Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies

The World Issues Forums of Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies is dedicated to providing educational opportunities to the campus and Bellingham community that support an informed and engaged global citizenry.

Paths to Global Justice, an expansion of the forums, is a collaborative effort of several campus departments to strengthen interdisciplinary international education at Western Washington University by inviting scholars to address global justice issues.

An optional and repeatable two-credit class (375t) accompanies the forums. Students explore varied media information sources related to the topics, learn to digest and question what they read and hear, and are consistently challenged to act for positive social change.

Dr. Thomas Ackerman, currently Director of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) and Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington.
“Global Warming: Facts and Fiction”
This presentation will begin with a brief overview of the science of global warming, which is well developed and vigorous. The focus will be on both what we know and the uncertainties attached to that knowledge, with applications to the Pacific Northwest. The second part of the presentation will address current policy response at the national level. What are we doing as a nation? What should we be doing? Can we do more, both regionally and nationally?

Jamal Rahman is a Muslim Sufi co-minister at Interfaith Community Church, Director of Sacred Psychology School, and adjunct faculty at Seattle University

“Coping with Islamophobia”
Join Jamal in exploring issues and concepts in Islam that cause fear and anger in Western minds: extremism, jihad, infidel and status of women. As we examine the truths and untruths around these, the goal is to gain a deeper understanding so that we can take measures in our own lives to co-exist peacefully in a pluralistic community.

Geov Parrish, Executive Director of Peace Action of Washington, the statewide affiliate of the nation's largest peace and justice organization.

“The Ever-Expanding Empire”
For a generation, and particularly over the last decade, the Pentagon has been encroaching on an area that by law is supposed to be demilitarized: space. The Pentagon's future visioning documents now explicitly include American military domination of space as a priority goal. What does this mean for warfare, and American militarism, in the 21st century? Why is it important, for the future of global freedom and self-determination, that America's effort to militarize and dominate space be stopped?

Geov Parrish, a long-time peace and social justice activist and punk/folk musician. Geov has a masters degree in Political Science and East Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Christine Ingebritsen, Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington
“THE POLITICS OF WHALING”
Why do nations whale? Norway and Iceland maintain active whaling fleets in a global age when this activity is highly controversial. How and why do governments justify such behavior, and is there a legal basis for whale hunting? These issues will be critically discussed, in an effort to explain why Sweden opposes whaling and Norway and Iceland defend the practice under international law.

“SCANDINAVIA IN WORLD POLITICS”
Scandinavia is a quiet corner of northern Europe. Once feared Vikings, these
societies now act as "norm entrepreneurs" in three areas of international relations: peace and conflict resolution; eco-governance; and human rights. Ingebritsen explains how Scandinavia exercises its authority in the world today.

"Finding Our Way Home: a story about the journey from cultural genocide to a celebration of place and time"

Wednesday, October 31:
Noon-1:30pm Fairhaven College Auditorium

Co-sponsored by - UMHE at WWU: United Ministries in Higher Education at WWU, the WWU Journalisim Department and the Nate Rawhauser Memorial Fund

Karen Button, independent journalist who is widely read and published in Turkey, Italy, Egypt, New Zealand and the US.

"Reports from the Middle East"
Having recently returned from four months in Syria, Jordon and Lebanon, Karen Button talk about the massive Iraqi exodus and the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon as a result. She will also talk about the effects of the Iraqi diaspora on the region and the current situation in Iraq.

Co-sponsored by - UMHE at WWU: United Ministries in Higher Education at WWU, the WWU Journalisim Department and the Nate Rawhauser Memorial Fund

"Communities Confronting Globalization: Autonomy, Human Rights, and Resistance “

Javier Gamez, activist/academic from Mexico City who has extensive experience/knowledge about question of autonomy and indigenous struggle in Mexico. After his participation in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) student strike in 1999 he began to work as a professor at UNAM in the Latin American Studies department. Since the beginning of the Zapatista uprising Gamez has supported the initiatives of the Zapatistas, and the National Indigenous Congress. He has also involved himself in the organization of indigenous people in the state of Oaxaca and the south of Mexico City.

Co-sponsored by - UMHE at WWU: United Ministries in Higher Education at WWU, the WWU Journalisim Department and the Nate Rawhauser Memorial Fund

Deborah Campbell, journalist and adjunct professor at University of British Columbia

“Iran’s Quiet Revolution”
Today's Iranian youth are challenging authority, tuning into global youth culture, and transforming the Islamic Republic. Journalist and University of British Columbia adjunct professor Deborah Campbell spent six months traveling throughout Iran before and after the presidential election to explore one of the world's youngest and least understood nations. In discussing Iran's post-revolution "baby boom," she will explore the blog phenomenon, malls vs. mosques, and the underground socio-sexual revolution that reflects an educated populace disillusioned with Islamic theocracy. Accompanied by slide photographs, she will address the Iranian view of the nuclear issue and how the US-Iran conflict threatens to undermine the "quiet revolution" transforming Iran.

Monday, November 19
Noon-1:30pm

Carolyn Finney, Assistant Professor in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley
(title and description pending but related to race and the environment)
Wednesday, November 28
Noon-1:30pm Fairhaven College Auditorium

Dr. Thomas Ackerman is currently Director of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) and Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. From 1999 through 2005, he served as the Chief Scientist of DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program and was a Battelle Fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA. The ARM Program is the largest ground-based atmospheric observing program in the world. He was Professor of Meteorology at the Pennsylvania State University from 1988 to 1999, as well as Associate Director of the Earth System Science Center. Earlier, he was a staff research scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA.

Dr. Ackerman is the recipient of the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal and the Leo Szilard Award for Science in the Public Interest, awarded by the American Physical Society. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Geophysical Union. In addition, he has received several national awards for his research papers.

Dr. Ackerman has extensive and distinguished experience in climate research including both observational and modeling studies. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles on a wide range of topics. These include studies of the climate influence of volcanic eruptions and asteroid collisions, the impact of clouds on earth climate, and the use of ground-based and satellite observations. He pioneered the use of millimeter wavelength radar for cloud studies and serves on the science teams of two different NASA satellite observing systems.

Jamal Rahman is a Muslim Sufi. His passion lies in interfaith community building. He remains rooted in his Islamic tradition but cultivates a "spaciousness" by being open to the beauty and wisdom of other faiths. Through the process of an authentic and appreciative understanding of other paths, Jamal feels that he is becoming a better Muslim. This spaciousness is not about conversion but about completion.
Jamal has an abiding faith in the power of heart to heart connections to encompass differences and dissolve prejudices. He enjoys programs that celebrate life and unity through delight, laughter and food.
Jamal Rahman is Muslim Sufi co-minister at Interfaith Community Church, Director of Sacred Psychology School, and adjunct faculty at Seattle University. Jamal travels often, co-facilitating workshops and retreats locally, nationally, and internationally. He is the author of a recently published book titled: The Fragrance of Faith - The Enlightened Heart of Islam. For more information, visit www.jamalrahman.com

Geov Parrish is a long-time peace and social justice activist and punk/folk musician living for the last decade in Seattle, having previously alarmed local authorities in Washington D.C., Houston, Japan, and while gaining a masters degree in Political Science and East Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He first became politically active through domestic violence work and as a public Selective Service non-registrant when that system was reintroduced in 1980. While convalescing in the mid-90's from a series of health problems, including two organ transplants and a stroke, he founded the local nonprofit community newspaper Eat the State!. Geov continues to help edit ETS!, and has also gone on to become a weekly political columnist and journalist at Seattle Weekly, and a regular contributor to In These Times, Workingforchange.com, AlterNet, ZNet, assorted other web sites, and, though syndication, at weekly and daily newspapers around the country. He also appears each Saturday morning on the Mind Over Matters program on KEXP Seattle, and is a frequent public and classroom speaker and co-facilitator for direct action nonviolence, war tax resistance, and other activism trainings. He lives in central Seattle with his three kidneys, two pancreases, and an attitude.

Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Her research focuses on the five northern European states comprising the Nordic area. She has written two books, THE NORDIC STATES AND EUROPEAN UNITY; and SCANDINAVIA IN WORLD POLITICS and co-edited SMALL STATES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; GLOBALIZATION, EUROPEANIZATION AND THE END OF THE SCANDINAVIAN MODEL; AND COMING OUT OF THE COLD WAR. She served as the President of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies and founded the University of Washington’s Common Book Program for entering students. Ingebritsen completed her doctorate in 1993 at Cornell University. She is the mother of two children (CJ eight years; Kari six years) and is married to the Honorable James E. Rogers, King County Superior Court Judge.

Darrell Hillaire has been an elected member of the Lummi Nation Council for the past ten years. Four of those years he served as Chairman of the Lummi Nation. Under his leadership the Tribe entered a tremendous expansion of its educational, enforcement, protective and treatment services. Darrell is the proud parent of two adult children Tony and Tahnee and the proud grandparent of two grandsons. His family and his extended family are most important to him. He is part of a large Lummi Nation Family, raised on the Lummi Reservation near Bellingham, WA. He sought and received traditional teachings and has participated in traditional spiritual activities throughout his life. Both of his parents were active in Tribal politics and were recognized as National Indians Leaders in their time. Darrell is an active member of the Council and is still guiding the continuing development of a Recovery Community for members of the Lummi Nation throu the CMAD Initiative

Karen Button from Alaska is an independent journalist. Karen has recently returned from four months in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon where she investigated the Iraqi diaspora and refugee crisis, in addition to reporting on the current situation in Iraq and Lebanon. Karen reports regularly from the Middle East; her dispatches are widely read and her work published in Turkey, Italy, Egypt, New Zealand and the US at news sites that include WorldBulletinNews, IslamOnline, InformationClearingHouse,GlobalResearch, and Scoop, to name a few. She maintains a site at www.karenbutton.blogspot.com

Deborah Campbell is an award-winning writer who has
worked in Iran, Dubai, Cuba, Russia, Egypt, Israel-Palestine, and most recently Syria. An adjunct professor of literary nonfiction writing at the University of British Columbia , she is the author of This Heated Place, a literary exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her work has appeared in the The Walrus, the Guardian, The Economist, Utne, Asia Times, New Scientist, Ms. magazine, and Adbusters, where she is a contributing editor, and in anthologies and essay collections in Asia, Europe and North America.

Carolyn Finney recently completed her Ph.D. in geography at Clark University in Massachusetts and is a Canon National Parks Science Scholarship recipient. Her dissertation research explored cultural and environmental encounters in the U.S, highlighting how they are gendered and racialized. Working with other individuals, community groups, and environmental organizations, her research seeks to broaden our understanding of African Americans and environment interactions by exploring how the attitudes and beliefs of African Americans are influenced by racialized constructions and representations, informing how African Americans participate in the use of national forests and parks. As a Fulbright fellow, she has also researched the impacts of tourism and modernization on Nepalese women and the environment. Last year, she was a Newhouse/Mellon postdoctoral fellow at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in Environmental Studies and Humanities. She has just moved to California to begin her new position as Assistant Professor in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley where she will expand her research to explore privilege and the climate change debate. She’s presently working on her first book manuscript, Black Faces, White Spaces: African Americans and the Great Outdoors.