WWU’s Fairhaven College Announces Winter World Issues Forum Slate

Western Washington University’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies has announced the upcoming winter schedule for its World Issues Forum, with subjects ranging from the global war on terror to climate change and the life of women in Nepal.

The following forums are free and open to the public, and are from noon to 1:20 p.m. every Wednesday in the Fairhaven College Auditorium.

 

Wednesday, Jan. 13

“Upstream Development versus Downstream Risk on Transboundary Watersheds - The Taku, Stikine and Unuk rivers of Northwest BC and Southeast Alaska”

Presenter: Anne Muter, leader of Transboundary Watersheds Governance Initiative

Transboundary water governance along the BC – Alaska border is at a crossroads. The rich ecological values of the Taku, Stikine and Unuk watersheds are threatened by multiple large mine proposals in the headwaters that pose a risk to fish, wildlife, habitat, and water quality and the livelihoods and cultures that depend on them. Organizations in Alaska are advocating for a referral to the International Joint Commission under the Boundary Waters Treaty. Taking a different approach, BC and Alaska recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding. This presentation will discuss the remaining question of how development in the headwaters of BC and risks in downstream Alaska can be effectively managed.

 

Wednesday, Jan. 20

“Womanhood in the Making in Nepal: An Intergenerational Perspective”

Presenter: Mira Mishra, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

This presentation seeks to explore changes in the lives of women in Nepal, including women’s self-image, gender role and the relations between women and men during the last 50 years. Focusing on the transition in menstruation, which is a key dimension of womanhood, the presentation will relate this transition to the changing socioeconomic processes and argues that a new womanhood is in the making in Nepal. Women are resisting menstrual exclusion, marrying late and having fewer children than ever before. The change is particularly rapid in the lives of women of the younger generation.  Young women, irrespective of ethnicity, caste, class and region of residence, are more informed, educated, have experienced a higher level of public exposure and are more assertive than their mothers and grandmothers. This has resulted in the weakening control of fathers and brothers over their daughters and sisters, thus further weakening private patriarchy.

 

Wednesday, Jan. 27

“The Changing Climate, Stories from Paris, and What Now?”

Presenters: Jill MacIntyre Witt, Western Environmental Studies graduate student; Freddie Lane, Lummi tribal member; Seth Fleetwood, Bellingham attorney

Nations worldwide have been meeting annually for years to address the changing climate, in hopes of determining policies and direction for tackling the planetary crisis. Did the recent COP 21 (Conference of Parties) Summit in Paris result in a viable agreement to put us on a path toward a workable and livable future? This panel of three local environmental leaders who participated in the Paris gathering will discuss what led them to become climate activists, their commitment to working for climate responsibility and their motivations for going to Paris. They will offer insights into how this historical moment in time signifies the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era and provides a vital opportunity for all of us to become engaged.

 

Wednesday, Feb. 3

“Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror”

Presenter: Phyllis Bennis, American writer, activist and political commentator

What gave rise to ISIS and how is the group holding onto power? Phyllis Bennis will address these questions and the intersecting crises of terrorism, war, refugees and racism.  She will look at the failure of U.S. military strategy, the reasons for Obama's edition of the 'global war on terror,' the origins of ISIS and links to the Iraq war, and what U.S. policy should be on Syria and ISIS. 

Also at: 3 p.m. at Whatcom Community College; 7 p.m. at Village Books with Whatcom Peace and Justice Center- 1200 11th St.

 

Wednesday, Feb. 10

“The Stark Similarities Between the Black and Palestinian Struggles for Human Rights”

Presenter: Aaron Dixon, activist and former captain of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party

The presentation will discuss the connection between African-American and Palestinian struggles. Dixon will discuss how African-Americans have long been considered the political and social conscience of America, and how racism is the epicenter for all injustice in the United States. Today Palestinians have become the conscience of the world. Like American racism, Dixon feels Israeli Zionism has become the epicenter of injustice in not only the Arab world, but the entire world. And it is ironic that the U.S. government supplies the same weapons to Israel that it uses on its own black population. Also, over the last 35 years, gentrification has replaced millions of black Americans forcing them to be resettled out of their traditional communities. During the same period, we have seen thousands of Palestinians forced off their land to make way for Israeli settlements. Dixon will discuss these topics and more to make the argument for black and Palestinian unity.

 

Wednesday, Feb. 17

“Shackles beyond the Sentence: How Legal Financial Obligations Create a Permanent Underclass”

Presenter: TBA

This presentation will focus on Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs) and argues that such financial penalties against criminal defendants literally make the poor pay for failed criminal-justice policy. Reliance on mass imprisonment has created a financial vortex, which sucks away the majority of over $50 billion spent on corrections by the states alone.  This penal entrenchment has pushed legislatures to devise ways to make criminals help foot the bill, with LFOs representing a modern iteration of state and local fundraising. Despite these efforts, total fee collections thus far have been modest, and in worst-case scenarios, it is uncertain whether there is any contribution at all to criminal justice budgets due to the unaccounted costs involved in administering LFOs. Despite such gaps in knowledge, states have growingly turned to imposing such penalties against criminal offenders.

 

Wednesday, Feb. 24

“Carceral Interstice: Between Prison and Home”

Presenter: Rashad Shabazz, associate professor at Arizona State University

This talk will examine Chicago’s Robert Taylor housing projects. In this talk Shabazz will demonstrate how the project sat at the interstice of home and prison. Carceral power — the practice of policing, surveillance, and contentment that are used to control populations — organized the construction, location, planning, and architecture of the housing project. One of the consequences of this geographic order was the impact it had on the production of subjects.

 

Wednesday, March 2

“Ten Months, Seven Countries, Two Students, One Grant: ALG”

Presenter: Le’Ana Freeman and Richard Vihn, Adventure Learning Grant recipients in 2014-15

What links a South American bluegrass band, racial inequities in South Africa, and Indian street food? Vinh and Freeman will share their experiences of living in foreign lands and all the complications that follow. They will examine the life of a traveler and how they connected with communities through education, music, and food. Freeman taught children in South Africa and traveled through India discovering new definitions of personal identity and racial politics. Vihn traveled through five South American countries studying urban planning and ultimately becoming the most famous banjo player in Buenos Aires.

 

Co-sponsors of Fairhaven College’s World Issues Forum include WWU’s Border Policy Research Institute, WWU’s departments of Anthropology, Canadian American Studies, History, Political Science, Sociology, Women Sexuality and Gender Studies, WWU’s Diversity Fund, WWU Ethnic Student Center, WWU Center for Law, Diversity and Justice, Whatcom Community College, Whatcom Peace and Justice Center, Veterans for Peace Jonathan J. Santos Chapter 111 and Voices for Middle East Peace.

For more information on the World Issues Forum speaker series presented by WWU’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, contact Shirley Osterhaus at (360) 650-2309 or Shirley.Osterhaus@wwu.edu or visit the World Issues Forum Website at http://www.wwu.edu/depts/fairhaven.

WWU's Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, established in 1967, is nationally recognized for innovation in teaching and  learning, intensive advising, student-designed majors, narrative assessment, experiential and independent learning and a commitment to social justice.