Following the recent arrests of FIFA officials, Sunil Dasgupta, director of UMBC’s political science program at the Universities of Shady Grove, wrote anarticle for International Relations and Security Network (ISN) News about the arrests illustrating a key feature of American soft power.

“Rather than blaming the media or the public for paying more attention to a sporting controversy than to developments in the South China Sea, this unlikely legal move by the U.S. Department of Justice should be taken as evidence of the symbolic nature of power in contemporary international politics. On the symbolic terrain of soft power, the governance of football may indeed be more important than the geopolitics of Chinese island construction projects. If so, the FIFA arrests may indicate that the United States is more capable of shaping certain elements of the international system than reports of its decline have suggested,” Dasgupta wrote.

In the article, he also discussed what the FIFA controversy says about governing on an global scale: “…the football controversy promises to define new rules for governing non-state international organizations—a type of entity left outside the post-World War II institutional order. It also offers a new methodology for solving problems: state action on behalf of a global, rather than a national, public, which is a novel and potentially exciting model for reorganizing the international system.”

To read the full article titled “Football or Atolls? Why Football Matters More than Chinese Island Construction for World Politics,” click here.

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are having a great summer break! Here is some information that I would like to pass along.

Next month, the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) will be hosting a LawSchool Forum  in Washington DC for prospective law students.

LSAC Law School Forums are the only events that allow prospective lawstudents to chat with up to 185 ABA-approved law school representatives in one convenient setting. Attendees also have the ability to go to exclusive workshops, including About the LSAT (Meet an LSAT Developer), Financing a Legal Education, The Application Process, Diversity Information Panel, and more.

All LSAC Law School Forums are free to attend. Each year, thousands of prospective law school students attend the forums, which make them great networking events.

I have attached a flier provides dates and how to sign up. If this interests you, please check out the website.

See you in fall!

Hyperrhiz 12
Special Issue: "Mapping Culture Multimodally"
Summer 2015

A public artwork by John Craig Freeman with critical commentary by Jessica Auchter

Lisa-Katharina Förster and Folker Metzger

Félix Burgos

Petra Johnson

Marta Carrasco and Sergi Selvas

Caroline Gausden and Helen Smith

Alys Longley, James Hutchinson, Charlotte Šunde, Sasha Matthewman, and Karen Fisher

Michelle Ferrier

Craig Saper and Lynn Tomlinson

Scott Rettberg

Produced by Roderick Coover and Scott Rettberg

Produced by Roderick Coover and Scott Rettberg

Nick Montfort and Scott Rettberg

Dean Casale

Jessica Floyd

Tissa J. Thomas

The K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award
Deadline for receipt of materials: October 1, 2015

"The app, called Octava, is aimed at enhancing the musical experience for listeners by delivering information via Wifi, synced with the music being played in the concert hall.

"We're trying to find ways to help contemporary audiences engage with words that match the elegance of the orchestral performance," said Octava co-founder Linda Dusman, a professor of music at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County."

Read the full article on the Sun’s website 

"Maybe you were a "Mad Men" fan, or you were addicted to "Breaking Bad", or you’re losing sleep over the fate of Frank and Claire. If so, then maybe you think that we’re in a golden age of television. For years, TV was considered the lowest of low art. Back in 1961, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Newton Minow, described television as a “vast wasteland.” There’s plenty of trash on TV these days, but also, some of the world’s finest work in video and film. The connection between high art and the origins of TV is the subject of a new book that accompanies an exhibition that is currently at the Jewish Museum in New York."