The University Consortium on the Global South (UCGS) at York today launches a weekly colloquium that will take place Wednesdays during the academic year.
“The objective of the Colloquium is to create an open space for dialogue and debate among faculty, graduate students, policy makers, visiting speakers, social activists and NGOs (non-governmental organizations)”, said Peter Vandergeest, director of the York Centre for Asian Studies and a member of the UCGS steering committee.
The colloquium will address such issues as human development, equity and social justice, ecology and sustainability, gender, ethnicity and racialization. Topics will also include rural and grassroots development, North-South relations, global-national-local links, and public policy.
The goal is to provide a venue for interdisciplinary approaches to these issues that reach beyond regional limits. The series organizers hope to stimulate new critical research and analysis of Canadian policies toward the Global South and of the Global South’s presence in Canada, said Vandergeest.
The series begins today with a social event, 2:30-4:30pm in York Lanes, 305. The Fall 2004 program of the colloquium is available at the UCGS Web site.