WWU’s Fairhaven College Announces Schedule for Fall 2026 World Issues Forum

Grounded in social and environmental justice and human rights, Western’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies Fall 2026 World Issues Forum lecture series will focus on urgent global topics such as planetary survival, decolonization and anti-racism, human rights, migrations and the world economy. 

The following forums, now in their 25th year, are free and open to the general public, challenging students, faculty, staff and community members to be active and engaged global citizens. The forums are held from noon to 1:20 p.m. every Wednesday (except where otherwise noted below) in the Fairhaven Auditorium.

“Interests, Values, and the Messy Middle: Diplomacy in Practice” 

Presenter: Ambassador (retired) Jeffrey Hovenier, former U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo and career U.S. Foreign Service Officer.

Topic: In this talk Ambassador Hovenier will explore the role American diplomats play in identifying national interests, weighing them against competing values, and building and implementing strategies that survive the messy realities of politics, power and time.

Register for the online/virtual option here. 

“A Nation’s Undesirables: Mixed-Race Children and Whiteness in the Post-Nazi Era” 

Presenter: University of Wyoming Professor of Rhetoric and Critical Cultural Studies and Media Studies Tracey Owens Patton

Topic: “A Nation’s Undesirables” centers interracial coupling, German women’s rights, mixed-race children and racism while questioning how the German Nation-State removed mixed-race persons in favor of fantasies of whiteness. As a result, a new narrative of women and Black German children in the postwar era emerges. 

Register for the online/virtual option here.

“Still Standing: From Bir al-Saba to Be’er Sheva — How a New Palestinian Town Became an Israeli Old City” 

Presenter: Green River College Associate Professor of Political Science Yoav Duman

Topic: How did a recently built Palestinian town become an Israeli Old City? This talk traces Beersheba’s transformation after 1948, showing how dispossession, institutional reuse, heritage and antiquity reshaped surviving places. It argues that selective depoliticization made Palestinian history visible while limiting its power to shape the present and future claims.

“The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States”

Presenter: George Washington University Professor of History David J. Silverman

Topic: This talk is an examination of the ways Indigenous people have factored as objects and actors into the invention of racial identities in the United States and its colonial predecessors.

“The Contested American Revolution Today: Thinking about the 250th” 

Presenter: Western Washington University Professor of History Johann Neem

Topic: Today, Americans are as divided about the past as they are about the present. In this talk, Professor Neem will explore the competing visions we Americans have about the country’s founding as we commemorate the United States’s 250th anniversary and how we might move beyond the false choices offered by partisans on both sides.

“FILM: ‘The River Remembers’” 

Topic: “The River Remembers” is a character-driven documentary that follows Tribal members of the Elwha and lower Klamath Rivers as they lead the largest dam removals in U.S. history — restoring salmon and renewing culture after a century of struggle. The film is a story of resilience and hope, showing that when rivers heal, people heal, too. Panel discussion to follow. 

The film will begin at 11 a.m. The Q&A panel will follow the film from 12:30 to 1:20 with Vanissa Castle, Noelani Auguston, Jordan Riber and Adonia Cairns.

“The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Adoption Rights: Lessons Learned for the Next Generations” 

Speakers: Clinical Social Worker (retired) Lynn Grotsky and Seattle University Emerita Professor of Law Lisa Brodoff

In 1986, Lisa and her partner Lynn had a baby via donor insemination, but Lynn’s legal parenting rights as the non-biological mother were not guaranteed. Hear their story about a two-year court battle that won parenting rights for themselves and for same-sex couples across Washington. Follow their journey from state law to D.C. and their ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ equality today.

Western Washington University’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, founded in 1967, is nationally recognized for its innovative approach to interdisciplinary education. The college is known for intensive advising, student-designed majors, narrative evaluations and hands-on, independent learning — all grounded in a deep commitment to social and environmental justice. 

Stay up to date with Fairhaven's World Issues Forum here.

Learn more about Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary studies here.