Programs Supported by the Joseph Stevens Freedom Endowment
The programs listed below were presented to GVSU students, faculty, and the public through the generous support of the Joseph Stevens Freedom Endowment fund. Some of the events were planned and presented with GVSU and/or community co-sponsors.
What Do We Get Right and Wrong About China: A Conversation with Kaiser Kuo
The Political Science and International Relations departments invited students to join in on a conversation about China and the media with Kaiser Kuo. Kuo is the host of the Sinica Podcast, the leading English-language podcast on current affairs in China and a journalist who lived in China for 20 years. He discusses the importance of getting China policy right and will share what he considers the five basic qualities to look for in a "China expert" so that we are better able to determine whose opinions and perspectives we should take seriously.
Sponsored by the GVSU Political Science Department, International Relations Program, and the Joseph Stevens Fund.
Human Rights in Action and Advocacy from Indigenous to Global Perspectives - Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Presented by Jeneile Luebke
Dr Luebke is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Affiliate American Indian Studies program, Sexual Violence Research initiative faculty, and a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.
Dr. Luebke's research aims to better understand the lived experiences of gender-based violence, as well as advocating for survivor-led, trauma informed, and culturally safe interventions and options for Indigenous survivors of violence using Indigenous specific and community engaged research methodologies. Her other current work focuses upon the relationship between land violence, planetary health, and gender-based violence among Indigenous peoples.
Sponsored by the Jospeh Stevens Freedom Fund, Department of Sociology, Department of Anthropology, Department of Psychology, and the Department of History.
Great Decision program "Iran at a Crossroads" presented by Suzanne DiMaggio, February 27, 2023
Suzanne DiMaggio is Director of the Iran Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her lecture is sponsored by the GVSU Political Science Department, International Relations Program, and the Joseph Stevens Fund.
Co-sponsorship of Interview with an Alumni: "Human rights Theory and Practice" by Micaela Cole - February 22, 2023. Sponsored by the Joseph Stevens Freedom Endowment, Human Rights Department, and the Political Science Department.
Great Decision program "Reckoning on War Crimes", presented by Deborah Amos of NPR, February 6, 2023.
Deborah Amos, awarding-winning international correspondent for National Public Radio, discussed war crimes in on-going conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Deborah Amos covers the Middle East for NPR News. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. In 2009, Amos won the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting from Georgetown University and in 2010 was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award by Washington State University. Amos is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Ferris Professor at Princeton, where she teaches journalism during the fall term.
Sponsored by the Joseph Stevens Freedom Endowment, Political Science Department, and International Relations Program.
Co-sponsorship of Great Lakes History Conference: "Difficult Histories" - September 23-24, 2022. Sponsored by the History Department and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Anne and Emmett, presented by Ebony Road Players, Mar. 24, 2022
On March 24, Ebony Road Players, presented Anne and Emmett written by Jane Langhart Cohen, is a provocative drama which imagines a conversation between Anne Frank and Emmett Till, bringing together on stage two young victims of hatred who died in obscurity, yet whose lives are today remembered all across the globe.
Sponsors: Frederik Meijer Honors College, Joseph Stevens Freedom Endowment, Department of English, and Division of Inclusion and Equity
A Conversation with Fiona Hill: Russia, Ukraine, and American Democracy, Mar. 1, 2022
Dr. Fiona Hill is currently Senior Fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. She recently served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council.
Sponsored by: The Joseph Stevens Foundation, the Political Science Department, and the International Relations Program
Co-sponsorship of Suffer the Children - Richard Hiskes - October 14, 2021. Sponsored by the Human Rights Department
Co-sponsorship of GRLAFF, Grand Rapids Latin American Film Festival, April 3-5, 2020. Sponsored by LAS - David Stark
Dispatches From Asia: Hong Kong, The Philippines, and The Struggle For Human Rights, Feb. 17, 2020
Julie McCarthy - National Public Radio's International Correspondent, South East Asia.
In an overseas career spanning 25 years, Julie McCarthy has covered Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and South America. She is currently based in the Philippines.
Sponsored by the Joseph Stevens Freedom Fund, The Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the International Relations Program.
Co-sponsorship of Chiaroscuro International Film Series - Every other Sunday in January, February and March 2020. Sponsored by the Visual and Media Arts Department - Toni Perrine
Screening of "Never Forget to Lie" and Conversation with the Director, Marian Marzynski, Nov. 4, 2019
Marian Marzynski is the director/narrator of three Holocaust documentaries for Frontline and for many years served as an instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design. Here’s a link to his website: https://www.lifeonmarz.com/
On November 4, we will screen his Never Forget to Lie, a Frontline film (bit.ly/NeverForget-film), which is about the fate of Jewish children in Warsaw during the Holocaust who survived, usually by being hidden among the Polish population. Marzynski was himself protected in a Catholic monastery and figures prominently in the work. The hour-long film will be followed by an on-stage interview of Marzynski by Rob Franciosi (ENG) and then q&a from the audience.
Co-sponsorship of GRLAFF, Grand Rapids Latin American Film Festival. April 5-7, 2019. Sponsored by LAS - David Stark
Co-sponsorship of lecture by Rachel Joselson in March, 2019. Sponsored by the English Department - Rob Franciosi
Co-sponsorship of lecture by Henry Greenspan in November, 2018. Sponsored by the English Department - Rob Franciosi
Co-sponsorship of lecture by Father Patrick Desbois in October, 2018. Sponsored by the English Department - Rob Franciosi
Co-sponsorship of presentation by Brooke Ackerly on "Human Rights and Climate Change: Poverty, Priviledge and Responsibility" on October 15, 2018. Sponsored by Honors College - Karen Zivi
Shakespear Festival Play "Defy the Stars" - October 2018. Sponsored by Theatre - James Bell
Defy the Stars staged reading at Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival, October 2018. Defy the Stars follows a group of internees at the Westerbork Transit Camp in the Netherlands in July 1942, including actress Rivka Levin. In order to save themselves and others from deportation to Auschwitz, these actors stage a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Co-sponsorship of Lecture by Laura Belmonte on Global LGBT Rights Movement, Nov. 16, 2017. Sponsored by the History Department - Paul Murphy
Co-sponsorship of GRLAFF, Eighth Grand Rapids Latin American Film Festival, April 6-8, 2017. Sponsored by LAS - David Stark
Co-sponsorship of the "Red Shoes Project against Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking", October 25 - November 5, 2017. Sponsored by modern Language and Literatures - Zulema Moret
Co-sponsorship of Robert Skloot, "If the Whole Body Dies", staged reading on Nov. 8, 2017. Sponsored by the English Department - Rob Franciosi
Justice and Healing for Victims of Genocide and Sexual Slavery: The Case of the Yazidis
Co-sponsorship of presentation on "Justive and Healing for Victims of Genocide and Sexual Slavery: The Case of the Yazidis" on November 20, 2017. Sponsored by Arabic and Middle East Studies - Sebastian Maisel
Ms. Nadia Murad Basee Taha, UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking, ISIS Survivor and Human-Rights Activist will speak on the Yazidi Genocide and Sexual Slavery at GVSU's Loosemore Auditorium on November 20, 2017. She is accompanied by Haider Elias, president of Yazda, a Global Yazidi Organization, that talks about efforts to bring justice, sustenance, healing and rejuvenation to the Yazidis who have suffered under or are affected by, the genocidal campaign against their people by the so-called Islamic State (IS) as well as the IS campaign against other vulnerable ethno-religious minorities.
Co-sponsorship of lecture by Edwin Black “IBM and the Holocaust”, Jewish Federation of Grand Rapids, April 2017.
Co-sponsorship of Human Rights programming. Honors College
Co-sponsorship of Holocaust studies trip for GVSU student/faculty (Rob Franciosi)
The Scarlet Cord: Healing for Sex Trafficked Children
Co-sponsor Pamela Alderman exhibit/presentation and premier "The Scarlet Cord", Honors College
This unique event will offer insight into the world of human trafficking while offering hope and ideas for action. Judge TJ Ackert will speak about the increase of trafficking on local levels. Artist Pamela Alderman, whose work The Scarlet Cord will be on display, will discuss her experience of depicting human trafficking during ArtPrize 2014 and the 2015 Super Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona.
Following the discussion, you will experience the film which highlights the reactions of those who walked through Alderman’s art installation, including trafficking and sexual abuse survivors.
Please click the link below for more information:
Frozen Time, Liquid Memories: 1942-2012
Co-sponsorship of Frizen Time, Liquid Memories, February 12, 2015. Sponsored by the Modern Languge and Literature Department
Grand Valley was proud to present the screening of: Frozen Time, Liquid Memories: 1942-2012
a film by Dragan Kujundzic
Kujundzic is a Professor of Film and Media Studies, Jewish, Germanic and Slavic Studies, at the University of Florida. He is also a specialist of French Philosopher, Jacques Derrida. This two-part documentary commemorates the seventy years since the two round-ups of the Jews, one in Novi Sad (today Serbia) in January 1942, and the other in Paris in July 1942.
Co-Sponsorship of Dr. Aren Maeir, Bar-Ilan University. Presentation on archarological site of Tell es-Safi/Gath, Isreal on November 18, 2014
Peace Corps presentation on October 2, 2014. Mileage reimbursement for 3 speakers
Co-sponsorship of James Kofi Annan presentation on human trafficking and human rights by the Sociology Department, December 2014
Co-sponsorship of US Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibition - Honors College
Co-sponsorship of US Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibition - Traveling exhibit rental free