This WorldCanvass kicks off the University of Iowa’s observance of International Education Week with the presentation of the second annual International Impact Award and an examination of the experience of being the other.

Dr. Trudy Huskamp Peterson, former acting archivist of the United States, founding executive director of the Open Society Archives, director of archives and records management for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and 2011 recipient of the International Impact Award, has been recognized for her unflagging commitment, even in the face of opposition and intimidation, to the protection and safe-keeping of at-risk documents in order that history may be preserved. University of Iowa Provost Barry Butler and Associate Provost and Dean of International Programs Downing Thomas present Peterson with the International Impact Award at the beginning of WorldCanvass.

Following the presentation and a musical tribute, Peterson and fellow participants turn to a discussion of the theme for the evening’s program: what does it mean to be the other? For the purposes of this discussion, we define the other as someone whose color, tribe, political affiliation, religion, language, gender, sexual orientation or disability leaves him or her outside the majority and, often, without a voice in the world. In a wide-ranging conversation, we discuss international standards for human rights and the protections and avenues for redress available to abused peoples, and we learn about WiderNet’s involvement in a USAID-funded effort to develop an off-line digital Global Disabilities Rights Library. We’re joined by a retired, 25-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force who is now studying for her doctorate at the UI and hear her reflections on the experience of otherness, and we meet Latina members of an Eastern Iowa community who’ve made the successful transition from immigrant outsider to vested community member.

Host Joan Kjaer’s guests include Trudy Huskamp Peterson, Michel Gobat, Alan Huckleberry, Benjamin Coelho, Nathan Miller, Kelsey Kramer, Kayla Casey, Hasti Barahmand, Tom Cook, Debbie Shattuck, Jennifer Fawcett, Carolyn Colvin, Margarita Maldonado and Rocio Rivera.

This WorldCanvass kicks off the University of Iowa’s observance of International Education Week with the presentation of the second annual International Impact Award and an examination of the experience of being the other.

Dr. Trudy Huskamp Peterson, former acting archivist of the United States, founding executive director of the Open Society Archives, director of archives and records management for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and 2011 recipient of the International Impact Award, has been recognized for her unflagging commitment, even in the face of opposition and intimidation, to the protection and safe-keeping of at-risk documents in order that history may be preserved. University of Iowa Provost Barry Butler and Associate Provost and Dean of International Programs Downing Thomas present Peterson with the International Impact Award at the beginning of WorldCanvass.

Following the presentation and a musical tribute, Peterson and fellow participants turn to a discussion of the theme for the evening’s program: what does it mean to be the other? For the purposes of this discussion, we define the other as someone whose color, tribe, political affiliation, religion, language, gender, sexual orientation or disability leaves him or her outside the majority and, often, without a voice in the world. In a wide-ranging conversation, we discuss international standards for human rights and the protections and avenues for redress available to abused peoples, and we learn about WiderNet’s involvement in a USAID-funded effort to develop an off-line digital Global Disabilities Rights Library. We’re joined by a retired, 25-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force who is now studying for her doctorate at the UI and hear her reflections on the experience of otherness, and we meet Latina members of an Eastern Iowa community who’ve made the successful transition from immigrant outsider to vested community member.

Host Joan Kjaer’s guests include Trudy Huskamp Peterson, Michel Gobat, Alan Huckleberry, Benjamin Coelho, Nathan Miller, Kelsey Kramer, Kayla Casey, Hasti Barahmand, Tom Cook, Debbie Shattuck, Jennifer Fawcett, Carolyn Colvin, Margarita Maldonado and Rocio Rivera.