Since its founding, the United States has struggled to determine the extent of its role during international conflict. How much could–or should–the US get involved with conflicts in other parts of the world? And what is our individual responsibility as global citizens? We'll explore these issues in our new, three-part Humanities @ Home virtual series, "World War Free? Our Role in a Turbulent World."
PART II: Coming to America: Two Perspectives on Asylum
Conflict often forces people to make the difficult decision to leave their homes and move to an unknown place. New Hampshire, like many places in the United States, is home to refugees and asylum seekers who leave their countries of origin to seek safety and a better life. This type of immigration is often in the news, but can feel like a distant problem. Who are these individuals? How can we support them once they become a part of our community?
This interview-style presentation will feature two individuals who came to New Hampshire as asylum seekers from conflict abroad. Behishta Sadaat, a graduate student at Dartmouth College, is originally from Afghanistan and Clement Kigugu, executive director of Overcomers Refugee Services, is originally from Rwanda. Along with Dr. Melinda Negrόn-Gonzales of UNH Manchester, Behishta and Clement will talk about the similarities of their journeys and the many differences in their experiences.
Behishta Sadaat is an activist and advocate for women’s rights in Afghanistan. She launched the first national hotline project, the Toll Free Helpline for Women and Children in Afghanistan, which aimed to reduce violence against women. Behishta has dual bachelor’s degrees, one in political science from the American University of Afghanistan and another in public health from Kabul Medical University. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in globalization studies at Dartmouth College. She has been awarded as Ambassador of Peace in years 2009 and 2012 and was recognized as a standout leader for women’s rights in 2021-22 by the ASIA awards.
Clement Kigugu is the executive director of Overcomers Refugee Services, he is a former refugee from Africa Rwanda, Kigugu established Overcomers Refugee Services in 2013 with the vision of settled refugees helping new refugees learn the ways of their new home, helping them to heal and re-engage as active and successful citizens of New Hampshire and the United States. Clement has diverse experiences supporting refugees, immigrants, and low-income families. Besides English, Mr. Kigugu speaks five other languages. Kigugu has a degree in Management from University Libre de Kigali (ULK), Africa, and is a trained and certified medical interpreter.
Dr. Melinda Negrón-Gonzales is Associate Professor of Political Science and Global Studies at the University of New Hampshire. She is the Chair of the Department of Security Studies, the Founding Program Director of the Global Conflict and Human Security master's program, and a Faculty Fellow at UNH's Carsey School of Public Policy. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire.
This virtual lecture series will seek to answer these questions as an extension of our A More Perfect Union initiative from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Additional resoucres:
Suitcase Stories from the International Institute of New England
"Ending Endless Wars, feat. General Stanley McChrystal" from the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire (WACNH)
"Escape from Afghanistan," Global in the Granite State Podcast from WACNH
Leaving Afghanistan from PBS Frontline
"Bibliography: Rwanda" from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
"Direct from NH to Rwanda," Global in the Granite State Podcast from WACNH
Rwanda's Untold Story from This World BBC
Since its founding, the United States has struggled to determine the extent of its role during international conflict. How much could–or should–the US get involved with conflicts in other parts of the world? And what is our individual responsibility as global citizens? We'll explore these issues in our new, three-part Humanities @ Home virtual series, "World War Free? Our Role in a Turbulent World."
PART I:
International Conflict: Can We Think Globally and Act Locally?
With an ever-increasing number of conflicts around the world, how do we understand the complex history of our involvement overseas and the impact on citizens? Dr. Erik Cleven, Professor of Politics at Saint Anselm College, will talk about the historical background for many instances of US involvement abroad, as well as the impact on Americans and those fighting for survival in areas of conflict. How can we best engage with the world through awareness and understanding of global events? Join us for a fascinating conversation in the first part of the “World War Free” series.
PART II: Coming to America: Two Perspectives On Asylum
Friday, September 9 at 5 pm DETAILS
PART III: A Conversation with Atifete Jahjaga: Former President of Kosovo
Friday, September 30 at 5 pm DETAILS
This virtual lecture series will seek to answer these questions as an extension of our A More Perfect Union initiative from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Additional resources:
10 Conflicts to Watch in 2022 from the International Crisis Group
Global Conflict Tracker from Council on Foreign Relations
How did African American religion find a place in popular culture beyond traditional Black Churches? The Jazz Age propelled Black swing artists into national celebrity. In our February Humanities@Home program, Vaughn A. Booker challenges an idea that jazz is innately secular and helps us explore how the religious beliefs of popular jazz musicians like Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams shaped their music.
Through their musical expressions of faith, they became influential voices which echoed–and diverged from–the predominant African American religious culture of that time. Professor Booker returns us to a transformative moment in which jazz extended the reach of Black American spiritual authority beyond the Black church to shape the feel and sound of 20th-century American culture.
Vaughn A. Booker is a historian of religion whose scholarship focuses on twentieth-century African American religions. In American religious history and African American studies, his teaching and research include studies of religion and gender, leadership, conversion, popular music, humor, "race histories," memoir, visual/material culture, metaphysics/spirituality, memorialization/mourning, activism, and internationalism. His first book project, Lift Every Voice and Swing: Black Musicians and Religious Culture in the Jazz Century (NYU Press, 2020), won the 2022 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities from the Council of Graduate Schools. He was awarded a Distinguished Junior External Faculty Fellowship with the Stanford University Humanities Center for the 2022-2023 academic year, and in 2021, he was also awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship.
Who lived and worked in New Hampshire Hospital during its 180-year history? From its initial conception to its founding as the New Hampshire Asylum in 1842, the institution has experienced enormous changes and challenges. Dr. Paul Shagoury, former chief psychologist at New Hampshire Hospital in Concord, will draw on both historical records and personal accounts left by patients, nurses, and doctors, showing how their personal experiences at the hospital reveal a larger story – one filled with hope and practicality, successes, and disappointments – about our society’s attempts to understand and treat what we now call mental illness.
About the presenter:
Paul Shagoury is a New Hampshire native. He graduated from Tufts University in 1966 and completed his training in clinical psychology with a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1971. Dr. Shagoury worked in clinical and administrative capacities in community mental health centers in Maine and New Hampshire until 1982 when he became a founding partner of Green House Group, PA in Manchester, NH. Returning to public health to conclude his professional career, Dr. Shagoury joined the psychology department of New Hampshire Hospital in 2006 from which he retired as chief psychologist.
Suggested reading:
De-Institutionalization at New Hampshire Hospital
Miniature Golf Course at New Hampshire State Hospital
Patient Interaction on Admission Wards
Two Historic Granite State Institutions Join Hands
Presenter: Alexandria Peary
Mindful writing is the nonjudgmental observation of the ever-changing present to gain a healthy perspective on our internalized critics, better manage our preconceptions, and enjoy access to continuously arising wording and ideas. Mindfulness at the desk leads to increased self-confidence in our creativity and stronger connection with others. This session provides an overview of mindful writing as well as hands-on practice with techniques easily replicated later at home.
About the presenter: Alexandria Peary (MFA, MFA, PhD) serves as New Hampshire Poet Laureate. Her nine books include Prolific Moment: Theory and Practice of Mindfulness for Writing and Battle of Silicon Valley at Daybreak. The recipient of a 2020 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, she received the Iowa Poetry Prize and Best of NH (for inspiring artist). She specializes in mindful writing, a topic described in her TEDx talk, “How Mindfulness Can Transform the Way You Write.” She founded Under the Madness Magazine, a magazine run by New Hampshire teens, and is a professor in the English Department at Salem State University.
In a heavily patrilineal society like medieval England, reproduction was meant to reinforce likeness between father and son. While medieval men might have wished to pretend otherwise, women too had a great impact on their children. Join us as Dr. Samantha Seal of UNH explores the medieval fears of the female womb and female influence on children. She’ll illustrate examples from medieval romance and the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, in which mothers subvert fathers’ biological connection with “their” sons, bestowing their own matrilineal traits— magic and monstrosity, holiness and hereditary power— and challenging which sex was the more powerful.
About the presenter: Dr. Samantha Seal is an Associate Professor of English and the Pamela Shulman Professor of European and Holocaust Studies at the University of New Hampshire. She specializes in the study of gender and race in medieval English literature, especially in the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer. She currently serves as a member of the editorial board of Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, held an ACLS faculty fellowship in 2019-2020, and will be a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University in Spring 2023.
Back to Humanities to Go Online Details
