Presentations on climate change, Chinese language and river restoration highlight WWU's International Studies lecture series

Presentations on climate change, changes in the Chinese language and Africa in the 21st century will highlight the winter lecture series from the Center for International Studies at Western Washington University. The center sponsors lectures and presentations by visiting and resident scholars during the academic year.

All presentations are at noon on the following Tuesdays in College Hall Room 131 on the WWU campus:

Jan. 12: Lauren McClanahan, an associate professor in the Woodring College of Education at WWU, will present “First-Person Singular: Student Stories of Climate Change.” McClanahan will share the testimonies of high school students from Kwigillingok, Alaska, through filmed interviews. She will discuss the implications of their observations of climate change near their village. The students documented their observations using photographs and personal stories.

Jan. 19: James Helfield, an assistant professor in Environmental Studies in WWU’s Huxley College of the Environment, will present “River Restoration under the Midnight Sun: Lessons from Northern Sweden.” Helfield will discuss the results of a research project investigating the success of large-scale river restoration efforts in northern Sweden. Helfield’s presentation will include the effects of restoration on hydrologic regimes, fish and invertebrate communities, and he’ll also discuss how lessons learned during the river restoration can be applied in North America.

Jan. 26: Babafemi Akinrinade, an assistant professor in Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at WWU, will present “Transitional Justices: Africa in the 21st Century.”

Feb. 2: Evgeniya Lukina, a visiting Fulbright Scholar from Tyumen, Russia, will present “Forensic Linguistics as a Field Science.” Lukina will discuss how linguists utilize semantic analysis in the judicial system.

Feb. 9: Christina Keppie, an assistant professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at WWU, will present “Tracing the Acadian Borders.” Keppie will discuss her interviews with New Brunswick Francophones about the Acadian identity. Keppie’s presentation will include how New Brunswick Francophones physically orient Acadia, known as a country without borders, and what this group of people feel it means to be Acadian.

Feb. 16: Janet Xing, a professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at WWU, will present “The Chinese Language since Mao.” Xing will discuss the changes in the Chinese language during the past three decades, including how changes in demographic shifts and economic development have affected how Chinese is spoken.

Feb. 23: Petra Fiero, a professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at WWU, George Sanders, a professor in the College of Business and Economics at WWU, and Doug Nord, director of the Center for International Studies at WWU, will present “Sleepless in Frankfurt: In Search of Partner Universities in Germany.” In October 2009, Fiero, Sanders and Nord traveled to Germany in search of potential partner universities. In this presentation they will discuss their trip and the possibilities available especially to business, economics and management students.

For more information on this lecture series or on the Center for International Studies, visit http://international.wwu.edu/ or contact CIS Executive Director Doug Nord at (360) 650-3200 or doug.nord@wwu.edu.