Global Migration & Diaspora

Nathan Pippenger, Associate Professor of Political Science, US Naval Academy

This lecture by Jason Springs (Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame) introduces a novel understanding of what restorative justice is and how it should be implemented. It explores the ways in which restorative justice ethics and practices exhibit moral and spiritual dynamics, and what difference such “lived religious” dynamics can make in transforming structural violence.

Professor Bender of Northumbria University in Newcastle will deliver a Zoom talk addressing key issues related to human rights and refugees— particularly the limited role of morality in the refugee regime and the political function of refugeehood in international politics.

URL to virtual event: https://middlebury.zoom.us/meeting/register/kKUCLeMrSxeaGxHCDey3LA

In 2011, Syrians took to the streets demanding freedom. Brutal government repression transformed peaceful protests into one of the most devastating conflicts of our times, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions. In her new book, Wendy Pearlman (Northwestern University) draws upon hundreds of interviews conducted across more than a decade to probe an intimate and universal question. What is home? Syrians now on five continents share stories of leaving, losing, searching, and finding (or not finding) home.

Title: Book talk: Our Palestine Question

Geoffrey Levin (Emory University) will discuss his new book, Our Palestine Question: Israel and American Jewish Dissent, 1948-1978 (Yale 2023), a new history of the American Jewish relationship with Israel, which focuses on its most urgent and sensitive issue: the question of Palestinian rights.

In this lecture, Dr. Sa’ed Atshan will provide an overview of the hostilities between the Israeli military and Hamas, reflecting on the past, present, and future of this crisis. The talk will also address the impact on Palestinian and Israeli civilians, the provision of international humanitarian aid, the role of the United States, and prospects for reconciliation.

Middlebury’s Annual Day of Learning on Global Cultures was established in 2018 in memory of Middlebury College professor Juana Gamero de Coca and as a way to honor her intellectual contributions. This annual event focuses on Professor Gamero de Coca’s passionate commitment to dignity and justice, and maps the intellectual possibilities she brought to bear on ‘misrecognized’ social and political concerns.