Connecticut College’s five interdisciplinary academic centers are hosting a semester-long program that explores 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, and a second panel during which Connecticut College alumni discussed their careers in fields related to issues covered in “Half the Sky.”
The next event will feature students who are scholars in the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy’s Certificate Program in Community Action and Public Policy (PICA). The Holleran Center is a multidisciplinary academic center that unites intellectual inquiry with meaningful social, political and civic action in local and global communities. In the PICA program, students work with members of those communities to address challenges and implement effective strategies for change.
On April 6, PICA students will present research findings from their senior projects in a series of panel discussions on education, youth, health, economic development and human rights. The discussions begin will take place in the College Center at Crozier-Williams or Charles E. Shain Library as noted in the following schedule:
3-4:15 p.m.
Issues in Public Education and Stigma Awareness
Kathryn Beers, Amanda Jones, Justine Keller and Kristen McAleenan 1941 Room, College Center at Crozier-Williams
Contemporary Global Issues
Kelsey Burke, Elizabeth Kaplan, Elisabeth Speece and Anna Williams Cro’s Nest, College Center at Crozier-Williams
Struggle in the City: The Complexities of Combating Urban Issues
Jamie Honohan, Mica Sloan and Amelia Smith Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room, Shain Library
4:30– 5:45 p.m.
Advocating for Vulnerable Populations
Alexandra Bolles, Courtney Gardner, Matthew Newton and Jennifer Parry 1941 Room, College Center at Crozier-Williams
Looking through the Lens: Social Implications of the Media
Maura Hallisey, Jovanni Jauregui, Sarah Lamer and Lucy Wallace Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room, Shain Library
Taking Action to Achieve Social Change
Lily Bartlett, Caroline Corbett, Regina Deitz and Maureen Sweeney Cro’s Nest, College Center at Crozier-Williams
The panel discussions are free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the Holleran Center at 860-439-2596 or holleran@conncoll.edu.
Future events within the “Striving for Global Justice” program 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.