Human Rights in North Korea

April 6, 2004

Soon Ok Lee, author and a survivor of North Korea's notorious prison camp system, and her son Daniel Choi - also a survivor of the camps - were among speakers set to speak for a special student-initiated conference to examine the North Korean human rights crisis,on April 6 in the Whittenberger Auditorium of the Indiana Memorial Union.

Co-sponsoring the event was the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a bi-partisan human rights organization based in Washington, D.C. "The Committee hopes to raise awareness of the deplorable human rights situation in North Korea to generate new thinking about ways to alleviate the suffering of the North Korean people," said Debra Liang-Fenton, Committee executive director.

Also speaking at the session was Jack Rendler, Vice Chair of the Committee and human rights advocate who has been working on Korean human rights issues since 1984.

The panel was the first in a series of awareness-raising events that the committee co-sponsored at college campuses across the nation. The tour included Harvard University, Fordham University, Cornell University, and the University of California at Berkeley.

The conference represented a wide range of political views and academic disciplines. Co-sponsors included the IU East Asian Studies Center, College Democrats, College Republicans, and the IU Korean Students Association.

"We see this as a human, not a political issue," said IU Senior Darrin Nix, President of the Indiana University Mortar Board Senior Honor Society "because we wanted to focus on the glaring human rights abuses in North Korea. The conference will include personal testimony of brutal torture, starvation, mass murder, gas chambers, and medical experimentation in the infamous prison camps."

Liang-Fenton praised the IU administration for serving as host partner for the meeting and for "providing an important venue and platform to help us bring the issue of human rights in North Korea to communities outside the Washington, D.C. area."

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The IUB School of Journalism, the East Asian Studies Center, and the IUB School of Law presented

A Roundtable Discussion on

"The Role of Japan in the War on Terrorism"

Monday, March 29

Key Note Speaker: Rebecca MacKinnon, Former CNN Tokyo Bureau Chief

Rebecca MacKinnon

Other Participants:

Prof. Greg Kasza
Prof. Joe Hoffmann
Prof. Scott Kennedy
Prof. Emer. George Wilson

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The Japan Handicraft Instructors Association and the Asian Art Coordinating Council with the Japan-America Society of Indiana presented:

"Contemporary Quilts from Japan"

an exciting traveling exhibition at the Indiana State Museum, October 16, 2004 - January 2, 2005.

Displayed in two of the museum's changing galleries, this show featured 100 works from Japan's best quilt artists. The exhibit opened with a traditional sake ceremony attended by the consulate general of Japan and the honorary consulate general as well as some of the original artists.

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The IU History Department presented:

Brown Bag Series

Monday, February 9, 2004

Lynn Struve discussed
"Confusion PTSD: Reading Trauma in a Chinese Teenager's Memoir of 1653"

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Indiana University 's
9th Annual International Studies Summer Institute
July 11-24, 2004

The Center for the Study of Global Change & world area studies centers at Indiana University annually organized a summer residential institute for middle and high school teachers. Participants joined the Institute's faculty, IU professors, and nationally prominent speakers to explore diverse topics such as global environmental change, international trade, populations at risk, and conflict resolution.

For more information, visit the International Studies Summer Institute website or call (812) 855-0756.