​Yasmina Sahir is a University of Iowa undergraduate majoring in Criminology and Social Justice. As a Moroccan American, her career focus is to advocate for the Southwest Asian, North African, Arab (SWANA) community through identifying disparities facing this group in the United States.
The research presented tonight was funded by a Summer 2022 Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates (ICRU) grant and advised by UI Associate Professor Yasmine Ramadan. In her years at UI, Yasmina has written and presented work on disproportionate incarceration and arrest rates, rights for immigrants, decolonization, and consequences of demographic mislabeling while highlighting the need for SWANA representation in academic discussions on these topics. She hopes her work will help bridge divides between an often-misunderstood world region and non-SWANA Americans.

Asel Nasr is a dual degree student at the University of Iowa majoring in Global Health and pursuing a Master's in Public Health. She engages with public health research with the intent to advocate for the Southwest Asian, North African, Arab (SWANA) community in the United States. Her current research is centered around maternal mental health outcomes during postpartum which will be presented in her graduation thesis this May. Asel hopes that throughout her career she can continue to promote health equity by exploring social and structural barriers that individuals from the SWANA community face in a healthcare setting.

Karen Edwards, Dean of International Student Affairs at Grinnell College, has dedicated 30+ year to supporting international students. Since 2007, she has led Grinnell’s Office of International Student Affairs (OISA) -- helping students navigate and find community in a new country; managing compliance with the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP); and helping to create an international-student-friendly campus infrastructure. Karen is an active leader and presenter in NAFSA: Association of International Educators and co-founder of the ACM/GLCA Advisors Roundtable. She has traveled in 30+ countries across five continents, holds a MA in Higher Education from the U Iowa, and a BA degree from Luther College.  ​

When: ​Wednesday , February 1st, at 12 noon CDT
Where: ​Online via zoom
Speaker: Sarah Glaser ​

The nexus of oceans, geopolitical tension, conflict, crime, and societal instability is becoming increasingly important. World Wildlife Fund is entering this space of research and applied conservation because a robust ocean conservation agenda must include natural resource conflict resolution, peace building, and law enforcement capacity building. This talk will present the growing threat of conflict over fisheries, the consequences for geopolitical relationships between the world’s major powers, the impacts on coastal fishing communities, and the potential solutions. Seemingly small incidents (such as a recent interaction between a Chinese squid fishing vessel and the US Coast Guard off the coast of South America) can escalate unpredictably. As fish populations decline and move due to climate change, overfishing, and habitat destruction, competition and conflict over this critical blue food resource will grow. Additionally, the fisheries sector provides an attractive option for organized criminal activity at sea, including trafficking in humans, arms, drugs, and wildlife. Finally, as fish populations decline, communities are destabilized through lack of employment and food security. Fortunately, the world’s policy makers and conservation groups are increasingly paying attention to this emerging threat, and there are hopeful solutions in the novel application of satellite technology, big data analysis, interagency and international cooperation, and capacity building.  
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Dr. Sarah Glaser leads the newly formed Oceans Futures team for which she is developing programming around ocean and climate security. The Oceans Futures technology platform will engage maritime stakeholders around the security implications of climate change for marine ecosystems. She is interested in exploring—and preventing—conflict between marine resource users where it will be most likely or most impactful. She has experience working with a wide range of stakeholders, including those in international militaries, foreign government ministries, academic institutions, and coastal fishing communities. Her geographic expertise is in coastal East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the California Current.
Sarah joined WWF from One Earth Future, a peacebuilding foundation, where she directed the Secure Fisheries program. Secure Fisheries worked on fisheries conflict prevention in Somalia, and Sarah led their efforts at establishing conflict-sensitive fisheries co-management, collecting fisheries data, and quantifying IUU fishing in the Horn of Africa. Her favorite accomplishment was starting a university engagement project in Somalia that brought together students at four universities for online marine science courses and field-based fisheries data collection. Before working at OEF, she had academic appointments at the University of Denver, College of William and Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the University of Kansas, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Sarah was raised in Kansas but fell in love with sharks through the books and TV series of Jacques Cousteau. She earned her PhD from Scripps Institution of Oceanography where she studied the food web ecology of North Pacific albacore, racking up hundreds of (seasick) hours aboard commercial and recreational fishing vessels.