Senior Sequence

Effecting beneficial social change by changing social norms

Important talk tonight. Well worth attending. See below for details about the event and the UCSD Center organizing it.

Thurs. Nov. 3, 2011, 7:00pm-8:30pm. 
Molly Melching, director of a nongovernmental organization working to end female genital mutilation in Senegal, will give a public talk at the University of California San Diego. The event, which will run from 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday in the Robinson Auditorium on campus, is free. It is sponsored by the UCSD’s year-old Center on Global Justice. By Pat Flynn, Learn more

The New Center on Global Justice Seeks to Take a Practical Path

“We have a different orientation to global justice, which is typically a high-brow, academic concept,” explains Fonna Forman-Barzilai, associate professor of political science and one of the founders of the new center. “Discussions on the subject are often highly abstract and ethereal. They tend to focus on questions of moral responsibility and schemes of wealth redistribution on a global scale, and really provide little practical guidance on how to reduce real injustices that so severely plague our world. Our goals are ultimately practical and problem-oriented.”

The center will connect moral theory and social science to real human problems. “We want to develop and apply knowledge that can help people, locally and globally, to pursue better lives,” says Forman-Barzilai. She quickly emphasizes, however, that this does not mean telling people how they ought to live.

“Communities need to steward their own development,” she insists. “The center is committed to developing dynamic partnerships and learning environments in the field, not only because this demonstrates genuine respect for the agency and preferences of the communities engaged, but because reciprocal learning between researcher and community produces more responsive strategies and ultimately more effective and sustainable results.” Learn more