In an age of increasing global integration, the Saint Louis University community will take on an international perspective during the upcoming Atlas Week program. Beginning on Thursday, March 30, and continuing to Friday, April 8, Atlas Week will include more than 50 events and a speech by a Noble Peace Prize-winning activist.
“Atlas Week is designed to celebrate the international dimension of our academic programs and to celebrate our role in international education and service in light of our Jesuit tradition,” said Michelle Lorenzini, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Political Science who is coordinating the week’s events. “Our main goal of the Atlas Week program is to increase the awareness of our University community of the global issues that confront us today in order to promote discussion and inspire action. We want our students to become strong leaders with solid values, empowered to make positive contributions to society.”
Many schools and departments will contribute to Atlas Week, including the Department of Political Science, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, the College of Public Service and the School of Medicine.
“The best thing about this year’s program is that the entire University community is involved. Faculty and students from Frost to the South campus are participating and have planned really exciting and important events-events which highlight the need for political and social justice in our globalized world,” Lorenzini said.
Atlas Week will culminate with the Signature Symposium. Noble Peace Prize winner Jody Williams will deliver the keynote address. An English as a Second Language teacher and aid worker from Vermont, Williams led the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The organization successfully lobbied for the passage of the Ottawa Treaty, which prohibits the production and use of antipersonnel landmines. Williams won the peace prize in 1997 in recognition of her efforts; she is one of only three American women to have received the award.
“[Williams] will address the impact that every individual can have in achieving social and political change,” Lorenzini said.
Williams will speak from 5-6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 6, in the Busch Student Center Multipurpose Room. The event is free and open to the public. A private reception will follow the keynote address; students interested in attending the reception should RSVP at atlas.slu.edu before Friday, March 31.
Williams is only the latest in a series of prominent international figures who have delivered Atlas Week’s keynote address. Last year’s speaker was Oscar Arias, a Noble Peace Prize-winning Costa Rican politician. Arias, who was elected to a second term as president of Costa Rica in February, received the 1987 Noble Peace Prize for his work to bring stability and democracy to Central America.
In addition to William’s speech, Atlas Week will include more than 50 events designed to foster international awareness. Programming will begin on Thursday, March 30, with a mock refugee camp in the Quad. “Globalization and Free Speech,” a panel discussion on the recent controversy over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper, will also be held on Thursday.
Additional events throughout the week will include lectures on international business issues, free salsa dancing lessons and a showing of the Oscar-winning film Born into Brothels. The week will end on Friday, April 7, with the Parade of Nations and Billiken World Festival. These events will feature international music, dance and food.
