDN) has been collaborating with The Carter Center to better understand and combat this violence in one severely affected nation, Liberia.

Liberia recently emerged from a devastating fourteen-year civil war which left many of the country’s institutions in shambles.

As part of a comprehensive effort to build peace and democracy, the government of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf invited The Carter Center to offer advice and assistance on rebuilding Liberia’s Justice System. Since October 2006, The Carter Center has worked with the Liberian Ministry of Justice to support the development of stable and effective rule of law throughout the country, especially by helping to develop strategies for harmonizing traditional practices with national laws.

After almost one year of work, The Carter Center and their Liberian partners found that community discussions about the justice system – particularly in rural communities – were often dominated by controversies related to violence against women. Despite recent legal reforms that give women rights to property in marriage (2005) and strengthen rape statutes to protect women within marriages (2006), there remains a wide gap between the law and actual social practices.

Tom Crick, a senior political analyst in The Carter Center’s Conflict Resolution Program, asked IDN to partner with their “rule of law” initiative to offer some new perspectives on gender based violence.

In early 2008, IDN formed a “Working Group on GenderBased Violence in Liberia” comprised of Emory faculty from history, law, anthropology, political science and women’s studies. The group traveled to Liberia in March to work with the Ministry of Gender, colleagues from the University of Liberia, and researchers and activists from NGOs to understand the root causes of this complex problem. The Working Group has three goals: to offer short-term recommendations on addressing gender-based violence, to identify areas where research can provide critical information for improving policies and programs on gender-based violence, and to identify Liberian research partners who can collaborate with IDN researchers.

During our initial visit to Liberia, the Working Group divided its time between the capital city of Monrovia and Bong country, a rural area about three hours north. In a town called Palala we met the Kpaai Women’s Literacy Association.

These women started working together during the civil war to help each other survive, and now focus on women’s literacy and social problems in the community. Their experiences illustrate both the problems women face, and the imagination and resourcefulness they use to confront them.

Women in this organization know about the new laws giving property rights to women and criminalizing rape within marriage. They learned about the laws through local community education programs such as the Modia theater group – a group of talented young people who educate communities through creative and entertaining plays. Although many of these rural women are illiterate, they understand and support the new laws.

The women also know that while the law may grant them important rights and protections, the local court system may not be a reliable ally in supporting their claims. Many areas of the coutry do not have a reliable system of local transportation and the Justice of the Peace and the County Magistrate may be many miles away. Those that do manage to get to court might be asked to pay 1500 Liberian dollars ($25) in filing fees and charges – even for paper! For the women of Palala, this is an exorbitant sum.

Even those who manage to pay for an initial claim often face the financial and logistical burden of additional court hearings.

In Palala, as in many parts of Africa, there are parallel systems of authority: the statutory law recognized by the state and enforced through the court system, and customary law administered by local authorities such as chiefs, headmen and local councils. The new laws affecting women are part of the statutory system of law, but the most effective local authorities are the chiefs and

headmen who implement customary laws. Since most rural women cannot rely on the statutory legal system, they bring their concerns and disputes instead to these local leaders and try to persuade them to make decisions that reflect the statutory law.

To accomplish this, the women do not hesitate to join together and exert their power as a group; together, they can make life very uncomfortable for the local chief or men who are mistreating their wives. At one meeting in a neighboring village, a dispute was brought forward during our Working Group

Sita Ranchod-Nilsson, IDN director, and Casey Dunning, IDN administrative coordinator, with the National Traditional Women’s Council of Liberia.

delegation’s visit. When the local chief was not amenable to resolving the dispute in line with the new laws, the women in the community stood up, turned their backs, and walked out in disgust, causing great embarrassment to the chief.

These seemingly small forms of authority and activism matter a great deal. Local women’s organizations are an important platform for women to obtain information about new laws and to exert pressure for change in their local communities, often by working through customary authorities. The women of Palala have embraced the substance of the new legal reforms and are finding ways to uphold them in the context of local, customary institutions. This strategy may go a long way toward decreasing gender-based violence, although the concern remains that while they address local issues in the short term, they might slow down the building of an effective national judicial system. But little is known about how customary institutions are being used to combat gender-based violence, particularly in Liberia’s rural communities. This is a key research area identified by the Working Group.

Addressing violence against women is a complex undertaking.

It involves identifying the scope and magnitude of the problem, understanding the origins and contributing factors and finding ways to support local women’s groups that are working for change. Through research, undertaken in partnership with in-country policy-makers and community organizations, IDN is working to support changes that will improve the lives of women like those in the Kpaai Literacy Association.a Sita Ranchod-Nilsson, PhD is the director of the Institute for Developing Nations.

To learn more, visit www.idn.emory.edu EMORY in the world

The Realm of Enchantment

By Dr. Matthew W. Morris

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rom June 12th to June 14th of 2008, Emory University and the University of Poitiers joined forces in co-sponsoring an international colloquium entitled Écriture et réécriture du merveilleux féerique: Autour de Mélusine (Writing and Rewriting About the Realm of Enchantment: All About Mélusine). Co-directed by Drs. Matthew Morris (French Department, Oxford College of Emory University), Jean-Jacques Vincensini (University of Corsica) and Claudio Galderisi (University of Poitiers), the colloquium, convened in the French cities of Poitiers and Lusignan, was organized under the aegis of France’s Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale. With support from the Office of the

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Provost and the Dean of Oxford College, the colloquium’s underlying aim was to facilitate the gathering of some two dozen researchers from around the globe, chiefly in the field of Medieval Studies, for the purpose of sharing results of their investigations into the legend and lore of Mélusine, a fairy indigenous to Poitou, a region of west-central France.

The legend of Mélusine and two late-fourteenth-century romances – one prose, the other poetic – that were outgrowths of it, link the Poitevin fairy to the Lusignans, a medieval dynastic family of great renown, among whose number could be counted the kings of Armenia, Cyprus, and Jerusalem. In

its basic, original form, the legend relates the tale of an “otherworld” lady who marries a mortal and helps him to found the seigneurie of Lusignan, a territory of great power and wealth in Poitou. After bearing him many sons, the fairy’s husband breaks a sworn oath and spies upon her in her bath; he is shocked to behold his wife with her normal beauty from the waist upward, but with serpent-form from the navel down.

Upon being thus discovered, Mélusine fully metamorphoses into a winged dragon and flies out the window, never to return except as a banshee to her descendants. This essential framework serves as a storyline for both Mélusine romances.

One significant elaboration, however, causes the literary tales to diverge from the indigenous legend: it is not the mere spying by the husband into his wife’s bath that ruptures their union.

Not until he reveals Mélusine’s secret to the world is she driven to her departure and transformation into a winged dragon-banshee.

One might legitimately wonder why a score of scholars from disparate areas of the world – the United States and Canada, as well as France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Israel – would gather to examine and share views on a topic apparently so far-removed – by some seven hundred years – from our own time and interests.

In addition to any interest in the mythically inspired Roman de Mélusine as a purely medieval literary creation, what might men and women of today have to learn by reading the work? They will find, among other things, that the problems germane to their own lives are quite similar to those of the medieval tale’s characters. The Mélusine is a tale of love, shared intimacy, and betrayal. It is also a tale of warfare and conquest: a large portion of the story takes place on the battlefields of the Middle East, depicting the campaigns against the armies of Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad. The same questions concerning the fictional characters’ rationale for extension of political and economic hegemony by military might are applicable to our own motivations for waging war. The views, attitudes, and reactions of the crusading Lusignans’ enemis (a term synonymous with “devil” in Old French) are not at all different from the views, attitudes, and reactions of “enemies” encountered by those waging military campaigns on faraway battlefields today. We are all familiar with statements by certain present-day leaders who still refer to our wars as crusades, the same term used by the Lusignans. Those against whom the eight crusades were waged (from 1098-1291) knew

them to be struggles of life and death. Like the massacre of all non-Christians by Geoffroy de Lusignan upon his capture of Beirut in the Mélusine romance, the “pagans” of the crusades – soldiers and civilians alike – knew their fate if vanquished. Fiction mirrored reality, since by doctrine, salvation was granted to crusaders for the killing of non-Christians: the Council of Clermont of 1098 which authorized the First Crusade, granted absolution to Christians for striking down nonbelievers. The crusaders were exhorted to ferir par penitence (to strike out of penance).

From the medievalists’ point of view, at least, the Roman de Mélusine is one of the most intriguing monuments handed down to us from the Middle Ages. With the appearance of the prose Mélusine (composed

by Jean d’Arras in 1393 for the Duc de Berry), followed almost immediately by the poetic version (authored by Couldrette for the Seigneur de Parthenay), the story spread rapidly throughout France, Germany, England, and Eastern Europe, and during the next few centuries retained an important place in the folklore and literature of these regions.

Copies of the works multiplied rapidly, and their translation into other languages as diverse as Russian, Czech, and Icelandic were made early on. Why this legend and the literary tales it spawned held such fascination for men and women of the Middle Ages, no one can say with certainty, but for some reason, following the appearance of the literary versions of the tale, it became very much the vogue among the great noble families of Europe to try to attach themselves to the Mélusine legend in one way or another; a good number of them created fictitious genealogies in an attempt to claim descent from the illustrious fairy. The chroniclers of the great houses of Europe would rely on the works’ authors (Jean d’Arras and Couldrette) to back up their masters’ claims to illustrious ancestry. In order to create links with Mélusine, similarities of coats of arms were vaunted; coats of arms were even changed. Resemblances in names were seized upon as proof of kinship; charts and genealogies were forged and names were changed.

Exactly why this myth bore such attraction will probably always remain, for the most part, a matter of conjecture, but in all the lands where the Lusignans founded dynasties and in all those lands where certain families of great rank and power could attach themselves to this illustrious house (Poitou,

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Saintonge, La Marche, Agenais, Forez, Dauphiné, Languedoc, Burgundy, Alsace, Luxembourg, Bohemia, Jerusalem, Cyprus, Armenia, Aragon, England and France), the descendants of Mélusine, true or pretended, swelled with pride over their supernatural origin and the frightening privilege of seeing their great and mournful ancestor return to this world to announce to them, with piercing cries, their approaching death.

Whatever relevance we might find in the Mélusine story to our twenty-first century existence, the fact remains that it continues to attract attention on many fronts.

During the last fifteen years, the Mélusine legend and the literary works it spawned have been the focus of much scholarly interest, attesting to the relevance of the topic to the current academic community. National and international colloquia are taking place at universities worldwide, centering entirely on the subject of Mélusine, five of them having taken place within the last seven years.

Emory University and the University of Poitiers, while not alone in their investigation of the topic, are unique in their co-sponsorship of a colloquium consciously joining Old World and New World forces to contribute to the growing body of work surrounding this subject.

Moreover, not only medievalists, but also nineteenth and twentieth-century specialists are presently engaged in research

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on the subject, demonstrating the timeless nature and universality of its themes. A good number of collections of essays on the Mélusine myth and the literary tales related to it have recently come off the presses, as well as modern French and English translations of both prose and poetic versions of the Mélusine. The topic of Mélusine has been seized upon by feminists as well, to say nothing of the burgeoning interest of the general public, due, in part, to the great success of British writer A.S. Byatt’s novel Possession, published in 1990.

My own research on the Mélusine romances began thirty-five years ago. My interest in the topic was first aroused by the reproduction of a miniature contained in an edition of the Très riches heures du Duc de Berry, a richly decorated prayer book dating from the early fifteenth century. The miniature depicts Mélusine in the form of a winged dragon, hovering above the Château of Lusignan. This remarkable image led me to consult the standard bibliographies on medieval works; finding that there had been no satisfactory edition of the poetic Mélusine completed, I decided to undertake a critical edition of the work for my doctoral dissertation at the University of Georgia, completed in 1977. Over the years since, the multilayered nature of the subject has led me to investigate the myriad facets of the legend, and I have continued to write articles and deliver conference papers on the topic.

The primary significance of my continued investigation into mélusiniana is that it has allowed me to consistently strengthen myself as a researcher and contributor to the field of medieval French studies. For the first twenty years of working on this subject, I felt as though I were all alone in my pursuits, but beginning in the mid-1990’s, a good number of scholars from around the world began to publish on the subject. In 2003, as a culmination of my many years of research, I published an expanded version of my doctoral critical edition, along with a bilingual en face edition of the work (Middle French/English). These two volumes published with The Edwin Mellen Press were recipients of the Adèle Mellen Prize for Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship. I think I am safe in saying that it was really these two books that made me known to the French researchers and led to the invitation extended to me by Professors Vincensini and Galderisi to codirect the June 2008 Poitiers Colloquium.

As for the image that first attracted my curiosity to the Poitevin fairy? The third day of our June colloquium took place at the very site of the Mélusine legend’s origins in the city of Lusignan. There, we were warmly welcomed by the Mélusins (it is thus that the city’s inhabitants call themselves, claiming one and all to be descended from the fairy). Following the day’s presentations, the colloquium scholars were feted royally by the city’s administration and leading citizens for the honor we had paid to their patron spirit. Part of their hospitality included a tour of the Château of Lusignan – long since destroyed during France’s sixteenth-century religious wars.

As I walked among the ruins of the once impregnable château fort – that same one of the miniature – a thought kept occurring to me – one that had taken shape gradually over the years since my work on the Mélusine first began, one that now informs my conception of Mélusine as I have come to understand her: the fairy’s image hovering above the château in the miniature is a perfect metaphor for her true literary and historical significance. The château itself is the actual concretion of practical power. The image of the winged dragon, Mélusine, hovering above, however, represents the enchantment that invests the real and practical force of the stronghold with a superhuman valence, imbuing the fortress’s material form with a spiritual power that renders its walls far less assailable, or even approachable, by mere mortals.

This was in fact how the château was perceived by the inhabitants of Poitou at the beginning of the fifteenth century when the miniature was painted. This same aura of mystical power would remain suspended above the Château of Lusignan until its destruction almost two centuries later – indeed, lingering on at the site of its ruins even up to the present day – outlasting the material form of the castle itself. a Matthew Morris, PhD is an associate professor of French, at Oxford College of Emory University.

(Top) An artists depiction of The Château of Lusignan, destroyed during the religious wars of the sixteenth century; (Bottom) From left to right: Jean-Jacques Vincensini of Université de Corse, Emory University’s Matthew Morris, Michel Zink of Collège de France, Claudio Galderisi, Directeur, Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Civilisation Médievale, at the Ruins of the Château de Lusignan.

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Bundestag

ace

Brande

Grand Pl

nburg G

ate

By Evan Goldberg

S

tudy abroad often means taking a course in another country for a semester. For eleven of my political science classmates and I, it meant an opportunity to travel to Europe over spring break as part of our seminar on political communication and the European Union. A new approach to integrating study abroad into the curriculum, the trip built upon what we were studying in the classroom and gave us the opportunity to translate those concepts into the field in Germany and Belgium during an intensive week of meetings. Sponsored by Emory’s Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning, the trip was funded by The Halle Foundation and Atlantik-Brücke, and led by Professors Thomas and Marianne Lancaster.

Our first stop in Berlin was the beautiful Magnus-Haus, home to the offices of Atlantik-Brücke. We were welcomed over lunch with Dr. Walther Leisler Kiep, Honorary Chairman, and Dr. Beate Lindemann, Executive Vice-Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke. A private, non-partisan association dedicated to fostering transatlantic understanding and cooperation, Atlantik-Brücke was founded fifty-six years ago and has developed a range of programs designed to strengthen German-American relations by arranging personal meetings between Germans and Americans, in the economic, political

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Holocau

st Memo

rial

and cultural centers of both countries. They explained to us that we were now part of the global network of AtlantikBrücke fellows, which made us a permanent part of Atlantik-Brücke (the Atlantic Bridge in English).

A highlight of our time in Berlin included a special tour of the Federal Parliament, the Bundestag, by parliamentary member Patrick Döring. Filled with countless historical pieces, the Bundestag was partially destroyed by fire in 1933. Under circumstances still not entirely clear this event proved to be a valuable excuse for the Nazis to suspend most rights provided for by the 1919 constitution in the Reichstag Fire Decree in an effort to weed out the communists and increase state security. Many historians say this event is what allowed the Nazis to take control of Germany. It was later determined that it was in fact the Nazis who were responsible for the destruction of the Bundestag. Today the building combines some of the old stone walls peppered with bullet holes and protest graffiti from the era with brand new elements like the stunning glass dome that offers beautiful views of Berlin. The new

glass construction is meant to reflect the idea that government should be transparent so nothing like the Holocaust could ever happen again.

Another point of interest was the city of Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial which occupies a large area outdoors near the Brandenburg Gate. U.S. Architect Peter Eisenman’s design was highly controversial but chosen as a tribute to the Jews who died in the Holocaust. It occupies about 205,000 square feet (19,000 square meters) and consists of 2,711 unmarked gray stone slabs, each unique in size and shape. Laid out in a wave-like pattern, walking among them creates a sense of disorientation and confusion to be reminiscent of the time. It is a remarkable memorial that evokes deep emotions both about the atrocities and the progress that has been made since then. Later we visited the Jewish Museum Berlin, which reinforced our experience at the Holocaust memorial and also explained the context and variety of Jewish life in Berlin and Europe from past to present.

In Berlin, we experienced some of the city’s rich history, learned about current political developments and visited important government institutions. When the time came to leave for Brussels, we flew out of Berlin’s historic Tempelhof Airport which was unfortunately decommissioned six months after our visit.

Brussels is home to the European Union.

There we met those who work with the European Commission, the European Parliament and Bruegel, a European think tank. During our time in Brussels, we visited the European Parliament, the world’s largest parliamentary debating chamber with 785 members elected by more than 342 million voters in the EU’s 27 member states. The European Parliament provides simultaneous translation in twenty-three official languages. We listened in on a committee meeting in the plenary chamber.

Later that day we met the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering. After having studied the European Union extensively throughout the semester, we were able to have a candid discussion with one of its most important leaders. The location was outstanding – a glass walled conference room on the top floor of the Parliament building overlooking Brussels. The views of the city were simply breathtaking.

Later in the week, we took a walking tour of the city on a beautiful sunny day. My favorite part of the city is the Grand Place in French or Grote Markt in Flemmish, which is one of Europe’s oldest market squares with facades of buildings dating back to the fourteenth century. Now home to many cafés, terraces and shops, it is the city’s main tourist attraction. While there, we happened to run into an Emory alumnus who now works in Belgium.

(Top) President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, seated with Professor Tom Lancaster and Evan Goldberg, talks with Emory students; (Bottom) Dr. Walther Leisler Kiep and Dr. Beate Lindemann from Atlantik-Brücke, co-sponsor of the trip.

The Halle Foundation and Atlantik-Brücke aim to bring together people from Germany and the U.S. to enhance knowledge and understanding and to help maintain good diplomatic relations. We accomplished all of that and more on a trip that bridged the gap between learning and experience.a Evan Goldberg (‘08C) is a program coordinator for the Office of International Affairs and The Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning.

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British photographer, Harry Burton, took more than fourteen hundred photos of the excavation over ten years.

The Story Behind Tutankhamun:

The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs

L

ike so many good stories, the facts that make up the narrative of Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum’s relationship with Egypt form a perfect arc, leading up to the U.S. premier of Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs in Atlanta. Opening on November 15, Tutankhamun is another defining chapter in the strengthening ties among Egypt, Emory University, and the local Atlanta community. The journey began in 1920 when Emory’s School of Theology professor, Dr. William Shelton, travelled to Egypt in his search for antiquities that would inform students about the cultural heritage of the lands of the Bible.

Shelton’s purchases formed the beginning of an ancient Egyptian collection that was to become one of the key collections at the Carlos Museum. In 1988, Emory hired its first Egyptologist, Dr. Gay Robins. A scholar of wide renown, Dr. Robins shaped the Egyptian galleries at the Carlos Museum and mounted numerous international exhibitions. Dr. Peter Lacovara joined the Museum staff in 1998 as its first full-time curator of ancient art and

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his professional relationships came along with his arrival.

Dr. Lacovara knew Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, very well.

Having met Dr. Hawass when he first came to the U. S. as a student at Penn, Dr. Lacovara notes, “Even then, just by walking into a room he could command everyone’s attention.” Dr. Lacovara worked under Dr. Hawass and Dr. Mark Lehner, renowned archeologist and Director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates, for several seasons in Egypt, excavating at the Great Sphinx and pyramids at Giza. When Dr. Hawass became head of Antiquities in Egypt, Dr. Lacovara continued to work with him and led collaborative projects between the Carlos and Cairo Museums as well as an education course for Egyptian students.

Dr. Lacovara oversaw the growth of the Carlos Museum’s ancient Egyptian holdings and the reach of its relationships and reputation. Fortuitous news from a colleague in Canada reached Dr. Lacovara in 1998 – an extraordinary Egyptian collection, maintained since the nineteenth cen-

Photo by Harry Burton (British, 1879-1940). ©Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

By Priyanka Sinha

tury by the small, privately owned Niagara Falls Museum, Museum had elected to return the mummy to his rightwould soon become available on the international market. ful homeland and did so in 2003. In another Carlos and Upon inspecting the collection, Dr. Lacovara recognized Cairo Museum partnership between 2004 and 2006, the that it would be one of the most important collections first US-Egypt collaboration of its kind, Dr. Lacovara and for the Carlos Museum. As always, cost and timing were Carlos Museum exhibition design staff upgraded the discrucial. The Niagara Falls materials were being offered to plays showcasing 160 objects from the Predynastic period institutions around the globe and the Carlos Museum’s in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. The relationship flourished chances of acquiring the collection were diminishing rap- with a conservator exchange between both Museums and idly. Enter Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s visual arts and the presence of the American Research Center in Egypt architecture critic, Catherine Fox. Once the story of the at Emory. Dr. Lacovara is now preparing to excavate the Carlos Museum’s efforts broke in the AJC as front-page Palace of Amenhotep III at Malkata. Malkata, located on news, the city of Atlanta responded heroically. Contri- the Nile’s west bank near Thebes, in the desert south of butions poured in from Medinet Habu is famous “This exhibition is for everyone and it is an imfoundations and indias the palace in which portant one. Ancient Egypt is in so many ways the the young Tutankamun viduals. Within a week, direct ancestor to our own civilization. More than hundreds of donors regrew up. Commenting sponded with gifts rangon the importance of the that, I think it shows us what a great multicultural ing from $10 to $1 milMalkata expedition, Dr. society working together can achieve” lion. In May 1999, the Lacovara describes the Niagara Falls collection became the Carlos Museum’s anthropology of discovery, “Archaeologists are becoming Lichirie Collection, named in honor of Charlotte Lichirie, more interested in understanding the workings of Egypmother-in-law of James B. Miller, Jr., the then Museum tian society. Very few cities have been studied as opposed Board’s Chairman and generous contributor. tombs and temples, so we know much more about how the ancient Egyptians died than how they lived.” A tenIn any story, this would be a happy enough ending, but the year plus project, the Malkata survey and mapping, led by events continued to unfold serendipitously as the Lichirie Dr. Lacovara, will cover a two by five mile area and will Collection was found to have a mummy of royal descent, include a 3-D virtual fly-through of the royal city develfirst noticeable to Egyptologists by the placement of the oped by Georgia Tech’s Imagine Lab. crossed arms over the chest, a funerary custom only reserved for royalty in ancient Egypt. Emory University, with Through active partnerships over the past ten years there its cadre of experts from Egyptologists to medical scientists were many occasions for Dr. Hawass and the Michael C. and technicians were able to identify the mummy as most Carlos Museum staff to discuss the world of ancient Egypt probably that of the lost Pharaoh of Egypt – Ramesses I. and what would be most compelling to audiences in the United States. On one such occasion, Bonnie Speed, DiThroughout this discovery, Dr. Lacovara kept in touch rector of the Carlos Museum, asked the respected “gatewith Dr. Hawass informing him of the findings. Even keeper” of Egyptian antiquities if he had any projects of before circumstantial, historical and scientific evidence interest to the Carlos Museum. His enigmatic response pointed to the royal lineage of the mummy, the Carlos was, “I think I have something very interesting for you.”

(Left) Head of Amenhotep III in the Blue Crown: From the Karnak Temple Cachette, this rather unusual statue was modeled in unbaked clay with the features of King Amenhotep III, in particular those seen near the end of his reign. (Center) Collar of Neferuptah: Found on the body of Neferuptah, daughter of Amenemhat III, this collar might have been worn in life and was included in the tomb for her use in the afterlife. (Right) Funerary Mask of Psusennes I: The golden mask lay over the head, chest and part of the shoulders of the mummy of Psusennes, as a layer of protection. The royal headdress with ureaus cobra and the divine false beard he wears attested to his royal and godly status. The use of gold, considered the flesh of the gods, reaffirmed his divinity in the afterlife. © Sandro Vannini

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This event translated into a call several months later from Arts and Exhibitions International’s Andreas Numhauser with a proposition, “Would the Carlos Museum be interested in bringing Tutankhamun to Atlanta?” The rest is history. The Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center was rented in preparation for Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs – with the first objects scheduled for installation at the end of October. Concrete 12-foot walls have replaced temporary scaffolding, demarcating the galleries that reflect the four rooms of Tutankhamun’s tomb – antechamber, burial chamber, treasury, and annex. Vastly different from previous exhibitions and the one currently traveling the United States, Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs contains more than 130 objects, most never before seen outside of Egypt, telling stories from 2000 years of ancient Egypt – from the Old Kingdom to the Late Period. Visitors will see the material from Tutankhamun’s tomb and other objects from the 18th Dynasty. Significant dynasties will be represented through works of art owned by many of Egypt’s great pharaohs, from Hatshepsut, the queen who was pharaoh for 30 years and King Shabako, the Nubian Pharaoh who ushered in a brief renaissance in the 25th Dynasty.

The discovery of these treasures could have easily escaped archaeologists. Tutankhamun’s tomb was small and of “non-royal proportions” – it was later covered by debris from the construction of the Tomb of Ramesses VI. On November 5, 1922, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, discovered the sealed doorway, stamped with the name of Tutankhamun. Howard Carter described that moment when the “details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist…” with Lord Carnarvon inquiring anxiously, “What do you see?”

Carter wrote “It was all I could do to get out the words, ‘Yes, I see wonderful things.’” Wonderful

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(Left) The Valley of the Kings, where for a period of nearly 500 years tombs were constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom; (Right) Howard Carter, (right) the renowned archaeologist who discovered the tomb of King Tut; Photos by Harry Burton (British, 1879-1940). ©Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

Things: The Photography of Harry Burton and the Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun is the companion exhibition of Tutankhamun and will be on view at the Carlos Museum from November 15, 2008 to May 25, 2009. Every step of the archaeologists’ painstakingly detailed work in and around the tomb was documented through photography, one of the first large-scale excavations to be so thoroughly recorded. Harry Burton took more than 1400 large format black-and-white images to try to capture the experience of the discovery.

The Tutankhamun exhibition is a coup for scholars and teachers, but what of the non-aficionados amongst us?

Dr. Lacovara notes, “This exhibition is for everyone and it is an important one. Ancient Egypt is in so many ways the direct ancestor to our own civilization. More than that, I think it shows us what a great multicultural soci-

ety working together can achieve.” When speaking of the objects themselves, he says, “I think that we live in such a mass-produced, disposable world, that seeing beautifully and painstakingly crafted objects from hundreds or even thousands of years ago touches people. It is re-assuring in a way that humanity is capable of creating such beauty without modern machinery.”

The ancient Egyptians understood the universe through evocative concepts and symbols, many to be revealed at Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs.

Apparent behind each object is the tremendous amount of dedicated labor and diversity of partnerships that it took to build one of the world’s greatest civilizations. In a smaller reflection and closer to home, behind some of the best-loved exhibitions are dedicated and well-respected collaborations. Herein is the key strength of the Carlos Museum – a consistent theme in an enduring story.a Priyanka Sinha is the communications manager at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University.

Opposite page (Far Left) The Tutankhamun Canopic Coffinette is an exquisitely inlaid golden container; (Left) A CT scan of King Tut contradicted the long-held theory that a blow to the head killed the boy pharaoh; (Center) Tutankhamun’s Golden Sandals: These golden sandals have engraved decoration that replicates woven reeds.

Created specifically for the afterlife, they still covered the feet of Tutankhamun when Howard Carter unwrapped the mummy; (Right) Tutankhamun Shabti: The only such figure found in the Antechamber, it is one of the largest of the servant statuettes.The inscription records the shabti spell from the Book of the Dead, ensuring that the king would do no forced labor in the afterlife. © Sandro Vannini

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A Semester in Seoul

By Dr. Carl Holladay

L

ast fall, when I accepted an invitation to teach during the 2008 spring term at Yonsei University in Seoul, I knew that I would be deepening already strong ties with a Korean university much like Emory. A highly selective private university, Yonsei is sometimes called one of Korea’s “SKY” universities, along with the two major public universities, Seoul National University and Korea University.

Like Emory, it comprises a strong undergraduate college surrounded by a complex network of highly regarded professional schools.

With about 36,000 students – 25,000 undergraduates and 11,000 graduates – Yonsei has a larger student body than Emory. Both universities occupy attractive, beautifully landscaped campuses in the heart of major cities. Both campuses reflect the vitality and energy of their respective urban settings.

Emory education helped launch a life of political activism and public service in Korea that was fueled by deep religious convictions.

To seal this historic connection, in 1990 Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library obtained Yun Ch’i-Ho’s papers, including his personal diaries from 1883 through 1943, along with a holograph copy of the Korean National Anthem, which he composed. Before my trip to Korea, little did I realize that in this collection Emory possesses a treasure trove of papers that give a rare glimpse of modern Korean history caught by one of its most distinguished alumni.

Having taught at Emory for almost thirty years, I was aware not only of the sizeable Korean community in Atlanta and the vital role it has played in both the city and region, but also of Emory’s long history with Korea. Through this visit, however, I gained a greater appreciation for the depth of this relationship.

My visiting professorship was located in Underwood International College, which was established in 2005. Named after Horace G. Underwood, a Presbyterian missionary who came to Korea in the 1880s and laid the groundwork for founding Yonsei, UIC has a bold vision: it seeks to become the premier center in East Asia for English-based education in the humanities and liberal arts. In charting this path, UIC is challenging the heavy emphasis on technical and pre-professional education that characterizes many Asian universities.

At a reception for visiting international scholars hosted by Dr. Han-Joong Kim, the recently appointed president of Yonsei, I met Dean Young Moon Chae of the Graduate School of Public Health. Upon learning that I was from Emory, he told me about Yun Ch’i-Ho, his grandfather several generations removed, who attended Emory College at Oxford in the 1890s. Among other things, this fascinating Korean has the distinction of being Emory’s first international student. His

Under the energetic leadership of Dean Jongryn Mo, a Stanford-trained political economist, UIC is aggressively recruiting international faculty and students. The permanent faculty includes Korean professors drawn from other Yonsei departments along with recently appointed faculty with graduate degrees from prestigious universities all over the world. Equally important to the mix are visiting professors from other countries. To match the richness of this international faculty, UIC

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is also attracting students from countries all over Asia as well as from Europe, Africa, and North and South America. In my upper-level seminar, I had students from Korea, Uruguay, Indonesia, China and the United States.

My appointment to the Underwood Distinguished Visiting Professorship, which honors the family whose history has been intertwined with Yonsei for over a century, grew out of a visit to Emory last year by then-president of Yonsei, Dr. Chang Young Jung, and Dean Mo. Earlier, in November, 2005, President James Wagner, Provost Earl Lewis, and Vice Provost for International Affairs Holli Semetko, had paid a similar visit to Yonsei. These conversations generated renewed interest in strengthening the long-standing relationship between Emory and Yonsei.

Eager to explore forms of mutual enrichment between our two universities, Dean Mo offered this opportunity to Candler School of Theology. This was an appropriate gesture since the professorship is sponsored by Saemoonan Presbyterian Church in Seoul, which was begun by Horace Underwood in 1887.

“To “make it” in the larger global world of the 21st century, it will not be enough the be bi-lingual; they must strive to become quad-lingual, having facility in Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese.”

Other visiting professors were also at Yonsei last spring. The acclaimed novelist, Chang-rae Lee, who directs the program in creative writing at Princeton, taught a course and gave a public lecture in the Underwood International Forum titled “Creativity and Undergraduate Education.” Through this forum, UIC students get to hear visiting international scholars lecture on a wide variety of topics, ranging from political science to literary criticism.

Dean Mo had told me when I accepted the appointment that I would be expected to lecture in this forum. My topic was “Albert Schweitzer’s Jesus: Crushed on the Wheel of History.” Many Korean students learn in grammar school about Schweitzer as a world humanitarian. They were surprised to learn that he was also an eminent musician and theologian.

It was interesting for me to see how the UIC administration and faculty related to their students. In one presentation, Dean Mo urged the students to develop a truly global perspective as they shaped their programs of study. Parochial attitudes stamped by strong nationalistic interests and loyalties, he insisted, had to be replaced with broader visions. Rather than thinking primarily in terms of Korea vis-à-vis Japan and China, he invited them to envision East Asia as the region in which they would spend their working careers. To “make it” in the larger global world of the 21st century, he reminded them, it will not be enough to be bi-lingual; they must strive to become quad-lingual, having facility in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese.

(Top) The oldest university in Korea, Yonsei is set on 250 wooded acres in western Seoul on the former site of a Yi Dynasty royal palace; (Bottom) Dr. Holladay with Yonsei students in Seoul.

At a day-long convocation for all UIC students, Dean Chung Min Lee of the Graduate School of International Studies, gave a stirring address in which he predicted that most of them would have not one but three careers over their professional life time. He challenged them to develop over the next few decades a network of international contacts spanning several continents. He spoke about success but insisted that with educational and economic privilege comes responsibility. Their goal, he said, should be knowledge with conscience.

I returned from this experience with a much greater appreciation of Korean-American relationships and of the historic ties between Yonsei and Emory. With some imaginative planning and close collaborative work, both universities can continue to help each other realize their global educational visions and deepen their impact on two closely-linked societies.a Carl Holladay, PhD is a Charles Howard Candler Professor of New Testament at the Candler School of Theology.

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South Africa’s Greatest Challenge

By Rebecca Baggett & Robine Tricoles

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n the Zulu language, “Nozizwe” means “mother of all nations.” And in many ways, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge is a founding mother of today’s Republic of South Africa.

Madlala-Routledge was actively involved in her country’s struggle to end apartheid through her numerous roles in the African National Congress. After apartheid ended and the majority-led government of President Nelson Mandela was established in 1994, Madlala-Routledge transitioned from her role in the resistance movement to an important leader in her country’s young government. She is currently a Member of Parliament and served as Deputy Minister of Defense and Deputy Minister of Health under President Thabo Mbeki.

Madlala-Routledge garnered international media attention and public support in 2007 when she publically disagreed with President Mbeki’s rejection of the scientific consensus on the causes of and treatments for HIV/AIDS. Mbeki dismissed Madlala-Routlege from her Deputy Minister of Health post after she voiced her opinion and took an unauthorized trip to an AIDS Vaccine Conference in Spain.

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In April 2008, Madlala-Routledge spent a week on the Emory campus as the Emory Global Health Institute’s first Distinguished Visiting Fellow. During her visit, Rebecca Baggett and Robin Tricoles discussed with Madlala-Routledge her views on South Africa’s most pressing health challenges and the role she thinks American universities can and should play in low and middle-resource countries. An excerpt of this interview is below.

What do you think are South Africa’s greatest health challenges?

We have a very huge problem with HIV/AIDS and related illnesses like TB and pneumonia. We also have a great problem with diseases like high blood pressure and heart disease which emanate from an unhealthy lifestyle, so we have a very big disease burden. But I think our system is beginning to respond to all of these challenges because in relation to HIV/AIDS, we now have a national strategic plan designed to deal with issues of prevention and treatment.

How do you think the country should address these challenges?

I will start with the issue of having a plan. Because I think that while we have all of these challenges, including infrastructure challenges for health, it would be very important to start with a plan because then we would establish what our priorities are and where we should start. The issue of the budget is very important because we can’t do anything without adequate finances. But in relation to that, there is also an important role to work out regarding whether we’ve got the health workforce, the people who are going to deliver quality health care, so there are different elements, but they all need to be worked out in a plan that is very clearly outlined for approaching the health problems. We have a policy already in South Africa which emphasizes primary health care, which is quite an important policy because it deals with issues of prevention, making people aware of what causes illness, and how to prevent it. But we also have strong secondary and tertiary care elements, and this involves research and dealing with high technology and related issues. I also think it’s important to have an integrated approach to health care because health goes beyond simply illness and wellness. There are a number of other related issues. Issues, for example, related to education, making sure literacy levels rise in your community because as you raise awareness and raise education, people are better able to take care of their own health.

to work and develop their own capacity and knowledge. So I think what is happening [at Emory] is very, very important and will strengthen that which we are starting to do.

What existing and potential partnerships between Emory and South African institutions do you think hold the most promise?

Well, we’ve talked a lot about drug discovery and areas around legislation, the types of contracts that need to be put in place, and the agreements between government and the private sector [in situations] where the research would be happening at the government level in the institutions that are created by government and then how that then translates into commercialization of that information. I’m also interested in looking at issues such as the healthcare workforce because I have found that in the U.S. and in South Africa we have the same problem of a shortage of health workers, but also the issue of some of our health workers leaving South Africa for the U.S. or other countries in the developed world. And here I think the partnership is very important in how to develop the workforce together because if one country has the capacity to train health professionals and the other one needs health professionals, then I think there should be a partnership there to say this is how we can assist one another. a

“I think what is happening [at Emory] is very, very important and will strengthen that which we [the Republic of South Africa] are starting to do.”

Do you think organizations like Emory can assist South Africa and other low and middle-resource countries in addressing their health challenges?

I think partnerships are very important between those in the developed world and those in the developing world.

Particularly, if you look at the burden of disease you’ll see that the heaviest burden is in the developing world. And in a number of cases the diseases that people in the developing world die of are diseases that have been eliminated in the developed world. So I think there should be sharing of information to say in terms of this particular illness; this approach was used in the developed world and it worked.

I also think there should be consideration to the issues of trade because there are problems that hinder the developing world from accessing health care simply because it is beyond the means of many people. I think in relation to this, we must consider issues of payment and how medicines can be made to be more affordable. But I also think the exchange I have seen here at Emory is absolutely critical, where young people from South Africa or other developing countries come to the institutions that are established here

If you would like to listen to the full interview with Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, please visit www.globalhealth.emory.edu.

Rebecca Baggett is the communications manager at the Emory Global Health Institute, and Robin Tricoles is a writer in Emory’s Health Sciences Communications Department.

Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, Director of the Emory Global Health Institute, with Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge during her visit to Emory as an Institute Distinguished Visiting Fellow.

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East Meet West in Study on Effects of Stress

By Kathi Baker

“I have long believed in and advocated a dialogue and cross fertilization between science and spirituality, as both are essential for enriching human life and alleviating suffering on both individual and global levels.”

– H.H. the Dalai Lama

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ince its founding in 1998 the Emory-Tibet Partnership has expanded to include affiliations with the Institute of Buddhist Dialetics, the home of Emory’s study abroad program in Dharamsala, and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, who are collaborating with Emory on a groundbreaking Emory-Tibet Science Initiative to develop and implement a comprehensive science education curriculum for Tibetan monastic institutions.

The latest advancement in this partnership involves Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD, senior lecturer in the Department of Religion at Emory University, and Charles Raison, MD, from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. Serving as codirectors of the Emory Collaborative for Contemplative Studies, their research builds on studies that show people who perceive themselves as part of a social network are healthier happier individuals.

Raison specializes in scientific studies that show how stress and sickness promote the development of depression through activation of the body’s innate immune system. Negi earned the highest degree of learning in Tibetan Buddhism, the degree of Geshe Lharampa, from Drepung Loseling Monastery and received his PhD from Emory’s Graduate Institute for the Liberal Arts in 1999. His dissertation centered on traditional Buddhist and contemporary Western approaches to emotions and their impact on health. In addition to teaching at Emory, he serves as spiritual director of Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc., which has been affiliated with Emory University since 1998.

In 2005, the two decided to meld their respective educational and cultural backgrounds and their common interests in Tibetan Buddhist practices into an initial study of compassion meditation. They applied for, and received, funding to begin a small pilot study with students at Emory University.

The study focused on the effect of compassion meditation on

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inflammatory, neuroendocrine and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress, and evaluated the degree to which engagement in meditation practice influenced stress reactivity.

Raison hypothesized that compassion meditation would reduce inflammatory responses to stress because of evidence that positive social connectivity is associated with reduced inflammation. He believes that compassion meditation seen from a certain perspective “is the world’s most radical training in re-envisioning one’s social surroundings as being supporting and caring rather than threatening and dangerous.”

Negi, who designed and taught the meditation program used in the study, says that while much attention has been paid to meditation practices that emphasize calming the mind, improving focused attention or developing mindfulness, less is known about meditation practices designed to specifically foster compassion.

Although secular in presentation, the compassion meditation program was based on a thousand-year-old Tibetan Buddhist mind-training practice called “lojong” in Tibetan. “Lojong practices utilize a cognitive, analytic approach to challenge an individual’s unexamined thoughts and emotions toward other people, with the long-term goal of developing altruistic emotions and behavior towards all people,” explains Negi.

Sixty-one healthy college students between the ages of 17 and 19 participated in the study. Half the participants were randomized to receive six weeks of compassion meditation training and half were randomized to a health discussion control group. Each meditation class session combined teaching, discussion and meditation practice. The control group attended classes designed by study investigators on topics relevant to the mental and physical health of college students such as stress management, drug abuse and eating disorders. In addition, a variety of student participation activities were employed such as mock debates and role-playing. Both groups were required to participate in 12 hours of classes across the study period. Meditators were provided with a meditation compact disc for practice at home. Homework for the control group was a weekly self-improvement paper.

After the study interventions were finished, the students participated in a laboratory stress test designed to investigate how the body’s inflammatory and neuroendocrine systems respond to psychosocial stress. No differences were seen between students randomized to compassion meditation and the control group, but within the meditation group there was a strong relationship between the time spent practicing meditation and reductions in inflammation and emotional distress in response to the stressor.

“Our findings suggest that meditation practices designed to foster compassion may impact physiological pathways that are modulated by stress and are relevant to disease,” says Raison. Consistent with this, when the meditation group was divided into high and low practice groups, participants in the high practice group showed reductions in inflammation and distress in response to the stressor when compared to the low practice group and the control group.

Charles Raison and Geshe Lobsang photographed with H.H. the Dalai Lama on a trip to Dharmasala in 2006.

Despite these promising findings, the researchers caution that it will require conducting stress tests before and after meditation training in order to conclusively show it was the practice of compassion meditation that resulted in reduced stress responses. “These initial results are exciting,” says Raison. “If further studies show that practicing compassion meditation reduces inflammatory responses to stress, we believe it may offer real promise not only as a method of reducing the number and severity of health conditions associated with stress and inflammation, it also may help people deal with illness in a way that could help boost the healing process.”

Negi concurs. He says the findings have encouraged them to begin compassion meditation classes for patients at Emory Winship Cancer Institute. In addition, they have plans to partner with the Emory Predictive Health Institute to study potential long-term effects of compassion meditation on health and wellbeing. a Study data was published online in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinolgy and is available at www.sciencedirect.com Kathi Baker is the associate director and manager of broadcast relations, Emory Health Sciences Communications.

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Confessions of a Young Novelist

By Michelle Miles

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n the night of October 7, Barack Obama and John McCain shared a stage in Nashville, Tennessee for the second of three scheduled presidential debates. That same evening, Umberto Eco concluded his three-part Richard Ellmann Lecture series at Emory University with a bilingual reading from Foucault’s Pendulum.

Despite the unavoidable scheduling conflict between Eco’s reading and the presidential debate, the Italian novelist, semiotician, and professor drew a considerable and attentive crowd.

The atmosphere in the Schwartz Center was lively and expectant; after three days and an equal number of compelling lectures, Eco’s audience had gathered for the finale, and as the rich sibilants of his speech rose to fill the generous acoustic space of the performing arts center, first in English, then in rolling Italian, there was an unmistakable spell cast in the theater. Having been captivated by the man himself for the past three days, it was as if the audience was freed in this closing ceremony to wander the labyrinth of narrative, to lose oneself, as it were, in a wondrous story.

For three days, we had absorbed the flawlessly woven discourse of scholarly expertise and human curiosity, followed erudite discussions of textual creation, interpretation, and personal and historical influence. Now, in the final hour of his visit and as much of our nation tuned in to a discussion between two individuals poised to influence the next political phase of our world, those of us seated at

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Eco’s feet were invited to enter a high-stakes game of our own: we were called to dive into another world, one very much like the one in which we live, but imagined, created, even uncannily remembered by one creative, creating mind addressing our own.

In the second of his three Richard Ellmann lectures, entitled “Author, Text, and Interpreters,” Umberto Eco expounded upon the relationship of memory to imagination.

Recounting his last twenty-five years as a “serious” book collector, Eco told of his discovery of a text by Aristotle that he had long forgotten was part of his library. Flipping through the pages, he came upon a sticky substance, which had glued the corner of several sheets together. Only at that moment did Eco realize with delighted astonishment that his discovery of such a text – synchronous with his protagonist Adso’s own – was not the stuff of purely invented authorial whim, but rather stemmed from this rediscovered truth, from a very real book housed and forgotten in his own very real library, a casualty of memory but not of fact. Thus, as Eco confessed to his audience, The Name of the Rose was a novel not entirely conjured, but was rather in part lived, in part forgotten, re-created unknowingly, and finally, re-encountered and remembered.

Listening to the author read from his own text on the final evening of his visit, I could not help but observe that he, too, seemed to delight in the magic world it conjured, as if the source of the tale and the words that gave it form were as mysterious to the mind that penned them as they were to our own. As mysterious and as magical.

Inaugurated in 1988 by Nobel Prize winguises, to provoke, to educate, to interning poet, Seamus Heaney, the Richard rogate, and perhaps most importantly, Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature to delight the mind’s eye with wonder, were established in the name of a literary to build castles in alternate worlds, to fascholar known not only for the brilliance cilitate our dreams, and, for the academic of his work but for the extraordinary among us, to dismantle the acquired argenerosity of his character. Internationmor of jargon-laden discourse in favor of ally reputed for his award winning and clear diction and honest approach. best-selling biographies of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and W.B. Yeats, as Umberto Eco’s visit marked the well as an esteemed professor at twentieth anniversary of the EllHarvard, Yale, the University of mann Lectures. As I sat in the audiChicago, and Oxford (where he torium that final evening, I recalled “When interviewers ask me was Goldsmiths’ Professor of Engwhy I came to graduate school in the how I write a novel, I usually lish Literature from 1970-1984), first place: for the love of a clever cut them short and say, Richard Ellmann was a dedicated tale and a crafted line; in pursuit of ‘From left to right.’” teacher and lifelong learner whose creative joy. As I glanced around the - Umberto Eco legacy as a literary giant was theater, I saw faces both part of the matched only by his reputation as university community and outside of a truly human scholar. Professor it, young and old, infinitely varied, Ron Schuchard explains: “A soft-spoken teacher who was and I was reminded of the pull of a good storyteller on all a taskmaster of substance and style, [Richard Ellmann] inof us. The comprehensive title of Eco’s lecture series, Conspired excellence in scores of students who are now leading fessions of a Young Novelist, made a great deal of sense by scholars and critics in universities throughout the world.” the end of his visit; the presence of play in both title and in speaker were palpable and contagious. I left each lecture Emory was privileged to welcome Ellmann to its faculty with a buoyed spirit, rushing home to read. in 1976, and for the following ten years, to benefit from his presence on campus each spring. His legacy lives on In his seventies, Umberto Eco is a disarming combination at Emory University through the Ellmann Lectures and the of wise man and novice. There is a freshness to his work personable, gifted, and creative intellects who gather, in his and a youthfulness in his step. His lectures were a tribhonor, to keep alive the spirit of inquiry and excellence Ellute to the lifelong pilgrimage that is every writer’s path, mann so aspired to and embodied throughout his lifetime. as well as to the hardy-but-generous character required to connect with an audience both on and off the page.

Over the years, a winsome cast of poets, novelists, and literAnd in the words of Seamus Heaney, “[Richard Ellmann] ary critics have come to Emory as Ellmann lecturers. Natuwould have loved every minute of them.” a rally, each guest has been unique in style, in approach, and in creative temperament. But what all have shared is the Michelle Miles is a fifth year PhD candidate working unmistakable touch of imaginative and humbly human elotowards a dissertation on Northern Irish poetry, the quence; to listen to an Ellmann lecturer is to be invited to beClassics, and translation. lieve once more in the capacity of literature, in all of its many

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UNIVERSITY Office of International Affairs | Box 52, Administration Building Emory University | Atlanta, Georgia 30322 USA

Latin American Posters: Public Aesthetics and Mass Politics The Schatten Gallery, Level 3, Robert W. Woodruff Library August 22 - December 14, 2008 Latin American Posters: Public Aesthetics and Mass Politics, an exhibition which traces four decades of Latin American social and political history during a time of widespread crisis and unrest.

Drawing primarily from the University of New Mexico’s unparalleled, ten thousandstrong Sam L. Slick Collection of Latin American and Iberian posters, the exhibition features 66 works that document and explore Latin America’s contemporary social and political history, as mirrored in five unifying themes: Imperialism, Solidarity, and Self Determination; Icons, Martyrs, and Charismatic Leaders; Human Rights, Feminism, and Indigenism; Revolution and Popular Movements; and Culture, Society and Film.

José Meléndez Contreras Puerto Rico Programa de Navidad, 1977 Christmas Program Divisíon de Educatión de la Comunidad Serigraph on paper