imagining a better world

26 May

[PREFATORY NOTE; a conversation in a non-Western setting about my memoir and Stuart Rees’s

pioneering study of cruelty and its transcendence as analyzed and understood in part with the help

of illuminating poems.

IMAGINING A BETTER WORLD RICHARD FALK & STUART REES

IN CONVERSATION WITH JOSEPH CAMILLERI

PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL

Described by some as the most gripping political memoir they have read, Public Intellectual reveals how Richard Falk rose to prominence in America and internationally as a leading international law scholar and a public intellectual. It recounts a life of progressive commitment, unyielding engagement and constant questioning of himself and others. It is a life that places Falk and the reader at the centre of our deepest crises, be it Vietnam, South Africa, Iran, or Israel and Palestine. US interventionism, the Cold War, nuclear weapons, the ecological crisis, human rights abuses, academia and his personal life are woven together in a dramatic and illuminating account of the current human predicament.

TWO REMARKABLE BOOKS, TWO INSPIRING JOURNEYS

CRUELTY OR HUMANITY Cruelty has long been a feature of the conduct of states, but is seldom acknowledged for what it is, let alone explained or effectively resisted.

Governments mouth respect for human rights yet promote discrimination, violence and suppression of critics.

Documenting case studies from around the world, distinguished academic and human rights advocate Stuart Rees exposes politically motivated cruelty and its outcomes. Using his first-hand observations and insights from scholars and poets, he argues for bold action to devise non-violent mindsets and institutions on which the future well-being of people, animals and the planet depend.

PRESENTED BY

CONVERSATION AT THE CROSSROADS

TUESDAY 8TH JUNE 7:30PM AEST

LONDON 10:30AM ATHENS 12:30PM ISTANBUL 12:30PM                                                           Click here

NEW DELHI 3:00PM KUALA LUMPUR/PERTH 5:30PM

TOKYO 6:30PM AUCKLAND 9:30PM [ZOOM EVENT]           to register http://www.crossroadsconversation.com.au

Richard Falk is one of the world’s leading scholars in the fields of International Relations and International Law. He is Professor Emeritus of International Law, Princeton University;

Professor, Orfalea Center of Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara; author/co-author of over 70 books, and hundreds of journal articles. He has served in various roles for the United Nations and non-government organisations, including as UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (2008-2014). He has been an animator, convener, contributor  for numerous national and international initiatives, including the Independent International Commission on Kosovo.

Stuart Rees is Emeritus Professor University of Sydney where for twenty years he held the chair in Social Work & Social Policy and founded the Sydney Peace Foundation which established the prestigious Sydney Peace Prize. His writings on peace and social justice issues and several anthologies of poetry, illuminate the present social and political landscape and pose the biggest question of all: what does it mean to be human?

FEATURING A FASCINATING ARRAY OF GUESTS

Hanan Ashrawi

A distinguished Palestinian leader, legislator, activist, scholar, and author of many books, articles, poems and short stories. She served as a member of the PLO Leadership Committee and as an official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace process.

Amin Saikal

Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences at University of Western Australia, and former

University Distinguished Professor of Political Science, and Foundation Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University (1994-2019).

Hilary Charlesworth

Laureate Professor at Melbourne Law School and Distinguished

Professor in the Regulatory Institutions Network at the Australian National University.

Punam Yadav

Research Fellow in Gender and Disasters in the Institute for Risk and Disaster

Reduction, University College London. Prior to this, she was Research Fellow in the Centre for Women, Peace and Security and Teaching Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Raffaele Marchetti

Deputy Rector for Internationalization and Professor in International Relations at the Department of Political Science and the School of Government of LUISS. He is the editor of the Routledge/DoC series World Politics and Dialogues of Civilizations.

Chandra Muzaffar

One of Asia’s leading public intellectuals, president  of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), and author and editor of 32 books. He was Professor / Director of the Centre for Civilisational Dialogue, University of Malaya and Professor of Global Studies at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Kirthi Jayakumar

Activist, artist, entrepreneur and writer from Chennai, India. She holds an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies from Coventry University, and an MA in Sustainable Peace in a Contemporary World from the University of Peace, Costa Rica.

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