October 16, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. in the Forum Room, S.U.B.
Dr. Kevin J. O’Brien, an Associate Professor of Religion at Pacific Lutheran University, will present a talk that asks what contemporary environmentalism can learn from César Chávez and the movement he created.
Chávez (1927-1993) was a union organizer best known for leading a famous grape boycott and advocating justice for farm workers. Less well known is the fact that he helped to negotiate the earliest bans on pesticides like DDT and advocated a new spiritual connection between human beings and the rest of the natural world. A central lesson is the importance of personal and collective sacrifice, a topic from which environmentalists tend to shy away but which Chávez demonstrates can be an effective organizing tool.
Dr. O’Brien’s talk is sponsored by the Environment and Society Interdisciplinary Research Community, the Arts and Humanities Institute, the Honors College and Phi Alpha Theta History Society.