FREEDOM SCHOOL

Villanova Room

7:00 - 8:00 PM

VIISTA: Turning Passion for Immigration Justice into Action 

Farhad Wedee, Humanitarian & Immigrant Advocate, VIISTA Graduate; Jessica Merone, Ph.D., Social Work Educator & Immigrant Advocate and VIISTA Graduate

This session introduces Villanova’s Interdisciplinary Studies Training for Advocates (VIISTA) certification and explores how students and community members can move beyond awareness into meaningful, justice-centered action. The presentation highlights current immigration challenges, ethical advocacy and accompaniment, and how interdisciplinary learning prepares advocates to support immigrant communities with humility, competence, and care.

Living Sustainably, Pursuing Justice

Allie McAllister, Office for Sustainability; Simon Brooks, Graduate Student, Sustainable Engineering

Pursuing justice often feels overwhelming. Every day, we learn of new issues that demand more of our care and attention. As we seek actions within our control that address our circles of concern, can sustainable living support our pursuit of justice? In this session, we will explore the environmental and social consequences of unjust and unsustainable lifestyles. There is no justice without sustainability—sustainability is necessary for justice. Climate and environmental justice are deeply interconnected with social justice. We must work to mend a society where there is Enough, For All, Forever.

Join us to reflect, share, and explore how individual and collective sustainability actions can deepen our engagement with local, regional, and global justice initiatives.

How to Tax a Billionaire

Guinevere Keith, Graduate Student, Theology and Religious Studies

Why is it so hard for politicians to tax billionaires? This session will explore how campaign finance law, lobbying culture, and insider trading have created an American political system that feels bought by billionaires on both sides of the aisle. Come learn about reforms that Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders are fighting for to fix this problem. The session will connect these reforms to Catholic Social Teaching on the Church's preferential option for the poor, contrasting this value of equal dignity with purchased policy outcomes in today's America.

Mending with Glass - Community Art and Reflection on the Summer of 2020

Mary-Angela Papalaskari, Faculty, Computing Sciences

This is a hands-on, interactive session. After a brief introduction and reflection on the Black Lives Matter protests across the globe in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, participants will use glass collected from broken windows of Philadelphia storefronts to create art. Attendees will also be invited to compose a brief reflection and to create designs using glass pieces. The designs, along with the participants’ reflections will be printed as cards participants can take home, contributing to an ongoing project that uses glass to create art as a meditation on positive change.

Implications of U.S. Government Cancelling of Women, Peace, & Security Initiatives

Joe Evans, Faculty, CPJE

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the UN Security Council passing resolution 1325 to promote women, peace, and security (WPS), the U.S. government has responded not by strengthening their existing action plan or promoting this mandate and essential aspects of peace and justice; rather, the Department of Defense has cancelled WPS programs. These reductions include eliminating funding for international programs to promote women’s involvement in peace processes, cancelling the publication of a collected volume prepared by the U.S. Naval War College from a variety of international experts, and ignoring advice from strategic planners and practitioners on the essential role of women’s involvement and contribution to peace. The cancellation of WPS programs not only hinders the U.S. government’s voice for justice but presents a strategic security disadvantage for promoting sustainable peace.