Thursday, October 6, 12:30-2 pm
Sexual Violence: Women’s Issue, Men’s Problem
Recent attention to the problem of sexual violence on college campuses raises inevitable questions about how men and women are trained to understand gender, sex, and power. While enacting and enforcing policies that can help ensure the safety of students is crucial, it is also important to deepen the discussion to confront the history and contemporary reality of institutionalized male dominance. What social norms and values create an epidemic of sexual violence?
A panel discussion on these questions will be led by Dr. Diane Rhodes, who teaches courses in social justice in the University of Texas School of Social Work and has extensive experience in domestic violence and sexual assault prevention agencies, including service as Chief Program Officer at SafePlace in Austin; and Ted Rutherford, Communications Program Director at the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault.
The program is sponsored by the Senior Fellows Honors Program of the Moody College of Communication and the Voices Against Violence program at the University of Texas.
Location: Belo Center for New Media, BMC 5.208, 300 W. Dean Keeton, Austin
Tuesday, October 11, 7:15 pm
“Faith, Inequality, and the Pursuit of the Common Good”
- Carlos “Tim” Anderson, pastor of St. John’s/San Juan Lutheran Church in Austin, will speak on common good in the light of increasing social and economic inequalities in American society.
Anderson is the author of Just a Little Bit More: The Culture of Excess and the Fate of the Common Good, which describes commerce, materialism, and consumerism as the prevailing religion of the land. The book promotes egalitarianism as the best way forward from the excesses of this overreaching religion.
Location: St. John’s/San Juan Lutheran Church, 409 W. Ben White Blvd., Austin, 78704
Thursday, October 13, 8:30 am-4 pm
Building Green Justice Forum: Race, Health, and the Environment
Huston-Tillotson University will host the third annual Building Green Justice Forum, this year focusing on “Race, Health, and the Environment” from scientific, sociological, political, and historical perspectives.
Keynote speakers will include Mario Sims, social epidemiologist with the Jackson Heart Study and a professor in the University of Mississippi’s Department of Medicine, addressing the Jackson study’s research on the greater prevalence of cardiovascular disease among African Americans and the reasons for the disparity.
Also delivering a keynote address will be Paula Flores-Gregg from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Rev. Eugene Keahey, pastor of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, who will discuss the fight for environmental justice in Sandbranch, a community southeast of Dallas that has been battling for water rights for over 30 years.
A panel will report on public health interventions and environmental hazard investigations from Argentina to Austin. Moderated by Dominique Bowman Vining of HT, the panel will include Emily Spangenberg from the University of Texas’ Department of Sociology and Shannon Jones, director of Travis County Health and Human Services.
Other presentations will feature activists, community members, students, and researchers working on issues of environmental justice and health.
Registration and coffee begins at 8:30 am, with speakers, panels, and workshops throughout the day.
The forum—which is sponsored by Green is the New Black, The Dumpster Project, and the Third Coast Activist Resource Center—is free but please register online. For more information, contact Karen Magid, kmagid@htu.edu, or Amanda Masino, ammasino@htu.edu.
In the past three years, Huston-Tillotson University has introduced an Environmental Studies major; created the Center for Sustainability and Environmental Justice with a full time Sustainability Director; made green improvements to campus such as a 240kW rooftop solar array and organic food garden; and supported student environmental leadership development through campus organization Green is the New Black. HT also just launched, in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, the Sandra Joy Anderson Community Health and Wellness Center, which will focus on access and disparities in HT’s historically diverse neighborhood.
Location: Dickey-Lawless Science Building, Huston-Tillotson University, 900 Chicon St., Austin, 78702, with free parking in the Chalmers Avenue lot and free street parking around campus.
Friday, October 21, 4-6 pm
Rob Nixon on “Environmental Justice and the Anthropocene”
Princeton University professor Rob Nixon, author of Dreambirds: the Natural History of a Fantasy and the award-winning Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, will speak on “Environmental Justice and the Anthropocene.”
The event is co-sponsored by Environmental Humanities, Department of English, and the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice of the School of Law at the University of Texas.
Location: University of Texas, Liberal Arts Building (CLA 1.302E), Austin
Rio Texas Methodist Federation for Social Action 