UCSB to Host Major Globalization Conference,
May 1-4, 2003

SOME ONE HUNDRED SCHOLARS, public intellectuals, and global justice activists from around the world will converge at the University of California at Santa Barbara from May 1-4 to debate the future of globalization. Participants will come from Armenia, Canada, Ecuador, France, Holland, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and Uruguay, among other countries.

The conference, "Towards a Critical Globalization Studies: Continued Debates, New Directions, and Neglected Topics," has the dual purpose of examining the development of global studies in the academy and exploring the bridges between global studies and the global justice movement. All plenaries and sessions, and the screening of "Señorita Extraviada" (see below), are free and open to the public.

The conference's kick-off event is a keynote speech Thursday evening, May 1, at 7:00pm, by the celebrated Pakistan-British novelist, playwright, social critic, and Verso Press founder-publisher Tariq Ali. Ali, the author of Clash of Fundamentalism: Crusades, Jihad, and Modernity, will address recent developments in a talk entitled "War and Peace in the 21st Century: Will the American Consensus Hold?"

The conference continues all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning, with a series of plenary events featuring world-reknown scholars and activists, followed by breakout panel discussions a more than a dozen different themes. Noted participants include Luis Macas, leader of the Ecuadoran indigenous movement and currently Ecuador's Minister of Agriculture; Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago professor and member of the Council on Foreign Relations; Walden Bello, leader of the global justice movement and former member of the Philippine Parliament; Susan George, Paris-based author-activist, leader of the Transnational Institute and Vice-President of ATTAC; Njoki Njehu, Director of the Washington-based "50 Years is Enough!" campaign; Boris Kagarlitsky, Russian journalist, author, social critic, and former Moscow City Council member; Tom Hayden, a founder of the U.S. "new left"in the 1960s and recent California State Senator; and David Harvey, one of the world's most celebrated geographers and author of The Condition of Postmodernity.

Conference organizers are also planning several cultural events, including a special screening on Saturday evening, May 3, of the powerful Oscar-nominated documentary, "Señorita Extraviada: the Fate of 200 Women" (about the young women factory workers who have been raped and murderd in Juarez in recent years), including an audience discussion with Mexican filmmaker and producer, Lourdes Portillo.

Additional highlights:

• It is free, open to the public, and will be a great educational experience for students. All events are in Corwin Pavilion and UCEN meeting rooms. It begins Thursday evening (May 1) at 7:00pm with Tariq Ali's keynote address (see below), and runs from 9-5 Friday and Saturday, and 9-1 on Sunday. There will be plenary sessions featuring world-reknown scholars and activists, as well as 16 smaller panels where people will be presenting papers.
• This is a major international conference, involving 80+ of the world's leading scholars and social justice activists, to discuss not only what scholars are learning about globalization, but what the global social justice movement is doing about it -- and to try to bring the worlds of scholarship and activism closer together
• The first event is they keynote address Thursday evening, May 1, at 7:00pm, by the celebrated Pakistan-British novelist, playwright, social critic, and Verso Press founder-publisher Tariq Ali (author of Clash of Fundamentalism: Crusades, Jihad, and Modernity). His talk is most timely, under the current circumstances: "War and Peace in the 21st Century: Will the American Consensus Hold?"
• There will be a special screening (free) on Saturday evening, May 3, of the powerful Oscar-nominated documentary, "Señorita Extraviada: the Fate of 200 Women" (about the young women factory workers who have been raped and murderd in Juarez in recent years), including an audience discussion with Mexican filmmaker and producer, Lourdes Portillo.
• Finally, some of the more well-known participants include the following; you might mention those that you think will be of interest to your students.
  • Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago professor and member of the Council on Foreign Relations
  • David Harvey, one of the world's most celebrated geographers and author of The Condition of Postmodernity.
  • Luis Macas, leader of the Ecuadoran indigenous movement and currently Ecuador's Minister of Agriculture
  • Njoki Njehu, Director of the Washington-based "50 Years is Enough!" campaign
  • Walden Bello, leader of the global justice movement and former member of the Philippine Parliament
  • Tom Hayden, a founder of the U.S. "new left"in the 1960s and recent California State Senator
  • Susan George, Paris-based author-activist, leader of the Transnational Institute and Vice-President of ATTAC
  • Boris Kagarlitsky, Russian journalist, author, social critic, and former Moscow City Council member
  • Anita Roddick, Body Shop founder and currently a prominent anti-globalization activist who is pushing grass-roots development projects

Prepared for web by H. Marcuse, 4/20/03
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