For all of you who were not able to attend the 2011 Peace and Justice Studies Association meetings in Memphis, TN, several videos are now available online.
Dolores Huerta, Keynote Speaker
David Bacon, Keynote Speaker
Nipun Mehta and Pancho Ramos Stierle, Youth Keynote Speakers
Over 200 people from 70 student campaigns nationwide are coming to Swarthmore for a Fossil Fuel Student Convergence organized by Swarthmore Mountain Justice. Guests include speakers from communities fighting extraction, socially responsible investment funds, and programs focused on intersectionality and environment. There are several events open to the wider community, and the organizers are excited to invite people from all different perspectives to participate.
Here’s a schedule of the weekend:
FRIDAY 2.22
Silent Solidarity March// Location and time tbd
Swarthmore students, faculty, staff, and alumni will join together for a march through campus during the Board of Managers meetings to urge powerful action on climate change through fossil fuel divestment.
(For more information, contact swarthmoremj@gmail.com)
SATURDAY 2.23
“Before Rachel Carson: Workers and the Origins of Environmentalism in the United States”
Sci. 181 // 9:30 & 10:30 AM
Chad Montrie is a Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts–Lowell, and author of To Save the Land and the People, Making a Living, and A People’s History of the Environment. His talk confronts mainstream visions of environmentalism, focusing instead on working class resistance to extraction. (Sponsored by Environmental Studies & History Dept.)
“Resisting Fossil Fuels: Voices from the Frontlines” – Panel Discussion
LPAC//11:30 AM
Crystal Lameman, Beaver Lake Cree Nation, tar sands resistance, Canada
Yudith Nieto, Tar Sands Blockade, TX
Junior Walk, Coal River Mountain Watch, WV
Deirdre, anti-fracking organizer, PA
Michael Bagdes-Canning, Marcellus Outreach Butler, PA
“Growing Stronger: From Divestment to Climate Justice” – Keynote
LPAC//7:30 PM
Crystal Lameman, Beaver Lake Cree Nation, tar sands resistance, Canada
Aura Bogado, The Nation, NY
Ellen Dorsey, Wallace Global Fund, Washington DC
SUNDAY 2.24
Divest the Nation Action
1PM // Meet in Front of Parrish
Join students from across the country in a monumental show of support for the national divestment movement, frontline communities, and international action for climate justice!
“What We Can Learn from Economic and Immigrant Justice Work”
Location TBA // 9:30 & 10:30
Chris Hicks (Jobs with Justice)
Unite Here! Organizer
Erika Nuñez (DREAMer and Bryn Mawr Student)
(personal outreach only at this point) “Environmental Justice in Chester” Panel –
Location TBA // 9:30 & 10:30 AM
Speakers: Ciara Williams (Swarthmore student), Desire Grover (community media maker and organizer), Mike Ewall (Energy Justice Network)
If you have questions about the weekend or the events, feel free to send an email to Swarthmore Mountain Justice at swarthmoremj@gmail.com
Monday, March 18th, 2013
Q & A session at 4:15 pm, Kohlberg Scheuer Room
Lecture at 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Science Center 101
Michael Walzer, emeritus professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey is one of the most renowned living political philosophers.
Walzer’s pioneering work on justice, communitarianism, just war theory, and Jewish political thought has illuminated a variety of intellectual landscapes for decades. Walzer has also been a co-editor of the democratic socialist journal “Dissent” for nearly half a century.
He is the author of dozens of books including “Spheres of Justice,” “Just and Unjust Wars,” “Exodus and Revolution,” and most recently “In God’s Shadow: Politics in the Hebrew Bible.”
Michael Walzer will offer a Q & A session at 4:15 pm in Kohlberg Scheuer Room. The Q & A will center on questions offered by students who have been reading his work in their classes, but all interested members of the Swarthmore community are welcome to attend.
Sponsored by the Religion Department, Department of Political Science, Peace and Conflict Studies, Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.
http://danceworkbook.pcah.us/susan-foster/index.html
Dr. Susan Foster is a Swarthmore alum, class of ’71, and the funding for this performance/lecture series was provided by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. Dr. Linda Caruso Haviland (Bryn Mawr College Dance Program) was commissioned by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage to write this series of commentary on each event and the discussions they engendered within in the context of Dr. Foster’s body of work. Images and discussions can be found at this link.
http://danceworkbook.pcah.us/susan-foster/index.html
Dr. Susan Foster is a Swarthmore alum, class of ’71, and the funding for this performance/lecture series was provided by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. Dr. Linda Caruso Haviland (Bryn Mawr College Dance Program) was commissioned by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage to write this series of commentary on each event and the discussions they engendered within in the context of Dr. Foster’s body of work. Images and discussions can be found at this link.
http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/?p=6674
Check out what our students and faculty have to say on the matter!
http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/?p=6674
Check out what our students and faculty have to say on the matter!
Faculty will speak briefly on a variety of issues, and then open the floor to questions and discussions.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11TH, 2013
8:30 PM – 10:30 PM
SCHEUER ROOM
All students welcome
FACULTY PARTICIPANTS:
http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5c374d77791828e5ef097dd34&id=4db5e41367&e=382f36d142
More news from one of our alums in NYC. “This Clement World is a fiercely creative and charismatic tribute to our rapidly changing environment, as seen through the prism of Cynthia Hopkins’ deeply personal lens and wild cross-disciplinary style. Performed live with a 15-piece chorus and band, This Clement World blends outlandish fiction and original avant-folk songs with Hopkins’ own documentary footage from an Arctic expedition with Cape Farewell, infusing our global climate crisis with humor, poetics and urgency.”
Check out the website for tickets and more info on the project: http://stannswarehouse.org/current_season.php?show_id=79
January 31, 2013
Professor Lee Smithey’s class, Peace Studies and Action, is partnering this semester with GunCrisis.org, which aims to provide a hard look at the gun violence situation in Philadelphia and innovative solutions to it.
“I think the College as a Philly neighbor, so to speak, can be a voice in raising concern about the epidemic of gun violence,” said Smithey, who teaches sociology and coordinates the Peace and Conflict Studies Program.
According to Smithey, the Peace Studies and Action course is designed to use peace building to bridge the gap between academic peace research and peace action.
Taught each spring semester, the course is meant to provide a service to a local organization focused on solving a social problem.
“It’s also a peace and violence problem in our backyard and in many ways we’re isolated from the gun violence in North and West Philadelphia,” he added.
Smithey said the objectives for the course would be to learn more about the program as well as understand the range of initiatives addressing gun violence in Philadelphia while situating it within peace and conflict studies literature.
Aaron Moser ’12, who interned with GunCrisis.org last summer, hopes that the class will educate students about what goes on in Philadelphia concerning gun violence.
“I hope the extra mind power and writing power of these students will allow the organization to have a wider reach to continue building a network in the city and around the country as well as to bring more attention to the gun violence in America’s urban settings and look for solutions,” he said.
The students will be writing journalistic style pieces that GunCrisis.org can post as content for its blog.
Jim MacMillan, co-founder of GunCrisis.org and Manager for Media and Social Responsibility in the Lang Center, hopes that the class will help him build a peace-oriented vertical on the site.
He hopes to encourage use of a “‘#phillypeaceplan’ hashtag to every communication on social media, so we can gather information and get an idea of what the community thinks we should do,” he said.
“There is an opportunity now to embrace the momentum across the nation to reduce gun violence and the human suffering in Philadelphia. The sooner we can expedite the process of ending this violence the fewer people will die, if somebody wants to stop the shooting we would love to work with them,” MacMillan said.