This is the second of four luncheon discussions hosted by the World History Center this Fall focused on World History in Turbulent Times. Alexa Woloshyn from Carnegie Mellon University will lead the discussion on "New Perspectives on Global Indigeneity".
We live in turbulent times. Climate collapse is already displacing populations, even as governments and corporations continue to support the burning of biomass and fossil fuels. Democracy and self-determination are under attack around the world.
Fortunately, in every place where authoritarianism is on the rise, and in every instance where hope seems to recede, people are fighting back. When they do so, they often appeal to the past to condemn the injustices of the present. Indigenous people reference ancestral land claims, climate refugees brandish images of historical landscapes, democracy activists cite founding documents, advocates for reparations for the descendants of enslaved people calculate the economic cost of ancestral toil and dispossession.
Our fall luncheon series is a series of conversations inspired by these observations and prompted by the following question: How can insights from world history support activism in the world that we inhabit today?