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The British Council's annual higher education conference, 'Going Global', explores the impact of transnational education, efforts to establish regional educational hubs and the influence of international rankings.
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Mary Giovagnoli, Director of the Immigration Policy Center, calls the Mipex study "a rigorous analysis of laws and policies" at a time when "the importance of immigrant integration cannot be overstated."
(Hoy Nueva York)
A detailed analysis of how the US fares in the Mipex rankings for immigration policies.
"According to a report by the British Council and the Migration Policy Group, Sweden has the best policies in dealing with the challenges of integrating immigrants."
"A new study shows that the U.S. policies to integrate migrants score well despite the fierce political debate over migration."
"A trio of the U.K' s top flight film schools are jetting out to Hollywood in a bid to build greater training links with their U.S. counterparts."
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Linda Constant meets Hannah Wood of the British Council Tanzania and looks at the British Council's photojournalism book, Changing Climate, Changing Lands. "Instead of hiring professional photographers, local villagers were trained on how to use a camera and then assigned to their respective locations throughout Tanzania to document the water-retrieving process."
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Director Nicolas Kent recounts the atmosphere in the theater: "There was an extraordinary engagement and thirst for information. The audience hung on every word, every resonance."
The Strand arts program asks: "Britain has a long tradition of political theater to foster a wider debate, but what would Americans make of it?"
Martin Davidson, chief executive of the British Council, describes sitting in the audience alongside DOD officials, soldiers and vets: "I could sense the emotional connection between the audience and actors. It was palpable in the laughter, sighs and stark silences, and in the heads nodding in recognition of what was unfolding on stage."
"There is an assumption that the arts and our men and women in uniform are from different planets. It's not the case. We're all in this together."
"Our 3,413th day at war in Afghanistan seemed like a good day to learn about Afghanistan" writes Maureen Dowd. "I didn't go to Kabul on the secretary of defense's Doomsday plane this time. I signed up with the Pentagon for time travel, flying through history watching a remarkable seven-hour marathon of a 12-play series called, "The Great Game."
Douglas Wilson, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, talks about why the Pentagon invited The Great Game back to Washington: "our motivation here is to produce a better understanding of history and culture."
A soldier about to deploy to Kabul on his second mission says the Great Game illustrates that "you should not force your culture on them [the Afghans] and that we are working within their culture and we have to respect that." Another soldier adds, "It's been fascinating. Clearly there are a lot of repeats of history and we have to be careful what we are doing over there."
Michael Kahn, Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre, explains how the Great Game can "represent an astonishing example of how art can serve as an invaluable tool for learning and understanding."
Martin Davidson, chief executive of the British Council, says it was "a real privilege... to be able to watch this play surrounded by people who have experienced much of what the play is exploring."
"I was in tears, moved as much by the enthralling stagecraft as by the virile commitment of the superb, 10-man cast" and to miss the play "is to deprive yourself of theater's most ingenious portrait to date of the war in Iraq".
Described as "one of the most extraordinary theater bookings Washington has ever seen" Peter Marks, Washington Post critic, previews the Tricycle Theatre's "The Great Game: Afghanistan" and examines how the British Council, the Woodruff Foundation and the Shakespeare Theatre have managed to pull off such an event
Richard Norton-Taylor of The Guardian marvels at how "the world's most powerful military machine" is now "to seek help from a troupe of actors,directors and playwrights from a small north London playhouse "
Trevor Dougherty online activist,citizen journalist and member of the Global Changemaker team blogs for the Washington Post and describes his first impressions of the Forum "My mind is exploding with all the possible connections I could be making in the coming days."
Learn why many US students find it cheaper to study in the UK at universities "which offer the prestige of elite US schools at a fraction of the cost."
Read the transcript for the magazine program about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival performances in D.C. Featuring Faith Liddell, Director of Festivals for Edinburgh, Scotland, and Jake Oldershaw, performer with Stan's Cafe, an arts and theater group based in Birmingham, England.
Jon Carroll connects "The Great Game" to British and American involvement in Afghanistan: "I'm not really being cynical; I'm being realistic. Or perhaps fatalistic. It's all a big mess; the genius of the play is how well it describes the mess."
"The British Council brought this production to the US...to build understanding. Sarah Frankland, Head of Arts in the US for the British Council, says, 'It's an opportunity to have a historically accurate context for a complicated issue seen throught true artistry.'"
"The festival represents a really different side of the U.K.," says Sarah Frankland, from the British Council USA, which is putting on the Kennedy Center event.
CNN features the Al-Azhar English English Training Centre. a partnership between the Egyptian university and the British Council.
The Finkler Question, a book by last year’s British Council UK Writer-in-Residence at George Washington University Howard Jacobson, won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in London.
In his Booker Prize-winning novel, former British Council UK Writer-in-Residence Howard Jacobson comically "delves into the heart of the British Jewish experience..."
"Teachers and learners of English have now got a new tool to help master the sounds of the English language thanks to the British Council's latest iPad pronunciation app."
The British Council and the Air Resources Board announce "the start of California's first annual Climate Generation program, a high school competition challenging students to connect environmental school work with their daily lives."
"'It's a message that's coming through the play as you just said through Western eyes, and it's one perspective,' said the British Council's Sarah Frankland. 'What is very powerful, I think, is that it is an historic contextualization, so it is delving into what has happened in the past that shows us the line on what's happening today.'"
"As a part of the UK’s public diplomacy efforts in the US, the British Council plans “to host a slate of energetic public events exploring ideas from the Great Game” with high profile speakers from the media, public diplomacy, cultural communities and others who engage interactively with audiences."
The Director of the British Council for North America, Sharon Memis, writes about how coalition force leaders have responded to "The Great Game."
"A tiny London theater company has taken on an enormous project – to tell the story of Western involvement in Afghanistan over the last 150 years in an all-day marathon of 12 one-act plays. The Great Game: Afghanistan was a hit in Britain and has just opened a U.S. tour at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C."
"This anthology of essays explores the many ways we explain our culture and portray other societies. Inspired by the Tricycle Theatre’s "The Great Game"—an epic exploration of foreign engagement in Afghanistan from the 1840s to the present day, now touring the U.S.—Trust Me, I’m An Expert sets out to answer the question, 'Who has the authority to speak about national identity?'"
"Three years ago Nicolas Kent observed that artists in England and the United States weren't creating much about the war in Afghanistan. As the artistic director of what is often regarded as London's leading political theater, Kent knew he could commission a play on the topic."
"A unique stage production is addressing Afghanistan's history which is littered with scars from conflicts old and new. The series of plays is titled The Great Game...After a successful run in London, director Nicolas Kent talked to Matt Frei about the US tour, which starts in Washington's Shakespeare Theatre."
“A British Council study published this week says Nigeria's booming population of young people may be a great boon for the country's economy in the coming decades.” Voice of America talks to 22-year old Farida Ashu about the difficulties of finding employment in Nigeria.
“Estimates in the report by the British Council show Nigeria's population of 150 million people will swell by another 63 million people by 2050.” Youth unemployment, the result of a disparity between a growing population and a stagnant oil-dependent gross domestic product, may destabilize societies unless economic development is successful.
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Chris Johnston, member of the British Council's Transatlantic Network 2020, explains how he "...came away thinking that there is a lot that Northern Ireland can learn from Chicago..." and vice versa, and that "...there is no reason why the two cities should not collaborate further in a joint pursuit of innovation."
Blair Glencorse, member of the British Council's Transatlantic Network 2020, explains how "...the success of EU enlargement itself is under-appreciated [and] that the approach that lies behind it may form a basis for resolving Europe’s current existential problems", but that the EU leaders need to "...allow for continued adaption for the vagaries of globalisation."
"The British Council, the UK’s cultural relations organization, created TN2020 in order to continue to strengthen and revitalize the transatlantic relationship, particularly among leaders who reflect the new dynamics and demographics on both sides of the Atlantic... The craziest thing is, I think this group of people could actually change the world."
"The British Council’s Transatlantic Network 2020 is a network of young emerging leaders from Europe and North America who are interested in establishing transatlantic and global links."
The British Council and the Rockefeller Foundation's seminar in New York brought together an assortment of experts to discuss alternative approaches to climate change diplomacy. Rebecca Nadin co-hosted the discussion and explained the British Council's work in China. (Climate Wire requires a subscription)
"General Sir David Richards, new Chief of the Defence Staff, decided that The Great Game, a series of plays about Afghan history, at the Tricycle, Kilburn, was so revealing that members of the military should see the 12-play epic...He is recommending it to colleagues in the Pentagon when it tours the US, backed by the British Council, at the end of the year."
"...the British Council has been operating its "Climate Cool, Green Your School" teacher training program for three years now. The program, which takes the climate change message into Chinese classrooms via training the teachers is going strong with the active support and participation of Chinese officials."
"Sharon Memis, British Council Director in the USA said: 'We expect considerable interest in MBS Global MBA courses that prepare executives for a changing and challenging international business environment.' "
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Amar C. Bakshi, member of the British Council's Transatlantic Network 2020, explains that in reading global public opinion surveys to understand how Muslims view America, the "very unfavorable" figures are more valuable as data than swings in "favorability".
"It was no surprise, back in March 2009, when Rachel was nominated to be the American delegate for the British Council’s prestigious Cultural Leadership International Programme (CLI)...Rachel was chosen by the British Council as the Programme’s sole US delegate and awarded a £10,000 grant (about $15,000)."
"In March 2008, Chan and Hollarsmith were among 15 high school students named California Climate Champions in a competition sponsored by the California Air Resources Board in conjunction with the British Council’s broader International Climate Champions Program. Both initiatives seek to create a network of young adults equipped to educate their communities about the impacts of climate change and ways in which individuals can reduce their carbon emissions."
"In a coup for its F Street showplace, Sidney Harman Hall, the Shakespeare Theatre Company has snared two marquee, topically adventurous productions from Britain for next season...The event, supported in part by the British Council, a global nonprofit organization that advances British cultural and educational interests, features a cast of 14, and works by dramatists from several nations, including American playwright Lee Blessing and British writer David Edgar.
British Council discusses why more and more Americans are deciding to get full degrees in the UK.
"11 teachers from Durham, England are spending the week in Sussex County, Delaware as part of a professional development program. The program is part of the British Council's program to encourage the exchange of ideas between professionals worldwide."
"Sussex Tech’s progressive curriculum and high-tech hardware recently drew educators from England and Germany for a visit to campus...The English teachers, through a joint partnership with the British Council and the state, will visit area schools for a week, concentrating on Sussex Tech."
"Culture is how people think, says Martin Davidson, CEO of the British Council. Thinking of culture in this way creates the necessary intellectual space to conceive of cultural relations and cultural diplomacy as something more than engagement that a payoff that is subtle and decades away. It is a way to create pathways that can be leveraged to prevent or resolve conflict in the short term. On March 2, 2010, the British Council, with NATO and Security Defence Agenda, hosted a conference in Brussels at the Bibliothèque Solvay titled 'Conflict Prevention and Resolution: the Role of Cultural Relations."'
"One of the most encouraging facets of the center's schedule is the disclosure that the venerable Edinburgh Festival, in concert with the arts-promoting British Council, will this fall bring to the institution four productions from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a hotbed of theatrical invention."
"A new report by the British Council says American and British universities have taken their longstanding relationship for granted and calls for closer, more-strategic, and more-varied collaborations between the world's two most prestigious higher-education systems."
TN2020 member Steven Feldstein explores key trends and principles that will shape President Obama's foreign policy.
TN2020 member David Noble says "In the closing hours of last December's Copenhagen climate negotiations and the days that followed, political leaders from both sides of the Atlantic set out to communicate the results of the meeting to their domestic audiences. They had all been at the same meeting, but you would never know it from the different stories they told."
California Climate Champion Adam Raudonis says "With so much at stake, especially for the younger generations, young people are becoming more engaged and obtaining greater influence...allowing young students to observe the COP better prepares the leaders of future negotiations and encourages the upcoming generation to be more engaged in international climate policy."
Sure, we lost the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics…Why not make plans for a major Cultural Olympics in, say, 2014?
On Friday, Chicago Shakespeare played host to representatives of some of Britain's major theater companies along with visitors from the British Council, the agency charged with bringing aspects of the cultural and scientific heritage of the UK to 100 countries around the globe. (And you might ask, why doesn't the U.S. have an equivalent body?)
"Leaders from some of Britain's best-known and most prestigious theaters zigged and zagged their way through Washington this week...The representatives of the elite companies -- the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre among them -- were not here to ooh and ahh at the monuments. They had come with another agenda: bringing more of their plays to town."
"...to discuss Darwin anywhere is not just to explore the origin of man. It is inevitably to engage in a debate between religion and science. That is why, 150 years after Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” the British Council, the cultural arm of the British government, decided to hold an international conference on Darwin in this conservative, Sunni Muslim nation."
"Pakistan will face a 'demographic disaster' if it does not address the needs of its young generation, the largest in the country’s history, whose views reflect a deep disillusionment with government and democracy, according to a report released here on Saturday. The report, commissioned by the British Council and conducted by the Nielsen research company, drew a picture of a deeply frustrated young generation that feels abandoned by its government and despondent about its future."
A new project designed to foster greater cooperation between British and American higher-education institutions has received $500,000 in initial financing from the British Council, a government cultural and educational agency.
California Climate Champion Monica Harnoto reflects on attending the Governors’ Global Climate Summit and speaking with Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality: “I found that the Governors’ Global Climate Summit 2 was an extremely effective demonstration of Californians leading efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It also succeeded in promoting worldwide collaboration and networking among countries.”
Germany isn't tearing down walls any more — it's trying to build bridges…The country is not alone in its efforts. The British Council promotes cultural ties to the United Kingdom in the Washington area; the Confucius Institute, China; and the Alliance Française, France. They are prime examples of soft diplomacy, argues American University's director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, James Thurber.
"Sleep No More does what all great art does: It asks questions rather than gives answers, it confronts your assumptions rather than comforts them, it takes you into a different world and transforms your own...We needed this. Boston has never seen anything quite like Sleep No More before. Neither has any North American city, New York included. The streets of Brookline seemed alive to new possibilities; so did the world of theater."
"But just how political is art? Or should it be? I ask this in the week the British Council marks 75 years of bringing UK culture to the world – and the world's culture to the UK. When the council tours the arts overseas, as it did by taking Bridget Riley behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia in 1971 and more recently sending Gregory Burke's Black Watch, a searing play about the Scottish Black Watch regiment's tour in Iraq, to New York – we can hardly help but ask what role the arts should play or are playing here?"
"British theatregoers have become reasonably familiar with this immersive style of drama … All this is new for Massachusetts audiences, who haven't had much opportunity to experience the kind of theatre that doesn't involve sitting in rows in purpose-built venues."
"I’ve seen “Macbeth’’ numerous times over the years, but never before has that villainous usurper of the Scottish throne actually shouldered me aside on his way to the feast where he will meet the harrowing sight of Banquo’s ghost."
California Climate Champion Elizabeth Valencia reflects on attending the Governors’ Global Climate Summit and meeting former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "He was amazing…He said something I will never forget. He said, 'I want my son to look back one day and say my dad stopped this.' I was in awe ‘... this is my new hero."
California Climate Champion Adam Raudonis says “The presence of the youth representatives of California at the conference demonstrated to the audience of government leaders, business executives, organization heads and scientists that the upcoming generation is already dedicated to continuing their work. The leaders recognized that one doesn’t have to be a governor to inspire more sustainable practices. We can all try to become “greener” in our everyday lives.”
"Rebecca Chan, a California Climate Champion and Columbia University sophomore, recently returned from Okinawa, Japan where she studied the effects of climate change on coral reefs and discussed the ramifications of a warming world with scientists and locals."
"A teenager with a passion for the environment, Rebecca Chan recently returned from Japan, where she studied the effects of climate change."
"When carpooling Miramonte High School seniors roll into prime parking spots guaranteed to them this year, they can thank two graduates. And if they start thinking about climate change a little more, they'll have Devin Finzer and Patrick Ouziel to thank for that, too. Finzer and Ouziel took the climate change issue to their peers as California Climate Champions, raising awareness about a warming planet and improving the school's carpool program."
"I’m volunteering as the photographer for Musicians for Harmony, a group run by Allegra Klein, a New Yorker working with the British Council to create the first National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. The ensemble was dreamed up in July 2008 by Zuhal Sultan, an 18-year-old pianist with the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra and the new project’s star."
Between pens and bridges: A transcontinental collaboration allows Mexican poetry to be published in English.
"Seven British teachers visited Montgomery County schools last month as part of the British Council's Teachers International Professional Development program."
“An impressive crowd gathered…at the Rayburn House Office Building for what was absolutely a lovely affair…following the speakers’ remarks, attendees representing Peace Corps, Volunteer Service Organisation, Brookings Institution and many other pre-eminent volunteer and service advocate organizations, engaged in lively conversations about how their respective organizations can collaborate on projects or co-ordinate their efforts to increase global action and citizenship..."
British Council Hosts Global Service and Active Citizenship Event Tonight and Citizens Cross Borders to Serve in Diverse Teams with Global Xchange.
As part of the Global Changemakers program, college student Luke Swiderski will represent the US at the G20 summit in London next week.
Sussex Technical High School in Delaware hosts eleven British teachers as part of the Teachers International Professional Development (TIPD).
New York theater PS 122 meets with Ben Todd, executive director of Arcola Theatre in London, to learn from the world's first carbon-neutral theater.
Senator Richard Lugar mentions the British Council in an article about reinventing American cultural diplomacy.
BBC World Service reports from the British Council's Darwin panel at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Education Week's Teacher Beat blog reviews the Teachers International Professional Development (TIPD) program and suggests further US-UK teacher collaboration and training.
Read TreeHugger's interview with California Climate Champion Adam Raudonis, founder of Students for Solar Schools.
TreeHugger sits in on a “green” brainstorm session between New York theater PS122 and London’s Arcola Theater, the world’s first carbon-neutral theater.
"...the most absorbing production of this year’s Under the Radar festival, “England,” a rich drama created with rigorous, poetic economy by Mr. Crouch, belongs to that wonderful genre of thoughtful plays that could be discussed for hours without exhausting its ideas."
“For American students, a university like St. Andrews offers international experience and prestige, at a cost well below the tuition at a top private university in the United States.”
" 'Black Watch,' a play about the famed Scottish regiment’s deployment in Iraq, received rapturous reviews during its initial three-week run at St. Ann’s Warehouse, in Brooklyn, last fall...So this season, when the National Theatre of Scotland brought the show back, Feldman instituted a 'Pay for a Vet' program, whereby patrons could procure tickets for veterans who felt inclined to revisit what they had already experienced in the theatre of war in the theatre of Dumbo."
View excerpts from Black Watch and watch Charlie Rose interview director John Tiffany and actor Peter Forbes.
Nadeem Aslam, the February 2008 British Council UK Writer-in-Residence, is featured on NPR's All Things Considered.
The author, a half-British Californian, taught English at the British Council's Azerbaijan office from 2005-2007.
“Hello from Belfast in Northern Ireland - we’re here for a special WHYS on Tuesday with around 100 young people from all over the world who are here for ‘Transatlantic Network 2020.′”
Listen to a podcast of TN2020 members discussing leadership on the popular BBC radio program. You can also hear from the TN2020 members live from the summit at http://tn2020.net/.
“Seeing off this year's crop of Marshall scholars, as they left the United States to begin their university courses in Britain, was an uplifting experience…This year's scholars are an impressive and inspiring group, studying a fascinating and diverse range of subjects from trumpet performance to philosophy, from criminology to French painting."
“Twenty-six emerging leaders from the United States have been selected as inaugural members of the Transatlantic Network 2020…Tyler, Texas native, Kristofer Harrison is included in this group and has been identified as a notable young leader who will have a positive impact on the world in the years to come.”
“Shawn Renne Lent, who works in Columbia’s Center for Community Arts Partnerships, will join about 100 others from 16 different countries at the end of this month in Belfast and Dublin as a member of Transatlantic Network 2020… 'Our group looks at community art-making as a way to work through conflicts,' she said.”
(North County Times)
"'Climate change is very real to this generation,' said Annalisa Schilla, who represents the California Air Resources Board, a sponsor with the British Council of the California Climate Champions program. 'They have seen the changes in a way that other generations haven't before.'"
(written by TN2020 participant Jeff Johnson and featured on Ebonyjet.com)
"Obama stated, 'Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic.' So far, the British Council’s TN2020 members have stepped up as architects dedicated to the creation of such a bridge. I am happy to be a member of such an effort."
"Meet Sophie Angelis, one of 15 California Climate Champions (CCC). These are teens whose mission—shared with the California Air Resources Board (ARB) and the British Council—is to take grass-roots action to educate people about global warming and show them how to slow it down."
(The Wall Street Journal)
"Last month, the British Council launched the Transatlantic 2020 initiative to bring together young leaders from America, the U.K. and Europe. And Britain's "V" Organization...will build on their links with similar programs in America to explore ways in which our young people can volunteer in each other's countries."
"The point here was to take the discussion out of the hands of elites, and really create a connection between people who otherwise would not meet each other so they could discuss global challenges."
(Financial Times)
“Transatlantic co-operation was viewed overwhelmingly positively in the fields of business and trade, and in combating diseases such as HIV-Aids and malaria.”
(Eureka Dejavu's Dispatches from a Virtual World)
"Black Watch went beyond good and evil, into the heart of what it means to be most human."
(The Daily Iowan)
“Martin Davidson, the head of the British Council, will speak to the University of Iowa students, faculty, and staff today about cultural relations in a time of war, with a focus on the Middle East. ‘This is a complicated area,’ Davidson said. ‘We've tried to simplify it. Governments want to build influence overseas, but to engage the public we must express common issues.’"
(New York Magazine)
"For unsettling power, political punch, and just plain fun, nothing matched watching ten actors from the National Theatre of Scotland at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo, where their performance of Gregory Burke’s Black Watch made for the all-around best theatergoing of the year."
(The New York Times)
"A tapestry of battlefield fire and memory...an exploration of the Iraq war and its impact on the 10 characters onstage."
(The New York Times)
"A necessary reminder of the transporting power that is unique to theater...one of the most richly human works of art to have emerged from this long-lived war."
Related articles:
(Scotsman, UK)
"A beautiful, breathtaking, incredibly moving piece of real theatre... both a thoughtful treatise on the place of soldiers in a political world, and a savagely funny account of what it really feels like to be there."
Related articles:
"What we want," [British Council's director of drama and dance Sally] Cowling says, "is for countries to take work that surprises them, and not necessarily just take work that we might think fits in with our perceptions of their culture. We want to generate and encourage a mutual form of curiosity, and that can sometimes take years to bear fruit. When it does happen, and when it works, it's a real pleasure."
"The number of U.S. students ... attending 80 business schools in Britain for postgraduate degrees almost tripled during the last decade."
The eyes of the world have been on Scotland as voters went to the polls for the Holyrood and council elections.
"The British Council, which aims to build stronger relationships between the UK and other countries, has been host to many of the foreign journalists...among them was Washington Times political reporter Seth McLaughlin, who said the Scottish campaign was very different from elections he had covered at home
A small exhibit at the Chrysler Museum of Art explores the power of creative collaboration (Port Folio Weekly)
"While those within the hip-hop community and outside of it debate its influence on the ills of modern society, a quaint little exhibit from Britain is quietly making its way throughout America, providing a glaring contrast to the global image of this black-rooted art form that first took flight in the South Bronx."
"As the benefits of an international education become more widely recognized, a growing number of young Americans are enrolling in institutions in the British Isles."(Chronicle of Higher Education)
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