November 13-17, 2023

International Education Week 2023

Each November, in recognition of International Education Week, the UR community "meets in another culture" here on campus. This year, we undertake a week-long summit with shared experiential learning on local-global sustainability topics from perspectives of Richmond partners and colleagues from around the world. The goal is to bring local and global scholars and activists into dialogue, held on a university campus with expertise bridging knowledge sets and worldviews for sustainable change.

Environmental scholar and activist David Orr will attend the full week and serve as rapporteur, giving a summary of the proceedings on the morning of Thursday, November 16. Daniel Wildcat from Haskell Indian Nations University and Māori activist and Professor of Law Jacinta Ruru from the University of Otago will will give plenary addresses. UR Professors David Salisbury and Chris von Rueden have invited Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian, Brazilian, and Bolivian Amazon and UR is inviting indigenous leaders from the James River and Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Mid-week there will be an afternoon poster and StoryMap session featuring the research of UR students, attended also by study abroad partner organizations and UR faculty who integrate sustainability into their courses.

Knowledge-sharing may include lessons learned and effective strategies for managing threats to the political, cultural, and economic autonomy of communities and sustainable management of community resources. The particular historical and contemporary experiences of these leaders and their communities vary, but many of the threats they face have a common grounding in colonialism, illegal resource extraction, and the climate crisis. Given the context and shared threats, the summit seeks to facilitate positive collaboration for sustainability.

Pre-week Engagement Opportunities

Get engaged early -- and often!

• NOVEMBER is National Native American Heritage Month
• NOV. 3 - IEW Pre-week Kickoff and Celebration
• NOV. 10 - CCE Perspectives: Local Sustainability Initiatives (with leaders from RVA's Sustainability Office)

IEW Opening Plenary
9 & 10:30 a.m. International Center
Presentations by Daniel Wildcat and Jacinta Ruru, both followed by brief audience discussion

Tucker Boatwright Festival
4:30 p.m. Humanities Commons
Keynote Address by Kiara Vigil: Indigenous Interventions in Cinema

Consider This
6 p.m. Chaplaincy Dinner (by invitation only)

Morning Plenary Session
9 a.m. International Center
Addresses by Francisco Piyako (Amazon rainforest) and Central Virginia indigenous leader(s)

Morning Roundtables/Panel
10:30 a.m. International Center
Climate change & sustainability: defenders of the environment, community adaptation, capacity building through education

Morning Plenary Session - GIS DAY: Empowering Mapping & Justice
9 a.m. International Center
Addresses by Steve DeRoy & the Transboundary Commission of the Juruá/Yurúa River

Morning Roundtables/Panel
10:30 a.m. International Center
Knowledges: education, technology & justice, gender equity & sustainability leadership

IEW Local-Global Sustainability Fair
3:30 - 5 p.m. Alice Haynes Room, THC
Posters, displays, and presentations echoing the themes of rivers, indigenous communities, and justice

International Dinner
5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Heilman Dining Center
"Local sourcing, global cuisine"

IEW Closing Plenary
9 a.m. International Center
60-second videos by UR's Green Spiders Abroad; closing summation by David Orr

Tucker Boatwright / Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival
VMFA & VMHC Thurs-Sun

IEW Partner Thank You Lunch
(by invitation only)
12:30 p.m. International Center

Tucker Boatwright / Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival
VMFA & VMHC Thurs-Sun

Week-long Programming

Opportunities to engage at your own pace and timeline

• The sixth annual Ecochallenge (Co-sponsored by the Office for Sustainability)
• Library Guide - Curated by Boatwright Memorial Library
• Music Library - Exhibit, playlist, and blog
• Photo Exhibit "Fragile Interconnectedness: Greenland & the Amazon" - International Center Gallery
• Dining Hall - Lunch specials on Monday and Tuesday
• Passport Café Special - TBD
• RVA Community Refrigerators - International Center/Passport Café
   

IEW Local-Global Sustainability Fair

We anticipate 12 or more presenters and stations for the IEW Fair on Wednesday, November 15, representing a wide variety of community activism toward global sustainability topics. Fair presenters and topics to include:

• SIT Abroad
• DIS Abroad
• University of Otago (New Zealand)
• Waseda university (Japan)
• The College of William and Mary
• University of Virginia
• Sustainability in study abroad
• Mapping the Amazon
• Green Spiders Abroad
• GIS Day and UR's Spatial Analysis Lab
• Student posters and Storymaps
• Global sustainability in children's literature