WWU’s Fairhaven College Winter 2026 World Issues Forum Program

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WWU's Fairhaven College Winter 2026 World Issues Forum Program

February 8, 2026

Grounded in social and environmental justice and human rights, the Winter 2026 World Issues Forum lecture series, organized by Western's Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, is focused 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 24th 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 in the Fairhaven Auditorium. Past presentations with available recordings are linked below.

Watch Mayerfeld's and Neem's "America's Constitutional Crisis" presentation here.

Presenters: University of Washington Professor and Chair of Law, Societies & Justice and Professor of Political Science Jamie Mayerfeld

Western Washington University Professor of History Johann Neem

Topic: This panel explores whether Trump's actions since re-election have created a constitutional crisis. Drawing on John Locke and the American Founders, the panelists ask whether we still live in a republic or whether we have entered a new era in which we are governed by force rather than law. These questions get to the heart of what it means to live in a free society today.

Watch Raquel Montoya-Lewis's "Therapeutic and Restorative Practices in State and Tribal Court Systems" here.

Presenter: Associate Justice, Washington State Supreme Court Raquel Montoya Lewis

Topic: Justice Montoya-Lewis discusses her experiences as a trial and appeals court judge in both tribal and state courts and shares what state and federal courts can learn from tribal courts. Through her work in multiple systems, Justice Montoya-Lewis has professional experience with both tribal and state systems and has worked with tribes to develop tribal courts that reflect the values and traditions of Indigenous communities in the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest. She provides a general overview of state and tribal court systems and discusses the differences between therapeutic and restorative practices in both systems.

"Life in Gaza after October 7th"

Presenters: College student in Gaza, publisher of a Palestinian cookbook and artist, whose work has been exhibited in the USA, Farah Kamal

IT worker, husband, and father of three children in Gaza, Omar Skaik

Topic: Gaza refugees Farah Kamal and Omar Skaik join us to talk about life in Gaza after October 7th, 2023. Farah was about to start college as an art student while Omar was a busy young father who worked in IT when their world fell apart.

"Traces of Enayat: What the Archive Remembers"

Presenter: Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Alberta, Canada, Iman Mersal

Topic: Drawing on Traces of Enayat, this discussion examines various approaches to engaging with the archive and confronting its absence. It explores how the lack of an archive can itself reshape narrative - altering our positionality and expanding the possibilities for telling stories that resist the flattening of the past.

"Lummi Nation's Fight for Consultation on Projects in Canada"

Presenter: Founder and Director of Cascadia Legal LLP in Victoria, BC John Gailus

Topic: Gailus is a member of the Cumshewa Clan of the Haida Nation. He has a varied law practice focused on consultation, Aboriginal and treaty rights litigation, Indian Act issues and economic development, both on and off reserve. John has served as counsel in all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions. John is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law where he teaches the Indigenous Lands, Rights and Governance course.

"Adventure Learning Grant Experiences: Armenia, Ghana, Mexico and Beyond"

Presenters: Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies Students and ALG Recipients Drew Aposhyan, Hadley Hudson, Colleen Ryan

Topic: Drew Aposhyan is a student at Western Washington, finishing a concentration at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies centered around creative writing. He is interested in writing all kinds of things. He dreams of a world in which writing could be his source of income. He does not seem to live in that world.

In the 2024-2025 school year, Drew went on an ALG-funded exploration of his family history, the experience of diaspora and the implications of forced immigration. This exploration took him from the Caucasus countries of Armenia and Georgia through Turkey and into the Balkans.

Hadley Hudson is a horse girl, yoga lover, animal enjoyer and student. She is pursuing a self-made concentration titled Art, Anthrozoology, and Ethnoecology: Animals and People across Cultures, Time and Place. Hadley is inspired by the intersections of art, social justice, people and animals.

While on Adventure Learning Grant, she visited Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, Lesotho, Ghana and Portugal. She spent the longest amount of time in Ghana and was there for six months. Throughout her travels, she explored themes of relations to the Atlantic Ocean as a Black American in Africa, worked with and rode horses, volunteered at a big cat sanctuary and got her 200-hour yoga certification.

Colleen Ryan is a Western student pursuing a Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies concentration in socioecology. She is most interested in human relationships with land and the interrelated histories, futures, knowledges, cultural practices, craft, art, politics and economies that spring from those relationships, as well as what it takes to make meaningful change toward better lives and futures for people and environment. She is also an artist, with a primary (but not sole) focus on textiles and a deep interest in material craft, and the political implications of art-making.

Over the 2025-2026 school year, Colleen traveled to Japan and Mexico on the Adventure Learning Grant with a project focused on art and craft, especially weaving traditions, as a window into human relationships with place and cultural histories. She worked with artisans and artists to learn about both physical making processes as well as the worlds of knowledge about land, plants, material, culture and lifeways that are inextricable from the making process.

Western Washington University's Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, founded in 1967, is nationally recognized for its innovative approach to 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.

Learn more about Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary studies here.