Spring Symposium 2012: The Occupy Movement: Uprisings at Home and Abroad

Thursdays, 6-9 pm, Lecture Hall 1, April 5-June 7

Free & Open to the Public

Dubbed “the year of unrest,” 2011 has witnessed an unprecedented groundswell of global popular movements demanding political, economic and social justice. From Tahrir Square to Zucotti Park, the desire for greater democracy has been accompanied by actions to reclaim public spaces where people can convene, learn about, and experiment with alternative forms of participatory democracy.

In this spirit, Re-Interpreting Liberation, Dangerous Work, Resistance & Social Change, and the Venezuela programs will host this Spring Symposium. Our goal is to create a forum to facilitate discussion across a broad range of issues and perspectives, provoking thought, debate, and action on issues that have accelerated to global prominence in light of recent movements.

Thursday, April 5: Roots of Unrest & Dialogue for Farm Worker Justice
Introduction by Savvina Chowdhury; Rosalinda Guillen Executive Director of Community to Community Development and member of United Farm Workers.

Thursday, April 12: Occupy Economics: Global Debt Crisis, Bailout, Neoliberalism & Who Really are the 99%?
Peter Bohmer, Savvina Chowdhury, and Larry Mosqueda

Thursday, April 19: Reclaiming the Commons: Our Health and Our Education Stephen Bezruchka, Department of Global Health at University of Washington with Nancy Anderson and Sarah Ryan

Thurday, April 26: Queering Activism/Performing Intersectionality with Joe Kadi & Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Joe Kadi is a writer, teacher, and editor. He's a transgender Arab-Canadian man who believes in feminism, the power of the common people, and environmental justice. He edited the anthology Food For Our Grandmothers: Writings by Arab-Canadian and Arab-American Feminists, and wrote Thinking Class: Sketches from a Cultural Worker.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer disabled Sri Lankan writer, teacher and cultural worker. The author of Consensual Genocide and Love Cake and co-editor of The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate Violence in Activist Communities. This event is part of Day of Absence/Day of Presence and is co-organized with FIST! (Feminists in Solidarity Together)

Thursday, May 3: Occupation as Colonization/Decolonization: Local, Regional, National Movements (Waziyatawin to be confirmed) Waziyatawin, Dakota activist, writer, and educator, is “committed to the development of liberation strategies that will support the recovery of Indigenous ways of being, the reclamation of Indigenous homelands, and the eradication of colonial institutions." Hip Hop Occupy, Seattle activists from Olympia and Tacoma, co-sponsored with Native Student Alliance

Thursday, May 10: The Poetics of the People’s Mic: Art & Resistance Climbing Poetree http://climbingpoetree.com/, and local and regional poets co-sponsored with FIST!

Thursday, May 17: Occupy as Strategy: Prioritizing the Environment TBA

Thursday, May 24: Occupied Territories: The Security State, Militarization & Civil Rights, Isis Nusair, Palestinian-Israeli scholar and co-editor of Displaced at Home: Ethnicity and Gender among Palestinians in Israel, Therese Saliba TBA

Thursday, May 31: Cooperatives & Community Development: Visitors from Venezuela with the Venezuela Program

Thursday, June 7: Visions of a New Society Black Orchid Collective

Sponsored by The President’s Diversity Fund, The Evergreen State College, Writing Center, Center for Community-Based Learning and Action, the Academic Deans, and Sustainability & Justice Planning Unit, United Faculty of Evergreen (UFE) Occupy Group