Past JWAC events: 2015-2016 season 33
This is a partial archive of past JWAC events. In over a decade of service to the community, we've put on hundreds of events that have brought scores of speakers before the community.
'The Syrian Refugee Crisis: From The Front Lines To The Headlines' with Eric Kocher
Monday | May 16th | 5:00 | KTOO Studios: @360
Haines Attorney and EMT Eric Kocher has spent the last six months in Greece assisting refugees as they escape war by traveling on rafts to the Greek coast. He worked with medical and legal teams on the island of Lesvos, in the Port of Piraeus, near Athens, and at the Greek town of Idomeni on the border with Macedonia. His presentation, illustrated with video footage and photographs, looked behind the headlines at the struggles and hardships endured by refugees seeking a new life and the challenges and contradictions facing Greece and Europe as they deal with millions of refugees seeking asylum.
360 North video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FUwgvY7rL0
'Power and Responsibility: Creating International Order in an Era of Transnational Threats' with Stephen Stedman
Wednesday | April 19th | 5:00 | KTOO Studios
Stephen Stedman is a senior fellow and Deputy Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. He served as the Director for the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy, and Security -a body of eminent persons tasked with developing recommendations on promoting and protecting the integrity of elections and international electoral assistance. He was also a Research Director of the United Nations High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, and served as Assistant Secretary-General and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, with responsibility for working with governments to adopt the Panel’s recommendations for strengthening collective security and for implementing changes within the United Nations Secretariat.
Travelogue: 'Rwanda: Healing from the past, while building their future' with Mary Miller
Tuesday | Mar 29th | 5:00 | Gold Town Nickelodeon
Rwanda, in East Central Africa, is one of the fastest-growing developing countries in the world. Long-time friend of JWAC Mary Miller lived in the country's southern province while working as a Peace Corps volunteer from 2014 to 2015, serving as an English teacher. She shared exciting, eye-opening photos of experiences from her time in Africa.
'Timeline: Palestine-Israel' with Skip Schiel
Monday | Mar 28th | 5:00 | KTOO Studios
Skip Schiel is a participatory photographer, "photographing while engaging in struggles for justice, peace, the right treatment of the environment, and enlightenment." He makes photos for publications, exhibits, slide shows, and individual use. Among his current projects is his photographic examination of conditions in Palestine and Israel. Earlier projects included retracing the Transatlantic African slave trade journey and a Buddhist-led pilgrimage from Auschwitz to Hiroshima. He has taught photography at Boston College, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. His presentation to JWAC will portray multiple Israel-Palestine narratives, from the First International Zionist Conference in the late 1890s to the present. Based on his 13 years of photographic work in the region, he shared personal perspectives on contemporary issues in the region.
360 North video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ObQ8BQZys
'Turkey: Caught in the Middle in the Middle East' with Sinan Ciddi
Wednesday | Feb 24th | 5:00 | KTOO Studios
Sinan Ciddi was born in Turkey and educated in the United Kingdom. He is an expert on Turkish domestic politics and foreign policy. Ciddi authors scholarly articles, opinion pieces and book chapters on contemporary Turkish politics and foreign policy, and makes the occasional media appearances. In addition to his teaching and research responsibilities at Georgetown, Ciddi also serves as the Executive Director of the Institute of Turkish Studies.
Travelogue: 'Jewels of the Aegean' with Elfrida Nord
Tuesday | Feb 9th | 5:00 | Gold Town Nickelodeon
JWAC superstar Elfrida Nord will tell us all about her very recent cruise, starting and ending in Istanbul, Turkey. The experience highlighted ancient history and the interplay between Christians, Jews, Muslims and mythologies from around 300 BCE to present. She notes that, despite proximity to Syria, there was a puzzling lack of any sign of refugees, nor any indication of regional violence.
WorldQuest 2016!
Friday, Feb 5th | 6:00 | Centennial Hall
WorldQuest is JWAC's largest fundraiser, featuring an international buffet, no-host bar, silent auctions, and our delightfully amusing trivia contest. Click here to read more.
This year's winner was The Highlanders, and the Special Rotary Team winner was What would Greg Do? -Thanks for coming, everyone!
'Deterrence, the DPRK and Diplomacy: What to do about North Korea?' with Paul Carroll
Tuesday | Feb 2nd | 5:00 | KTOO Studios
"We are at the beginning of a new nuclear arms race, and planning to spend nearly $1 trillion over 30 years to “modernize” our triad."
Paul Carroll directs all of Ploughshares Fund’s grant-making efforts and provides strategic guidance to the president, executive director and the board. He works to ensure that grants are the most effective in achieving the goal of reducing the risks from nuclear weapons.
Paul is a well-regarded expert on a broad array of nuclear weapons topics, from the history and current status of US plans and programs, to international programs and treaty regimes. He has a particular expertise on the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons infrastructure - where warheads are designed, built, tested, and stored. He also is an expert on North Korea’s program and the challenges to limiting it, having traveled to the DPRK twice with nongovernmental delegations.
360 North video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYqsPpeF99I
'Three minutes over Germany: Smilin' Thru' with Tony Yorba
Tuesday | Jan 19th | 5:00 | KTOO Studios
Tony Yorba is the son of a California rancher. Recently he and his wife, Lori, traveled to Germany, at which time they retraced the final fateful minutes of his father’s October 14, 1943 B17 mission over the Bavarian industrial city Schweinfurt (aboard the bomber Smilin' Thru). Allied casualties during the operation were exceptionally high.
Tony moved to Juneau in 1983 to take a job with Ackley Jensen Architects, now Jensen Yorba Lott, Inc. where he works to this day. He has served on numerous boards and volunteer positions in Juneau and his two sons are a product of the Juneau school system.
360 North video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMyQmZZtqOE
Travelogue: 'China - Mongolia 2015' with Loren Jones
Tuesday | Dec 8th | 5:00 | The Gold Town Nickelodeon Gold Town Nickelodeon
JWAC board member and world traveler Loren Jones regaled us once more with tales of his and his wife's latest adventure- a three-week trip to Yunnan, China and Mongolia.
'Off the Beaten Path: The impact of tourism on the indigenous population of Costa Rica' with Scott Carrlee
Tuesday | November 17th | 5:00 | KTOO Studios
In May of 2015, Scott Carrlee traveled to Costa Rica as part of a Research Abroad study trip with the International Development Doctoral Program of the University of Southern Mississippi. The trip included a stop at four indigenous territories where Carrlee and fellow researchers gained firsthand knowledge of the impact of tourism on the indigenous population through interviews and participation in indigenous-led rain forest tours.
Scott has been working for the Alaska State Museums since 2000. Prior to coming to Juneau, he held conservator positions at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, and at an archaeological excavation in Turkey. After 6 years as the Alaska State Museum's conservator, he became the Curator of Museum Services, providing technical assistance to museums and the public around Alaska. Through this position, he promotes the idea that the greatest tool yet invented for the preservation of objects is the museum itself.
360 North video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNdT_16m-VA
Fall Forum: 'The Politics of Water'
Thurs, Fri, Sat | October 22-24 | UAS Egan Lecture Hall
Click here for a schedule and speaker details
Water is a necessity for virtually all life forms on earth. Its availability and its quality are diverse--local scarcity, population pressures, mass consumption, pollution and climate change all contribute to this diversity. Thus, water is a strategic natural resource. By 2025 more than half of the nations of the world will face fresh water stress or shortages. The Juneau World Affairs Forum explored models of conflict and cooperation between governments over access to water.
There was a welcoming potluck Thursday the 22nd @ 5:00 at the UAS Student Rec. Center. People came to meet the speakers and event organizers and brought dishes to share.
'The Success of British Columbia's Carbon Tax and What It Means for Alaska' with Eion Madden
Tuesday | September 15th | 5:00 | KTOO Studios
Eion Madden (pronounced "Owen") grew up in Ireland where he witnessed a drastic shift in the climate, from mild and rainy to one of extremes. He trained as a lawyer, serving firstly as a corporate attorney to an international diamond company, and then as a criminal prosecutor for the Irish State. In 2009, he traded in his career as a criminal lawyer to complete a post-graduate degree in climate change and moved to British Columbia. He came “straight off the boat” to work as a legal assistant at Ecojustice, Canada’s only national environmental law charity, where he tracked applications to Canadian regulatory bodies, before joining Wilderness Committee as their Climate Campaigner. For the last three years he has worked with British Columbians to stop harmful resource projects and move toward real action on climate change. His latest work is on climate solutions and the potential power of effective carbon pricing in North America.
360 North video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDfaiY434tQ