When: Wednesday, February 9th,2022 @12pm Where: Online via zoom Speakers: Dr. Erin Hayward, Adrian Silva (Mexico), Lata D’Mello (India), Alyssa Clayden Since early 2020, the pandemic has had wide-ranging effects on communities across Iowa. A confluence of factors related to the Covid-19 virus have created particular health and wellness challenges for refugees and immigrants in the state. Early during the pandemic, limited reliable information was available to newer Iowans in languages other than English about how to prevent exposure to and spreading of the virus, creating uncertainties about staying safe and protecting others. Along with the destruction from and chaos due to the derecho storm of summer 2020, individuals and families have been faced with new and compounding hardships: dire employment, financial, and childcare concerns, requirements to restrict contact with family, friends, and others in their communities, as well as increasing and often unaddressed mental health stressors related to and separate from the ongoing pandemic. This year, abundant misinformation about vaccine safety and efficacy have resulted in vaccination hesitancy and mistrust in public health officials. In this session, the panel will discuss the health impacts born over the last two years and those which predate them and were exacerbated by the pandemic. Panelists will also share how refugee and immigrant communities have found resilience and strength during these difficult times. And insights will be offered into the ways in which healthy Iowa communities, broadly speaking, are those which listen to, learn from, and support one another across neighborhoods, cultures, and affinity groups. ![]() Erin Hayward, MD is a clinical assistant professor of Family Medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the medical director of the International Family Medicine Clinic. Prior to obtaining a medical degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completion of her Family Medicine residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Dr. Hayward completed an undergraduate degree in International Studies at Kenyon College. She has been employed by Lutheran World Relief and was involved at the inception of Tiyatien Health (now known as Last Mile Health), organizations that are active across the continent of Africa in developing sustainable economic and healthcare models to promote health and bring rural Africans out of poverty. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal, West Africa. Dr. Hayward practices outpatient family medicine at the Scott Boulevard Clinic of UICOM and is a rotating faculty member on the family medicine inpatient service at UIHC. She currently serves on the board of the Congolese Health Partnership of Johnson County. ![]() Adrián Silva is the lead medical interpreter at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Stead Family Children’s Hospital. He has been interpreting for Spanish-speaking patients and families for the last 11 years and as such, has been in thousands of medical encounters spanning all aspects of patient care. An immigrant himself, his family moved to the United States from Mexico when he was 8 years old, Adrián can relate closely to the struggles many of his patients deal with as Limited-English and non-English speakers. Throughout his career as a medical interpreter, he has experienced both the joy and wonders of medical care: the curing of a cancer, the birth of a healthy baby, as well as the saddest of circumstances for many patients and their loved ones. He comes to us today with a unique perspective as one of the only staff in a healthcare team that truly gets to see a patient’s full scope of care from beginning to end. ![]() Lata D’Mello (she/her) is a Director of Programs at Monsoon Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity, an organization serving victims/survivors of gender-based violence in Iowa. She is based in Iowa City and oversees victim services in the Eastern, Northeastern and Southern parts of the state; trains and supervises advocates; edits Monsoon’s communication materials; and conducts outreach and education. Lata was born and raised in Mumbai, India. She has had about 22 years of experience as a journalist in newspapers in India, Singapore and the United States. Her interests are social and economic justice, gender studies, community health, and arts and culture. ![]() Alyssa Clayden is a mental health therapist, community educator and doctoral level researcher who specifically focuses on decreasing mental health inequities in refugee and immigrant communities. Alyssa has more than two decades of professional experience living on five continents supporting innovative curriculum and best practice interventions for displaced individuals, families and communities. She runs her own community agency and supports refugee and immigrant mental health locally, nationally and internationally through telehealth services.
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When: Tuesday,February 15 @12-1pm Where: Online via Zoom Speaker: Ben Delgado Film is a universal language. This talk will explore the ways in which foreign films are perceived and presented with a primary focus on Latin American and refugee/immigrant cinema. Based on his experience as a programmer for one of the longest running and largest Latin American film festivals in the country, Mr. Delgado will discuss how borders heavily factor into the film's presentation as well as preview FilmScene's own festival plans ![]() Ben Delgado is the Programming Director at FilmScene, Iowa City’s premiere art house theater. He holds a masters degree from The Ohio State University in Arts Policy and a BA in Communication and Culture from Indiana University. Ben began his programming career at Coral Gables Art Cinema in 2013 where he helped develop artists’ services programs to aid local filmmakers and curated a diverse film selection featuring award-winning filmmakers in person for Q&As and workshops. In 2017 he joined the programming team of the American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre and Cultural Center playing an integral role in presenting over 800 annual offerings with film festivals, repertory, and first run films. While at the AFI Silver, he also co-founded and co-hosted the Silver Streams podcast. In his current role at FilmScene, Ben has overseen the return of several beloved programs alongside special events, repertory offerings, new films, filmmaker guests, and more. This year will see a ramping up of programming including the launch of a new film festival. When: Friday, February 25th, 2022 @ 12pm - 1:00pm Where: Online via zoom Speakers: Kirsten E. Kumpf Baele & Waltraud Maierhofer This session will provide an overview of the upcoming UI Provost’s Global Forum on “Teaching Anne Frank,” the Anne Frank tree planting ceremony, and the exhibit. This forum brings together a multi-disciplinary panel of experts from Iowa and across Europe between February 28 - March 2, 2022, to highlight the educational value and continuing relevance of Anne Frank's story. UNESCO'S 2014 publication, Holocaust Education in a Global Context, outlines the role Holocaust education can play in tackling difficult issues of the past in diverse national and cultural contexts. In particular, this program will address: How did Anne’s story surface in Iowa in the first place and what are its larger goals and implications? How do we envision the Anne Frank tree to “grow” and “branch out” on our campus and in our community? What is the purpose of the Provost’s Global Forum? What events lead up to the planting ceremony on April 29 and how can you participate? Kirsten E. Kumpf Baele, Ph.D. is Lecturer and Outreach Coordinator of German in the Division of World Languages, Literatures & Cultures at the University of Iowa. In addition to teaching courses on German literature, language, and culture, she created and annually teaches the popular seminar Anne Frank & Her Story. It is her proposal that successfully brings the 13th Anne Frank house chestnut tree to the University of Iowa and by extension larger Iowa City community. For this reason, she is collaborating with numerous campus and city organizations to put forward programming that connect with the anticipated sapling including her role as co-awardee of the Anne Frank Initiative 2022 (with the upcoming Provost’s Global Forum). In the classroom, Dr. Kumpf Baele combines learning goals and community service projects in ways that enrich student growth and the common good. Specifically, in Anne Frank & Her Story, she makes more accessible difficult (hi)stories and the impact these have on post-secondary students. With the support of an Iowa Center for Undergraduate (ICRU) full-year fellow, the Iowa Women’s Archives (IWA), and the Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio, she is spearheading a project that will implement an interactive digital map and coinciding app to shed light on Jewish history in the Iowa City and larger Corridor area. A similar civic initiative has been her work with the Oakdale Community Choir which takes place inside the Oakdale prison, a medium-security prison in Coralville, Iowa. Dr. Kumpf Baele continuously pushes her students and herself as educator to personalize the past by localizing it with stories from the respective local communities. She has recently published in Amsterdam University Press, McFarland, and LIT Verlag. In the summer of 2022, supported with a fellowship from the Stanley-UI Foundation and International Programs, Dr. Kumpf Baele will serve as a Visiting Fellow to conduct scholarly work with a focus on embodied pedagogy at Ghent University together with an Associate Professor in the Department of Translation, Interpreting, and Communication which builds on her public humanities work on Anne Frank. Waltraud Maierhofer (Dr. phil., equivalent to Ph. D. Regensburg, Germany 1988) is professor of German and also in the Global Health Studies Program at the University of Iowa. She loves to get students excited about another culture, learn what we have in common and what differentiates us, and explore human nature through narratives of human striving and accomplishments in its diverse forms. Her research and teaching interests include German literature and culture from the eighteenth century to the present. She is especially interested in representations of health and Human Rights issues (contraception, abortion, disabilities), in intersections of historiography and fiction, ego-documents and biography, but also book illustrations and text–image relations, and she has edited several historical documents and translations including nineteenth-century illustrations of the Reynard-the-Fox epic and Lion Feuchtwanger’s 1948 play The Devil in Boston about the Salem witchcraft trials. A translation of the novel The Child Witches of Lucerne and Buchau by Swiss author Eveline Hasler is forthcoming with Lehigh University Press.
When: Wednesday, January 19th,2022 @12pm Where: Online via zoom Speakers: Zalmay Niazy (Afghanistan), Elizabeth Bernal (Mexico), Ines Pecuvcic-Jasarovic (Bosnia), Rex Mwamba (DRC) Moving to a new country involves many changes and new sets of priorities, challenges, and rewards. The realities of building a life—finding a home, securing employment, and developing relationships, to name just a few—vary for each person, for each family. Some carry with them traumas from the circumstances which led to their displacement from their home countries. Most are motivated by the promise of new opportunities for their own careers or the educational aspirations of their children. Many are confronted with the need to learn English as a primary language and the challenges that come with navigating complex legal, social, and service systems in that new language. And, of course, new Iowans must engage with neighbors and community members unfamiliar with their lived experiences and often long journeys to the US—not to mention their daily habits, religious practices, accents, and their hopes, fears, and desires. In this session, the panel will discuss how the experience of moving to Iowa differs for people from different walks of life—refugee, immigrant, documented, undocumented, with familial ties in the area, without familial ties. They will share how local nonprofits, especially ethnic community-based organizations (ECBOs), support new Iowans. And they will offer insights into what Iowans, born and raised in the state or elsewhere in the US, should know about their neighbors who have just arrived, those who have been here a longer period, and how we can be welcoming and supportive of both groups. ![]() Ines Pecuvcic-Jasarovic is a Refugee Specialist for the Bureau of Refugee Services in Des Moines, where she has worked for 26 years. Before that, she worked for Interchurch Refugee and Immigration Services in Chicago. She provides various services targeted to prepare clients for employment and education goals. She was born and raised in Sibenik, Croatia and graduated from the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Hercegovina in 1988 with a degree in teaching. There she met Semsudin James, a young Bosnian mathematician/computer programmer. Coming from two different backgrounds (Ines as Croatian Catholic and Semsudin as Bosnian Muslim) was not a highly accepted relationship. They married anyway and had a daughter, Suncica. Due to the conflict in former Yugoslavia, Ines and Suncica had to flee Bosnia in early 1992 and started a refugee journey through different locations in Croatia and resettled in Chicago in December of 1993. James reunited with them on Valentine’s Day in 1995. ![]() Elizabeth Bernal lives in Iowa City, where she is involved with multiple community organizations that promote inclusion and wellbeing for immigrant communities. She is co-founder of Open Heartland, a nonprofit serving families in five mobile home communities in Johnson County whose residents are mainly Hispanic immigrants. Elizabeth is also a founding member of the board of directors of the Eastern Iowa Community Bond Project, a local community organization that pays immigration bond for incarcerated Iowa immigrants who cannot afford their immigration bond. Elizabeth also serves on the board of the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa, and last October she was awarded the Rick Graf award from the Iowa City Human Rights Commission. ![]() Rex Mwamba (DRC), Employment Services Case Manager, Catherine McAuley Center, Cedar Rapids. Born in and originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rex Mwamba arrived in the United States in the state of Iowa in August 2013. Rex has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Telecommunication and Network Administration from the DRC. After he completed the English program at Kirkwood Community College for 2 years, Rex obtained an IT certificate and an associate degree in Network and System Administration at the same institution. Today, Rex works as an Employment Services Case Manager at Catherine McAuley Center, where he attends daily work to settle and integrate refugees from all over the world into the Cedar Rapids community in Iowa. ![]() Zalmay Niazy was born in a rural village in the Urozgan province of Afghanistan. He learned to speak fluent English at the age of thirteen and later worked as an interpreter for several branches of the United States armed forces upon graduating from high school. Mr. Niazy has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Kardan University in Kabul and he has worked for different national and international organizations, including Titan Linguists, Red Orange International, and Qabaiel General Supplies. He moved to Iowa in the United States in 2015 and, based on the community desire, decided to establish a small business, Zee’s Handyman Services, LLC, which he now owns and operates in Iowa Falls. When: Wednesday,January 26th, @12pm-1:00 Where: Online-via Zoom Speakers: Erin C. Johnson, Hannah Gorsline, Grace Nelson, Allie Zucker Podcast Creation as a Mechanism to Explore and Expand UI Students’ Cultural Intelligence Change is a ubiquitous in the international business environment and reflected in the increasing number of employees embarking on international assignments, and the high-paced flow of information around the globe spurring innovation that connects business partners across national borders. The increasing complexity and dynamism of the international environment requires that future business leaders develop cultural intelligence (CQ) in order to successfully establish relationships and accomplish their goals. Cultural intelligence is defined as “a person’s ability to function effectively in a variety of contexts – both internationally and domestically” (Cultural Intelligence Center, 2022). Study abroad programs have long been a preferred mechanism by which many university students were able to develop CQ. However, even before the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of study abroad programs, rising costs and other factors prevented a large number of students from pursuing these opportunities. Through a project of creating podcasts in her International Business Environment course (IBE), Professor Erin Johnson fosters the development of her students’ cultural intelligence by leveraging technology to engage students with this experience. Working in small groups, students conducted field research and interviews, analyzed their findings, and crafted a series of persuasive podcasts .In this session, Professor Johnson and her students will share their experiences with this project. Specifically, Professor Johnson describe the structure and goals for the IBE podcast project followed by a student presentation of podcast excerpts. Students will reflect on the process of podcast creation and answer the question of whether participating in this project did, in fact, increase their CQ. ![]() Dr. Erin Johnson is an Associate Professor of Instruction at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. Dr. Johnson teaches courses on negotiation, leadership and international business. She has a long-standing interest in global business and cross-cultural collaborations. She has partnered with universities in Poland, China, and Kosovo to create global virtual collaborations for her students in the context of their coursework. Most recently, students in her International Business Environment course participated in a short-term global virtual teams projects with students at the University of Business and Technology (UBT) in Pristina, Kosovo. Professor Johnson plans to continue this collaboration in the Spring 2022 semester and is hoping to travel to Kosovo to meet her colleagues later this year. ![]() My name is Hannah Gorsline, and I am a senior at the University of Iowa studying Marketing, with a minor in Rhetoric and an International Business Certificate. I am involved in various student organizations on campus, including Delta Sigma Pi, the Professional Business Fraternity, Women in Business, and the Marketing Institute. I also serve as a Senator within Tippie Senate, alongside a dozen other Tippie students. I am passionate about finding ways to increase my cultural intelligence and am very grateful for the opportunity to share our findings from our podcast in Professor Johnson's course. ![]() My name is Allie Zucker and I am a Marketing Management major at the University of Iowa with a physical activity and nutrition science minor as well as an international business certificate. I am also involved in multiple organizations on campus such as Women in Business, American Marketing Association, and Marketing Institute. I have a love for traveling and enjoyed learning how to enhance my cultural intelligence this past semester!
When: Wednesday, December 1st @ 12pm Where: Online via Zoom Speaker: Madhav Joshi ![]() This talk will provide an overview of the Intra-Afghan peace process from the comparative peace process point of view and the missed opportunities by key actors involved in the negotiation process. It offers challenges in protecting and promoting women's rights in Taliban's Afghanistan. Madhav Joshi is research professor and associate director of the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He oversees the data coding on the implementation of peace agreements worldwide for the PAM project and leads the research initiatives on peace agreement design, implementation, and post-implementation political and economic developments. Dr. Joshi earned his PhD in comparative politics and research methodology from the University of North Texas in 2010. His research and teaching focus on civil wars, mediation, post-civil war democratization and democratic survival, peace duration and peacebuilding, quality peace, and the Maoist insurgency in Nepal. He has published on these topics in Social Science Research, the British Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the Journal of Peace Research, International Studies Quarterly, Democratization, Global Governance, and many other journals. Dr. Joshi has authored and co-authored over 70 policy briefings to facilitate ongoing negotiations on issues related to peace accord contents and implementation challenges for the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Philippines), Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal Transition to Peace, the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace (Colombia), the United Nations Development Programme, and many civil society organizations involved in peace processes around the world. When: Thursday, December 16th @ 12pm Where: Online via zoom Speakers: Mak Suceska and Sara Zejnic ![]() Since 1975, when Governor Robert Roy facilitated the resettlement of thousands displaced by the Vietnam War, Iowa has been a welcoming new home for refugees. Today, the crisis in Afghanistan requires Iowa’s continued leadership to resettle 695 people from the war-torn Middle Eastern country. In partnership with agencies and nonprofits across the state, this effort will also require the support of individuals, organizations, and communities to receive these newest Iowans and to help them feel at home in their new neighborhoods. Today’s talk will explain the complex global process of refugee resettlement, offer historical context about immigration to the state, as well as provide an insider’s perspective on and an update about how the State of Iowa is responding to the Afghan crisis. Attendees will hopefully see the talk as a call to action, with insights offered about next steps and encouragement given to enlist others to get involved. Questions about how to welcome and support refugees from Afghanistan and countries around the world are most welcome, both during and after the presentation. Mak Suceska serves as the Bureau Chief for the Iowa Bureau of Refugee Services alongside his role as the State of Iowa Refugee Coordinator through ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement). Mak originates from Sarajevo, Bosnia and was transplanted to Des Moines, Iowa in 1993 as a refugee, fleeing from war-torn Yugoslavia with his family. Mak's professional career has been devoted to advocating and supporting refugees across the state in an effort to promote a more equitable community for all. With over 12 years of experience in non-profits and state government, it's Mak's life journey that has provided a unique and necessary perspective in guiding his work. Mak completed his political science undergraduate studies at the University of Iowa with a double minor in religion and history. He achieved his MPA degree through Drake University with an emphasis on public policy, and will pursue his doctorate degree in Educational Leadership at Drake University. In Mak's words, "Education, Accessibility and Opportunity are the keys to success". ![]() Sara Zejnic is Director of Refugee & Immigrant Services at Catherine McCauley Center (CMC) in Cedar Rapids. After obtaining a B.A. in International Relations and Religion from Wartburg College and a M.A. in Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management from SIT Graduate Institute, Sara has dedicated her career to providing and leading supportive services to refugees as they work to find stability and safety in their new communities. In her role at the CMC, Sara is committed to ensuring that community members, partners, and local employers have the information and resources necessary to work effectively with diverse populations. When: Wednesday, November 3rd @ 12pm Where: Online via Zoom Speaker: Margarita M. Balmaceda ![]() For the last three years, the energy world has been fixated on the fits and starts of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, as changes in EU regulations and regulatory competencies, as well as pressure from key stakeholders, have kept the project under a big question mark. A July 2021 agreement between the US and Germany seemed to give a green light to the project. In my presentation, I will discuss the following issues:
![]() Margarita M. Balmaceda is a political scientist working at the intersection of international relations, the political economy of authoritarianism and democracy, and technology, with a special expertise in energy politics (oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, renewables), and commodities -- especially steel and the metallurgical sector-- in Ukraine, the former USSR, and the EU. She has a PhD in Politics from Princeton University and is Professor of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University. Concurrently, she heads the Study Group on “Energy materiality: Infrastructure, Spatiality and Power” at the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg (Germany) and is an Associate at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard. Capitalizing on her Ukrainian, Russian, Hungarian and German skills, in addition to her native Spanish, she has conducted extensive field research in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, Hungary, Germany and Finland. Her new book, Russian Energy Chains: the Remaking of Technopolitics from Siberia to Ukraine to the European Union (Columbia University Press, 2021) analyzes how differences in the material characteristics of different types of energy can affect how different types of energy may be “used” as sources of foreign and domestic power. She is currently developing a project on metallurgy, conflict and political development and struggling through courses at the World Steel Association’s Steel University. When: Wednesday, November 17th @ 4pm Where: Online via zoom Speaker: Dr. Marcella David ![]() Dr. Marcella David will talk about how the Black Lives Matter movement can be understood through the lens of international human rights, and how the global response shows how connected we are. Dr. Marcella David is senior vice president and provost and professor in the Business and Entrepreneurship Department at Columbia College Chicago. In her role as senior vice president and provost, David serves as the college's chief academic officer and provides leadership for all academic planning and review including academic diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, advancement of faculty scholarship, research, and creative work, global education, online learning, student retention and persistence initiatives, and the allocation of financial resources in accordance with academic priorities. Before joining Columbia in 2019, David was a visiting professor of Law at Florida State University and previously served as the provost and vice president of academic affairs at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), one of the nation’s top historically black colleges and universities with almost 10,000 students across a broad range of disciplines. Prior to FAMU, David held administrative leadership roles at the University of Iowa, including associate dean of the College of Law and special assistant to the president for equal opportunity and diversity. Her research interests include the use of economic and other sanctions, international criminal law, and questions related to international organizations. David received her BS in Computer Science and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and her JD magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. When: Wednesday, October 6th @ 12pm Where: Online via Zoom Speaker: Dr. Marilyn Seiber ![]() Dr. Marilyn Seiber will discuss what is happening today in Cuba, reviewing the “perfect storm” of the U.S. embargo, Cuban Government policies, and Covid 19. She will describe U.S. policies toward Cuba through recent Administrations, as well as the actions of The Presbyterian Church (USA) and its ecumenical partners in Cuba to address the humanitarian crisis that Cubans are now suffering. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been a partner with the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba since issuing a joint Mission Statement in 1986. Since then, over 90 U.S. Presbyterian churches have joined with counterparts in Cuba forming strong, active bonds, working together in mission, sharing each other’s stories, becoming friends and family, participating in celebrations and holidays, learning of each other’s challenges and joys. These U.S. church partners have been the eyes on the ground for 35 years, observing the impact of the U.S. embargo on Cuba and the results of Cuban Government policies that have affected how Cubans live and struggle daily—for food, medicines, toiletries, and equipment of everyday life. Marilyn J. Seiber has been involved with Cuba since 2004, traveling there 21 times. She chairs the Cuba Partners Committee for The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. that has a partnership with First Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Havana. Dr. Seiber has served on the Steering Committee of the Cuba Partners Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and currently is a member of the Network’s Advocacy Committee. She has organized a similar Cuba network for National Capital Presbytery. Dr. Seiber is an international economist retired from federal service on Capitol Hill and the Executive Branch. Her expertise on international trade, finance, and monetary policy has enabled her to serve at the highest levels of government. She was Senior Economist on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services and Chief Economist on the Committee on Small Business working for the Ranking Member and Chairman, respectively. In the Executive Branch, she served as Director of International Economics at the National Security Council; Special Assistant and Economic Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs and to the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade; advisor to the General Counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; and Deputy Director of the Rent Advisory Board for the Cost of Living Council during federal wage and price controls. She has served as an economic consultant to the World Environment Center, and has been an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Government and the University of Maryland University College. She has written and published two books on developing-country debt. She received her Ph.D. in International Relations and International Economics from The American University in Washington, D.C. |
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