“Universities are challenged in an urgent way by the questions that are now posed, questions that are after all existential, that are of the survival of the biosphere, of deepening inequality, of a return to the language of hate, war, and fear, and the very use of such science and technology yet again for warfare rather than in serving humanity,” he said.

The Sept. 30 lecture was part of the Ireland at Fordham Humanitarian Lecture Series, a partnership between the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations and Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs. (Watch the full lecture here.)

Higgins, a poet and former professor, said the Irish lost at least one million lives to starvation during the Great Potato Famine and saw more than 2.5 million emigrate. Therefore, the nation holds a collective memory that resonates with today’s crisis.

“We have known what it is to be hungry,” he said in his lecture, “Humanitarianism and the Public Intellectual in Times of Crisis.”

He noted that the Irish famine was editorialized in some newspapers as “an act of God.” The difference today, he said, is that the constant drumbeat of the news cycle desensitizes the listener.

“[Today,] we’ve become accustomed to narratives of how men and women throughout the world as refugees find themselves, through extended periods of time in unsuitable accommodation, confined to forced idleness, without even control over their daily diet,” he said.

Eugene Quinn, director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Ireland, he noted, has said that children grow up “without the memory of their parents cooking a family meal.”

He lamented that millions of refugees spend years stranded in semipermanent camps around the world, while world leaders discuss the “internationalism and interdependency” of international trade.

“In fact [the conversation]nearly always begins with trade. This has devalued everything, really, in relation to intellectual life, and it has devalued diplomacy very seriously.”

He said that people’s loss of citizenship is so much more than a loss of a homeland. The rights of displaced humans become distinct from the rights of “the citizen.” Without citizenship, refugees lose their inalienable rights as a person, as well as their voice, he said, referencing Arendt.

“To be stripped of citizenship is to be stripped of words, to fall to a state of utter vulnerability with avenues of participation closed off, and thus new futures disallowed,” he said.

Given their past, he said that it falls to the Irish, at home and abroad, to be exemplary to those seeking shelter, especially since it is a crisis that will continue, fostered by climate change and exacerbated by precarious political situations.

“This is a deepening, if you like, of what I call the intersecting crisis of ecology, economy, and society,” he said.

But unlike the welcome that many European refugees received in the wake of World War II, today’s refugees have been shunned.

“The relatively small number of refugees reaching our borders [in the West]  has brought forth the type of narrative about ‘the other’ that we in the humanitarian tradition had hoped was assigned to the chronicles of the past,” he said.

“Countries whose citizens have often benefited from international asylum and migratory flows are reneging on their commitments with the aim of discouraging or inhibiting refugees from seeking the international protection to which they are entitled.”

It is here, he said, that public intellectuals and universities must play a crucial role to alter a discourse “soured by hateful rhetoric.” However, he added that today’s charged atmosphere has not made it easier for the academy to exert influence, with some in the community seduced by corporate power, and others complacent with current economic models as the only way forward, he said.

He asked what is being taught in Economics 101 in North America, and questioned how much of it was game theory and how much was real political economy, to say nothing of the coursework’s moral content. He worried that an emphasis on funding beyond the state has had a disjointed effect on the career structure of young scholars.

“I believe public intellectuals have an ethical obligation as an educated elite to take a stand against the increasingly aggressive orthodoxies and discourse of the marketplace that have permeated all aspects of life, including within academia,” he said.

Edward Said said it best when he stated that an intellectual’s mission in life is to advance human freedom and knowledge, he said.

“This mission often means standing outside of society and its institutions and actively disturbing the status quo. Yet it also involves placing a strong emphasis on intellectual rigor and ideas, while ensuring that governing authorities and international intermediary organizations are well-resourced. To quote Immanuel Kant, ‘Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.’”

Two days later, humanitarian aid workers, designers, and architects from around the world gathered at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus to talk about what can be done to help them.

Design for Humanity Summit II: Design in the Time of Displacement, a day-long summit sponsored by Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, is the second design summit of its kind, following an inaugural gathering last June. The conference explored how the intersection between design and humanitarian action can compel a more dignified, inclusive, and sustainable humanitarian response.

In a keynote address, Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, told attendees that the media can be the greatest force for peace on earth. It has the capacity to spotlight people affected by wars and climate change-driven weather events, she said, citing the work of activists such as those who protested the installation of an oil pipeline at Standing Rock, North Dakota.

“The way the media talks about pro-democracy movements is, it’s for other countries, because we’ve achieved democracy in the United States,” she said.

“But you never really achieve democracy. You have to fight for it every single day, and that’s what these human rights groups do. That’s why it’s critical we have a media that provides a platform for people like all of you, who are the experts in your areas, rather than pundits we get on all of the networks, who know so little about so much.”

Elevate Their Voices

Democracy Now! has covered many stories related to refugees recently, she said, including one about a lawyer representing the Department of Justice who argued before Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that the administration was not required to provide detained children with soap, toothbrushes, and blankets. Less known, she said, are stories such as that of Jeanette Vizguerra, a mother of four from Mexico who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years but has been recently living in a church in Denver to avoid deportation.

“To be able to hear their voices, that’s what will change the world. To go to where the silence is. Working with refugees around the world, it’s not often silent where you are, but for the corporate media, it is. Those voices do not hit the media radar screen. And it’s our job to elevate them,” she said.

“These are the voices that will save all our humanity.”

In addition to workshops, Friday’s summit, a partnership between the IIHA and the International Organization for Migration, also featured talks by Argentina Szabados, regional director, IOM in South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, and Richard Blewitt, head of delegation and permanent observer of the Delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to the United Nations.

Settlement Camps No Longer Temporary

Szabados said there is cause for both optimism and pessimism in the field. On the plus side, the tools for collecting and analyzing data collection have never been more easily obtained. On the other hand, she noted, no one believes anymore there is anything temporary about settlements for displaced individuals. One camp on the India/Bangladesh border, she noted, has been open for 70 years. Therefore, it is important to consider what it means for such places to be not just shelters, but “homes.”

“The dwelling places we provide ought not be ‘just good enough’ to keep people alive in a miserable twilight of half-existence. They must also give people an opportunity to develop, to be healthy, to learn,” she said.

Blewitt said one of the lessons that has become abundantly clear when it comes to providing shelter to vulnerable populations is that aid groups should be focused on the process that leads to shelter construction, not just the finished product.  People who have been displaced should be offered a chance to help rebuild their own community.

“When we’re looking at shelter, non-specialists often think we should build something by ourselves. And this is understandable, but it might hamper a future resilience agenda,” he said.

“We want to work very much with populations that are affected, and enable them to look at incremental expansion and improvement of their shelter options, and [let them know]that they are in the driving seat, not us.”

This has the effect of bringing down costs, he said, and also allows countries to take pride in being able to care for its citizens, even if what’s built is not perfect.

“Sometimes humanitarians kind of believe they’re fixing everything, but actually that’s not the reality, he said, noting that globally, the amount of money sent to countries via remittances dwarfs official development aid.

“People are finding ways.”

Video of the morning’s session can be viewed here.
Video of the afternoon’s session can be viewed here.

A significant multiyear partnership between the Government of Ireland and Fordham University, the lecture series will begin this month and run until June 2020 with events in New York, Dublin, and Geneva.

The series will consist of a number of distinguished lectures supported by more technical lectures and workshops that are open to all.

“Ireland and Fordham University have deep enduring connections,” said Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland’s permanent representative to the United Nations. “Our historic ties are rooted in our strong commitments to respect for human dignity and spirit. … As we look toward the humanitarian challenges of the 21st century, such as climate change, gender equality, and ensuring respect for international humanitarian law, I can think of no better partner than Fordham. We believe that a better understanding of these complex issues is critical, as Ireland aspires to make a meaningful difference as a candidate for election to the U.N. Security Council, for 2021-22.”

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, said the University is honored to take part in the project.

“Fordham is humbled and gratified by the trust that Ireland has placed in the University in creating this grant,” said Father McShane. “The lecture series brings fresh depth to the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs’ mission to educate men and women who are both committed to, and professionally trained in, helping the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters around the globe.”

Lectures will explore the challenges facing policymakers and humanitarians as they seek to ensure that aid reaches those in need, that humanitarian principles are upheld, and that civilians are protected. Specific topics of discussion will include humanitarian protection through international humanitarian law, humanitarian financing, climate and security, and more.

Brendan Cahill, executive director of the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, said the new series “complements the overall work of our institute and the leadership in this sector by the Irish government. These lectures and events, by leading U.N., government, and humanitarian leaders, will further inform and provide new insights in providing assistance to the most vulnerable.”

Speakers will include high-level political leaders who will communicate pivotal messages in response to key questions such as: What challenges and opportunities exist in humanitarian action in the 21st century? How do climate and gender drive food insecurity and humanitarian need? And, how can humanitarian action strengthen the role of local actors in humanitarian responses?

The inaugural lecture of the series will be delivered by H.E. Mary Robinson, chair of international NGO The Elders and the first woman elected president of Ireland (1990-1997). She is a former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and an advocate for climate justice, gender equality, women’s participation in peace-building, and human dignity. This lecture will take place on Monday, April 29 at 6 p.m. in the United Nations Sputnik Lounge. Learn more and register here.

In 2017, the Press relocated downtown to the Lincoln Center campus, closer to the publishing community. It moved into the space once occupied by Fordham’s International Institute of Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA), which in turn took over the Press’s quirky abode, Canisius Hall, just outside the gate of Fordham’s Rose Hill campus. Both parties say the swap was a perfect exchange.

Canisius Hall is akin to a renovated walkup apartment building whose windows overlook Clavius Way. The IIHA gained conference rooms and offices where international conference calls from trouble spots around the globe can be fielded and then discussed in an academic setting. Much of the building’s serene vibe is offset by the very serious nature of the crises in the communities IIHA serves.

In the new Canisius Gallery, opened in September 2017, images of refugees from a past art show that hang in the hallways, as well as the images from the current show, stand in stark contrast to bucolic Rose Hill. And that’s pretty much the point, said Brendan Cahill, executive director of IIHA.

“My hope for this gallery really is to challenge the Fordham community, the Bronx community, and the New York Community to engage with international humanitarian and social justice issues,” he said.

He said the small space can comfortably display about two dozen photographs. The idea is not to have large shows, but to hold small, high-quality photography exhibits with a focus specific enough that the shows won’t be dissolved into New York’s huge photography scene. Only two or three shows will be held a year.

Cahill has reached out to Fordham’s photographers, Joe Lawton, associate professor, and Stephen Apicella-Hitchcock, artist in residence, in the Department of Visual Arts. With their input, IIHA mounted shows that were documentary in nature yet diverse in style.

The gallery’s Spring 2018 show focused on the sex trafficking crisis by showing the work of photojournalist Robert Nickelsberg. Cahill said Nickelsberg took a holistic approach that included images of the clients, the judges, the police, and the people that were trafficked. That particular show culminated with programming that included a panel discussion featuring speakers from the New York Police Department, various NGOs, and activists.

Cahill noted that Barbara Mundy, Ph.D., professor of art history, identified the artist in the current show, Defiant Spirits: Fernando Brito’s Sinaloa.

The show features images from the photographer Fernando Brito’s home state of Sinaloa in Mexico, an area known more by outsiders for its drug cartels than for Jesús Malverde, a 19th-century Robin Hood character who purportedly stole from the rich and gave to the area’s indigenous poor. While Malverde was never made a saint by the Catholic Church, the residents of Sinaloa hold a large festival celebrating his memory on May 3 of each year.

Framed by the media as a celebration for narcos, people involved in the illegal drug trade, the festival through Brito’s lens becomes an homage to the hard-working people of his home state. That’s not to say that Brito turns a blind eye to the violence and horrors that the drug cartels bring to the region; One photo depicts a man shot dead on the street with the skull of a cow placed atop his head and a grapefruit on his stomach in a vulgar appropriation of spiritual imagery.

But it’s the images of the area’s residents that occupy a bulk of the show and the lion’s share of Brito’s attention. Images of baptisms, veneration of the Virgin Mary, women at prayer, and the slaughtering of cows bring daily life to the forefront, usurping the violence. A series of straightforward portraits of townspeople posing in front of the altar at their local church looking straight into the camera anchors the show in humanity.

Cahill said that the current political demonization of the people of Mexico is an effort to desensitize U.S. citizens of their humanity. He noted that images of the people in the photos are not those of refugees trying to gain access to the U.S., but of ordinary citizens at home in Mexico. He said this show speaks to the overall mission of IIHA in “that images, that art, and that culture are a part of a celebration of the diversity of life.”

“Very often in the [humanitarian]aid world there’s a power imbalance of those who are vulnerable and those who are trying to give assistance,” he said. “Often, you lose sight that the person who is waiting to be clothed, to be housed, to be fed, was once a teacher, or was a physician. But they can just look like someone with outstretched hands. We always need to be reminded of that humanity in who we’re trying to help, because one day that could be us.”

The show runs through Feb. 28, when it will be sent on loan for an exhibition at Yale University. The gallery’s next show will feature Syrian photojournalist Bassam Khabieh in an exhibition on loan from Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

The ceremony, held on June 29 at the Lincoln Center campus, honored 32 IDHA graduates and two graduates of the Master of Arts in International Humanitarian Action program, a joint degree offered by the International Institute of Humanitarian Affairs and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The students hailed from 24 countries, including Senegal, Dublin, Kuala Lumpur, and Nairobi. They followed the 51st IDHA class, whose course took place in Geneva in November and December.

An Uncertain Future

“It’s the best of times because you leave this gold standard education establishment prepared for your role,” Nason said.

“It’s the worst of times because you will now be called on to bring aid to the needy, rescue the desperate, and protect and save lives in the most unstable and fragile international environment we’ve seen in a very long time.”

She noted that cascading conflicts last year plunged 350 million children and young people into situations where they require humanitarian aid, and that today nearly one person is forcibly removed from their home every two seconds.

“As a diplomat, I regret that we haven’t turned the dial. I regret that we seem to appear to step back and at times and seem paralyzed in the face of profound humanitarian suffering,” she said. But she added that the graduates should take to heart Robert Kennedy’s instructions to send forth that “tiny ripple of hope.”

“That’s what changes the world—that one act gives us hope. Please keep yourself ready for that moment. We need it badly,” she said.

Savoring Bonds Forged

Liwliwa Agbayni, who delivered the IDHA student address, reflected on the deep bonds that she formed with fellow members of her “syndicate,” one of several teams formed among her cohort when they began the monthlong program on June 3.

She and her classmates had a lot in common, she said, with the eggs that they dropped from 16 feet up during an exercise in their engineering course on their second day.

“Thirty days later, [we are]cracked, wounded, bruised, and badly in need of a good night’s sleep, nevertheless, unbroken and still standing strong. Bravo.” she said.

In his farewell speech, IDHA course director Mark Little, M.D., harkened back to his native Australia, where Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog left behind a pewter plaque upon his arrival on the county’s western shore in October 1616.

“He landed in a dry, dusty, hot desolate area, which is where many of you go to look after many of the people that have been displaced around the world,” he said.

Yes We Must

Humanitarian issues aren’t solved purely by humanitarians though; ultimately, they’re solved by politicians, and Little noted that graduates and audience members should not hesitate to speak out to them.

The case of Ali, a 63-year-old Afghani refugee that Australia had been holding in detention on the Micronesian island nation of Nauru, illustrates this perfectly, he said. Ali has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and is in need of palliative care that cannot be provided on Nauru. Australia offered only to send him to Taiwan for hospice care—an option he rejected because no one there speaks his language or is able to perform Shia Muslim rituals and ceremonies on his body. Fortunately, Australian citizens recently got wind of their government’s actions.

“In 48 hours, two and a half thousand Australian doctors and 25,000 members of the Australian public signed a petition and campaigned to have this dying man moved to Australia. He moved on Sunday,” Little said.

“It is up to all of us to speak out. It’s not, ‘Yes we can!’ but, ‘Yes we must!’ Be like Hartog 400 years ago. Leave your mark as a humanitarian and an IIHA graduate. And wherever you go, may your god go with you and keep you.”

The summit, a partnership between the IIHA and the International Organization for Migration, explored how the intersection between design and humanitarian action can compel a more dignified, inclusive, and sustainable humanitarian response.

More than 40 presenters from the design, humanitarian, and academic communities, as well as the private sector, presented at panels or breakout sessions. An estimated 300 participants, from as far away as Europe and Asia, took part in the conference.

A Key Research Area

“Design for humanity is one of five key research areas for the Institute, and we believe it will have an impact on current thinking and practices of the humanitarian sector,” said IIHA Executive Director Brendan Cahill in his opening remarks.

“We seek to galvanize the diverse expertise of those working at this intersection through a multi-year Design for Humanity Initiative and Lab, which will include future events, research, publications, and collaborative projects.”

In his keynote session, Randy Fiser, CEO of the American Society of Interior Designers, kicked off the morning with a call to explore potential partnerships and identity gaps. To give a sense of how such partnerships between design, community, and government can work, he pointed to Regent Park, a 69-acre neighborhood in Toronto that is currently being redeveloped.

“As we know, when redevelopment takes place in neighborhoods, there is an opportunity to push out communities that were there to begin with and to displace them,” he said.

“Regent Park took a very critical look at how they could not only empower and improve the lives of the people there and add value, but also incorporate 25,000 Syrian refugees into the community,” he said.

Sustainability, health, and wellness, and resiliency should always be key dimensions of any design, he said. There are also opportunities to learn from failures, such as the Superdome, which became a shelter in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

“We knew New Orleans was susceptible to hurricanes. We knew that people would shelter in the Superdome at some point. And yet it wasn’t designed in a way to handle the volume of people that were there. We didn’t prepare, and so what happened was another cataclysmic event,” he said.

“People deserve better from us.”

The Role of Architects

His sentiment was echoed in the day’s first panel, “From Public Interest Design to Humanitarian Design: How Design Compels an Inclusive Humanitarian Response.” Sean Anderson, associate curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, began by sharing pictures of squalid living facilities for refugees that Australia had established on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and in the nation of Nauru in Micronesia, and ended with images of tents in Southern Texas that currently house refugees who have crossed over from Mexico.

“This is not architecture, and this is not design, yet it is, and there are people who are responsible for building, maintaining and preserving these systems that are happening right now on our southern border,” he said, imploring everyone to oppose them.

Another panelist, Carmen Mendoza Arroyo, Ph.D., made an impassioned plea for architects to resist the temptation to work with those who put up tent cities for migrants. It benefits no one, it creates ghettos, and it perpetuates “ unacceptable policies,” she said.

Arroyo, who is director and master of international cooperation sustainable emergency architecture at the Universrstat Internacional de Catalunya School of Architecture, suggested instead efforts to resettle refugees and migrants in cities. In response to the influx of refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea, Barcelona is attempting to do rehabilitate abandoned buildings to house them.

Sergio Palleroni, professor and director of the Center for Public Interest Design at Portland State University, showed off the Partners On Dwelling (POD) initiative that the city of Portland, Oregon has undertaken to tackle homelessness. Micro houses measuring just 225 square feet have been assembled for $2,600 each and clustered together in groups of a dozen or so on formerly abandoned land. The three clusters, or “villages,” that they have created have been invaluable tools for helping people escape homelessness.

Palleroni noted that in the past, he has sent his students to study abroad to get a better sense of the world outside the United States’ borders. But extreme poverty and hopelessness is here as well.

“To me, the most difficult thing that I see [globally]is a kind of sense that people are losing faith in institutions and political processes that we have,” he said.

“The money is there to make the changes, we just need a consensus and an ability to come together to support them.”

With the extremely close vote (about a 1 percent difference) coming on the heels of the Brexit vote and amidst a heated American election, comparisons to other polarized nations were made in the media.

But while the Colombian vote shared similarities, it was unique to that country, said several experts attending a large public event on Nov. 1 at Fordham that was entirely in Spanish, by design, to reach out to the Colombian community. The talk was sponsored by Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) in cooperation with Latin American and Latino Studies department and the Fordham College at Rose Hill assistant dean’s office.

“There are three specific characteristics that make the Colombian conflict a very different place than other parts of the world,” said Luis Fernando Álvarez Londoño, S.J. vice rector of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, the Jesuit university in Bogotá, Colombia. “First is drug trafficking, second is social inequality, and third is corruption. Even though these three things take place in different parts of the world, in Colombia they’re combined.”

Brendan Cahill, IIHA’s executive director, concurred.

“When you lack the rule of law, it allows for illegal crops. And that becomes a vicious cycle,” said Cahill. “To replace the income for someone growing illegal crops is not just apples to apples. And that social inequality has to be addressed.”

Father Álvarez Londoño and other panelists noted that while the vote may not have been in favor of the peace accord, the cease-fire has held as negotiations continue. He added that he supports the process, but is more concerned about how peace will be maintained should an accord be reached. For that he sees a direct role for the Jesuits, specifically through education.

Gonzalo Hernández, director of the economics department at Javeriana, said that the vote was not split along class lines. He said the vote was influenced more by geography, with those near the conflict voting “Yes” and those away from the dangerous areas voting “No.”

Among elites, he said that there is a rural-versus-urban divide.

“I know that this is reductionist, but those against the agreement in the rural areas are landlords,” he said. “They would eventually be more affected, because the most important economic component of the agreement says that some of that land is going to be redistribute—and that’s a big deal.”

Through Colombia’s Office of the High Commission for Peace, Mario A. Puerta, negotiated the accord that was voted on. He did not view the “No” vote as a complete setback, but rather a part of a process that could have been skipped entirely by President Juan Manuel Santos. Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last month for his efforts.

“Constitutionally he was entitled to have implemented the agreement on his own, but he felt that the importance of the decision was something that had to be consulted to the people,” he said.

Puerta said that it was important to bear in mind that 62 percent of those eligible to vote did not vote—one of the highest abstention rates in more than 20 years.

“We have to assume this as an opportunity for improving what has already been achieved and finding the means for incorporating criticisms,” he said. “The supporters of the agreement are so strong that, even though they got a negative result, their strength is stable. The most important thing is that the bilateral cease fire has been maintained.”

In a ceremony at the Lincoln Center campus on Sept. 27, Ambassador William Lacy Swing, director general for the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), and Joseph M. McShane, S.J. president of Fordham, signed a memorandum of understanding linking the two institutions together.

The formal partnership with the IOM, the leading nongovernmental organization for migration, follows a similar partnering between Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Swing said the IOM, which has 10,000 members stationed in 480 spots around the globe, was eager to partner with an academic institution to work on projects involving data and statistics, joint publications, and lectures. The organization has worked informally with the IIHA for the past 19 years, and sent numerous members to its workshops, making the partnership a natural fit.

“In one of the worlds’ great migration cities, Fordham University has very much become a center for the study of migration and humanitarian work in general, which we’re very grateful for,” Swing said.

“I think the possibility for expansion is very large.”

IIHA Executive Director Brendan Cahill said he was thrilled to work closely with IOM because the group is run in a very cost effective way, and delivers aid effectively, ethically, and humanly.

“Their focus is on migration, but that can come in many different forms, from protection to resettlement to negotiations, and they do it by having 97 percent of their employees in field positions and only three percent in the office,” he said.

“We want someone who has a real boots on the ground approach. Whether we work on publications, research, training, or analysis, we bring not only the strengths of the institute, but also the wealth of the knowledge that exists in the faculty at Fordham, together with the IOM and their focus on migration.”

For the productive oriented, summertime represents a chance to sock away a few credits by taking summer courses, many of which consist of a four- to five-week session.

While the condensed courses may be intense, they’re also pretty convenient, said Tara E. Czechowski, PhD, dean of Fordham’s summertime session. Czechowski said that the selections, offered in two summer sessions, accommodate a variety of summertime schedules.

Many of the classes also fulfill course requirements, but professors tend to get a little more creative during the summer, said Czechowski.

One core course requirement for seniors on eloquentia perfecta will focus on selfie culture. The course, Dilemmas of the Modern Self, is being taught sociology professor Micki McGee, PhD.

“The course looks deeply into how we see ourselves today and to what extent this new media changes our understanding of ourselves,” said McGee. “We’ll look at ideas, like Descartes’ ‘I think therefore I am,’ and discuss whether that could be ‘I tweet therefore I am?’”

McGee said the course would look at how issues surrounding social media can take on serious personal and moral dimensions.

“Selfie culture includes the way we represent ourselves in all kinds of media—not just the images,” said McGee. “But at the heart are underlying issues of ‘How do you perceive yourself and what sort of self do you want to be?’”

McGee’s course is culturally timely, but several other course offerings will be pegged to events expected to unfold in the news, like political science professor Robert Hume’s Judicial Politics: SCOTUS Watch. The course, scheduled for June, is designed to coincide with the time the Supreme Court typically makes its landmark decisions.

Business professor Mark Conrad, PhD, will teach Business and Ethics of Sports, which he said will likely coincide with Tom Brady’s “deflategate” appeal. It will also take place just before Brazil Summer Olympics and the potential fallout of doping accusations lodged against several athletes expected to attend.

But the course’s focus extends well beyond players inside the stadium to the stadium itself, he said.

“We’ll look at the ethics of sustainability in stadium construction, as well as naming rights deals,” said Conrad.

Conrad said he plans to include guest speakers in person and on Skype to tackle subjects that range from labor injuries and concussions to gambling and fantasy sports.

On the communications side of sports will be Mike Plugh, PhD, who will survey sports reporting and writing, advertising, and public relations. The hybrid course, Sports Communication, takes place online as well as in class.

On the international front, Hamid Al-Bayati, PhD, who served as Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2006-2013, will return this summer as an adjunct professor to teach United Nations and Political Leadership.

Fordham is offering two courses on humanitarianism to be taught by Alexander van Tulleken, MD, of Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs. The course offered during the first summer session will examine secular and faith-based NGOs based in New York City and the United Nations, and how they respond to crises that include famine, genocide, and displacement. The second session’s course will focus on global health and how those same agencies respond to epidemic disease and food security.

In the realm of the arts, English professor Rebecca Sanchez, PhD, will discuss modernist writers from the turn of the last century to the end of World War II, with a particular focus on American expressionism, industrialization, and the “fetishization of difficulty.”

And combining art and politics, political science professor Nicholas Tampio will bring back his popular summertime session on Political Theory in Popular Culture, which threads together scholarship and superheroes.

“I’m interested in the political aesthetics that the X-Men can help us see,” Tampio said.

Klaus Wivel, the author of The Last Supper: The Plight of Christians in Arab Lands (New Vessel Press, 2016), spoke on April 29 as part of the International Institute for Humanitarian Affairs’ (IIHA) spring lecture series.

He detailed an exceedingly grim situation for Christians in four Middle Eastern countries—Egypt, Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon. In 1910, the entire region was only 10 percent Christian to begin with, but it’s now dropped to 4 percent, he said, offering some statistics:

-Palestine, as it was then known, was 10 percent Christian in 1922; the West Bank today (excluding East Jerusalem) is 2 percent Christian, and the Gaza Strip is 0.2 percent Christian;

-Egypt was 9 percent Christian in 1927; in 2000 it was 5.5 percent Christian;

-Lebanon was 54 percent Christian in 1932; today it’s around 37 percent Christian; and

-Iraq was 4 percent Christian before the 2003 war, now it’s below 1 percent.

Iraq’s Christian community, one of the oldest in the world, has been decimated the most, he said. Christians were seen as being allied with the American and European forces that ousted Saddam Hussein, so they were attacked, their churches were bombed, and their priests were killed in large numbers. By 2007, experts estimate that two-thirds of a population of 1.5 million had fled the country, he said.

“That was by far the largest group of people immigrating from Iraq,” said Wivel, a native of Denmark. “I thought this [would]be an enormous story, but it wasn’t.

He said the fact that more news outlets ignored the exodus baffled him, because “every major newspaper has a foreign correspondent in Jerusalem” and the Middle East.

Wahhabism’s Role

The biggest culprit in Christians’ dwindling numbers is the rise of Wahhabism, an intolerant strain of Sunni Islam that is practiced in Saudi Arabia, he said. Its influence can be felt in Egypt, where a 2010 survey found that 80 percent of the population said a Muslim who converts to another faith should be killed. In Iraq, ISIS has killed and enslaved Christians and Yazidis (members of an ancient monotheistic religion that believes in a god and seven protective angels) by the thousands.

Wivel said it’s clear these are violations of Article 18 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which all Mideast countries—but Saudi Arabia—have signed.

The U.S. State Department has known about this, but it doesn’t want to be seen as forcing Christianity on that part of the world, he said. The United States is also leery that calling attention to it will attract even more attacks.

While these are all valid points, the time for silence is over, he said.

“Even though we did not talk about this, the Christians became targets [so much that]in Iraq, there are hardly any left. So our silence didn’t really help them,” he said.

Focus on Iraq

On May 11, a second event held by the Center on Religion and Culture and the Orthodox Christian Studies Center put a particular focus on religious minorities and Iraq. While much of a panel conversation focused on Christians, it also touched on the fate of the Yazidis.

Two of the panelists brought firsthand experience of the crisis; they unflinchingly labeled the situation “genocide.”

Haider Elias, founder of Yazda: A Global Yazidi Organization, said that the Yazidi, who once numbered in the millions, are now less than a million in the world. He said many have migrated to Russia, Armenia, and Georgia. Iraq was once home to 90 percent of the Yazidi, but since 2014, 20 percent have migrated to refugee camps.

He traced long history of Yazidi massacres: from the Ottoman Empire in the late 19^th century to the Yazidi fight alongside Armenians in the 1920s to the current crisis.

“In 2014, ISIS kidnapped 10,000 Yazidi,” said Elias. “Five thousand women and children were taken for enslavement, and they killed 5,000 men. One was my brother.”

Through Yazda, Elias lobbies politicians from around the globe to bring attention to the killings. The group has helped more than 1,000 women who have escaped enslavement—some of which takes place in open markets, with the women chained to each other. Given the tumultuous history, many young Yazidis don’t want to return to the region.

“This is not the first, second, or third time,” said Elias. “Their fathers have been telling them the stories of attacks for centuries.”

Like the Yazidi, Assyrian Christians have been settled in Iraq for millennia. Father Gewargis Sulaiman, of the Assyrian Church of the East, said that his people were among the first to hear the message of Jesus from St. Peter. He said the Assyrians’ love of science, philosophy, and culture has left “an irrefutable mark on the Middle East.” Like the Yazidi, they too are being killed by the thousands and abandoning the area. Yet, Father Sulaiman has hope.

“I am not of the opinion that all the Christians will die out in Iraq,” he said. “This isn’t our first genocide. We have a mission. We are people of that land, and God put us there to be the light.

“These are human beings, … not museum pieces,” he said, paraphrasing a fellow priest in Iraq. “And when the world stands by and watches any peaceful people disappear, we all suffer.”

Tom Stoelker contributed to this article. 

Kabba Williams, former child soldier in Sierra Leone

Back in Kabba Williams’ home of Sierra Leone, there is a saying that “a child who is carried on the back doesn’t know how far the journey is.”

Williams, forced to be a rebel child soldier at age 6, has traveled far and knows it. He loses his words as he describes a day he was beaten, tied up, and forced to spend a day in the blazing African sun with taunts that he was to be executed the following day.

He was just 7 or 8 years old.

Williams’ lone journey began when he lost his mother during a raid on his village and was abducted with other children by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

“We were easy to brainwash and cheap to support,” said Williams, who saw murders, machete mutilations, and other “unspeakable things, beyond a human being’s imagination” while in the custody of rebels.

He escaped the RUF while fetching water, but within days was captured by the Sierra Leone Army and sentenced to death. In exchange for his life, he became a government soldier and was trained how to shoot and kill with an AK-47.

In a fortunate twist of fate, a UNICEF representative took him from the army when he was 11 years old and relocated him in the SOS Children’s Village orphanage to receive schooling to develop a “human rights” consciousness.

Five years ago, Williams, who co-founded the African Reformation War Child Advocacy Network (ARWCAN), came to the United States for an advocacy conference and made the difficult decision not to return to Sierra Leone. In April, he gave a lecture at Fordham on his transition from “a culture of violence to one of peace,” stressing the importance education played in his development. He received a scholarship to attend the IDHA summer program.

Williams said he has learned about effective advocacy as well as learning the legal end of humanitarian rights laws. He hopes that his IDHA certificate will lead to advocacy work on behalf of African children, especially children harmed in conflict. He said the African governments “do not want to know about us,” and some western governments are wary of former child soldiers.

“I have a passion for human rights issues, and whatever I can pass on to young people from my journey,” he said. “A world that is fit for children is a world that is fit for everyone.

–Janet Sassi

Mira Baddour, UN commodity tracker

Mira Baddour works with the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP). Since she was 19, the 25-year-old native of Syria has sought out work that allows her to help others.

During the Iraqi wars, her country became inundated with refugees. She worked in organizing the provision of storage, transportation, and the distribution of food. Then war broke out in her country.

“My colleagues and I couldn’t understand the idea of Syrian refugees,” said Baddour. “[But] my people were suddenly displaced. It was emotional and very difficult.”

Last year, Baddour was transferred to Liberia to work on the Ebola outbreak. Now that Liberia has been declared Ebola-free, she is ready for the next challenge.

Over the course of her time with the UN, she has worked within its logistics cluster, which organizes various humanitarian relief groups during a crisis. There are nine clusters within the UN, each one around a theme: nutrition, health, water/sanitation, camp coordination, protection, emergency shelter, early recovery, logistics, and telecommunications.

Baddour’s current role as the head of commodity tracking and data management is highly technical. She used her time in the IDHA program to examine two recent evaluations of the UN’s cluster system, in the hopes of eliminating the overlapping of humanitarian services.

She said that UNICEF is in charge of nutrition, while WFP takes the lead on logistics. However, UNICEF and WFP both have a mandate to fight hunger.

Baddour’s study homed in on whether WFP was able to maintain its neutrality as a lead agency for logistics and not prioritize its food programs over those of UNICEF.

Baddour recalls the chaos in the immediate aftermath of the Syrian war, a situation that imprinted on her just how vital it was to make sure partnering agencies work toward the same goal. And she learned that sometimes it gets personal.

“You always feel for the refugees, but when it’s your people you feel it deep in your heart,” she said. “I wanted to deliver the food to those kids—my people.”

–Tom Stoelker

Ram Jee Karki, International Red Cross

Having completed Fordham’s International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance, Ram Jee Karki will return to his relief work in a region that is doubly afflicted—by the aftereffects of both war and natural disaster.

Karki is head of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s central north region in Nepal, where a cataclysmic earthquake recently added to the burdens of a nation still addressing the lingering impacts of a decade-long civil war.

At Fordham, he said, he learned much that is applicable to any kind of disaster—whether brought about by nature or by humanity’s depredations—and looks forward to applying it.

“I like humanitarian work—to serve those that are very much distressed, and [in a]difficult situation, because ‘humanitarian’ means ‘to save life,’” he said.

He discovered this calling more than a decade ago, when Bhutanese refugees from a nearby camp started showing up in his hometown of Jhapa, Nepal. A schoolteacher at the time, he saw their plight and decided to change careers, first working as a camp relief coordinator before joining the ICRC in later years.

In his current role, he’s involved in helping people recover—psychologically and socially—from the decade-long civil war that ended in 2006, and in trying to locate people who disappeared during the conflict so they can be reunited with their families.

Families were further disrupted by the earthquake that struck in April, killing more than 8,000 and injuring some 22,000. “Where I work, the earthquake also hit there in those same areas,” he said.

He’s heading back to that area to continue his family reunification efforts and other relief work. He thinks the IDHA program, with its training in the Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law, will help him make a greater impact in the future by working internationally.

–Chris Gosier

Eric Goeh-Akue, Jesuit Refugee Service

In the early millennium, Togo, the home country of Eric Goeh-Akue, SJ, erupted in “huge violence” that made him flee to the neighboring country of Benin. He remained there for years as a refugee, receiving a piecemeal education.

Today Father Goeh-Akue works with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Chad to make sure that children in a similar situation don’t go without an education while seeking shelter in refugee camps.

“I joined the Jesuits knowing that JRS was created for Jesuits to work in the field,” he said. “We take care of poor people on the margins, we build schools, and we hire teachers. Education is a basic right.”

Father Goeh-Akue oversees schools in eight different camps in Chad, where refugees from South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Nigeria have been streaming for nearly a decade. Together with the United Nations Refugee Agency, JRS operates what amounts to a large school system.

Father Goeh-Akue said his role is to visit and support all of the schools. He said that on his visits he has been most impressed by the girls, who, in many cases, would never have received an education in their home countries.

As the conflicts surrounding Chad have dragged on for years, Father Goeh-Akue said that students are now approaching college age. As a host country, Chad will not be able to provide a university education for refugees.

“These refugees don’t go back to their home countries. They stay in Chad. They have two colleges for refugees, but they’re very expensive.”

Father Goeh-Akue is partnering with the Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins in an effort to see the students off to college after their refugee education. He said that his time at the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs has been spent learning more about international law and learning how to support his staff.

“I learned a lot about how to take care of members of my team,” he said. “I used to work as a priest with other Jesuits, but now I work with lay people that have different skills. I learned how to encourage, support, and listen to them and share what they bring to the group.”

 –Tom Stoelker