On the website for The University of Tokyo Miss & Mr. Contest 2022, the portraits of 10 contestants stare back at viewers. The five women have porcelain skin, petite frames, round doe eyes and long, dark hair. The five men have clear skin, chiseled jawlines and thick and voluminous hair. Beauty contests such as The University of Tokyo’s Miss & Mr. Contest have been a staple of universities across Japan, run and sponsored by student groups within the schools as gateways for contestants to receive jobs in broadcast media, modeling or acting, based on their appearance that leans into conventional East Asian beauty standards. However, such competitions have recently been criticized for their fixations on these beauty standards alone, removing the participant’s character and personal achievements.
Climate change has been at the forefront of international discussion with the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place this November. An event on Thursday, Nov. 10, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst discussed the social movements taking place in Latin America in support of the climate. The panel discussion, titled “A Blue Tide Rising in Latin America?” was held by the Political Economy Research Institute, and focused on the grassroots movements based on Indigenous peoples’ involvement to make a greener Latin America.
The idea of the United States as an empire isn’t new, but seems to be sweeping academics and changing the way American history is discussed in college classrooms. This idea was discussed in the context of the relationship between the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, when the University of Massachusetts Amherst presented “U.S. Empire in Asia and the Pacific: Repression and Resistance” as a part of the “Confronting Empire: The 2022-2023 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series.”
On Thursday, Oct. 20, the Mount Holyoke College Russian Club hosted a talk entitled “The Black Square Goes Where?: (Re)locating Ukrainian Artists in the Russo-Soviet Avant-Garde.” The lecturer, Professor Daniel Brooks, is a visiting lecturer in Russian and Eurasian Studies at Mount Holyoke, and a Russian language and literature expert. His talk discussed Russian and Ukrainian art throughout history, grounding art in location, historical context, culture and language.
Imperialism has had roots in the United States since the beginning of the nation’s history and has produced direct consequences for the rest of the world. This was highlighted in a keynote on “The Imperialist Roots of the U.S.A.” on Oct. 3, 2022, as part of the “Confronting Empire: The 2022-2023 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series” at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This lecture was presented by Manu Karuka, an assistant professor of American studies at Barnard College. Karuka discussed his work on the United States’ imperialist ties with the international community and how it has affected current global issues.
On Wednesday, Sept. 28, Alex King, associate professor of philosophy at Simon Fraser University, gave a lecture on cultural appropriation. The Mount Holyoke Department of Philosophy hosted her lecture, “Cornrows and a Qipao: Cultural Appropriation and Objectifying the Other,” which was open to Mount Holyoke students and faculty. During the lecture, King focused on her thesis, telling the audience how “cultural appropriation is wrong — generally speaking — when and because it objectifies the appropriatees.”
China Night is an annual event held by the Chinese Cultural Association to celebrate the Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, with song and dance. In past years, it has been an evening of food, music and community. Because of the need for social distancing and remote formats for large events this year, however, the CCA directed students to watch the live CCTV Spring Festival Gala, a variety show broadcast on the eve of the Lunar New Year featuring an array of performances. The CCA posted traditional Chinese customs on Instagram while the Spring Festival Gala aired.
In the wake of months of protesting after the passage of the Citizenship Amendment bill on Dec. 8, 2019, Delhi, the capital of India, saw communal unrest and anti-Muslim riots from Feb. 23 to Feb. 26. The death toll went up to 46 with more than 250 injured. The Delhi Police arrested or detained up to 630 people. The unrest was centered around northeast Muslim-majority neighborhoods in Delhi, such as Mustafabad and Jaffrabad, among others.
On June 14, 2023, José Zamora, a prominent Guatemalan journalist, was sentenced to six years in prison on money laundering charges according to BBC World News. Reuters reported that Zamora was issued a fine of 300,000 quetzal, equivalent to $38,339 USD. The charges have been condemned by human rights organizations and described by Zamora himself as “political persecution.” Reuters also reported that the trial and verdict have led human rights groups to call the trial, happening under President Alejandro Giammattei’s administration, an attack on free speech, along with other actions against Zamora’s newspaper and journalists reporting on the corruption of the Guatemalan government.