One of our own, Theresa Williamson ’97, returns to talk about community development in Rio de Janeiro

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

A Talk by Theresa Williamson ‘97

Theresa Williamson '97
Theresa Williamson '97

Monday, December 5, 2011

4:30 p.m.

Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall

(maps and directions)

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

 

Nuremberg film screening

NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY (1948)

The Schulberg/Waletzky Restoration

Writer-director Stuart Schulberg, left, pictured at his film’s 1948 premiere in Stuttgart, Germany, with John Scott. (Courtesy photo)
One Screening Only!

Monday, December 5, 2011

7:00 pm

Lang Performing Arts Center Cinema

(maps and directions)

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.

Visit www.nurembergfilm.org and Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today on Facebook

Co-sponsored by Peace and Conflict Studies and German Studies. Event made possible by the Serendipity Fund.

Sandra Schulberg '71 and Sam Hirshman '13
Sandra Schulberg '71 and Sam Hirshman '13 talk after the screening of the film in LPAC Cinema.

Student Conference on Democracy and Ethnic Conflict

Student Conference on Democracy and Ethnic Conflict

Monday, November 28, 1:15-4pm, Trotter 301

The final meeting of Pols 79: Democracy and Ethnic Conflict is a conference in which students will present concrete findings from their larger research projects-in-progress. In addition to presenting evidence from a wide variety of cases of ethnic conflict, the conference will seek to identify common themes and patterns, and generate discussion and questions about the cases.

Panel presentations will be followed by comments and a brief Q&A period. Students, faculty, and any other interested parties are welcome to attend all or part of the conference. Refreshments will be provided.

1:15 pm, Migration, Minorities, and Integration

Jeewon Kim: Muslim Integration in France

Natalie Litton: Roma Integration in Western Europe

Josh Gluck: Resources, Migration, and Ethnic Conflict

2:00 pm, Managing and Responding to Ethnic Conflict in Africa

Wen Huang: Post-Genocide Justice Mechanisms

Lorand Laskai: Resource Conflict and Ethnic Identity

Katerina Stampouloglou: Liberation Movements, Democratization, & Ethnic Conflict

BaLeigh Harper: Federalism, Leadership, and Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria

3:00 pm,

Ben Geselowitz: Institutions and Ethnic Conflict in New Democracies

Hanna Kozlowska: International Intervention and Ethnic Conflict – Bosnia and Kosovo

Amalia Feld: Humanitarian Intervention and China

3:45 pm, Final Comments and Open Q&A

Discussants will include:

Matt Murphy, Political Science

Lee Smithey, Peace & Conflict Studies

Seminar students from Pol 110: Identity and Conflict

Contact: mmurphy1

Latoya Peterson hip-hop feminist and anti-racist blogger

Latoya PetersonThe Pop Culture Hustle

Latoya Peterson, blogger at Racialicious.com, is coming to speak at Swarthmore!

A certified media junkie, Latoya Peterson provides a hip-hop feminist and anti-racist view on pop culture with a special focus on video games, anime, American comics, manga, magazines, film, television, and music.

Tuesday, 11/22 7:00 pm

SCI Center, 199

Hosted by Swarthmore Feminists, Co-sponsored by Forum for Free Speech, Black Studies, BCC, GSST, Islamic Studies, Intercultural Center, Dean’s Office, Political Science, Sociology/ Anthropology, Peace and Conflict Studies, Educational Studies, and the Office of the President

 

Jim MacMillan’s photography: First Light, 09/12/01

Anyone who has worked with or studied with Jim MacMillan, instructor of Peace and Conflict Journalism, knows that he is a high-calibre journalist who lives and breathes his profession. You may also know that he is also a long-time professional photojournalist, whose work is recognized for its artistic quality. His photograph First Light, 09/12/01,” is currently appearing in the exhibit “New York, New York! The 20th Century” at the Katonah Museum of Art and was covered this weekend in the New York Times. Read more and visit Jim MacMillan’s online portfolio.

 

Rabbi Arthur Waskow receives Peace Award

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, founder of The Shalom Center of Philadelphia, received the Peace Award from Germantown Mennonite Church today. He spoke to the congregation on bringing labor and rest into alignment with a healthy quality of life and a healthy planet. His recent book, co-authored with Rabbi Phyllis O. Berman, is titled, Freedom Journeys: The Tale of Exodus and Wilderness across Millennia. Rabbi Waskow once taught a course in the Department of Religion at Swarthmore College.

Recap: Sanger, Awad, and Alwadi

We have had a busy and engaging couple of weeks in Peace and Conflict Studies with events on nonviolent resistance in the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy, mountaintop removal, and women and violence in the Congo.

Here are some pictures and video offered as a brief recap:

(click on the thumbnails below for larger images)

David Sanger

David Sanger

David Sanger addressed the college on October 27, 2011

Mubarak Awad

Mubarak AwadMubarak Awad

Prof. Mubarak Awad addressed the college and local community on November 7, 2011. Stay tuned for the video of Prof. Awad’s talk, which we will post here on the blog.

Nada Alwadi

Nada AlwadiNada AlwadiNada Alwadi

Bahraini journalist, Nada Alwadi, spoke on November 8, 2011. She visited with John Meyer of Pendle Hill after the event and posed for a picture with (L to R) Lee Smithey, Jim MacMillan, and Brahim El Guabli. After her appearance at Swarthmore, she moved on to address the International House of Philadelphia on November 11, 2011.

If you missed Nada Alwadi’s talk, you can hear her online. You can see her webinar with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.

Ms. Alwadi was also interviewed by Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY’s Radio Times on the morning following her presentation at Swarthmore. You can listen to the interview here.

Women in War Zones: Sexual Violence in the Congo

Women in War Zones: Sexual Violence in the Congo

Thursday, November 10, 2011

7:00 p.m.

Scheuer Room at Swarthmore College

(maps and directions)

photo by Julien Harneis
photo by Julien Harneis (CC license via flickr)

Women in War Zones International is a group of women dedicated to telling personal stories of women in areas of conflict around the world promoting human rights and health, working to prevent war crimes, and helping prevent abuse to women who live in war zones. The actual stories of women will be vividly told through photography and a documentary film screening.

The group seeks to fight injustice against women by education and uniting the audience. Their goal is to empower women by creating programs that promote peace, stability, and opportunities for women.

Sponsored by Peace and Conflict Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Africa Consortium.

Nicholas Kristof to speak at Swarthmore on November 14

From our friends at the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility:

“A Call to Action: Encouraging People to join the World’s Fight.”

Nicholas Kristof

Monday, November 14, 2011

7:30 p.m.

Lang Performing Arts Center

Swarthmore College

(maps and directions)

A Harvard graduate and former Rhodes Scholar, Kristof is a Pulitzer-prize winning author and one of the New York Times‘ most popular columnists.

Drawing from his experiences as a foreign affairs reporter that have taken him to six continents and 140 countries, Kristof will talk about covering such historic events as the protests in Egypt that led to Hasni Mubarak’s resignation, the genocide in Darfur, the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square.

His talk will also by informed by his most recent best-seller, written with his wife Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: From Oppression to Opportunity for Women World-wide. There they make a brilliantly-argued case that support for global women’s rights should be the human rights movement of our era, and that it will be where we find the solutions to the world’s poverty.

Sponsored by the Cooper Foundation and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.

Contact: langcenter@swarthmore.edu   (610) 690-5742

 

 

Prof. Mubarak Awad, renowned expert on nonviolent resistance to speak on Nov 7

A talk and discussion by Professor Mubarak Awad, School of International Service at American University.

Monday, November 7, 2011

4:30 p.m.

Science Center 101

(maps and directions)

Mubarak Awad is the founder and national president of the Youth Advocate Program, which provides alternative foster care and counseling to “at risk” youth and their families.  He is also the founder of the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence in Jerusalem.  Dr. Awad was deported by the Israeli Supreme court in 1988 after being jailed for organizing activities involving nonviolent civil disobedience.  Dr. Awad has since formed Nonviolence International, which works with various movements and organizations across the globe.

Sponsors: Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine