UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. --- The Center for Global Studies will be holding a film screening and discussion as part of International Education Week at Penn State. Scheduled is a showing of the film "A Thousand Suns," provided by the Global Oneness Project, followed by a panel discussion with Penn State faculty and graduate students. The event will held from 3 to 4 p.m. Nov. 12 in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. The event is free and open to everyone.
The film "A Thousand Suns" tells the story of the Gamo Highlands of the African Rift Valley and the unique worldview held by the people of the region. This isolated area has remained remarkably intact both biologically and culturally. It is one of the most densely populated rural regions of Africa yet its people have been farming sustainably for 10,000 years.
Filmed in Ethiopia, New York and Kenya, the film explores the modern world's untenable sense of separation from and superiority over nature, and how the interconnected worldview of the Gamo people is fundamental in achieving long-term sustainability, both in the region and beyond.To date, panel guests are Khanjan Mehta, director of the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship and Engineering Program at Penn State, and Chanda Burrage, a Penn State doctoral candidate researching East African/Middle East relations and livelihoods in the cross-border cattle value chain on the Horn of Africa.
The event aims to stimulate thoughtful dialogue about sustainability and cultural preservation in the face of globalization, and to explore differences in how different cultures relate to nature.
For more information about the film or the Global Oneness Project, visit http://www.globalonenessproject.org.For a complete listing of the Center for Global Studies’ events during International Education Week, visit the events page at http://www.cgs.psu.edu.