Stonehill Faculty Focus 2008
Linking Programs and Expanding Understanding
Ubertaccio hit the ground running in 2007-2008, launching a thematic exploration of war. Through discussions, lectures, artistic representations, films, and academic conferences, he has provided programming that increased understanding of the causes and consequences of war in human history.
"We wanted a theme that would unite many of our programs and be relevant to the world our students live in," Ubertaccio explains. "My hope is, at the end of the conversation, students will better appreciate this complicated issue from a historical, cultural and moral point of view."
The year started on a high note as the Martin Institute co-sponsored writer Ishmael Beah, whose memoir, A Long Way Gone, chronicles his experiences as a boy-soldier in Sierra Leone. Now 26 years old, Beah gave a compelling talk to an audience of over 1,000 - including members of the Class of 2011, for whom his book was required summer reading.
The war theme was further developed throughout the academic year: presentations included a screening of My Country, My Country, a documentary by Laura Poitras portraying contemporary life in strife-torn Iraq; The Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq, a talk by Dahlia Wasfi, an Iraqi-born American medical doctor who had just spent three months in her birth country; and the Aku Project, a presentation by the founders of the Nigerian initiative that is bringing desperately needed clean water to a region of that country still devastated by the war in Biafra.