Keynote Presenters
Martin Jacques
When China Rules the World
Monday, January 28, 12pm-1:30pm
Myer Horowitz Theatre
We are living through a dramatic transformation of the world, as the West rapidly loses its dominant position to China. Though still largely economic, China’s staggering influence will become political, cultural, intellectual and military. How will the West respond to China’s rise?
Martin Jacques is the author of the global best-seller When China Rules the World. First published in 2009, a second edition of the book, greatly expanded and fully updated, was published in March 2012. His TED talk on how to understand China has had over one million views. He is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. Jacques was formerly the editor of the renowned London-based monthly Marxism Today 
and is a former deputy editor of The Independent newspaper.
Sponsored by the China Institute and the Global Education Program, University of Alberta International
Can't attend the event?
Dr. Gabor Maté
Toxic Culture
Tuesday, January 29, 5pm-6:30pm
Telus Centre 150
Modern medicine has worked wonders by discovering the biological roots of many previously fatal illnesses. But are we losing sight of the broader context in which human disease and disorders arise? Mind and body are deeply unified at the heart of a human being. Thus, in very real ways, our health depends on social and economic realities—and for many, our culture is making us sick.
Dr. Gabor Maté is a world-renowned physician, writer and public speaker. For twelve years Dr. Gabor Maté has worked in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with patients challenged by drug addiction, mental illness and HIV. With two decades of practical experience and extensive knowledge of leading-edge research, Dr. Maté is a sought-after expert on illness, addiction, parenting and stress. He has written four Canadian bestsellers, including In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction. As a writer and speaker, he is 
widely acclaimed for his power, insight, good humour and warmth.
Sponsored by APIRG; the Gender Based Violence Prevention Program with Status of Women Canada the Global Education Program, University of Alberta International; and the Faculty of Nursing
Raj Patel
Food Cultures for Sustainability
Wednesday, January 30, 7:30pm – 9:00 pm
Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science 1-430
Note: Please bring a donation for the Campus Food Bank.
Changing the food system couldn't be more urgent. All signs point to that conclusion, whether you consider the droughts, floods and fires caused by climate change, the rise in global food prices, or that the health effects of our current food system. In a world where nearly a billion people are under-nourished and almost two billion are overweight, we desperately need a new vision of how to grow, distribute and eat our food.
Often it is easier to focus on the bad news rather than the good. We are surrounded by communities that already know how to feed the world for our generation, and for generations to come. Raj Patel will discuss ways that people and organizations are building better ways to eat today so that all of us can eat well tomorrow.
Raj Patel is an award-winning writer, activist and academic. He has degrees from the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics and Cornell University. He has worked for the World Bank and WTO, and protested against them around the world.
He’s currently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for African Studies, an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a fellow at The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First.
In addition to numerous scholarly publications, he regularly writes for The Guardian, and has contributed to the LA Times, NYTimes.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Mail on Sunday, and The Observer. His first book was Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and his latest, The Value of Nothing, is a New York Times best-seller.
Sponsored by the Office of Sustainability; City of Edmonton; and the Global Education Program, University of Alberta International
Robert Fisk
Arab Awakening: Are We Hearing the Truth?
Thursday, January 31, 5:15 – 7:15 pm
Tory Lecture Theatres 11
Note: This event requires tickets. Ticket Info.
As great changes continue to sweep the Arab world, readers in the West continue to rely on Robert Fisk’s reporting to truly understand what is happening. With over 30 year's experience, Fisk has seen it all: the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, Afghanistan, the two Gulf Wars and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Yet nothing compares to the upheavals in the Middle East which began in 2011, what some have termed The Arab Spring. As always, Fisk is reporting from the epicentre of the tensions, currently Syria. He will share his honest and insightful perspective.
Robert Fisk is one of the world’s most famous international journalists, with more than 30 years of experience reporting on the Middle East. Throughout his career, he has reported on a lengthy series of historical events, and has exhibited a unique ability to identify the forces driving politics, and the underlying problems driving conflict. Beyond the popular support and recognition he has earned internationally, Mr. Fisk has received more professional journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent, including the Amnesty International UK Press Award, which he was awarded twice, and the British International Journalist of the Year Award, which he was awarded seven times. In addition to his reporting, he has also published several books, the most influential of which is The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East.
Sponsored by Middle Eastern and African Studies, Dept. of Political Science and Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East
Sheryl WuDunn
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Thursday, January 31, 7:30 – 9:00 pm
Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science 1-430
The greatest resource in the world today isn't oil or gold or wind—it’s women. There is growing evidence that one of the simplest and most effective ways to alleviate poverty is to educate girls. Empower girls with knowledge, and help them develop some financial independence—it integrates them into the local economy, and connects them to the world. Girls aren't problems or victims, and their ingenuity and courage is beginning to spread with many helping hands from the West.
Sheryl WuDunn is co-author of Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide, a book that has become a worldwide bestseller. WuDunn’s career spans investment banking for Goldman Sachs, strategic planning for the New York Times, and serving as a foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Beijing. She is the first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer Prize, awarded for her reportage on China’s 1989 Democracy Movement.
Sponsored by the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation; the Global, Environmental and Outdoor Education Council, Alberta Teachers’ Association; and the Global Education Program, University of Alberta International
