Connecticut College’s five interdisciplinary academic centers are hosting a semester-long program that will explore the theme “Striving for Global Justice” through their diverse perspectives of arts and technology, the environment, international studies, public policy and community action, and the study of race and ethnicity.
The goal of the program is to create a shared intellectual endeavor motivated by the compelling issues of global justice — around gender, environmental, socioeconomic, digital, and ethno-racial issues. “Striving for Global Justice” kicked off with a keynote speech by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and human rights activist Nicholas Kristof, who discussed his book “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” which addresses the maltreatment, marginalization and brutality toward women across the globe. This was followed by a faculty panel discussion and critique.
The next event in the program is “Connecticut College Alumni Taking Action and Pursuing Social Justice Careers,” in which alumni who work in fields related to issues covered in “Half the Sky” will return to campus for a panel discussion on Thursday, Feb. 28, to offer first-hand knowledge and approaches to empowerment and advocacy. The panel includes:
The discussion will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room of Charles E. Shain Library.
Future events within the “Striving for Global Justice” program that are free and open to the public include:
Canadian Tar Sands Lecture
Melina Laboucan-Massimo is a Lubicon Cree who grew up in the Canadian oil sands region and has seen firsthand how its development has affected her nation's people, culture and land. Now an activist, she will deliver “From Our Homelands to the Tars Sands,” a lecture on indigenous resistance to the tar sands projects and the proposed expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline, on Thursday, April 18, at 4:30 p.m. in Ernst Common Room of Blaustein Humanities Center.
E-Waste Lecture
Jim Puckett is director of the Basel Action Network, the world’s only organization focused on confronting the global environmental injustice and economic inefficiency of toxic trade (toxic wastes, products and technologies) and its devastating impacts. He will discuss the global expansion of e-waste injustices and what the international community is doing to address this serious issue in his talk, “The High Tech Trashing of the Global South,” on Friday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Ernst Common Room of Blaustein Humanities Center.