FVCC To Host 2023 Lecture Series
The Flathead Valley Community College will host their 2023 Honors Symposium lecture series starting next Monday.
This year's theme is "Global Democracies at a Crossroads" and features three nights of speakers.
All lectures start at 7pm in the large community room at FVCC's Arts and Technology building.
These events are free and open to the public.
FVCC released the following information:
Flathead Valley Community College's 2023 Honors Symposium lecture series begins February 27 and features three nights of speakers addressing this year’s theme, “Global Democracies at a Crossroads.”
In our increasingly globalized world, nations are often interdependent and foreign policy is important to our local and global welfare. Geopolitical concerns, the fate of global democracies, and economic crises feature prominently in our lives. International trade, global diplomacy and multilateral relations are far reaching and impact Montanans locally.
To help us understand these connections and how they evolve, FVCC has invited distinguished experts to share their research and insights on the state of global democratic institutions and processes in 2023.
Join us for the 2023 series:
- Monday, February 27
The Changing Multilateral Order and the Future of Democracy
Presented by Professor Susanne Mueller-Redwood, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Montana State University in Bozeman
The past decade has seen increasing challenges to democratic governance around the world. The international community has watched the repression of pro-democracy protests in Iran, democratic backsliding in central Europe, and a host of military coups in countries such as Myanmar and Sudan. Perhaps most devastatingly, we have witnessed an authoritarian nuclear power, Russia, attacking a sovereign democratic state, Ukraine. These developments raise important questions about the future of democratic governance around the world and the role that the international community should play in protecting democracy. - Monday, March 13
Challenges in a Changing Europe: War, Energy, Climate, Inflation and Growth in the European
Union
Presented by Professor Craig Parsons, Professor of Political Science at University of Oregon in Eugene
The countries of the European Union are beset by tremendous policy challenges: a major war on their borders, sudden scarcity of energy, climate change, high inflation, and slow growth in much of the continent. Will this time of trial prove too much for Europe, accelerating its relative decline on the world stage, or will it provoke responses that create a stronger and more cohesive European Union? Prof. Parsons analyzes these overlapping crises, the hopes for European answers to them, and the implications for global politics in the 21st century. - Monday, March 20
War, War & Democracy: Are history’s lessons Ukraine’s future?
Presented by Professor Elizabeth Kier, Professor of Political Science at University of Washington in Seattle
Ukraine is fighting for its survival. Is it also fighting for its democracy? What is the historical link between war and democracy? Historians and political scientists usually take for granted that the one goes with the other: the sacrifices in a war lead to democratic reforms after a war. We think of female suffrage after World War I or the advancement of civil rights after World War II. We cannot know what is in store for Ukraine’s democracy, in part because so much depends on how that war ends, but we can consider more generally how war affects democracy, and what that suggests about Ukraine’s democratic future.
The Honors Symposium continues a tradition of bringing thoughtful public lectures regarding current hottopic issues to Northwest Montana. Free and open to the public, all lectures begin at 7pm in the large community room in FVCC’s Arts and Technology building. The 2023 Honors Symposium is funded in part by the Theodore Chase Endowment Fund. For more information, call 406.756.3889 or search keyword “honors” at fvcc.edu/events.