UNC’s Valdivia to speak at RCC on Environmental Justice April 12

The Global Distinction program at Robeson Community College will host a lecture by Dr. Gabriela Valdivia titled “Another World Possible: Environmental Justice and Latin America.”

Dr. Gabriela Valdivia is a Professor of Geography at UNC Chapel Hill and Assistant Dean of Honors Carolina. She earned her master’s at UNC-Chapel Hill and her doctorate at the University of Minnesota. Her work focuses on political ecology particularly as it relates to natural resource governance and management, and her most recent project, titled “Crude Entanglements,” examines oilfields and oil refinement in Ecuador. 

“This talk will explore key issues in today’s ongoing fight for environmental justice in Latin America,” said Rebecca Shaw, a librarian at RCC. “In particular, it hones in on natural resource extraction in and around the Amazon rain forest and celebrates the possibilities opened up by movements of indigenous activities.”

Valdivia’s research draws on critical resource geography and ethnography to examine environmental governance in Latin American countries, where intense struggles have fueled over natural resources, such as rivers.

 “Rivers are essential from ancient times when the first civilizations grew up around rivers to modern times when we depend on rivers for water, transportation, and recreation,” stated Dr. Eddy, director of the associate of arts program at RCC and liaison with the Scholar of Global Distinction program at Worldview UNC.  

“Rivers shape us and we impact them,” Eddy added.

“As part of the SGA, I find this very important and educational to all ages, not only that, maintaining our water sources as clean so that future generations benefit from these sources for years to come,” said Vicente Nieves Lopez, President of the SGA at RCC.

 “It is only the beginning of what we hope will be an ongoing conversation about the importance of rivers and environmental activism,” Shaw adds.

“The Scholar of Global Distinction program is a partnership between community colleges and UNC World View. It’s a national model for university community college collaboration and global learning. Students who attend community college with global distinction programs can graduate with global distinction on their transcripts and a certificate from UNC Chapel Hill,” said Eddy.

“This event is part of our program, so come and learn,” Eddy stated.

This event will take place on April 12 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the A.D. Lewis Auditorium on RCC’s main campus in Lumberton. Admissions is free and the general public is invited to attend. RCC students who are present will receive credits towards their global distinction designation.

Nieves Lopez invites all students, as well as members of the community, to engage in this event, saying, “We hope to see you there.”

 For more information on the global distinction program or the upcoming lecture, please contact Dr. Gaylyn Eddy at geddy@robeson.edu or (910) 272-3664.

Poster features a waterfall in equatorial rainforest, with clouds covering mountain tops, in Ecuador, South America