Pacific CurrentsPacific CurrentsWatch this space for Pacific news items, some local and some not so local, submitted by Center members and affiliates. It provides a place to get a more in-depth, up-to-date idea of the interests and activities of Center members. To contact anyone submitting an item, check their address in the SSU Faculty list. Members can send their submissions to our email address at Pan.Pacific@Sonoma.edu.
The China International Science Center Exchange Program
The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand Exchange Program
The Center for Pan Pacific Exchange extends a special welcome to a new faculty member in Criminal Justice Administration, Jeffrey McIlwain. Jeff comes to Sonoma State with a Ph.D in Administration of Justice from Pennsylvania State University, following up an MA in US History from the Contemporary History Institute. His Pacific-related interests include historical research on organized crime in overseas Chinese communities, and national security concerns relating to the Pacific, particularly as these are impacted by free trade agreements. Check out his web site.
In related news Pat Jackson (CJA) notes that this year's (1997) meetings of the Western Society of Criminology will be held in Hawaii. The conference theme this year is "Crime, Justice and Cultural Diversity: From the Wild West to the Pacific Rim." For more info see the listing on CJA's home page at http://www.sonoma.edu/CJA/WSC/WSC97.html
Rocky Rohwedder (ENSP, SSU) passed along the following message on the new Banaban Heritage Society, Inc. home page: "We are happy to announce that the once forgotten Pacific islanders called the BANABANS now have their own Web site. Our Society has launched the site in the hope of educating the public about the history and plight of the long suffering Banaban Communities on Banaba/Ocean Island and Rabi Islands. The Banabans have endured one of the greatest ecological and environment disasters this century with the virtual destruction on their homeland from phosphate mining. With the help and support of their growing number of friends world-wide, we want to ensure their story of courage and survival under great adversity is never forgotten". The new Banaban website is http://www.ion.com.au/~banaban/
Tom Rosin (Anthro, SSU) plans to attend the International Conference on Creativity and Innovation at Grassroots, sponsored by the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India, this coming January. Dr.. Rosin's interests are in indigenous systems of water management, and the institutional contrasts between these practices and those of larger national and international systems: "In developing water as a resource, issues of equity, local participation and empowerment become critical, where traditions of use and conservation by local practitioners may contrast with those projects of grandeur implimented by the modern state. In the specific case of northwest India, an indigenous local system of rainfall harvesting, surface impoundments, aquifer recharge, and shaft well irrigation contrast with the British-influenced, and continuing, post-Independence regime of grand dams, canals, and centrally controlled irrigation. Our present work hopes to demonstrate that the intelligence and commitment of both practitioner and expert, local community and agency, indigenous knowledge and science, are the key to achieving conservation, sustainability and optimal utilization of an increasingly scarce resource."
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