Past Events Archive
View all event posters via our Google Drive archive.
Right Livelihood International Conference: Celebrating 10 Years - April 23-27, 2024 5
Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah: Addressing Reproductive Health Challenges - March 12, 2024 5
Grassroots Community Organizing Workshop - March 1, 2024 6
Right Livelihood student exchange between Lund University and UC Santa Cruz - February 28, 2024 6
Mother Nature Cambodia - February 28, 2024 7
Helena Norberg Hodge – Local is our future: Steps to an economics of happiness - November 30, 2023 8
Paul Walker: Using International Law for the Abolition of Chemical Weapons - November 14, 2023 8
Earth Week Community Conversation With Nnimmo Bassey - May 10, 2023 10
Nnimmo Bassey: People-Powered Responses to the Climate Crisis - April 17, 2023 10
Right Livelihood Graduate Orientation - May 10, 2022 12
Strategic Nonviolent Action Workshop: Skills for building movements that win - May 6, 2022 12
Jamila Raqib: Building People-Power – Lessons from Global Movements - May 5, 2022 13
2021 Right Livelihood Award Presentation - December 1, 2021 13
Poisoned Water & Corporate Greed: Robert Bilott in Conversation - November 30, 2021 14
Right Livelihood Graduate Club meeting - June 22, 2021 14
Nnimmo Bassey in Conversation: Thinking and Rethinking our Actions - May 4, 2021 15
We Are Water: Juan Pablo Orrego - April 17, 2021 15
Isabelle Axelsson: Stockholm Fridays for Future - March 3, 2021 15
Jamila Raqib - February 3, 2021 16
Watching the 2020 Right Livelihood Award Presentation Together - December 3, 2020 16
Maude Barlow and Robert Bilott: Water Justice in the Age of Coronavirus and Beyond - May 6, 2020 18
Vandana Shiva: Poison-Free, Fossil-Free Food & Farming - January 26, 2020 19
Vandana Shiva In Conversation - January 25, 2020 19
Info Session for the 40th Anniversary of the RLA in Medellin - November 13, 2019 20
Workshop: Permaculture, Mushrooms & Ecological Justice - October 26, 2019 20
Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective - October 24, 2019 21
Humanizing Humanity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - October 19, 2019 21
Seed: The Untold Story - October 17, 2019 21
Paris to Pittsburg: the Climate for Change is Now - October 10, 2019 22
Info Session for the Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz - October 3, 2019 22
Graduate Student Orientation to Right Livelihood College - September 25, 2019 22
Announcing the 2019 Right Livelihood Award Laureates - September 25, 2019 22
Dialogos a Escala Humana / Human-Scale Dialogues - August 22, 2019 23
Right Livelihood Summer Institute with Nicanor Perlas - July 8, 2019 24
Iván Velásquez Gómez: Right Livelihood Lecture - March 2, 2019 24
Conference of North American Right Livelihood Award Laureates - May 15-17, 2018 24
Frances Moore Lappe: Daring Democracy 26
Helena Norberg-Hodge: The Economics of Happiness 27
Survival International: Indigenous Peoples’ Day 27
Bill McKibben: Reclaiming the Commons: Climate Justice and Fossil Freedom 28
Wes Jackson: We Can Now Solve the 10,000-Year-Old Problem of Agriculture 28
The Right Livelihood International Student Network is hosting a day-long Teach-In in collaboration with UCSC Professors and the three Right Livelihood Laureates on campus for the 2025 Right Livelihood International Conference: Joan Carling, Reema Nanavaty, and Ryoko Shimizu. This is open to students, faculty, and staff, and we aim to reach over 1,000 students on this day as classes come in and out. Click here for full conference details and here to register for the May 1 Teach-In.
UCSC’s Right Livelihood Center and Rachel Carson College Presents…
Join us for an inspiring evening exploring the power of grassroots activism for advancing women’s rights, Indigenous sovereignty, and environmental justice. This year’s lecture features three distinguished Right Livelihood Laureates whose work has transformed communities and sparked global movements.
The talk will be moderated by Madhavi Murty, who is a UCSC Professor of Sociology studying popular media, nationalism, globalization, feminism, postcolonial theory, cultural theory, and modalities of difference such as race, caste, and gender.
Click here for more information about the 2025 Right Livelihood International Conference.
Learn what graduate students, faculty, and Right Livelihood Laureates are doing to connect activism and academia. Guests are invited to stay from 1:30-2:30 to continue to deepen the conversations after the colloquium ends.
Right Livelihood Laureates
Graduate Students and Faculty
Join us April 23-27, 2024 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UCSC Right Livelihood Center, inaugurate our new role as Global Secretariat of the Right Livelihood College network, and launch a set of faculty-Laureate research clusters and an international student network.
Conference tracks:
(1) We’ll be joined by two Right Livelihood Laureates for the week: 2023 Kenyan Laureate Phyllis Omido, “the Erin Brockovich of East Africa” and 1998 Chilean Laureate Juan Pablo Orrego, popular singer and environmental activist. Phyllis and Juan Pablo will speak at our two largest events — Wednesday, April 24th at the UCSC Silicon Valley Campus and Thursday, April 25th at UCSC — about extractivism and particularly raising questions about the possibilities and challenges of lithium extraction in California.
(2) Students from the Right Livelihood Club are hosting a weeklong student-led convergence with youth representatives from five delegates from the Global Campus of Human Rights and eight delegates from the Right Livelihood Colleges in Chile, Argentina, Nigeria, India, Thailand, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland. The convergence will be the launch of an ongoing RLC student network.
Join 2023 Right Livelihood Laureate Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah for a guest lecture and discussion in Sociology 159: Pregnancy and Birth with Dr. Christie Mccullen.
ABOUT DR. EUNICE BROOKMAN-AMISSAH
Eunice Brookman-Amissah is a Ghanaian physician whose leadership has been instrumental in advancing safe abortion access across Africa. For three decades, she has spearheaded high-level advocacy, sensitization programs, and training on women’s reproductive rights. Her efforts have successfully united healthcare providers, government officials, lawyers, and activists in support of abortion law reforms in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Benin, Eswatini, and Kenya, and abortion law implementation in Ghana, Zambia, Malawi, Senegal, and Mauritius, among others.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 6.2 million unsafe abortions occur each year. It is the most perilous region in the world for abortion access: 92 percent of women live in a country where abortion is restricted. Brookman-Amissah, who began her career as a doctor, initially held anti-abortion views. But, when she learned that one of her pediatric patients died from an unsafe abortion, she changed her focus to advocating for safe abortion access. Her advocacy has contributed to a 40 percent decline in abortion-related deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2000.
She previously served as Ghana’s Minister of Health from 1996 to 1998, introducing health care reforms and mobilizing increased donor resources for Ghana’s health sector. She was Ghana’s Ambassador to the Netherlands. Since 2001, she has been the Vice President for Africa at IPAS, an international reproductive health non-governmental association, and she leads the IPAS Africa Alliance for Women’s Reproductive Health and Rights. Her work with regional institutions, health ministers, legislators, health professionals, women’s rights advocates, and the media has brought the highly sensitive issue of unsafe abortion to the forefront of the health agenda in Africa. She is an eloquent spokesperson and an articulate and passionate leader who has successfully mobilized diverse groups to advocate for policy change and legal reform to reduce maternal deaths and disabilities from unsafe abortion.
Let’s dive into the deeper thinking that goes on behind the scenes of the most successful movements. We’ll offer an introduction to the conceptual underpinnings of strategic nonviolent actions and how they are applied in movements. The interactive workshop will dive into a number of central questions for activists, movement leaders, and engaged citizens, including: What is power? How can a movement build or shift power? What are the most strategic and powerful methods that ordinary people can adopt to collectively create lasting change in their society? What are the first steps in designing an effective, sustainable campaign for justice?
About Fatima Hernandez-Alatorre
Fatima recently completed a 6 month full time Community Studies field study in Boston with the Albert Einstein Institution focused on strategic nonviolent action. She has been a core member of the Right Livelihood Club at UCSC for three years.
An open dialogue between students in the Right Livelihood College campuses at Lund University and UC Santa Cruz. Open to all UCSC graduate and undergraduate students.
On February 28th, 2024 Right Livelihood Laureate Mother Nature Cambodia gave a lecture in Community Studies 40: Media and Social Movements with Rachel Goodman.
Politics and Right Livelihood Center are pleased to welcome Rob Bilott back to UC Santa Cruz.
Rob Bilott, esteemed 2017 Right Livelihood Laureate, offered insights from his life experience on “Using Rights and Litigation as Tools for Environmental and Health Justice.” Bilott’s virtual visit occurred on Zoom, and was hosted by Professor Elizabeth Beaumont’s Civil Liberties and Civil Rights course. This special event was sponsored by the Politics Department’s Civic Discourse and Democratic Engagement Initiative and by the Right Livelihood Center at UC Santa Cruz.
ABOUT ROBERT BILOTT
Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 33 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals.
In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination. (See https://rightlivelihood.org/the-change-makers/find-a-laureate/robert-bilott/) Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob. Rob’s story and work is also featured in the documentaries, “The Devil We Know ” and “Burned: Protecting the Protectors.” Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida, and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities, and other organizations all over the world. Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health / Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina. Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Ohio State University, New College of Florida, and Thomas More University.
On November 30th, Livelihood Laureate Helena Norberg Hodge and students from Politics/LGST 167, the Politics of International Trade, had an open dialogue on the systemic root causes of our current global crises and economic localization—shifting our economies towards place-based, human-scale activity—as a strategy for change to address our many crises.
ABOUT HELENA NORBERG-HODGE
Linguist, author, and filmmaker, Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of the international non-profit organization, Local Futures, a pioneer of the new economy movement, and the convener of World Localization Day. She is the author of several books, including Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, an eye-opening tale of tradition and change in Ladakh, or “Little Tibet”. Together with a film of the same title, Ancient Futures has been translated into more than 40 languages and sold half a million copies. Helena received the Right Livelihood Award in 1986 “for preserving the traditional culture and values of Ladakh against the onslaught of tourism and development.
On November 14th, Laureate Paul Walker and students from Politics 160B, International Law, had an open dialogue on arms control, international law, and strategies and challenges emerging from the recent 5th Five-Year Review of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Paul Walker is one of the most effective advocates for the abolition of chemical weapons. His leadership has helped to safely and verifiably eliminate more than 72,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, and, as of one month ago, 100 percent of the world’s declared stockpiles in eight countries. Walker has also been key to leveraging billions of US dollars for effective programs for arms control, disarmament, threat reduction, and non-proliferation. This Right Livelihood Community Conversation is hosted by UCSC Right Livelihood, and instructor Shawn Nichols.
Neshan provided an overview of the principles of Earth Trusteeship as key ethico-legal consideration for achieving sustainable development within 21st Century Governance. Whilst specific reference will be drawn to The Earth Charter (2000), the Hague Principles for Earth Trusteeship (2018), the session aimed to highlight some of the achievements, challenges and opportunities since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 75 years ago, the Stockholm Environment Conference over 50 years ago and contemporary developments such as the processes leading to the Advisory Opinion on Climate Change by the International Court of Justice (October 2023) and the work of Club of Rome in regard to Earth4all was also discussed. Specific attention was drawn to the work of several Right Livelihood Laureates, including Late Judge C.G. Weeramantry, former, Vice-President, International Court of Justice, The Hague.
ABOUT NESHAN
Neshan Gunasekera is an international lawyer, educationist, leadership coach, facilitator and environmentalist from Sri Lanka. He is committed to bring communities together for environmental protection, healing and conservation through the use of intergenerational, holistic and experiential learning. He is the legacy holder for the late Right Livelihood Laureate Judge C.G. Weeramantry and Co-Chair of the Earth Trusteeship Working Group of the Right Livelihood College. Please click here for more of Neshan’s biography.
UCSC students had the opportunity to join Right Livelihood laureate Helen Norberg-Hodge for a key note and discussion on localization, world politics, and responses to the climate crisis. The conversation began with a debriefing by Helen Norberg-Hodge before breaking into discussion.
During Earth Week, we had the honor of hosting a very special Monday night community conversation with Nnimmo Bassey. An engrossing speaker, Nnimmo Bassey led a conversation on the societal and environmental impacts of oil production. Community members learned about the campaigns that Health of Mother Earth Foundation, the organization that he has been director of for a decade, are advocating for in Nigeria. After his talk, he and community members got to engage through our World Cafe style conversation.
On April 26th 2023, UCSC students joined Lottie Cunningham Wren for a keynote and World Cafe Style discussion about human rights, illegal cattle ranching, and indigenous community responses to land theft in Nicaragua. Visiting UCSC’s Politics 175 “Human Rights” course, Lottie Cunningham Wren led a 20-minute “conversation starter” before a series of small group and whole group discussions.
Annual Right Livelihood Laureate Lecture
At Kresge Seminar Room
Laureate Nnimmo Bassey preseneted a brief keynote and World Cafe-style discussion about people-powered responses to the climate catastrophe. The session began with a 20-minute “conversation starter” from Nnimmo followed by a series of small-group and whole-group conversations, and dinner.
ABOUT NNIMMO BASSEY
Nnimmo Bassey’s tireless work with national and international organizations has turned him into one of Africa’s leading advocates and campaigners for the environment and human rights. Bassey has stood up against the practices of multinational corporations in Nigeria and the environmental devastation they leave behind destroying the lives and ignoring the rights of the local population. He received the Right Livelihood Award in 2010 “For revealing the full ecological and human horrors of oil production and for his inspired work to strengthen the environmental movement in Nigeria and globally.” He is the author of many books including “Oil Politics: Echoes of Ecological Wars”, and “To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and Climate Crisis in Africa”.
This webinar brought together Brazilian social activists and Right Livelihood Award Laureates Cassia Bechara of the Movement of the Landless Rural Workers / MST, and Chico Whitaker, co-founder of the World Social Forum, to discuss the challenges and expectations for Brazil’s social movements in light of the newly implemented presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that started on January 1st, 2023. One of the world’s most important leftist leaders, Lula will be serving as president of Brazil for the third time, after defeating by a narrow margin the far-right Jair Bolsonaro who ran for reelection in October 2022. Our guest speakers examined the prospects for the poor, the working class, and the disenfranchised sectors of Brazil after the four devastating years of Bolsonaro’s government, marked by the return of widespread hunger, the surge of political violence, the devastation of the Amazon, and the reckless response to the COVID-19 pandemic that led to almost 700,000 deaths. This event was offered in Portuguese with simultaneous translation to English. Moderated by professor Patricia Pinho. Sponsored by Right Livelihood and Huerta Center at UC Santa Cruz.
Os movimentos sociais no Brasil e o novo governo Lula: desafios e expectativas
Este webinar reunirá ativistas sociais brasileiros/as, agraciados com o prêmio Right Livelihood Award, Cássia Bechara, do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra / MST, e Chico Whitaker, co-fundador do Fórum Social Mundial, para discutir os desafios e as expectativas dos movimentos sociais no Brasil diante do novo governo de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, que começou em 1º de janeiro de 2023. Um dos líderes de esquerda mais importantes do mundo, Lula estará servindo como presidente do Brasil pela terceira vez, após uma vitória apertada contra o extremista de direita Jair Bolsonaro, que concorreu à reeleição em outubro de 2022. Nossos palestrantes convidados examinarão as perspectivas para os pobres, a classe trabalhadora e os demais setores desfavorecidos do Brasil após os quatro anos devastadores do governo Bolsonaro, marcados pelo retorno da fome generalizada, o aumento da violência política, a devastação da Amazônia e a irresponsabilidade diante da pandemia da COVID-19, que levou à morte de quase 700.000 brasileiras/os. Este evento é oferecido em português com tradução simultânea para o inglês. Moderado pela professora Patrícia Pinho. Patrocinado por Right Livelihood na UC Santa Cruz.
Right Livelihood links activism and academia. We are a global network connecting students & Laureates of the “Alternative Nobel Prize” such as Greta Thunberg, Bryan Stevenson & Amy Goodman for research and education about solutions to the root causes of global problems. On May 10th, we held an orientation at the Grad Student Commons (free lunch provided with registration; also available on Zoom) for people to get involved and learn about opportunities for grad students.
On May 6th, we held a workshop for those who want to dive into the deeper thinking that goes on behind the scenes of the most successful movements. We offered an introduction to the conceptual underpinnings of strategic nonviolent action and how they are applied in movements. The interactive, day-long workshop dove into a number of central questions for activists, movement leaders, and engaged citizens, including: What is power? How can a movement build or shift power? What are the most strategic and powerful methods that ordinary people can adopt to collectively create lasting change in their society? What are the first steps in designing an effective, sustainable campaign for justice in your society?
BIOGRAPHIES
Jamila Raqib is the Executive Director of the Albert Einstein Institution and a specialist in the study and practice of strategic nonviolent action. Jamila has assisted in the translation and overseen the dissemination of educational resources on nonviolent action on a global scale. She has conducted workshops on the subject for human rights organizations, universities, and governmental bodies, as well as for individuals and groups striving for diverse objectives. For 15 years, she worked closely with the late Dr. Gene Sharp, the world’s foremost scholar in the field of strategic nonviolent action, and collaborated on the publication of Self-Liberation: A Guide to Strategic Planning for Action to End a Dictatorship or Other Oppression.
Joe Worthy is the Chief of Staff for the Light House | Black Girl Projects, where he oversees programming and leadership development. He is a community organizer who led campaigns that ended Zero Tolerance Policies in Boston, MA and overhauled Cleveland, OH’s Citizen’s Review board following the murders of Tamar Rice and Tanisha Anderson. He has also served as the National Organizer of the Children’s Defense Fund, where he launched the Child Defender Fellowship that trained over 200 people as organizers to end the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline.
Alia Braley is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at U.C. Berkeley. Her research centers on the use of civil resistance and strategic nonviolent action in acute political conflicts. She holds a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University, where she studied the strategic potential of grassroots nonviolent responses to ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Alia previously served as the Director of Programs at AEI and has recently returned to support the development of new programs at the Institution.
SPONSORS
This is a student-initiated and student-run event hosted by the Right Livelihood Club at UC Santa Cruz. Cosponsors include Albert Einstein Institution, Institute for Social Transformation, Social Sciences Division, Kresge College, Rachel Carson College, Politics, Anthropology, Sociology, and Resource Center for Nonviolence.
We are pleased these will also be the first events for the new Civic Discourse and Democratic Engagement Initiative of the UCSC Politics Department.
The Right Livelihood Club at UC Santa Cruz’s mission is to link activists and academics for research and education about courageous solutions to global problems.
As an unprecedented number of people across the world are mobilizing to face a range of crises, from racial injustice to rising authoritarianism to the climate crisis, it’s more important now than ever to understand the theory and history behind how ordinary people wield power and achieve change in their societies. On May 5th, Jamila Raqib and Professor Elizabeth Beaumont led a discussion focused on the major trends in the field today, the importance of strategic nonviolent action in democracies, and her insights from twenty years of working with activists on every continent.
Right Livelihood is a courage-powered community for social change. Each year, we present the Right Livelihood Award. By recognizing the actions of brave visionaries and building impactful connections around the world, the Award boosts urgent and long-term social change.
On Wednesday, December 1 we celebrated people paving the way to a better future for all. The 2021 Right Livelihood Laureates are Marthe Wandou (Cameroon), Vladimir Slivyak (Russia), Freda Huson (of the Wet’suwet’en people, Canada), and Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (India). It was an event full of music and inspiration. Our host Gina Dirawi, a well-known Swedish television presenter and artist guided us through the evening. Together with performances from Loreen, Maxida Märak and Caspar Camitz, some of Sweden’s top artists, it was a night to remember.
On November 30th, one of the USA’s most impactful environmental lawyers, Robert Bilott led a conversation about his latest work followed by an intergenerational World-Cafe style dialogue aimed at inspiring hope and action. Rob is the protagonist in the recent award-winning film “Dark Waters” featuring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway and participants are highly encouraged to watch the film beforehand (available online @ UCSC library). Topics we covered included: the legacy of toxic forever chemicals, corporate greed, and strategies for environmental legislation to hold corporations accountable.
BIOGRAPHY
Robert Bilott is an outstanding environmental lawyer from the United States, who has uncovered the worldwide impact of contamination by a group of “forever chemicals” known as polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that accumulate in the environment and in living things, including people. With a combination of innovative litigation, scientific understanding, and extraordinary perseverance, Bilott has achieved one of the most significant victories for environmental law and corporate accountability to date. In a legal battle lasting over two decades, Bilott represented 70,000 people living near Parkersburg, West Virginia, whose drinking water had been contaminated with a toxic “forever chemical,” known as PFOA, released by the chemical giant DuPont. Expanding upon the concept of class-action litigation, Bilott eventually obtained over 1 billion US dollars in benefits for the victims, including direct cash settlements for thousands of disease victims, totaling over 753 million US dollars, and ongoing medical monitoring for those exposed.
Hosted by the Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz with support from UCSC Anthropology, Legal Studies, the Institute for Social Transformation and Social Sciences Division.
On June 22nd, we held a meeting for Graduate students. We link activists and academics around courageous solutions to global problems. Visit rightlivelihood.ucsc.edu for details.
The conversation probed issues surrounding our perceptions and interactions with our environment, the limits of what we know, and the need for humility and solidarity in interactions with Mother Earth and the transformation of her gifts — bearing in mind that there is a future! Watch now.
Watch the harvest poem by Jahan Khalighi
For a deeper dive watch Nnimmo’s ‘Message From the Future II’
Juan Pablo Orrego is a musician, ecologist, and one of Chile’s foremost environmental activists. He has fought for public water rights in Chile and against the building of dams and undemocratic, unsustainable development practices in Chile. He continues to be active as the president of the environmental NGO Ecosistemas. The community conversation with Juan Pablo focused the discussion on being a water protector, our aquatic identities, and the work Juan Pablo is leading in the Maipo and Loa river watersheds in Chile. Read more about Juan Pablo Orrego Right Livelihood Award
Isabelle wears many hats for the Stockholm Fridays For Future movement with expertise in media, mobilisation and public speaking. She has been striking with Greta Thunberg in Stockholm almost since the beginning of the Fridays for Future movement and has seen the movement grow from a handful of people to thousands of her peers all over the world taking part in the school strikes.
In this community conversation, the discussion focused on the topic of collaboration for change and collaboratively answered and reflected on the proposed question: How can we find strength in our differences whilst respecting diversity? Fridays for Future.
This conversation focused on the link between Social Justice and Environmental Sustainability. Watch here. About the Albert Einstein Institution.
On December 3rd, Right Livelihood Laureates, Right Livelihood College faculty and students, Right Livelihood staff members watched the 2020 Right Livelihood Award Presentation together. This zoom room gave us the opportunity to be in touch just before, during, and directly after the event.
The 2020 Right Livelihood Award Presentation features:
Before the coronavirus pandemic, we already knew social transformation was necessary. Now we know it’s possible. Political and economic policies that were previously fringe are now front and center in national and international conversations. In the last months, we’ve witnessed people taking to the streets to protest authoritarian governments, racial injustice, unequal health care, and climate change. We’re witnessing an outbreak of politics that cannot be contained. These “silver linings” are situated within a context of growing inequality, war, authoritarianism, violence, poverty, hunger, and the potential to undermine the Earth’s support systems through the loss of biodiversity, clean water, and a stable climate. For decades, Vandana Shiva and Bill McKibben have used their moral imaginations to envision a better world, articulate a global agenda for sustainable societies, advocate for policy advancements, and support social movements. Join Shiva and McKibben to imagine the future from the perspective of people and the planet, including a look at what Green New Deal & Just Recovery programs could help seed around the world in terms of livelihoods, human rights, and the environment. Watch here.
Urgent and complex global problems of modern times including, COVID 19 at one end and the sharpening of inequities on the other is creating multiple marginalities and livelihood insecurities. This calls for a deeper understanding of the society and the need to reimagine strategies for sustaining local livelihood practices and creating global solidarities for social transformation that envisions the ideas of justice and equity. The global dialogues on livelihoods, solidarity, and transformation is an effort in this direction to surface such urgent questions in this arena to build that collective global dialogue towards co-production of knowledge. Watch here.
How can we build our economy to ensure everyone has access to sustainable livelihoods and economic opportunities, and that this is done within ecological limits? Right Livelihood Laureates Miyuki Kinoshita of Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Cooperative (Japan) and Helena Norberg-Hodge of Local Futures (Global) provide important lessons and insights. The Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Cooperative combines formidable business and professional skills with strict social and ecological principles and a vision of a community- and people-centered economy that provides a radical alternative to both socialist and capitalist industrialization. Local Futures works to renew ecological, social, and spiritual well-being by promoting a systemic shift towards economic localization.
Around the world, states and organizations are struggling to control the outbreak of COVID-19. The directives from WHO declares that we should constantly wash our hands, keep good hygiene, and stay inside to protect others. But how does this affect the part of the population without access to basic hygiene articles, running water or a home to take refuge in when quarantine rules are applied. Like most crises, COVID-19 takes extraordinarily high demands on those already exposed in society. How can we turn this crisis into an opportunity to strengthen human rights and more just societies? Watch here.
As the Coronavirus spreads around the world, it is having far-reaching effects not only on public health but also on our capacities for democratic politics. States have responded to the pandemic in various ways as they try to quickly implement new rules and restrictions for their populations to fight COVID-19. Many of these measures have not followed regular democratic protocols for decision-making, and some raise serious concerns about threats to democracy posed by increasing authoritarianism, lack of transparency, repression of media and opposition groups and parties, and other concerns. At the same time, crises can also be moments of political opportunity. As countries grapple with the Coronavirus, there is a spotlight on issues of unemployment, labor conditions, access to health care, and social interdependence, and this may provide openings and momentum for new democratic movements and agendas. What are the threats to democracy we should be grappling with and trying to prevent? What opportunities and potentials do we see for future democratic societies that we could be building now? Watch here.
Water contaminated by toxic chemical wastes; hundreds of millions without access to minimum necessary quantities of potable water. These were grave, immense issues long before the coronavirus pandemic. Now the pandemic, raging globally, poses new questions for us: Do these pre-existing conditions, the polluted waters, the lack of access, make the pandemic worse? Conversely, will the pandemic affect society’s future ability or willingness to improve access and quality? These are the kinds of questions we will be exploring in this webinar with two Right Livelihood laureates, Maude Barlow, and Robert Bilott. Watch here.
Healthcare structures around the world are now being tested, and differences in approaches are becoming increasingly visible. As in the majority of crises, women are disproportionately affected. Reports of domestic violence towards women have increased, while women are also over-represented in care work and family-related care, making it harder to maintain social distancing. How can we take advantage of and learn from this pandemic to change the global health system, so that it becomes more inclusive, accessible, and just for all? Watch here.
Join us for a timely panel discussion on how Nnimmo and Vandana’s alternative economic frameworks are informing and informed by this moment of the coronavirus crisis. We will consider how these frameworks can inform all of us about positive paths forward, and how we might turn this moment of great tragedy and challenge into a future of opportunities. Watch here
All-Day Workshop with Vandana Shiva with Julie Guthman, Sarait Martinez, Mackenzie Feldman, Carmen Cortez, Tim Galarneau (moderator) and David Shaw (facilitator).
On January 25, we held our Annual Right Livelihood Laureate Lecture with Vandana Shiva! The next day there was a workshop on Poison Free, Fossil Free Food & Farming with Julie Guthman, Sarait Martinez, Zen Honeycutt, Mackenzie Feldman, Tim Galarneau (moderator) and David Shaw (facilitator).
ABOUT DR. VANDANA SHIVA
Globally well-known intellectual and activist, Vandana Shiva has shown ongoing commitment in different fields, making it difficult to label her name under a precise and unique category. At the core of her activism, there are: counter-development in favor of people-centered, participatory processes; support to grassroots networks; women rights and ecology. Author of numerous important books and articles, Vandana Shiva has shown a lifetime interest in campaigning against genetic engineering and the negative impact of globalization, advocating for the crucial importance of preserving and celebrating biodiversity.
Dr. Vandana Shiva is trained as a Physicist and did her Ph.D. on the subject “Hidden Variables and Non-locality in Quantum Theory” from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She later shifted to inter-disciplinary research in science, technology, and environmental policy, which she carried out at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. In 1982, she founded an independent institute, the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology in Dehra Dun dedicated to high quality and independent research to address the most significant ecological and social issues of our times, in close partnership with local communities and social movements. In 1991, she founded Navdanya, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seed, the promotion of organic farming and fair trade. In 2004 she started Bija Vidyapeeth, an international college for sustainable living in Doon Valley in collaboration with Schumacher College, U.K. Dr. Shiva combines the sharp intellectual inquiry with courageous activism. Time Magazine identified Dr. Shiva as an environmental “hero” in 2003 and Asia Week has called her one of the five most powerful communicators of Asia. Forbes magazine in November 2010 has identified Dr. Vandana Shiva as one of the top Seven most Powerful Women on the Globe. Dr. Shiva has received honorary Doctorates from the University of Paris, University of Western Ontario, University of Oslo and Connecticut College, University of Guelph. Among her many awards are the Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood Award, 1993), Order of the Golden Ark, Global 500 Award of UN and Earth Day International Award. Lennon ONO grant for peace award by Yoko Ono in 2009, Sydney Peace Prize in 2010, Doshi Bridgebuilder Award, Calgary Peace Prize and Thomas Merton Award in the year 2011, the Fukuoka Award and The Prism of Reason Award in 2012, the Grifone d’Argento prize 2016 and The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity 2016. Learn more >>
Info session for faculty, students, poets, artists, and right livelihood activists to discuss the Santa Cruz presence at the 40th Anniversary gathering of the Right Livelihood Award in Medellin, Colombia. The gathering is June 13-20 and is liked with the International Poetry Festival, which received the award in 2006.
With Stuart Muir Wilson, grandson of Bill Mollison, co-originator of the permaculture concept
at the Alan Chadwick Garden at UC Santa Cruz. Stuart will give a presentation about his prototypes and large-scale systems change work in Australia including biodigesters, tiny homes, and interfacing with public planners to achieve infrastructural change in urban environments. After his presentation and discussion, we will tour the Alan Chadwick Garden food forest. Hosted by the Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz and co-sponsored by UCSC Food Systems Working Group.
Right Livelihood Film Series, Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective (2015, 1h 32m) at the Cowell Fireside Lounge. Inhabit explores the many environmental issues facing us today and examines solutions that are being applied using the ecological design process called ‘Permaculture’. Permaculture is a design lens that uses the principles found in ecosystems to help shift our impact from destructive to regenerative. Focused mostly on the Northeastern and Midwestern regions of the United States, Inhabit provides an intimate look at permaculture peoples and practices ranging from rural, suburban, and urban landscapes.
The 21st century is the Age of Science and Technology. It is also the age in which humanity faces a unique and unprecedented challenge: Artificial Intelligence (AI). If properly developed and aligned with the values of humanity, AI will bring tremendous benefits to society. However, if AI is used inappropriately, it could undermine society. Automated Decision-making Systems (ADS) are already having serious negative effects, and ultimately the emergence of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) could lead to the extinction of humanity. Join us for presentations and World Cafe conversation about tough problems in technology & society, and give your input about the future of machine learning, data science and AI. With Lise Getoor, UC Santa Cruz Professor of Computer Science. Hosted by Chris Benner, Institute for Social Transformation at UC Santa Cruz; and David Shaw, Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz.
Right Livelihood Film Series, Seed: The Untold Story (2016, 1h 34m) at the Cowell Fireside Lounge.
A film about the importance of heirloom seeds to the agriculture of the world, focusing on seed keepers and activists from around the world. Starring Vandana Shiva, Winona LaDuke, Jane Goodall, Andrew Kimbrell, Raj Patel. Hosted by Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz
Right Livelihood Film Series, Paris to Pittsburg: the Climate for Change is Now (2018, 1h 17m)
At the Cowell Fireside Lounge.
Paris to Pittsburgh brings to life the impassioned efforts of individuals who are battling the most severe threats of climate change in their own backyards. Set against the national debate over the United States’ energy future – and the Trump administration’s explosive decision to exit the Paris Climate Agreement – the film captures what’s at stake for communities around the country and the inspiring ways Americans are responding. Hosted by Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz and Fossil Free UCSC.
On October 3rd, we held an info session for graduate and undergraduate students to learn about how to get involved and how RLC can support your research!
On September 25th, we held an orientation for graduate students to learn about Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz and how you can plug into our opportunities for research and education.
UC Santa Cruz affiliates are invited to a small gathering with coffee and pastries to celebrate the announcement of the 2019 Right Livelihood Award laureates. We will view the press conference held earlier that morning in Stockholm, and connect via videoconference with the celebration happening concurrently at the Right Livelihood Award office in Stockholm, Sweden.
At the Right Livelihood College in Valdivia, Chile
Human Scale Dialogue – Presentation and dialogue with Fernando Leiva and Chris Benner from UC Santa Cruz, moderated by Juan Pablo Orrego
Sponsored by the Right Livelihood Colleges at UC Santa Cruz, Valdivia, and Bonn.
Fernando Leiva L. – New strategies for expanding the boundaries of extractivism in Chile: Dispossession through “territorial dialogues” and “early participation”
A significant change is taking place in how power operates, a new head springs from the Chilean neoliberal capitalist hydra, the oldest and most robust in the region. A new discourse offering cover for more sophisticated domination strategies enters the scene:”Early community participation,” “territorial dialogue” and “collaborative territorial development agreements” are some of the notions recently coined by mining, forestry and hydroelectric transnational corporations. Brandishing such discursive scaffolding, transnational capital has coaxed ministries, NGOs, universities, and consulting firms into co-creating new modes of exercising power at local level to neutralize community resistance to extractivism. Under the aegis of this new consortium, a new entity is spawned: the public-private-civil society corporation that embeds the transnational extractivist corporation as the hub for the “sustainable management” of extensive valleys and entire provinces. Spreading like wildefire through Chile’s long and narrow geography of Chile, this new modality seeks invade not only territories, but also our hearts and minds. My presentation traces how such strategy has evolved between 2013 and 2019 by examining the actions of Consejo Minero, Tironi Asociados, Valor Minero and Nueva Union in the Huasco Valley.
Chris Benner – From Resistance to Renewal: Solidarity Economics for the 21st Century
In a world in which economic insecurity has become the norm while economic tensions and uncertainties have fed into an emerging right-wing populism, how can policy makers and civic leaders react in a way that calms nerves, builds community, and generates a more prosperous and inclusive future? Part of what would help is having an economic theory and narrative that both understood the innovation now driving economic growth and took our mutual bonds and obligations seriously. In this presentation, Dr. Benner will share perspectives emerging from a broad collaboration with civic society actors in California to develop a vision for a more prosperous and inclusive economy. It links together perspectives on economic theory, public narrative, and specific policy proposals, with a particular attention to the intersection of race with community-building, the role of geography (or scale) in making change, and the commitment to civic engagement.
At Porter College
UC Santa Cruz hosts the Right Livelihood Summer Institute with world recognized activist, editor and publisher Nicanor Perlas. Perlas, a Right Livelihood Award laureate, received the “alternative Nobel” in 2003 for his work opposing corporate globalization. The institute will explore the intersection of humans and technology led by one of the subjects’ leading experts. This promises to be a powerful small-group seminar experience with participants from a wide range of backgrounds and ages. View full details here
At Kresge Town Hall
Iván Velásquez Gómez is 2018 Right Livelihood Award Laureate, widely known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ “…for their innovative work in exposing abuse of power and prosecuting corruption, thus rebuilding people’s trust in public institutions.” Mr. Velásquez is the UN High Commissioner of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala. View the full UCSC Bioneers Conference program.
Sponsored by the Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation, Kresge College Common Ground Center, Research Center for the Americas, Latin American and Latino Studies Department, and Legal Studies Department.
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
7:30 pm | Peace United Church | 900 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA
Inaugural Kamieniecki Lecture in Environmental Policy
Climate Justice: A Conversation with Bill McKibben & Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Hosted by the Social Sciences Division, Everett Program for Technology and Social Change, and Kresge College Common Ground Center
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
7:00 pm | Kresge Town Hall
Blue Future: Protecting Water for People and the Planet Forever
A Conversation with Maude Barlow & Robert Bilott
Hosted by UCSC Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise, and Participatory Governance, and Kresge College Common Ground Center
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Teach-In!
A Day of Teaching and Activism for Human Rights, Sustainability, Social Justice & Media Reform @ Colleges Nine & Ten Multipurpose Room, and Social Sciences Lawn
9:30 am – 9:45 am | Opening Remarks @ Multipurpose Room
Ben Leeds Carson, Provost, Kresge College
Monika Griefahn, Chair of the Board, Right Livelihood Award Foundation
David Robles, Spoken Word Poet, “As the Fog Lifts”
9:50 am – 11:25 am | Session #1
Ecology & Society: A Conversation with Maude Barlow @ Multipurpose Room
Hosted by Prof. Andy Szasz and Environmental Studies 100: Ecology and Society
Democracy: A Conversation with Frances Moore Lappé @ Social Sciences Lawn
Hosted by Prof. Alejandra Kramer and Anthropology 110S: The Evolution of Democracy
With Prof. Elizabeth Beaumont, Director of UCSC Legal Studies
Caring for Prairies: A Conversation with Wes Jackson @ Soc Sci 2 Room 179
Hosted by Prof. Jenny Reardon, Director of the Science & Justice Research Center
11:40 am – 1:15 pm | Lunch & Poster Session @ Multipurpose Room & Dining Hall
David Shaw, Coordinator, UCSC Right Livelihood College
Farm-to-College Introduction and “Real Food” Lunch, Hosted by the Campus Food Systems Working Group
Poster Session, Hosted by students and faculty of Kresge-78 – Social and Environmental Justice Activism and the Right Livelihood Award.
1:30 pm – 3:05 pm | Session #2
Renewable Energy: Amory Lovins @ Multipurpose Room
Hosted by Prof. Yu Zhang and Electrical Engineering 80J/180J – Renewable Energy Sources, Storage and Smart Grids
Social and Political Philosophy: A Conversation with Robert Bilott & Paul Walker @ Social Sciences Lawn
Hosted by Prof. Kyle Robertson and Legal Studies / Philosophy 144 – Topics in Social and Political Philosophy
3:20 pm – 4:55 pm | Session #3
Economic Justice & Human Rights: A Conversation with Alice Tepper Marlin, Tony Clarke & Yannick Beaudoin @ Multipurpose Room
Hosted by Prof. Sylvanna Falcón and Latin American & Latino Studies 5 – Introduction to Human Rights & Social Justice
With Prof. David Gordon and Politics 160A – Theories of International and World Politics
Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems: A Conversation with Wes Jackson & Frances Moore Lappé @ Social Sciences Lawn
Hosted by Prof. Stacy Philpott and Environmental Studies 130C – Field Experiences in Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems
Moderated by Mark Lipson, Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems
5:20 pm – 6:30 pm | Session #4
Technology & Social Change: Jamila Raqib & Amory Lovins @ Multipurpose Room
Hosted by Prof. Chris Benner, Everett Program for Technology and Social Change, and Sociology 30C: Project Implementation and Grant Writing for Social Entrepreneurs
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Doors at 7:10pm | Event 7:30pm | Colleges Nine & Ten Multipurpose Room
A Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg & Amy Goodman
Hosted by UCSC Foundation, Kresge Media and Society, and Common Ground Center
February 26, 2018
At Kresge Town Hall
Frances Moore Lappe is a food activist, author and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award - known as the Alternative Nobel Prize - for revealing the political and economic causes of world hunger and how citizens can help to remedy them. Her three-million copy Diet for a Small Planet (1971) was described as "one of the most influential political tracts of the times."
by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Join her for a presentation, discussion, and signing about her newest book, Daring Democracy. In the book, Lappe and Eichen discuss the history of democracy in America and ask readers to consider efforts that have robbed Americans of their rightful power and introduce courageous solutions in the daring fight for democracy.
4th Annual Right Livelihood Laureate Lecture
November 6, 2017
At Kresge Seminar Room
Helena Norberg-Hodge is the author and filmmaker of Ancient Futures: Learning From Ladakh, and a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award ('Alternative Nobel Prize'). She is a pioneer of the 'new economy' movement. Through writing and public lectures on three continents, she has been promoting an economics of personal, social, and ecological well-being for more than thirty years. She is a widely respected analyst of the impact of the global economy on communities, local economies, and personal identity, and is a leading proponent of 'localization,' or decentralization, as a means of countering those impacts. She is the founder and director of Local Futures, previously known as the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC).
Helena will make the case that "going local" is the most effective way to increase efficiency, restore biodiversity, and bring greater meaning and satisfaction to our lives.
3rd Annual Right Livelihood Laureate Lecture
October 12, 2016
At Kresge Seminar Room
Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, invites you to a discussion
about indigenous peoples’ rights and abuse. Economic progress and environmentalism are
the dominant opposing ideologies claiming to save the world, yet tribal peoples–the best guardians of the natural world–are being destroyed by both. This discussion is led by Stephen
Corry, Director of Survival International and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award in 1989 (the Alternative Nobel Prize).
2nd Annual Right Livelihood Laureate Lecture
February 26, 2015
At Kresge Town Hall
Joining us via Skype (in honor of greenhouse gas reduction) is Bill McKibben, an author and environmentalist leading the discussion on climate change. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change and has appeared in 24 languages. He founded 350.org, the first plonet wide, grassroots climate change movement. 350.org is named for the safe level of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide in parts per million. Join us for a conversation on the global environmental movement, where we are now, what we can do, and the myriad possibilities for how our future can look should we choose to act or not.
1st Annual Right Livelihood Laureate Lecture
April 26, 2014
At Kresge Town Hall
Join us for a 50-minute presentation and 50-minute group discussion with Right Livelihood Award winner Wes Jackson. Wes is one of the foremost figures in the international sustainable agriculture movement. Founder and president of The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, he has pioneered research in Natural Systems Agriculture — including perennial grains, perennial polycultures, and intercropping — for over 30 years.