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Human Rights Program Events
Spring 2007
Wednesday April 11, 2007, 12:30-2pm
“Ambiguous Lives—Violence Against Dalit Women in Tamilnadu, India”
The Southern Asian Institute
Jebaroja Singh is Assistant Professor in Women Studies at William Paterson University, NJ and specializes in gender and caste issues in South Asia. She recently completed her PhD dissertation titled, The Spotted Goddess: The Dalit Woman in Classical Brahminical Literature, and in Modern Fiction, Memoirs and Songs from Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. Dr. Singh will present ambiguities and differences vested in women, where resistance reveals agency even in situations of victimization.
The presentation will primarily discuss violence through the experiences of young Dalit girls in small villages belonging to the Pudukkottai district in rural Tamilnadu, a state in South India, based on recent visits in August 2006.
Location: Room 1134, Intl Affairs Building
Time: 12:30-2pm
For Information: please contact Batool Hassan by sending email to bsh2107@columbia.edu
Wednesday April 11, 2007
“Universities and Labor Standards in the Global Economy”
The SIPA Advanced Policy Analysis Concentration (SIPA APAC)
Symposium Participants include:
Auret van Heerden, President and CEO of the Fair Labor Association; Scott Nova, Executive Director of the Worker Rights Consortium; Jagdish Bhagwati, University Professor, Discussant; Mark Barenberg, Professor of Law, Discussant; Moderator: Sharyn O'Halloran, George Blumenthal Professor of Politics and Professor of International and Public Affairs.
Synopsis:
The impartial enforcement of fair labor standards is a touchstone of the modern global economy. As the U.S. expands its trade relations with developing and emerging markets, ensuring the application of domestic labor laws has become a key component to maintaining public support for globalization.
Over the last decade a number of non-governmental organizations have sprung up to fill the need for transparent monitoring of labor conditions for some of the most vulnerable workers. The Worker Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association have been active participants in these efforts, but each takes a different approach. This university-wide event is dedicated to exploring the neutral enforcement of fair labor standards and corporations' compliance with these codes of conduct at all levels of the global supply chain.
Location: Altschul Auditorium, Intl Affairs Building
Time: 4-6pm
For Information: please contact Stacey Miller by sending email to sm2440@columbia.edu or by calling 212-854-2890 or visit the event’s website at http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/news_events/special_events/globaleconomy/
Wednesday April 11, 2007, 4pm
“From Sodomy Laws to Marriage Amendments: A History of Sexual Identity/Politics"
President Lee C. Bollinger and Vice Provost of Diversity Initiatives Jean Howard
George Chauncey, professor of history and American studies at Yale University and co-director of the Yale Research Initiative on the History of Sexualities, is a social and cultural historian whose research focuses on lesbian and gay history. Professor Chauncey is best known for his book Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, which won the Organization of American Historians Merle Curti Prize as the best book in social history, the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for the best first book in history, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Lambda Literary Award. He was the organizer and lead author of the historians' amicus brief in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), a case that heavily influenced the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision to overturn the nation's remaining sodomy laws. He has also testified as an expert witness on the history of marriage and anti-gay discrimination in several other gay rights cases. He is the recipient of Guggenheim, National Humanities Center, and Council of Learned Societies awards.
Location: Low Memorial Library Rotunda
Time: 4pm
For Information: please contact events2@columbia.edu or RSVP at
https://www.college.columbia.edu/calendar3/projects/upe/chauncey.php
Wednesday April 11, 2007, 6pm
“An Evening of Film” with Red Light Children
The Child Rights Working Group
The Child Rights Working Group is a cross-campus network of graduate and undergraduate programs and schools dedicated to furthering discussion and knowledge on child rights. Students involved in the Child Rights Working Group come from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia School of Law, Mailman School of Public Health, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Barnard College, Columbia College, the School of General Studies, the School of Social Work and Teacher’s College.
Location: Room 717, Hamilton Hall
Time: 6pm
For Information: please contact columbiachildrights@gmail.com or visit
http://www.humanrights.columbia.edu/childrights.htm
Friday, April 13, 2007, 6:30pm
Poverty Truth Commission
Union Theological Seminary
3041 Broadway (at 121st)
Free and open to the public
www.povertyinitiative.org
On Friday, April 13, 2007, the Poverty Initiative will convene the second Poverty Truth Commission at Union Theological Seminary. This day-long, public event will include workshops, documentary screenings, art exhibits, worship services, and music. The day will culminate in the evening with the Commission itself, when individuals from around the country will testify on violations of their economic human rights that are and have been a direct result of living in poverty in the United States. Commissioners from many backgrounds, including the academic, political, and religious realms, will bear witness to these stories of injustice.
Poverty Truth Commission: James Chapel – 6:30 p.m.
Registration begins at 9:30am, and workshops begin at 10:30am.
Workshops will conclude at 5:00pm, followed by a community dinner and the Commission.
Thursday April 12, 2007, 12:45-6:40pm
“Child Right to Protection Realized: Best Practices and Lessons Learned”
The Child Rights Working Group
At 12:45pm Professor Jane Spinak, co-founder of the Child Advocacy Clinic at Columbia Law School, will open with a keynote address, followed by three panels of speakers:
The Child Labor and Trafficking panel, from 1– 2:30pm will be moderated by Karin Landgren; Chief of Child Protection at UNICEF; with panelist Prof. Anthony Ewing of Columbia Law School, and Carol Smolenski, Executive Director of ECPAT-USA, USA (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes). The second panel, from 3–4pm, Violence and Abuse Against Children, will be moderated by Prof. Michael MacKenzie; with panelists Mie Lewis, Fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU, and Aryeh Neier, author of Custody and Control: Conditions of Confinement in New York’s Juvenile Prisons for Girls. Our final panel, Children in Emergencies from 5–6:30pm will be moderated by Prof. Alastair Ager of the Mailman School of Public Health, with panelists Michael Wessells, Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health and Senior Child Protection Specialist for Christian Children’s Fund and author of Child Soldiers: Stolen Childhood, along with others. There will be a reception at 6:30pm.
Location: Room 106, Jerome Green Hall, Columbia Law School
Time: 12:45-6:40pm
For Information: please visit http://www.humanrights.columbia.edu/childrights.htm and RSVP (appreciated, but not required) via e-mail to columbiachildrights@gmail.com
Thursday April 12, 2007, 7pm
“Displaced in Darfur: Gender, Politics & Sexuality in a Sudanese Squatter Settlement”
The Barnard Center for Research on Women
In February 2007, the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, will enter its fourth year. In that time, more than 400,000 people have died and 250,000 have been displaced in a calculated military campaign designed to rid Darfur of a number of ethic groups - among them, the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa tribes - whose populations, in seeking to compel the Sudanese government to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of their respective regions, were cast as a threat to the political status quo. Described by António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as "the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe," the atrocities in Darfur have taken a profound toll on the region's women. Targeted by the Janjawid militias, women and girls in alarming numbers have suffered abduction, rape, torture, murder, and forced displacement at the hands of their countrymen. Join us as Rogaia Abusharaf addresses the human rights issues that must be at the heart of any discussion of political violence in the Sudan, and the incalculable effects of that violence on the selfhood and identity of Darfur's women.
Rogaia Abusharaf is the director of the Pembroke Center's research initiative on /Gender and "Traditional" Muslim Practices/, a three-year project including faculty workshops, roundtables, and conferences. Among Abusharaf's publications is Wanderings: Sudanese Migrants and Exiles in North America, one of the first books devoted to the experience of Sudanese immigrants and exiles in the United States. She is also editor of the forthcoming Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives. Her work has received support from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Royal Anthropological Institute and Durham University Anthropology Department in England, the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study Center, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the MIT Center for International Studies.
Location: Altschul Hall, Intl Affairs Building
Time: 7pm
For Information: please contact bcrw@barnard.edu
Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 4 pm to 6 pm
Rights Approaches to Disability: International Law and Community Participation
University Seminar on Disability Studies and the Center for the Study of Human Rights
Columbia University
4 pm to 6 pm
Location: Lerner Hall, Room 555
(Enter the Columbia Campus at 115th Street and Broadway, follow path to building entrance on right.)
Arlene Kanter, Professor, Syracuse University School of Law
Martha Laclave, Adjunct Professor, Temple University
Moderated by: J. Paul Martin, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Human Rights Seminar is free and open to the public.
*Buffet dinner (optional) after seminar ($22).*
Please RSVP to dsseminar@gmail.com for event and/or dinner by April 9, 2007 .
Space is limited; RSVP does not guarantee a place.
With generous support from the Columbia University Office of Disability Services
Friday, 4/13 at 10pm
Project H(om)e Fundraiser/Social for Shanti Salaam
Sin Sin, 85 Second Avenue (between 1st ave and 4th street)
Come support conflict resolution in Kashmir through the arts this Friday!
www.shantisalaam.org
Featuring: DJs V:shal Kanwar and Zakhm of Kollektiv spinning electronic mixed with S. Asian rhythms
( www.kollektivmusic.net)
$10, tix on sale this week on the 6th floor and at the door.
April 6: 5pm-7pm
Human Rights in Quisqueya: Exploring Anti-Haitian Xenophobia in the Dominican Republic
306 Russell Hall, Teachers College
The Center For African Education, The Association Of Latin American Scholars
And The Office Of International Services Presents
Human Rights in Quisqueya: Exploring Anti-Haitian Xenophobia in the
Dominican Republic
Film Screening & Discussion w/ Fillmmaker: Dr. Steeve Coupeau, John Jay
College of Criminal Justice
This Friday: April 6, 2007
5 pm - 7 pm
Wine & Cheese reception to follow
About the Film:
Human Rights in Quisqueya is a digital tapestry of divergent viewpoints ranging from elite to civil society actors regarding the Haitian presence in the Dominican Republic. It is a product of our constant monitoring of media coverage of the plight of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic including balance, scope and accuracy. The main thrust of the documentary is that the treatment of Haitian migration to the Dominican Republic is overly politicized. Any solution to this dilemma must be humane and in compliance with international laws governing the movement of individuals and families from one nation-state to another sovereign nation. The documentary is a co-production with Perfil Latino.
Thursday, April 26, 4 p.m.
"Why We Care About Torture"
Altschul Auditorium (417 IAB)
A lecture by Paul Kahn Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities and Director, Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for Human Rights, Yale Law School
All Welcome
Thursday, April 5, 12:30-2 pm
“Address by ‘The’ Anti-Corruption Crusader” in Nigeria
Uris Hall 141
The Human Rights Institute, Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia Business School’s Social Enterprise Program and Columbia’s Human Rights Institute are proud to present and host a guest lecture by Mr. Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the Executive Director of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria, the Nigerian anti-corruption commission. The EFCC was formed by the Government of Nigeria in 2002 in order to address the problem of endemic corruption and fraud in Nigeria.
Mr. Ribadu received in 1997, 1998 and 2000 the Inspector General of Police
Awards and in 1999 the Special Commendation of the Accountant General of the
Federation for successfully prosecuting some corrupt public servants. He was voted Man of the Year in 2004 and 2005 by notable Nigerian newspapers including Thisday, The Sun, Leadership, Nigerian Tribune and NewAge, in recognition of his outstanding achievements, and as personal risk to himself, as a committed crusader against corruption, will address these issues and describe the anti-corruption activities of the EFCC, their challenges and success, as well as his view of Nigeria’s future and how it impacts the world. Mr. Ribadu will be available to answer questions.
For Information: please contact Jasmine Henz by sending email to jasminehenz@radonoffices.com
Thursday, April 5, 12:30-2 pm
“The Iraqi Legal System”
IAB 1118
The Middle East Institute presents Haider Hamoudi, who will talk about how Shi'i and Sunni populations in Iraq tend to view the authority of the state in ensuring social order differently.
Haider Ala Hamoudi is an Associate in Law at Columbia Law School. He received his B.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993, with a double major in Physics and Humanities with a Near Eastern Studies Concentration. In 1996, Professor Hamoudi received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Thereafter, Professor Hamoudi went to Iraq and acted both as a legal advisor to the Finance Committee of the Iraq Governing Council, as well as a Program Manager for a project managed by the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University School of Law to improve legal education in Iraq.
Professor Hamoudi continues to advise the Iraqi Government, primarily through the Iraq Mission at the United Nations. Professor Hamoudi’s scholarship focuses on commercial law, Islamic law, and the intersection of the two in the contemporary era.
For Information: please contact Maryum Saifee by sending email to mfs2113@columbia.edu
Thursday, April 5, 2-4 pm
“Lecture by Dr. Partha Dasgupta—Social Capital and Development”
IAB 407
The Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (IGERT) - International Development and Globalization presents Sir Partha Dasgupta, the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics and past Chairman (1997-2002) of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. He taught at the London School of Economics during 1971-1984, and during 1989-92 he was Professor of Economics, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Program in Ethics in Society at Stanford University. Dr. Dasgupta will be giving a two part lecture on Social Capital and Development (April 5 and 12).
For Information: please contact Sheila Chanani by sending email to sc2747@columbia.edu or sc2747@columbia.edu
Friday, April 6, 12:30-2 pm
“Forum on Sustainability in Business”
IAB 1118
Businesses are finding new ways to make a business solution of environmental problems. Come learn from business leaders and field experts on different strategies used to implement sustainability values into business models. The Forum on Sustainability in Business will explore how businesses can support sustainable development and the challenges they face when doing so. This event will also examine the roles public policy and NGOs in taking these business initiatives to become mainstream practices in the marketplace.
Moderators:
*Dr. Geoffrey Heal, director of Center for Economy Environment and Society, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists *Paul Garret, professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility, Columbia University.
Speakers:
*Andrew Winston, director of the corporate environmental strategy project at Yale's school of management, and the co-author of Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage.
*Neel Bradham, Vice President for Business Development at Interface Inc., a worldwide leader in environmentally-sustainable innovations in both the design and manufacturing of high-quality recyclable modular carpets. *Dr. Alan Hecht, Director for Sustainable Development for the US Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development.
For Information: please RSVP at "http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=175803453179" or for further information regarding this event, please contact SIPA Net Impact at tl2237@columbia.edu or 347-578-0749
Thursday, April 12, 12:45-6 pm
Conference: “The Child's Right to Protection Realized: Best Practices and Lessons Learned”
Jerome Greene Hall (Law School) room 104
The Children’s Rights Working Group presents a day long conference focusing on what steps have been taken in the successful protection of children in each of our three panel topics, and what lessons have been learned.
12:45 pm: Keynote Speaker: Jane Spinak, child Advocacy Center
1:00 pm: Virtue Foundation (TBC)
1:00 – 2:30pm: Panel I- Child Labor and Child Trafficking
Moderated by Karin Landgren: Chief of Child Protection at UNICEF; with panelist Prof. Anthony Ewing of Columbia Law School, and others.
3:00 – 4:30 pm: Panel II- Child Abuse and Violence against Children Moderated by Prof. Michael MacKenzie; with panelist Mie Lewis, the Aryeh Neier Fellow at Human Rights Watch and ACLU, and author, “Custody and Control: Conditions of Confinement in New York’s Juvenile Prisons for Girls,” and others.
5:00 – 6:30 pm: Panel III- Children in Complex Emergencies
Moderated by Prof. Alastair Ager of the Mailman School of Public Health; with panelists Michael Wessells: Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health, Senior Child Protection Specialist for Christian Children’s Fund and author of Child Soldiers: Stolen Childhood, along with others.
Thursday, March 22, 1:30-9 pm
Conference: Toward Peace and Justice: The Role of International Law in Confronting War and Genocide
Jerome Greene Hall
A day of panels and speakers, with dinner and reception to follow. Come discuss the future of Guantanamo, the role of international criminal tribunals in the prevention of genocide, and other pressing topics of international law. Featuring Friedmann award recipient Judge Antonio Cassese, first President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and current Chairman of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur. Panels will feature prestigious practitioners, experts and judges, including: Norman Farrell '92, Principal Legal Officer, Office of the Prosecutor, ICTY; Justice Richard Goldstone, former Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY and ICTR and former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa; Bill Goodman, Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights; Colonel (ret.) David Graham, Executive Director of the JAG Legal Center and School, U.S. Army; Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch; and Judge Patricia Wald, former judge of the ICTY and D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. These and other panelists will joined by Columbia Law Profs. Jose Alvarez, Lori Damrosch, George Fletcher, and Katharina Pistor.
Panels are free and open to all, no RSVP necessary; however RSVPs are required for the luncheon and banquet. The conference will open with a Welcome Lunch at 12 p.m. at Faculty House. To RSVP for the luncheon, please email Elena Hassan, elena.hassan@gmail.com.
For Information: please contact Vivian Wang at vhw2001@columbia.edu
Co-sponsored by: Columbia Society of International Law
Thursday, March 22, 4-6 pm
Update on ‘Is Sustainable Development Feasible?’
Lerner 555
The Earth Institute Seminars on Sustainable Development present "Update on 'Is Sustainable Development Feasible?’" with speakers Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and Peter Schlosser, Vinton Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University. Open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information on the Earth Institute and to RSVP, visit www.earth.columbia.edu.
For Information: please contact Robin DeJong at cciseminar@ei.columbia.edu
Thursday, March 22, 6:15 pm
HIV and International Security
Bard Hall, 410 West 58th Street
Ambassador Mark R. Dybul, United States Global AIDS Coordinator; former Assistant Director for Medical Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services
Joelle Tanguy, Managing Director of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (GBC); former US Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontiers)
Bard Hall, 410 West 58th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues) New York City Reservations Required: RSVP to grais@bard.edu
Sunday March 25th from 4-7 pm
“Inside Pakistan”
Columbia's Roone Arledge Auditorium in Lerner Hall.
"Inside Pakistan" will feature the Ambassador to Pakistan as the Keynote Speaker along with a panel of several leading Pakistani Intellectuals discussing the economic, social,
and military concerns of the nation.
"Inside Pakistan" is free and open to the public so it's a great
opportunity to learn more about the current state in Pakistan as viewed by
those on the forefront of Pakistani politics and public affairs.
Thursday, April 5 6-8:00 pm
Documenting Injustice, Protecting Identities
Open Society Institute
400 West 59th Street
(between Ninth and Tenth Avenues)
3rd Floor
Fred Ritchin, Associate Professor, New York University
will moderate a discussion with:
Donna DeCesare, Photographer, and Professor, University of Texas
Ellen Tolmie, Senior Photography Editor, UNICEF
Documenting Injustice, Protecting Identities is part of the ongoing Photography as Advocacy Forum Series, which explores how photography can be used to shape public policy and perception, and to advocate for social change.
In the age of the Internet, images can be copied and distributed regardless of whether their publication is intended or sanctioned. As a result, depicting injustice without exposing victims to further stigma has become increasingly difficult.
For two decades, Donna DeCesare, has photographed children affected
by war and gang violence. Seven years ago--in collaboration with UNICEF and on self-assigned projects--DeCesare began focusing on children living in the USA, Central America, and Colombia whose exposure to violence or HIV/AIDS carries the risk of social stigma. Recognizing that she has little control over the distribution of her images, DeCesare collaborated with UNICEF to establish a collaborative imagemaking process that protects the identities of children at risk and empowers them to tell their stories, while remaining visually powerful. This has evolved into a photography policy that UNICEF now promotes globally.
RSVP to Yukiko Yamagata at docphoto@sorosny.org
<mailto: docphoto@sorosny.org> <mailto:docphoto@sorosny.org> or
(212) 548-0369
DeCesare's photographs, Sharing Secrets: Children's Portraits
Exposing Stigma are currently on display at the Open Society Institute as part
of the Moving Walls 12 group exhibition. The work will be on view through May 11, 2007.
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/photography/focus_areas/mw/12#decesare
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/photography/focus_areas/mw/12#decesare
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/photography/focus_areas/mw/12
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/photography/focus_areas/mw/12
Sunday, May 20
Columbia team AIDS Walk New York
You're invited to join Columbia students, faculty and staff at AIDS Walk New York, the world's largest AIDS fundraising event, on May 20. Funds raised support GMHC and other AIDS service organizations throughout the New York area. There is no minimum amount that you need to raise, but participants who collect $150 or more are eligible for t-shirts and other prize incentives. Even if you will not be in the area on May 20, you are more than welcome to register and help to raise money as a "virtual" walker. To sign up, visit www.aidswalk.net/newyork and select Columbia University as your team! Please contact Jeremy Schwartz ( jds2119@columbia.edu) with any questions.
Monday, March 26, 11am-4pm
Human Rights in Focus: Art &Activism
Jerome Greene Lobby
The Human Rights Institute and Amnesty International
present
A Day for Change
Human Rights at Columbia Law School
Monday, March 26, 2007
Human Rights in Focus: Art & Activism
11:00am - 4:00pm, Jerome Greene Lobby
Art & Photo Exhibit
Art especially is capable of representing the sentiment of the human
experience, and it is that experience that lawyers are defending when they
engage with human rights law. Displayed images will engage viewers on
critical issues, promote discourse, and illustrate how art can be a
catalyst for positive change in the human rights movement.
Artwork is available thanks to the kindness of such artists and
organizations as Tom Block for Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
Dulce Pinzon, WITNESS, and David Gayle.
Tabling
Student groups will be presenting information around six different human
rights issues: release of political prisoners; the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina; violence against women; immigrant, refugee and migrant rights; the
environment and human rights; and the impact of business in economic
globalization. Take action through signing letters, making donations, and
exploring relevant pro bono projects available on campus!
Co-sponsored by: SHN, BLSA, DVP, SIRR, ELS, CSIL, and RightsLink.
Lunchtime Short Film and Discussion
12:15 pm - 1:15 pm, Drapkin Lounge
A short film, Human Needs, Human Rights, offers a collection of thoughts
and testimonials from various human rights leaders and activists. Join us
for this screening and discussion: What draws each of us to human
rights--moral imperatives, personal links to human rights issues, the need
for a sense of purpose? What future projects can we imagine, in terms of
human rights activism at CLS? Lunch will be served.
Keynote Address by Sir Nigel Rodley
Testing the Boundaries: U.S. Practices in the War on Terror
4:15 pm - 5:15 pm, Jerome Greene Hall, Room 105
Sir Nigel Rodley (LL.M ’65) will join the Columbia Law community to share
his perspective on the policies and practices emerging in the Global War on
Terror, and the United States’ handling of the torture question in recent
years, including its use of diplomatic assurances and extraordinary
renditions. Sir Rodley is currently Professor and Chair of the Human
Rights Centre at the University of Essex and a member of the UN Human
Rights Committee. He served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Torture from 1993 to 2001, playing a pivotal role in developing the law of
torture in its nascent stage.
Reception to follow
Monday, March 26
Education, Politics and Social Policy Graduate Student Conference
Teachers College
Education, Politics, and Social Policy Graduate Student Conference,
March 26, 2007
This day-long conference at Teachers College will feature graduate
student presentations, and will include commentary by widely
recognized scholars from the Columbia University network as well as
from policymakers outside of Columbia. A keynote address will be
delivered by Ester Fuchs, former special advisor to Mayor Bloomberg
and current SIPA professor.
For more info, please go to:
http://www.childpolicy.org/whatsnew.html
Friday, March 30, 1-4pm
Transitioning from Relief to Development: Impact on Health
Hess Commons, 722 West 168th Street
What Happens to Communities When Relief Aid STOPS?
Transitioning from Relief to Development:
Impact on Health
Guest Speakers:
Constancio Pinto , His Excellency the Ambassador of East Timor to the US
Dirk Salomons , Director of Humanitarian Affairs Program at SIPA, Columbia University
Emmanuel d'Harcourt , Senior Technical Advisor for Child Survival, IRC
Erin Kenny , Technical Specialist with UNFPA
Dominic McSorley , Emergency Coordinator for Sudan for Concern Worldwide
Saturday, May 19, 10am-1pm
Walk to Beat Lou Gehrig’s Disease
Charles Schurz Park, 87th and East River, Manhattan
Save the Date!
Walk to Beat Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS)
When: Saturday, May 19, 2007 10am to 1pm
Where: Charles Schurz Park, 87th and East River, Manhattan
Who: Everyone is welcome
Proceeds will support:
Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins and the ALS Center at UCSF
A short walk will be followed by refreshments and a brief presentation by members of Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins and the ALS Center at UCSF
Questions: Steve at (917) 687-2611 steven_l_robinson@yahoo.com or
Jenny at (917) 653-6296 jennyr@womenscommission.org
Monday, March 5, 2007
“A Different Kind of War: The UN Sanctions Regime in Iraq”
IAB Room 1118
This event is a book reading and signing by Hans C. von Sponeck, the former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, who explores the UN’s sanction policies against Iraq, their consequences, and the domestic conditions during this period. His extensive research is based on previously unpublished internal UN documents and discussions with UN decision makers (such as former Secretary General Kofi Annan), Iraqi officials and politicians (including Saddam Hussein), and ordinary Iraqis. The author’s findings question who really benefited from the program, what role the UN Security Council and its various member states played, and whether there were then and are today alternatives to the UN’s Iraq policies. H.C. von Sponeck worked for the United Nations for more than 30 years and in 1998 was appointed UN Assistant Secretary General.
Monday, March 5, 12:25 p.m.
The Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), the Social Rights Advocacy Centre (SRAC), and the Monday, March 5, 2007
“Judiciability of Economic and Social Rights from a Comparative Perspective: Trends and Challenges”
Jerome Greene Hall, Room 107
Join us to discuss the trends and challenges of demanding social and economic rights through judicial means in different countries and regions. The event will also highlight the recently launched ESCR-Net Caselaw Database, a collaborative project that compiles and analyzes paradigmatic jurisprudence and other decisions from national courts and international human rights bodies related to economic, social and cultural rights.
OVERVIEW OF ECONOMIC SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS JUSTICIABILITY
Discussants:
Malcolm Langford, Norwegian Centre on Human Rights, University of Oslo
Bruce Porter, Social Rights Advocacy Centre, Canada
Odindo Opiata, Hakijami, Kenya
Moderator: Cynthia Soohoo, Director of Bringing Human Rights Home, Human Rights Institute, CLS
OPEN DISCUSSION: TRENDS AND CHALLENGES OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS
JUSTICIABILITY IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND REGIONS
Discussants:
Malcolm Langford, Norwegian Centre on Human Rights, University of Oslo
Catherine Albisa, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI)
Jimena Garrote, Center of Legal and Social Studies (CELS)
Suad Elias, International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net)
Moderator: Bret Thiele, Center on Housing Rights and Evictions
Hosted by: Human Rights Institute.
Tuesday March 6, 2007
“Friendly Fire”
Faculty House, Presidents Room
Join us for a conversation with New York Post columnist John Podhoretz and editor Bob McManus. The New York Post has become the fifth largest newspaper in the United States and inspires strong reactions from both sides of the political spectrum. Its editorial page is renowned for its conservative commentary, and its critics have called it a "force for evil." Should there be limits on free speech? Who deems what is offensive? How far is too far? Join us as we tackle these questions and more. Dr. David Eisenbach will act as discussant, and there will be a Q&A session following the conversation.
John Podhoretz is a New York Post columnist and author of Can She Be Stopped? Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless...
Bob McManus is the editorial page editor of the New York Post.
For Information: Please contact Roxanne Shirazi by sending email to columbia@bkstore.com or by calling 212.854.9723 .
Tuesday March 6, 2007
“Metropolitan Debris—Forces and Fallout of Human Redemption”
Schermerhorn Hall, Room 754
The Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) presents a seminar series on Gender and the Global Locations of Liberalism entitled "Metropolitan Debris: Forces and Fallout of Human Redemption" with Neferti Tadiar. The interdisciplinary faculty Seminar on Gender and the Global Locations of Liberalism will explore critically the global locations and applications of discourses of women's rights and/as human rights. Our focus will be on the challenges scholars and theorists have been developing to the liberal underpinnings and transnational institutional circuits of this form of politics and policy-making. While acknowledging the emancipatory intent of humanitarian and women's rights discourse and the useful legal gains it makes possible, scholars with deep knowledge of particular regions and cultural traditions now question both the universalism of the concepts of "the human" and "woman" and the self-representations of liberalism (e.g. examining how and when it comes to be applied to disadvantaged groups, what talk of "rights" and even "tolerance" might hide in terms of systemic inequality, structural violence, and imperial relations; and what a serious study of "illiberal" religious traditions can contribute to relativizing liberalism and locating it historically and culturally). What can anthropological, sociological, political-theoretical, and historical analysis contribute to more adequate understandings of the dynamics of gender and culture and the relationships among culture, social systems, and historical change? What would an interrogation of the uneven geopolitical distribution of liberalism contribute to understanding the dilemmas faced by those working for women's rights transnationally, or in national settings outside the West?
For Information: Please contact Kitana Ananda by sending email to ksa2103@columbia.edu.
Wednesday March 7, 2007
“A Comparative Perspective in The Role of Cultural Heritage in Post-disaster Development Planning”
IAB Room 802
Ingrid Olivo will discuss the field findings of cultural heritage in El Salvador (focusing on the case of San Salvador) and in Salvador de Bahia (Brazil), while looking also at the key recent disasters in both cases with strong emphasis on visual material. Ms. Olivo will examine the opinions of experts concerning the role cultural heritage has played (or not) in post-disaster development planning.
Ms. Ingrid Olivo earned a BA in Architecture from the Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas in El Salvador, and earned an MSc in Urban Development Planning from the University College in London. She is a third year PhD candidate in Planning at Columbia University, and has gained vast experience in urban planning through the public and private sectors and NGOs.
For Information: Please contact Eliza Kwon-Ahn by sending email to ek2159@columbia.edu.
Wednesday March 7, 2007
“Civil Liberties, Islam and the Nexus Between the Struggle for Democracy and Iran's Nuclear Ambitions”
IAB Room 1501
The Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR) and the Middle East Institute (MEI) present a lecture entitled, “Civil Liberties, Islam and the Nexus Between the Struggle for Democracy and Iran's Nuclear Ambitions,” with Akbar Ganji. Akbar Ganji is Iran's leading investigative journalist. He is the winner of the 2006 World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award and of the 2006 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. Mr Ganji was also awarded the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression's International Press Freedom Award in 2000, the Academic Freedom Prize of the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 2005, the Italian Press Freedom Award in 2005 and the National Press Club John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award in 2006. Mr Ganji's most daring articles appeared in 1998, when he uncovered the implication of the Ministry of Intelligence under former president Rafsanjani in a series of killings of regime-critical intellectuals and writers.
Mr Ganji's book, Dungeon of Ghosts, is widely regarded as a major contribution to the defeat of conservative candidates in Iran's parliamentary elections of 2000 and the victory of Khatami's pro-reform factions. Mr Ganji was arrested in the spring of 2000 after he took part in an international conference on Iran's future and was imprisoned for nearly six years until his release on March 18, 2006. In his talk, Akbar Ganji will speak about the relationship between Islam, human rights, and civil liberties, and address the nexus between Iran's internal struggle for democracy and the regime's nuclear ambitions.
For Information: Please contact Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR) & The Interchurch Center by sending email to cdtr@columbia.edu or by calling 212.854.5264.
Co-sponsored by: The Middle East Institute
Thursday March 8, 2007
“State Repression and the Tyrannical Peace”
IAB Lindsay Rogers Room, 7th floor”
CUIPS presents an event entitled "State Repression and the Tyrannical Peace" with Christian Davenport. The Columbia University International Politics Seminars provide an essential forum for faculty and graduate students to meet and discuss cutting-edge research in international relations. The mission of this seminar series is to bring the country's foremost junior faculty in international relations to present their work at Columbia. The series also creates multiple opportunities for graduate students to meet and discuss their research with invited speakers. CUIPS is sponsored by ISERP and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.
For Information: Please contact Thania Sanchez by sending email to ts2058@columbia.edu.
Co-sponsored by: ISERP.
Thursday March 1, 2007
“The Future of Human Rights and Democratization in Turkey”
IAB Room 1118
CSHR presents a roundtable discussion entitled “The Future of Human Rights and Democratization in Turkey” with Dilek Kurban, J.D. Kurban is a SIPA and Columbia Law graduate, and works with the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation.
For Information: Please contact the Center for the Study of Human Rights at cshr@columbia.edu or 212.854.2479.
Wednesday February 28, 2007
“Pledging Allegiance—The Politics of Patriotism in America's Schools”
Grace Dodge Hall, Teachers College, Room 179
What does it mean to be “patriotic” in the U. S. after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001? And how have the prevailing notions of patriotism—loudly trumpeted in the American media—affected education in American schools?
Teachers College presents a book discussion and signing for Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America’s Schools with contributors Pedro Noguera, Debbie Meier and Robby Cohen, along with editor Joel Westheimer. Other contributors to the bookinclude Bill Ayers, Michael Bader, Sharon Cook, Louis Ganzler, Gerald Graff, Diana Hess, Joseph Kahne, Robert Jensen, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Ellen Middaugh, Cecilia O’Leary, Diane Ravitch, Bill Bigelow, Héctor Calderón, Edwin C. Darden, Peter Dreier, Delaine Eastin, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Dick Flacks, Maxine Greene, Joan Kent Kvitka, James W. Loewen, Walter Parker, Charles Payne, Cindy Sheehan, Karen Emily Suurtamm, Studs Terkel and Denise Walsh.
For Information: Please contact Tamar Elster at elster@tc.edu or 212.678.3963.
Tuesday February 27, 2007
“Rash: A Solo Play About One Woman's Experience as a Human Rights Observer in Post-Genocide Rwanda”
Zankel Building, Teachers College, Room 125, Milbank Chapel
Written and performed by Jenni Wolfson, directed by Jen Nails. Discussion with writer/performer and director to follow.
Cost: $4 in advance, $6 at the door. Open to the public.
For Information: Please contact SIPA Human Rights Working Group at kac2140@columbia.edu.
Tuesday February 27, 2007
“Southeast Asia Internship Panel”
IAB Room 1219
Interested in a summer internship in Southeast Asia? Want to learn a Southeast Asian language? Not sure where to start looking? Worried about living and working abroad? Join second-year students as they share how they found their summer internships and discuss their work experiences. Students with placements at the Asian Development Bank, Education Development Center, International Organization for Migration and the Language Institute will participate in the panel. Refreshments will be served.
For Information: Please contact Carissa Dizon at cgd2110@columbia.edu.
Monday February 26, 2007
“Forms, Agencies and Outcomes of State Repression in Post-Revolutionary Iran”
International Affairs Building, Room 801
The ISERP Workshop Series on Contentious Politics presents an event entitled “Forms, Agencies and Outcomes of State Repression in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” with Hamid Rezai. The Workshop on Contentious Politics has been running in various guises at various universities for 30 years. In its current guise, it reviews work in progress on contentious politics, broadly defined, mainly by faculty and graduate students in history and social sciences at Columbia and other New York area institutions.
For Information: Please contact Hamid Rezai at hr2106@columbia.edu.
Friday February 23, 2007
Columbia University’s APEC Study Center and the Program in International Economic Policy (PIEP) at SIPA present:
“The World Bank—China, India, and Africa”
Dr. Harry Broadman, Acting Chief Economist of the Africa Region for the World Bank, is one of the key architects of the Bank Group’s new operational strategy in Africa, leading new work on African-Asian investment flows, especially those involving China and India. Dr. Broadman previously served as the World Bank’s Lead Economist for Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and prior to that was the Bank’s Senior Economist for China, leading the operational work in China on competition policy, corporate governance, state-owned enterprise reform, FDI policy, and WTO accession. Dr. Broadman is the author of a new book, Africa's Silk Road: China and India's New Economic Frontier.
For Information: Please contact mbo2103@columbia.edu.
Thursday February 22, 2007
The Humanitarian Affairs Program presents:
“Sudan Divided - The Challenge to Humanitarian Action”
IAB 15th Floor
For those who have struggled to alleviate human suffering in Sudan during the past decades, throughout a seemingly neverending array of interrelated civil conflicts, it might appear as if the situation has only grown progressively worse. While the war between the North and the South has been settled formally, lasting peace there is not assured. In Western Sudan, a solution to the vicious fighting and the ruthless slaughter of civilians seems remote. In the East, unrest prevails. Hundreds of thousands have died;
millions are displaced. Humanitarians, seeking access to civilian victims, face increased security risks. Meanwhile, the conflict is spilling over into neighboring countries. Politicians say all the right things, but carefully refrain from action. What can be done?
This conference represents an effort to take stock and to contribute to an action plan. It brings together people from various parts of Sudan, diplomats, aid workers, peacekeepers, students, academics and concerned citizens. In four panels, we will examine various aspects of this “permanent crisis” and we hope that panelists and members of the audience will engage in a discussion that will bring about new ideas and new hope.
For Information: please RSVP at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=168813105661.
Co-sponsored by: The Africa Program at SIPA, The Institute of International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, The Social Science Research Council of New York, and The Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University.
Wednesday February 21, 2007
The Southern Asian Institute presents:
“Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Reproductive Heteronormativity”
IAB Room 1134
The Southern Asian Institute (SAI) presents a Brown Bag Lecture with Gayatri C. Spivak. Professor Spivak will be reading Ama Ata Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy and Mahasweta Devi's Statue, which can be found in Old Women. She will also refer to Toni Morrison's Beloved. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Center for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University. Professor Spivak is a prominent literary theorist and is widely known for her sophisticated deconstructive approach to questions of feminism, North-South relations, and the politics of subaltern studies. Among her many influential writings is the 1988 article Can the Subaltern Speak? Her notable books include: Of Grammatology (translation with critical introduction of Jacques Derrida), In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics, Selected Subaltern Studies (ed.), The Post-Colonial Critic, The Spivak Reader, Old Women, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason and Other Asias.
For Information: Please contact bsh2107@columbia.edu.
Wednesday February 21, 2007
“The Political Economy of U.S. Foreign Aid—Africa”
IAB Room 1118
The Economic Speaker Series lecturer is Christopher Kilby. He is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Vassar College, received his Honors AB in Chemistry from Harvard College in 1985, and his Ph.D. in Development Economics and Industrial Organization from Stanford in 1993. His recent publications include Supervision and Performance: the Case of World Bank Projects, Journal of Development Economics in June 2000 and Foreign Aid and Domestic Politics: Voting in Congress and the Allocation of USAID Contracts Across Congressional Districts, with Robert K. Fleck in Southern Economic Journal in January 2001.
For Information: Please contact gkb2104@columbia.edu.
Co-sponsored by: SPAN.
Tuesday February 20, 2007
“Demobilizing Islam—Institutionalized Religion and Politics of Co-optation”
IAB Room 801
The Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) Religion and Democracy Seminar Series presents a lecture entitled “Demobilizing Islam: Institutionalized Religion and Politics of Co-optation” with Kikue Hamayotsu. Liberal democracy is widely believed to thrive only where spheres of non-interference and mutual toleration between religious and political institutions have emerged. The seminar looks both at historical processes in which these spheres have been contested and ultimately legally sanctioned, and at contemporary processes in which new spheres of toleration are being negotiated. In particular, the seminar gives recent PhDs, post-doctoral scholars and junior faculty the opportunity to present and discuss with senior faculty work relevant to questions of toleration, democracy and the negotiation of competency between religious and political authority.
For Information: Please contact mk2081@columbia.edu.
Monday February 19, 2007
“Uncommon Causes, Common Futures—Global Warming and Labor Rights in the 21st Century” Faculty House
David Foster is the Executive Director of the Blue-Green Alliance, a partnership between United Steel Workers and the Sierra Club. He was the Director of United Steelworkers (USW) District #11, a 13-state region, from 1990-2006. District #11 has a diverse membership of 43,000, comprised of iron ore and other mineral miners; steel, aluminum, tire, oil and gas workers; and health care employees. His responsibilities included serving on the union's International Executive Board and negotiating with many of the country's largest steel, iron ore, and aluminum companies. He has spoken on trade issues to labor and management audiences in the U.S., Canada, and Japan, and co-chaired the USW's initiative to establish a global network of unions in the aluminum industry in 2003.
Mr. Foster chaired the USW's International Executive Board Task Force on the Environment and authored its 2006 policy statement. In 2004, he was awarded the Jane Lehman Bagley Award from the Tides Foundation for his work building labor/environmental coalitions in the United States. He serves on the Board of Directors of Oregon Steel, Inc., a $1.5 billion specialty steel company with operations in the United States and Canada. He also teaches classes on unions and globalization as an adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities, and on advocacy and political leadership in Duluth. Mr. Foster has a BA from Reed College in Portland, OR.
For Information: Please reply to Myriam Figueroa at figueroa.myriam@gmail.com and indicate whether you plan to join the dinner.
Friday February 16, 2007
“Refugee Issues Seminar: A Closer Look at Refugee Resettlement in the U.S.—from International Policies to First Hand Experience”
Mailman School of Public Health, Medical Center Campus, 722 W. 168th St., Hess Commons
From the heart of the Congo to Oregon, and the Oval Office to Staten Island, the plight of refugees doesn’t end when they leave the camp. This seminar will explore how global and domestic policies play out the lives of the most vulnerable. Speakers include: Jean d’Arc Kakusu, Portland Community College; Dr. Arancha Hendrick, Church World Service; Elizabeth Campbell, Refugee Council USA; Jacob Massoquoi and Leyla Dursonova, Nationality Services; and Deb Stein, Episcopal Migration Ministries.
Friday February 16, 2007
“All Ivy Environmental and Sustainable Development Career Fair”
The Rotunda, Low Library
The MPA program in Environmental Science and Policy presents the third annual All Ivy Environmental and Sustainable Development Career Fair. The event will feature internship, educational and full-time career opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree students from all the Ivy League schools.
For Information: Contact students@ei.columbia.edu for information and go to www.earth.columbia.edu to register.
Friday February 16, 2007
“Philanthropy, Profits and Progress—the Role of Private Actors in International Development”
Jerome Greene Hall, Room 104
The Columbia University Partnership for International Development (CUPID) presents its third annual conference to evaluate activities by private actors—including philanthropic foundations, community based organizations, corporations and others—Ithat either directly or indirectly impact the development of the communities in which they operate. Given the increasing visibility of private actors in delivering services and creating economic opportunities in developing areas, CUPID believes a comprehensive and multidisciplinary review of their activities is timely and should make for an exciting conference.
The conference gathers a multidisciplinary panel of scholars and practitioners from the University and beyond to present and discuss their perspectives. Private activities in international development will be explored in the following panels: Health, Education and Social Services, Energy, Environment and Infrastructure, and Business and Livelihoods. Reception afterward in Jerome Greene Annex.
For Information: Contact jf2294@columbia.edu.
Thursday February 15, 2007
“Religious Rights in Europe and France: Blemish or Trend?”
Faculty House
The Seminar examines the ways in which the world’s major religions define their relationships, roles and responsibilities towards one another and the world at large. In addition to the empirical and legal dimensions, the Seminar encourages research on the meaning, hermeneutics and role of core religious beliefs and practices and internal debates in both historical and contemporary contexts. The Seminar is designed to promote new research on the texts, customs, social organizations, practices and other factors that influence political, cultural and theological relations among the world’s major religions and their relationship with the community at large. The seminar also seeks to build a local and an international collaborative research network of institutions and individuals committed to these goals.
Melanie Adrian is working towards her PhD in Social Anthropology and the Study of Religion at Harvard University. She holds a B.A from the University of Waterloo (Canada) in Comparative Religion with a Peace and Conflict Studies option, an M.A from Essex University (U.K) in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights and an A.M with a focus on Religion and Human Rights from Harvard University (USA). Her recent publications include Laïcité Unveiled: A Case Study of Human Rights, Religion and Culture in France in Human Rights Review Vol. 8 Issue 1, 2006 and The Emergence of Religious Pluralism: A New Approach by the Peruvian Government in Revista Vol. 3, Num.1, 2003.
Adrian has dedicated her time to questions of theory as well as practice. She has been actively involved in promoting mediation as a viable alternative to the judicial system with Community Justice Initiatives (Waterloo 1994-1997), to increasing the visibility of industrial accidents in Asia with Documentation for Action Groups in Asia (Hong Kong 1995), and to working on issues of local justice within the communities in which she resides. Adrian was the first executive editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal (Cambridge: Harvard Law School) who was not a law student at the time of her tenure. She was elected president of Harvard’s largest graduate student association, the 3,000 member GSAS Graduate Student Council. She was working on promoting human rights programs with the Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs before starting her doctoral studies at Harvard.
For Information: Contact jbf2103@columbia.edu and please indicate if you will be joining the dinner.
Thursday February 15, 2007
“Las Mesas de Diálogo en Colombia: Peace Efforts in a War-Torn Country”
IAB Room 707
Please join us for an afternoon discussion with Mario Gomez, head of Colombia’s Fundación Antonio Restrepo Barco, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to rebuilding the country after decades of war and violence. Mr. Gomez will discuss his organization’s peace building efforts through the country’s mesas de diálogo process. The seminar will be hosted by Thomas Trebat, Executive Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies.
For Information: Contact ek2159@columbia.edu.
Tuesday February 13, 2007
“Development in Ukraine and its Foreign Policy”
IAB Room 1219
After voting in December 2006 to dismiss Boris Tarasyuk, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Ukraine’s parliament then maneuvered to remove the president’s power to appoint ministers controlling foreign and defense matters. President Yushchenko, with whom Mr. Tarasyuk had been close allies, called this move unconstitutional. At the end of January 2007, Mr. Tarasuyk resigned his post, noting that a constitutional court hearing in the dispute over his position had been postponed. Volodymyr Dubovyk is a Fulbright Scholar at the Kennan Institute’s Wilson Center and Director of the Center for International Studies at Odesa I. Mechnikov National University in Odesa, Ukraine. Mr. Dubovyk will discuss how Ukraine’s foreign policy has been affected by such recent events and the future of Ukraine’s foreign policy. Ambassador Valeriy Kuchinsky, former Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the U.N., will moderate.
Monday February 12, 2007
“Islamophobia”
Alfred Lerner Hall, Room 569
The Youth Development & Social Work Caucus Columbia Political Union, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Organzation of Pakistani Students present a community discussion on the social and cultural challenges for a religion post 9/11 and the implications for Western and multicultural societies entitled “Islamophobia.” This community discussion organized by both graduate and undergraduate students on “Islamophobia” will hold open dialogue on the social and cultural challenges facing both Muslims and the larger population in Western and multicultural societies. Topics such as women in Islam and recent community and political controversies in both Europe and the United States will be addressed by the following panelists: Dr. Hamid Abdeljaber, former Chief of Middle East Radio Unit of United Nations Department of Public Information; Ms Asma Gull Hasan, the author of American Muslims: The New Generation and Why I Am a Muslim; The Council on American-Islamic Relations and Barnard Human Rights Professor Emeritus Peter Juviler. Moderated by Professor Paul Martin, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Human Rights.
For Information: Contact mkz2101@columbia.edu.
Co-Sponsored by: ACLU | OPS.
Friday February 9, 2007
“Africa Open Society Justice Institute”
Jerome Greene Hall , Room 546
Chidi Anselm Odinkalu is both Senior Legal Officer for the Africa Open Society Justice Initiative and a Lecturer in Laws at Harvard Law School. He is a Trustee of the International African Institute University of London, a member of the Human Rights Advisory Council of the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, and of the Board of Fund for Global Human Rights. As a lawyer and advocate from Nigeria, Odinkalu is widely published on diverse subjects of international law, international economic and human rights law, public policy, and political economy affecting African countries. He is frequently called upon to advise multilateral and bilateral institutions on Africa-related policy, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, and the World Economic Forum.
For Information: Contact hri@columbia.edu.
Thursday February 8, 2007
“Revisiting the Sagan/Waltz Nuclear Proliferation v. Non-Proliferation Debate--The Context of Iran”
IAB Room 1501
A Panel Discussion with:
-Scott Sagan, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University
-Kenneth Waltz, Senior Research Scholar, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University
Moderator:
-Richard Betts, Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies Director, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University.
For Information: Contact mfs2113@columbia.edu.
Thursday February 8, 2007
“The Impact of Globalization on the Countries of the South”
Jerome Greene Hall, Room 104
A Panel Discussion with:
-Dr. K.Y. Amoako, Former Executive Secretary, UN Economics Commission for Africa
-Dr. Justin Lin, Founder and Director of China Center for Economic Research, Peking University
-Dr. Jose Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary General, UN for Economic and Social Affairs; Former Minister of Finance, Colombia
and
-Dr. Prabhat Patnaik, Centre for Economics and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University
The panel will explore the experience and effects of globalization in their home countries and regions, with a particular eye toward agrarian and rural society. The panelists will also consider why, and the extent to which, globalization is viewed adversely in these places. As central interlocutors with governments and international organizations in each of their home countries, the panelists will then exchange ideas about the possibilities for improvements to current trends within globalization. The evening will close with remarks by moderator Joseph Stiglitz and audience questions.
Location: Room 104, Jerome Greene Hall.
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 pm.
For Information: Contact gp2119@columbia.edu.
Tuesday February 6, 2007
“Rain in a Dry Land”
IAB Room 802
The award-winning documentary “Rain in a Dry Land” chronicles 18 months in the lives of two Somali Bantu families brought to the U.S. from the Kakhuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. As they struggle to reconcile their fantasies of American life with its disconcerting realities, the filmmaker unveils a riveting portrait of families in transition, shedding light on the conflicting notions of what it means to be—or become—an American. Q&A with director Anne Makepeace to follow.
Co-Sponsored by: SIPA Pan-African Network I Human Rights Program I HAWG.
Monday February 5, 2007
“Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling”
IAB Lindsay Rogers Room, 7th floor
Jane Hyun, author and executive coach, talks about cultural fluency and working in today's diverse talent pipeline. Hyun is the president of Crossroads Associates, as well as an executive coach, author, and diversity strategist to Fortune 500 companies, top MBA programs, and non-profit organizations. Previously, she was a Vice-President of Human Resources at JP Morgan and Director of Recruiting at Deloitte & Touche and Resources Connection. She has worked with various senior management teams and diversity councils to offer strategies for retaining the multicultural talent pipeline in today’s global workplace. A graduate of Cornell University with a degree in Economics and International Studies, she is active with the University Women’s Alumnae Council. She serves on the Board of the Johnnetta B. Cole Diversity and Inclusion Institute at Bennett College. She is also an advisor to the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force/Center for Work Life Policy, the organization which authored “Leadership in Your Midst” and “On-Ramps and Off-Ramp: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success."
For Information: Contact tm2298@columbia.edu.
Monday February 5, 2007
“Trends in the Labor Market in Transition Economies and Implications for Higher Education”
IAB Room 1219
The Harriman Institute presents a seminar entitled "Trends in the Labor Market in Transition Economies and Implications for Higher Education" with Eduardo Tugendhat (President and CEO, CARANA Corporation).
Among the features that characterize the global economy are:
1. value added is increasingly driven by "knowledge" and
2. the increasingly important role of services.
In this context, the quality of "human capital" becomes particularly critical in determining both competitiveness and income levels, and hence the ability of economies to develop and grow. However, providers of educational services (especially higher education and specialized training), are generally too rigid to respond to the changing requirements of the labor market. This is true even in countries where educational levels are considered very high, such as the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This lecture look at this issue, drawing on empirical experience with multiple programs, including Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
CARANA Corporation is a leading provider of global economic development services to government, private business, individuals, and international donor agencies. CARANA designs and implements results-oriented stategies for competing in the global economy.
For Information: Contact ar2052@columbia.edu.
Thursday February 1, 2007
“Empowering Arab Women? Assessing the Arab Human Development Report”
IAB Room 1501
A panel discussion with:
-Azza Karam, Senior Policy Research Advisor at the United Nations Development Program, Regional Bureau of Arab States
-Fida Adely, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of International and Transcultural Studies, Teachers College
-Frances Hasso, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and Sociology and Acting Director of the Gender and Women's Studies Program, Oberlin College
The moderator is Lila Abu Lughod, Professsor of Anthropology, Director, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Columbia University.
For Information: Contact mfs2113@columbia.edu.
Wednesday January 31, 2007
“Living Proof—Testimony and Circuits of Subjectivity”
IAB Room 1134
Join the Southern Asian Institute (SAI) for a Brown Bag Lecture Event entitled, "Living Proof: Testimony and Circuits of Subjectivity," with Dr. Ethel Brooks, an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. Can living proof be the basis upon which we claim transnational subjectivity? If a person provides living proof of her existence, can she then claim citizenship? Dr. Brooks will explore questions of subjectivity and agency by focusing on the living proof provided by women’s everyday experiences as garment workers through Bangladesh, El Salvador, and New York City. “Living proof” in this instance refers to the offering of life stories, subjectivities, bodily materialities and practices by women. Dr. Ethel Brooks is Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Sociology at Rutgers University. She is the author of Unraveling the Garment Industry: Transnational Organizing and Women’s Work. She is currently working on a research project, which explores political economy, racialization and post-September 11 Pakistani communities in the US and Pakistan.
For Information: Contact bsh2107@columbia.edu.
Wednesday January 31, 2007
“Integrating HIV-AIDS into Development”
IAB Room 1118
Joel Negin is Kenya’s country director for the Access Project, an organization that helps countries acquire and effectively use the financing they need to implement programs to address HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and, more broadly, to strengthen health systems overall. It uses a private sector approach to address the challenges of implementing health programs, especially those funded by the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB), and Malaria.
For Information: Contact ced2117@columbia.edu..
Wednsday January 31, 2007
“‘A simple African woman?’ The legacy of The Hottentot Venus in contemporary South African politics of gender equality, health and human rights”
Faculty House
Saartjie Baartman, known as The Hottentot Venus, is modern South Africa's most revered female historical icon. A Khoisan peasant born at the end of the eighteenth century, her journey from slavery to controversial celebrity made her one of South Africa's most famous daughters. In conjunction with the liberation from apartheid in 1994, Saartjie quickly became a potent symbol for political and cultural restitution. In response to an international campaign championed by Nelson Mandela, her remains were repatriated in 2002. After nearly two hundred years, her coffin returned to a hero's welcome. Addressing so many live issues, Saartjie quickly became a representative figure in South Africa's struggle for gender equality. Based on her original research, Rachel Holmes, coordinator of the Friends of the Treatment Action Campaign (UK), revisits Saarjtie's story and examines how and why this young woman who became an international symbol of colonial and imperial excesses and the legacy of 'scientific' racism has played such an important role in the forging of post-apartheid national consciousness and human rights discourse. Holmes shows how Saartjie Baartman is an iconic, living ancestor central to current women's social justice campaigns on the issues of sexuality, gender-based violence and rights violations against women with HIV and AIDS, and public health provision. The talk also explains and explores the implications of President Thabo Mbeki's use of Saartjie's history as a central example in his intellectual defence of his controversial HIV/AIDS denialism.
For Information: Contact awp33@columbia.edu.
Monday January 29, 2007
“Photography Exhibition: ‘Azerbaijan—A Failed Revolution’”
IAB Room 1219
This photography exhibition features images taken by John Wendle during his time in Azerbaijan, from March 2005 to July 2006, when he was working as a reporter and photographer for a local newspaper. The photography exhibition tells the backstory of how and why a "color" revolution began to sprout during Azerbaijan's November 2005 parliamentary elections and shows how it was violently crushed on the streets of the capital, Baku, before it could blossom. John Wendle was a student at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism and worked as a reporter, editor and photographer in Baku, Azerbaijan at Caspian Business News, the region's leading local newspaper. During his time there, his photos were published by Al Jazeera, Eurasianet, UNICEF and Turkish newspapers. John served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Aktau, Kazakhstan before crossing the Caspian to work in Baku.
For Information: Contact ar2052@columbia.edu.
Thursday January 25, 2007
“Reconciliation Reconceived: Religion, Secularism and the Language of Transition”
Faculty House
Jonathan VanAntwerpen is Program Officer for the Project on Religion and International Affairs at the Social Science Research Council in New York City, where he is also leading efforts to develop emerging SSRC work on religion and higher education, and on religion, secularism and the public sphere. Currently completing his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, his dissertation investigates the transnational struggles over “reconciliation” that have occurred in the aftermath of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, focusing in particular on the ways that prominent conceptions of reconciliation have been transformed by both religious and secular engagements with the politics of transnational justice.
For Information: Please contact jbf2103@columbia.edu to inform whether you plan to join the dinner before the seminar.
Wednesday January 24, 2007
“Open House Information Session”
Uris Hall (Columbia Business School), Hepburn Lounge
The Institute for Not-for-Profit Management staff, faculty, and alumni will be on hand to discuss upcoming programs and answer any questions you may have about the programs, including a review of the application process and tuition assistance. The focus will be the Leadership Development Program and the Middle Management Program for Youth Service Organizations, but all programs will be addressed. Also, the application process and tuition assistance will be reviewed. Refreshments will be available.
For Information: Please RSVP at http://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/execed/inm/openhouse/ohform.cfm or contact kk2145@columbia.edu.
Tuesday January 23, 2007
“Rethinking the Relationship Between Religion, Secularism and Liberal Democracy”
IAB Room 801
Nader Hashemi is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University. Discussant Alfred Stepan is a Wallace Sayre Professor of Government at Columbia University. The talk analyzes the relationship between religion, secularism, and liberal democracy, both theoretically and in the context of the contemporary Muslim world. The central problematic that this inquiry seeks to address is the following: liberal democracy requires a form of political secularism to sustain itself, yet simultaneously the main political, cultural, and intellectual resources that Muslim democrats can draw upon are religious. A paradox, therefore, confronts the democratic theorist. Drawing on Alfred Stepan's thesis on "Religion, Democracy and the Twin Tolerations," Hashemi challenges a widely held belief in the social sciences that liberal-democratic development and religious politics are structurally incompatible.
For Information: Please contact Neelanjan Sircar at ns2303@columbia.edu.
Co-Sponsored by: The Graduate Student Advisory Council.
Monday January 22, 2007
“The Logistics Industry as an Agent of Change in the Global Economy: The Case of the Port of New York and New Jersey”
Faculty House
Progress in the freight moving industry, powered by advances in information processing, has spurred growth of global trade and investment. But the deregulation of labor markets and reduced enforcement of wage and hour laws, has created hundreds of thousands of jobs that are neither knowledge-intensive nor sustainable. This paper focuses on the working world of immigrant truck drivers protected neither by labor unions nor legislation. David Bensman is Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. He is author (with Roberta Lynch) of Rusted Dreams: Hard Times in a Steel Community and of books and articles on labor relations, labor history, and public education.
For Information: Please contact Myriam Figueroa at figueroa.myriam@gmail.com to inform whether you plan to join the dinner before the seminar.
Co-Sponsored by: Media and Communications in War and Peace Group.