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Dear John,
We'd like to invite you to something that is much more than a simple webinar. This is a thorough education gained over a six-week period. You can reserve a spot in our upcoming online course on War and the Environment, planned for June 7 to July 18.
Click here to learn more, watch a video about the course, and register.
Grounded in research on peace and ecological security, this course
focusses on the relationship between two existential threats: war and
environmental catastrophe. We will cover:
• Where wars happen and why.
• What wars do to the earth.
• What imperial militaries do to the earth back home.
• What nuclear weapons have done and could do to people and the planet.
• How this horror is hidden and maintained.
• What can be done.
This course is 100% online and interactions are not live or
scheduled, so you can take part whenever works for you. Weekly
content
includes a mix of text, images, video, and audio. Instructors and
students utilize online discussion forums to go over each week's
content, as well as to provide feedback on optional assignment
submissions.
The course also
includes three 1-hour optional zoom calls which are designed to
facilitate a more interactive and real-time learning experience.
Education Director Phill Gittins and other World BEYOND War staff, board members, and partners will be online throughout the six weeks helping to facilitate along with six outstanding guest facilitators from around the world.
Week 1: Where Wars Happen and Why (June 7-13) with Dr. Serena Clark
Serena works as a postdoctoral researcher at Maynooth University and
is a research consultant for the International Organization of
Migration, United Nations. She holds a doctorate in international peace
studies and conflict resolution from Trinity College Dublin, where she
was a Rotary International Global Peace Scholar and Trinity College
Dublin Postgraduate Fellow. Serena has extensive experience researching
conflictual and post-conflict areas, such as the Middle East and
Northern Ireland and teaches courses on conflict and conflict
resolution. She has published on topics related to immigration policy,
the use of visual methods to measure peace processes in post-conflict
areas and migration crises, the impact of COVID-19 on peacebuilding, and
the pandemic's impact on gender inequality. Her research interests
include post-conflict reconstruction, peacebuilding, displaced
populations, and visual methodologies.
Week 2: What Wars Do to the Earth (June 14-20) with Elizabeth Katherine Gamarra
Elizabeth Gamarra is a TEDx speaker, Fulbrighter at Instituto Empresa
(IE) University in Madrid, and former World Rotary Peace Fellow at
International Christian University (ICU). She has a double Masters in
the field of Mental Health (U.S) and Peace and Conflict Studies (Japan)
which has permitted her to work as a therapist and mediator with refugee
and indigenous communities from the U.S, as well as engage in nonprofit
work in Latin America. At age 14, she founded "generations of legacies"
which is an initiative focused on educational empowerment. After
completing her graduate-level studies at the record age of 19, she
continued to grow this initiative from abroad. She has worked closely
with Amnesty International USA, the Center of Migration and Refugee
Integration, the Global Peacebuilding of Japan, Mediators Beyond Borders
International (MBBI) and currently, working with the Tokyo Office
Academic Council of the United Nations Systems (ACUNS) as the Tokyo
Liaison Officer. She is also a MEXT Researcher with the Japanese
Government. She is the former recipient of the 2020 TUMI USA National
Award, the Martin Luther King Drum Major Award, Young Philanthropy
Award, the Diversity and Equity University Award among others.
Currently, she sits in the GPAJ Board of Directors and is a Board of
Trustees for Pax Natura International. Recently, she has been part of
helping start "RadioNatura," a unique multilingual podcast on peace and
nature.
Week 3: What Imperial Militaries Do to the Earth Back Home (June 21-27) with Henrique Garbino
Henrique Garbino is currently a Doctoral Student at the Swedish Defence
University (2021-). He is mainly interested in bridging theory and
practice in the fields of in mine action, peace operations, and
civil-military relations. His dissertation focuses on the use of
landmines and other explosive devices by non-state armed groups. As a
combat engineer officer in the Brazilian Army (2006-2017), Henrique
specialised in explosive ordnance disposal, civil-military coordination,
and training and education; in contexts as diverse as border control,
counter-trafficking and United Nations peace operations. He was deployed
internally in the border between Brazil and Paraguay (2011-2013) and in
Rio de Janeiro (2014), as well as externally to the United Nations
Stabilization Mission in Haiti (2013-2014). Later, he joined the
Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Center (2015-2017), where he
served as an instructor and course coordinator. In the humanitarian and
development sector, Henrique supported the mine action programmes in
Tajikistan and Ukraine as a Rotary Peace Fellow (2018); and later joined
the International Committee of the Red Cross as a Weapon Contamination
Delegate in Eastern Ukraine (2019-2020). Henrique holds a master's
degree in Peace and Conflict Studies Master's Programme from Uppsala
University (2019); a Postgraduate Certificate in Military History from
the University of South Catarina (2016), and a bachelor's degree in
Military Sciences from the Military Academy of Agulhas Negras (2010).
Week 4: What Nuclear Weapons Have Done and Could Do (June 28-July 4) with Stefanie Wesch
Ms.
Wesch completed her undergraduate degree in the field of International
Relations at Hawai´i Pacific University. She was able to gain initial
work experience at the Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations in
New York, where she was active in the First and Third Committee of the
General Assembly, as well as writing occasional speeches for Ambassador
Tanin. Ms. Wesch managed to further develop her authoring skills between
2012 and 2013 while working at the Bolivian think tank Institute of
International Studies (IDEI). Here she wrote about a diverse set of
topics, ranging from the Syrian conflict to the Bolivian-Chilean border
dispute, from an International Law and Human Rights perspective.
Realizing her strong interest in conflict studies, Ms. Wesch obtained
her Master´s Degree in Conflict Resolution and Governance at the
University of Amsterdam, where she focused on social movements for the
purpose of her Master´s thesis. Putting to use her regional focus on the
MENA region, during both her graduate and undergraduate studies, at PIK
Ms. Wesch is working on the Climate-Conflict-Migration-Nexus in the
MENA region and the Sahel. She has undertaken qualitative fieldwork in
the regions of Agadez, Niamey and Tillaberie in Niger in 2018 as well
as in Burkina Faso in 2019. Her research in the region has focused on
farmer-herder conflicts, specifically causes, prevention and mediation
mechanisms and their influence on recruitment into extremist
organizations and migration decisions in the Sahel. Ms. Wesch is
currently a doctoral researcher and is writing her dissertation on the
interaction of climate change and conflict in Central Asia plus
Afghanistan for the Green Central Asia Project financed by the German
Foreign Ministry.
Week 5: How This Horror Is Hidden and Maintained (July 5-11) with Dr. Michael Chew
Dr Michael Chew is a sustainability educator, community cultural
development practitioner, and photographer/designer with degrees in
participatory design, social ecology, art photography, humanities and
mathematical physics. He has a background in community-based
sustainability programs in NGO and local government sectors and is
passionate about the potential for creativity to empower and connect
communities across cultural, economic and geographic divides. He
co-founded the Melbourne Environmental Arts Festival in 2004, a
multi-venue community arts festival, and has since coordinated various
social and environmentally focused creative youth projects. He developed
his international perspectives from involvement in grassroots global
solidarity initiatives: co-founding the NGO Friends of Kolkata to
coordinate international volunteer programs and teach photovoice;
working in Bangladesh on community-based climate adaptation; and
co-founding the Friends of Bangladesh group to continue climate justice
solidarity activities. He has just finished a design based
action-research PhD exploring how participatory photography can inspire
youth environmental behaviour change across cities in Bangladesh, China
and Australia, and is now developing a freelance consultancy practice.
Week 6: What Can Be Done (July 12-18) with Greta Zarro and Rachel Small
Greta Zarro is World BEYOND War Organizing Director. She has a
background in issue-based community organizing. Her experience includes
volunteer recruitment and engagement, event organizing, coalition
building, legislative and media outreach, and public speaking. Greta
graduated as valedictorian from St. Michael’s College with a bachelor’s
degree in Sociology/Anthropology. She previously worked as New York
Organizer for leading non-profit Food & Water Watch. There, she
campaigned on issues related to fracking, genetically engineered foods,
climate change, and the corporate control of our common resources. Greta
and her partner run Unadilla Community Farm, a non-profit organic farm
and permaculture education center in Upstate New York.
Rachel
Small is World BEYOND War Canada Organizer. She is a community organizer
based in Toronto, Canada, on Dish with One Spoon and Treaty 13
Indigenous territory. She has organized within local and international
social/environmental justice movements for over a decade, with a special
focus on working in solidarity with communities harmed by Canadian
extractive industry projects in Latin America. She has also worked on
campaigns and mobilizations around climate justice, decolonization,
anti-racism, disability justice, and food sovereignty. She currently
organizes in Toronto with the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network and
has a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University. She has a
background in art-based activism and has facilitated projects in
community mural-making, independent publishing and media, spoken word,
guerilla theatre, and communal cooking with people of all ages across
Canada. She lives downtown with her partner, kid, and friend, and can
often be found at a protest or direct action, gardening, spray painting,
and playing softball.
Time commitment/expectations: How much time you
spend and how deeply you engage is up to you. At a minimum, you can
expect to spend between 1-2 hours a week if you only review the weekly
content (text and videos). We hope, however, you’ll want to engage in
the online dialogue with peers and experts. This is where the real
richness of the learning occurs, where we have the opportunity to
explore new ideas, strategies, and visions for building a more peaceful
world. Depending on your level of engagement with the online discussion
you can expect to add another 1-3 hours a week. Finally, all
participants are encouraged to complete optional assignments (required
to earn a certificate). This is an opportunity to deepen and apply the
ideas explored each week to practical possibilities. Expect another 2
hours a week if you pursue these options.
Accessing the course. Prior to the start date, you will be sent instructions for how to access the course.
Earn a certificate. To
earn a certificate, participants must also complete optional weekly
written assignments. Instructors will return the assignment to the
student with detailed feedback. Submissions and feedback can be shared
with everyone taking the course or kept private between a student and
the instructor, at the student’s choice. Submissions must be completed
by the conclusion of the course.
The cost of the course is the same for someone completing all, some, or none of the assignments: $100 (Pay less if you have to, more if you can.)
There will be a limit of 150 tickets sold for this course.
Register here.
Questions? Contact: [email protected]
To register by check, 1.
Email Phill and tell him. 2. Make the check out to World BEYOND
War/AFGJ and send it to World BEYOND War 513 E Main St #1484
Charlottesville VA 22902 USA
World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, chapters, and affiliated organizations advocating for the abolition of the institution of war.
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