October 15, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University is focusing on human rights in Latin America this fall by sponsoring three lectures and three teleconferences featuring international scholars.
“Beyond Borders Fences and Walls: Human Rights is the Pivotal Right” is an interdisciplinary activity that will extend WKU’s “international reach” by providing a forum where students interact with a United Nations ambassador and other world statesmen, according to Ricardo Nazario-Colón, director of the Office of Diversity Programs.
The series also will offer students the chance to be informed about human rights, which is an essential tool for civic engagement. In addition, it will create a dialogue among professionals in the field of human rights, university students from prestigious institutions in Ecuador, and WKU students and faculty.
Additionally, the students will learn about various ways to get involved in different types of government and non-governmental organizations in and outside this country that are working toward making a difference in this society.
The series is sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, the Political Engagement Project, Provost’s Initiative for Excellence and the Office of Diversity Programs.
Lecture presentations
Oct. 20: “Challenges and Dilemmas of the Post-Dictatorship: The Argentinean Society Facing Its Past” by Professor Rubén Chababo, Director of the Memory Museum in Argentina; 5:30 p.m. at Downing University Center, room 340.
Between 1976 and 1983, Argentina went through one of its most traumatic social and political experiences as a result of a military takeover in March 1976. This was not the first interruption in modern Argentina’s constitutional existence, but it did have characteristics that were very different from those of past dictatorships. This presentation looks to trace back the lines of reflection by examining not only this period of history, but also the development of Argentinean society through the years, with the goal of understanding the dimensions of the process of institutional barbarism.
Nov. 10: “Telling the difference: guerrillas and paramilitaries in the Colombian war” by Dr. Francisco Gutierrez Sanin, researcher and visiting professor at universities such as London School of Economics, Yale and Sorbonne; 5:30 p.m. at Downing University Center, room 340.
The presentation looks at the effort to build a political economy of war without politics, which is reaching its limits. The question now is what comes next because it’s not easy to put politics back in. Dr. Gutierrez systematically compares two non-state armed groups that participate in the Colombian conflict, the main guerrilla (FARC) and the paramilitary. He shows that despite their similar financial bases, they appear to exhibit systematic differences in both their social composition and their internal/external behavior. He claims that the key to understanding them lies in understanding the set of organizational devices each group crafts to foster its own survival and growth. All of this suggests that a main tenet of the early political economy of war, namely that all non-state armed groups can be seen as strategically identical, is flawed.
Nov. 20: “The Rights of Migrants and Universal Citizenship” by Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuador’s ambassador to the United Nations; 4:30 p.m. at Downing University Center, room 340.
The presentation will address the international debate on the human rights of migrants as well as the current migratory policies of several northern governments. It will also present innovative initiatives from Ecuador and other Latin American countries asserting the right to migrate. Ambassador Espinosa will provide an analytical view of the new Constitution of Ecuador with regard to migration and the implementation of the concept of universal citizenship. The presentation will assess the criminalization of migration as an issue of non-compliance with the principles of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights and as a catalyst for xenophobia and discrimination.
Video conferences
Oct. 27: “Human Rights and Migratory Policies” by Gardenia Chavez, Professor of the Latin American Master’s Program in Human Rights and Democracy at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar, UASB; 4:30 p.m. at Tate Page Hall, room 339.
The presentation will discuss the importance of incorporating human rights into the migratory policies by thoroughly examining the different aspects that need to be considered to create these policies such as the reasons for migrating and the characteristics of the migrant population (age, ethnicity, culture, education, etc).
Nov. 17: “The Symbolic and Political Significance of Women’s Participation in the Indigenous Uprising of the 1990s in Ecuador” by indigenous leader and scholar Luz María de la Torre Amaguana; 5 p.m. at Academic Complex, room 409.
This presentation will provide the extraordinary opportunity to learn from a first-hand participant and observer about the inspiring struggles of indigenous peoples in Ecuador. Current politics and worldviews as well as recent history will be discussed, with a focus on the role of indigenous women and the major accomplishments their grass-root movement has been able to attain for their ethnic rights.
Nov. 24: “Gender, Migration and Human Rights in the Andean Region” by Dr. Gioconda Herrera, professor and researcher at FLACSO Ecuador; 5 p.m. at Academic Complex, room 409.
The patterns of international migration in Latin America have suffered through a series of transformations in the last decade. The turn toward new destinations such as Southern Europe, the feminization of the flows, and the weight of remittances in local economies and families are some of the features that characterize this process.
These new trends emerged in the midst of the reinforcement of restrictive migration policies in Europe and the USA. Dr. Herrera will examine these new trends and their consequences for human rights in the region based on the experience of Ecuadorian migration.
Seating for the video conferences is limited; to sign up, contact the Office of Diversity Programs at (270) 745-5066.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu and at http://wkunews.wordpress.com/. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Diversity Programs at (270) 745-5066.
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