Irvine -- Given the spate of vigils of those killed in the Virginia Tech massacre, does our sympathy extend to those killed in Iraq?
How has nationalism affected the way we remember those killed in Virginia?
In appealing to national symbols ("our nation" in the UCI Chancellor's email and the assertion that "We are all Americans" from a speaker from Orange County's Human Relations Commission at UCI's vigil this past Monday), these commemorations seem to ignore the international diversity of the UCI community.
A UCI graduate student has emailed Chanceller Michael Drake asking that very question asked in our opening sentence. The chancellor had sent an email to UCI stating, "The shooting ...has left our nation in stunned sorrow."
Grant says in his email to Dr. Drake: "I am not of your nation...there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of students, staff, and faculty at UCI who are not of 'our nation'."
Grant's email quotes the chancellor as writing: "We are, on a fundamental level, all members of one community". Grant asks: "Does this truly mean 'all' of us, or only those of us who are part of 'our nation'?" On our next show, we talk with Philip Grant, about why he wrote to the chancellor. The next Subversity show is on Monday, April 30, 2007, from 9-10 a.m. on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Irvine and is webcast via kuci.org.
Grant is a graduate student in sociocultural anthropology at UCI. He is researching Iranian intellectuals both inside Iran and in the diaspora, and more generally is interested in issues surrounding religious belief and practice, religion and politics, and selfhood in Iran and elsewhere, as well as immigration, Europe, Islam and the question of European identity. He has lived in Iran, Yemen, and France where he obtained a master's degree in political sociology from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris. He was born in Britain where he lived until 2003. His BA in history is from Oxford.
Thanx for listening.
dan
-- Daniel C. Tsang Host, Subversity "What's behind and beyond the Orange Curtain" Mondays 9-10 a.m. on 88.9 fm, kuci.org KUCI talk page: http://kuci.org/talk/ KUCI Full-text Archive: http://kuci.org/~dtsang/kucift.html Subversity: http://kuci.org/~dtsang E-mail: subversity@kuci.org Daniel Tsang, KUCI, PO Box 4362, Irvine CA 92616, USA _______________________________________________ KUCI.org 88.9FM - "eclectic music, engaging talk" _______________________________________________