Vandana Shiva, an award-winning scholar, author and environmental activist, will speak at Willamette University March 17 as part of the Dempsey Environmental Lecture Series.
The lecture, “Earth Democracy,” will begin at 7 p.m. in Hudson Hall. Admission is free, but seating is limited. Willamette students, faculty and staff may reserve up to two tickets online starting Feb. 29. Beginning March 7, the general public can reserve one ticket online — if tickets are still available.
Joe Bowersox, an environmental and earth sciences professor, says Shiva is a “lightning rod” for issues of great concern to the environmental community — including developing sustainable and just food systems and making connections between the way people live and what they eat.
“When people hear her, I hope they walk away with a sense of inspiration, a sense of hope,” he says. “They can be change agents in creating a just and sustainable world.”
Based in Delhi, India, Shiva is one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization, a transnational alternative policy group that analyzes the impacts of economic globalization.
Shiva founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and she launched Navdanya, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources — especially native seed — and to promote organic farming and fair trade.
Shiva has authored more than 20 books, including “The Violence of the Green Revolution,” “Monocultures of the Mind,” and “Stolen Harvest.” In 2003, Time Magazine named her an environmental “hero,” and in 2010, Forbes Magazine called her one of the “seven most powerful women on the globe.”
The Dempsey Foundation, Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment, and Willamette University’s Department of Environmental and Earth Sciences are sponsoring the event.
