FREE access to the digital library "Pop Culture Universe: Icons | Idols | Ideas"
Pop Culture Universe: Icons | Idols | Ideas (PCU) is an authoritative, yet irresistible, digital library of information on American and world popular culture, past and present—in a package as dynamic as the topic it covers. Built on hundreds of award-winning titles for all levels of researchers, PCU provides a safe haven for investigating topics that appeal to students—without advertising, suggestive content, or questionable authorship of commercial or fan sites.
Combining the best of traditional scholarship with the convenience of Web technology and the fun inherent in the subject, PCU advances the study of pop culture and pop history, promotes information literacy, integrates a subject of universal appeal into the classrooms of high schools and colleges, and enriches the school and public libraries that support them.
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New IIP publications to download
How different governments and societies confront these new and transformative technologies is the subject of the eJournal USA "Defining Internet Freedom." The first part of this journal addresses the difficulty agreeing on a universally applicable definition of Internet freedom. Nations impose many different kinds of restrictions. Some represent the efforts of authoritarian regimes to repress their opponents, but others instead reflect diverse political traditions and cultural norms. Other materials survey the current state of ‘net freedom in different parts of the world.
U.S. television and cinema promote images of Americans that are … well … wrong! Pop Culture versus Real America will contrast those pop culture images with profiles of real Americans in every walk of life. Read more in the eJournal USA “Pop Culture versus Real America” (in English) .
The U.S. Smithsonian Curator Reserched about Shokan Valikhanov
Dr. Paul Taylor, Director of the Asian Cultural History Program at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and William Smith, photographer, visited Kazakhstan to conduct seminars for museum specialists and do research. The team also finalized a partnership with the Kasteev Fine Arts Museum in Almaty to create a virtual exhibit of the great Kazakh ethnographer, Shokan Valikhanov, whose contributions to the ethnography of Central Asia are not yet well known outside Kazakhstan.
The American researches visited Syrymbet – an area connected with life and work of Shokan Valikhanov – and collected materials for the virtual exhibit which takes place in Washington, D.C. from April until December, 2010. Please take a look at the website: www.valikhanov.si.edu.
Call for Applications: Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program
The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship Program at the Washington, D.C.-based National Endowment for Democracy invites applications for fellowships in 2011-2012. The program enables democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and enhance their ability to promote democratic change. Dedicated to international exchange, this five-month, residential program offers a collegial environment for fellows to reflect on their experiences and consider best practices; conduct research and writing; engage with colleagues and counterparts in the United States; and develop professional relationships within a global network of democracy advocates.
The program is intended primarily to support practitioners and scholars from developing and aspiring democracies; distinguished scholars from established democracies are also eligible to apply. A working knowledge of English is required. All fellows receive a monthly stipend, health insurance, travel assistance, and research support. The program does not fund professional training, fieldwork, or students working towards a degree. The program will host two five-month fellowship sessions in 2011 - 2012: October 1, 2011 - February 28, 2012 (Fall 2010) and March 1 - July 31, 2012 (Spring 2012).
Deadline: Monday, November 1, 2010.
For more information, visit http://www.ned.org/fellowships/reagan-fascell-democracy-fellows-program. Applications are accepted through our online application system beginning August 1, 2010 at http://fellowships.ned.org. You can also download flyer in Russian.
More news on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan: U.S. Embassy News Archive 2010