The Spring 2009 WI-Global Forum is Open!

Welcome to the third WI-Global Forum! Global Studies and the Offices of the Dean of Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are happy to be able to once again provide this opportunity for UW students to share their thoughts and insights among themselves and with the wider world.

This semester's topic revolves around questions of cultural purity and winners and losers (if there are any) in the increasing interchange among peoples and cultures. Is this the great erasure of cultural difference or the birth of a new global culture (or just more of the same)? The full topic statement for the Spring Forum is above -- and we'll be posting it in the blog roll itself, together with some suggested links to get us thinking (and blogging) shortly.

Complete information on how you can participate in the WI-Global Forum (UW students are eligible to post and win the WI-Global Forum awards; everyone is welcome to comment on postings) is available by following the links under the header above.

This semester we are also reducing the number of postings needed to be eligible to win the $125 prize from 5 to 3; and once again we'll be giving away free flash drives to the first, eighth, and fifteenth postings.

The postings from the Spring and Fall 2008 Forums -- on music & international sport respectively -- are available below. You can get a good sense of the quality of the discussion by reading the posts. And though those Forum topics are closed, comments on those past postings, and the postings to come yet this semester, are always welcome.