Dragon and Eagle Asian American Heritage from the Perspective of a Chinese American May 17, 7 pm
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is the celebration of the history and culture of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. May was chosen for commemoration by Congress, because several important anniversaries fall on days in this month.
In the American Corner Debrecen, Jason Heung will give a talk about the background of the heritage month briefly and the Chinese American experience more broadly. Mr. Heung was born in the U.S., grew up in Hong Kong and works as an Economic Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest.
Length: 50 min
Free admission
(The) Modern (Working-Class) Family American Television Series May 8, 6.30 pm
How do contemporary American family sitcoms such as The Simpsons, The Middle, and Modern Family frame working-class men and women? We’ll view clips from some of today’s most popular American sitcoms and discuss how television depicts America’s working class families. We may see patterns emerging of how these TV families show middle class values, its gender roles, and its familial structure. Then we may ask ourselves what such patterns or representations mean for middle class viewers in America…and abroad.
Presentation by Robin Whitford, Fulbright ETA
National Parks in the U.S. April 18, 5 pm
Bence Nagy, student of Tóth Árpád Secondary School spent one year in the U.S. with his family while his father was on a Fulbright exchange.
Listen to his 30-minute account of 10 breathtaking national parks in California, Utah, Arizona, Hawaii and Nevada.
Language: English
Gangsters, Private Eyes, Low-Lifes — Film Noir April 17, 6 pm
In the 1940s and 1950s, a group of French film critics noticed that American crime movies had grown darker—more bleak, stylized, and moody. Films such as Night and the City, The Big Sleep, The Asphalt Jungle, and The Postman Always Rings Twice depicted worlds that ran counter to the cheerful ones typical of Hollywood movies. The critics termed them film noir or "black film." Todd Berliner, Professor of Film Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will explain the narrative and stylistic qualities that characterize this unusual series of Hollywood movies. Illustrated with clips from numerous films, his talk will explain film noir's origins and its enduring appeal to moviegoers.
Brief biography
Todd Berliner, Professor of Film Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, teaches film aesthetics, film narration and American cinema. He is the author of Hollywood Incoherent: Narration in Seventies Cinema (University of Texas Press, 2010) and many articles and book chapters.
Professor Berliner was the founding chairman of UNCW’s Film Studies Department and the recipient of two Fulbright Scholar awards. He is currently the László Országh Distinguished Chair in American Studies at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He holds a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.
Operation Babylift International Adoption and the Children of War in Vietnam April 3, 5 pm
A presentation by Dana Sachs, author of The Life We Were Given.
About the book:
http://www.danasachs.com
In April 1975, the U.S. government evacuated nearly three thousand displaced Vietnamese children just before the fall of Saigon. Chaotic from start to finish, Operation Babylift gripped the American public and was often presented as a great humanitarian effort. Now, thirty-five years after the war ended, Dana Sachs examines the rescue more carefully, revealing how a single public-policy gesture irrevocably altered thousands of lives, not always for the better.
With sensitivity and balance, Sachs presents multiple perspectives: foreign adoption volunteers trying to "save" children; birth mothers making the wrenching decision to relinquish them; adoptive families waiting anxiously to adopt them; and the children themselves, struggling to understand. In particular, the book follows one such child, Anh Hansen, who left Vietnam through Operation Babylift and, decades later, returned to meet her birth mother. Through Anh’s story, and those of many others, The Life We Were Given will inspire impassioned discussion on the human cost of war, international adoption and aid efforts, and U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
She is Dynamite! Empowering Women Through Business March 27, Wednesday, 6 pm
How can you run a very successful business and bring up 5 children? One of Fortune’s 10 Most Powerful Business Entrepreneurs in 2010, Ms. Theresa Alfaro Daytner will give a presentation about how you can build a career you have dreamed about without having to give up your family life. She will also touch upon how building a business career can empower women.
Short bio:
Ms. Daytner has always had entrepreneurial passion. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting at the University of Maryland in 1989, after giving birth to her first child and her first business, a residential roofing company. In 2003, Ms. Daytner launched The Daytner Corporation, now doing business as Daytner Construction Group (DCG). DCG performs commercial construction management, general contracting and related consulting services for public agencies, institutions and private clients. As a leader in her community, Ms. Daytner is the Past President of National Association of Women Business Owners - DC Chapter and also Past President of the Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Daytner lives in Mt. Airy, MD with her husband and their 4 youngest children She loves to bike, hike, dance, travel, read, learn and explore (half Ironman triathlon, 4-day bike road cross-country camping trip)
High Heels and a Gun American Television Series March 12, 6.30 pm
Women in scripted television are much more than only wives and mothers. They are detectives, drug dealers, fashonistas, executives, and vampire slayers—along with sometimes being wives and mothers, too. Characters are varied, but how far have they come in their functions as characters, their dialogue, and their dress? How have these elements changed or stayed the same? We’ll take a look at different women in American television series and discuss how women are presented and present themselves on television.
Speaker: Robin Whitford, Fulbright ETA
Healthy Eating March 6, 6pm "Our kids didn't do this to themselves. They don't decide the sugar content in soda or the advertising content of a television show. Kids don't choose what's served to them for lunch at school, and shouldn't be deciding what's served to them for dinner at home. And they don't decide whether there's time in the day or room in the budget to learn about healthy eating or to spend time playing outside."
–Michelle Obama at the Childhood Obesity Summit, 4/9/2010
But we, as adults can make those decisions.
Onuoha Angus C. who gained his Masters degree in public health at the University of Debrecen will help us understand the complexity of the issue.
