This afternoon, I attended a remarkable (and tasty and musical) reception in appreciation of Dean Rafael Zapata, who will be taking up a new position as Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Vice President at Providence College. Those who spoke shared Dean Zapata’s personal warmth, his deep intellectualism, his love and concern for students, and his relentless commitment to social justice and diversity. It really was moving, especially the spoken word tributes by students and Prof. Kai Campbell.
Dean Zapata, from the Peace and Conflict Studies program, we wish you all success in your new position at a very fortunate institution! You will be missed, but I am already committing myself to think of you as our friend at another college. We still have much to learn from you.
From our friends at Haverford: A one-day symposium on “Islam: Reform and Revival.”
This will be an opportunity to share in the reflections of four distinguished participants in current debates about the nature of Islam (sponsored by the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship and the Distinguished Visitor’s Committee). On Thursday, 8 December, in Stokes 106, Abdulkarim Soroush, MohsenKadivar, Ali Mirsepassi, and Mahoud Sadri will be on campus sharing their thoughts and inviting our reflections on contemporary reform in Islam.
Professor Soroush has been visiting with us at Haverford this semester;
Professor Kadivar is a distinguished Iranian “cleric” and philosopher, who studied with Grand Ayatollah Montazeri in Qum and received his Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy and Theology from Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran.
Ali Mirsepassi is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Sociology at NYU, and Mahoud Sadri is Professor of Sociology at Texas Woman’s University.
The symposium begins at 9:30 and ends at 4:30 with a break for lunch in the CPCG Cafe.
(Actually, there are 2 seats left on Friday and 1 on Sunday night!) If you are still interested in getting seats to see FEFU AND HER FRIENDS, you can risk the waitlist. Unclaimed or canceled reservations will be released to the waitlist approximately 5 minutes before showtime. If you show up to the Frear Theater the night you want to see the show, there’s a small chance you will get in if somebody with reservations doesn’t show up. Hope to see you at the show!
In case you missed Peace and Conflict Studies Prof. George Lakey’s interview about the Occupy movement on Radio Times today, you can listen at the bottom of this post or on the Radio Times site.
Occupy protesters were evicted in Philadelphia and Los Angeles overnight. We’ll get an update on the latest news of the confrontations between protesters and police and we’ll take stock of the Occupy movement, what it’s done and failed to do, how it fits into U.S. political mainstream and social movement history, and how it doesn’t, and the messages the campaign has sought to project vs. the message we in the media have conveyed vs. the messages received by the public at large. Joining us in studio is GEORGE LAKEY, longtime nonviolence activist, founder of Training for Change and research associate at Swarthmore College’s Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility. And we’ll also hear from WILL MARSHALL, president and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute, a leading intellectual of the American centrist left and a critic of the Occupy movement. And finally, we’ll hear from MATTATHIAS SCHWARTZ, a writer whose examination of the roots and dynamics of the Occupy movement, “Pre-Occupied,” was published in this week’s The New Yorker.
Theresa Williamson ’97 graduated with a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies, and she is coming back home to tell us about her work with Catalytic Communities, a development organization she founded and directs. Come to her talk on December 5 in the Scheuer Room.
Catalytic Communities: Entrepreneurship in Community Development in Rio de Janeiro
Theresa Williamson will discuss her work after Swarthmore in creating Catalytic Communities (CatComm), a successful nonprofit organization supporting Rio de Janeiro’s favela communities. Founded in 2000, CatComm has provided communications, networking and training support to over 1500 leaders from over 250 different neighborhoods across Rio.
Since 2009 CatComm, has been increasingly recognized as a watchdog organization as Rio prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, and local officials begin intervening significantly in the city’s favelas.
Williamson will discuss the organization’s development with a particular emphasis on the organizational philosophy that made it possible to adapt quickly to a rapidly changing urban policy shift and evolving needs of its community partners, all within the setting of one of the most dynamic cities in the world today. Topics Williamson will include in her talk: Rio de Janeiro, slum upgrading, alternative and mainstream media, nonprofit management, urban planning, and dynamism.
Theresa Williamson received her Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and has published articles in Progressive Planning, The Journal of Urban Technology, and Cidadania.org. Williamson is the founder and executive director of Catalytic Communities and received her undergraduate degree from Swarthmore in Biological Anthropology.
CatComm has been working extensively around issues of forced evictions as Rio prepares for the Olympics.
Sponsored by the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, Peace and Conflict Studies, Alumni Relations, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Latin American Studies
THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG (1992) By Wendy Wasserstein (1950-2006)
Directed by Regina Noto ‘12
Lighting Design by Abigail Henderson ’14 & Evelyn Wightman ‘15
with Mihika Srivastava ‘14, Camila Osorio van Isschot ’12, Amelia Dornbush ‘15
THE LOVER (1962) By Harold Pinter (1930-2008)
Directed by Meryl Sands ‘13
Lighting Design by Abigail Henderson ‘14
with Rachel Silverio ‘15 and Samuel Swift Shuker-Haines ‘14
DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (1990) By Ariel Dorfman (b. 1942)
Directed by Sebastián Bravo ‘13
Lighting Design by Evelyn Wightman ‘15
with Stefan Tuomanen Masure ‘15, Chris Klaniecki ‘10, Jeannette Leopold ‘13
Directing I Workshop taught by Allen Kuharski
Lighting Design class taught by James P. Murphy
Stage Manager: Sarah Kaeppel ‘15
Seating is free and open to the public without advance reservation, but please be aware that seating is limited. Showings will take place on December 7th and 8th at 7:30PM in the Frear Ensemble Theater.
Special guest Sandra Schulberg (’71) – daughter of filmmaker Stuart Schulberg & producer of the restoration – will speak about the making of Nuremberg and its subsequent suppression in the U.S.
