Witness Uganda Act III

ACT III

Join Matt Gould, Griffin Matthews, and members of the cast for “Act III,” a twenty-minute post-show discussion that will be held after each performance.

On select dates, cast members will be joined by the following experts and scholars, who will reflect on the themes of the show and discuss their own research and work.

Tuesday, February 4

Diane Paulus, A.R.T. Artistic Director and Witness Uganda director

Wednesday, February 5

Diane Paulus, A.R.T. Artistic Director and Witness Uganda director

Thursday, February 6

Diane Paulus, A.R.T. Artistic Director and Witness Uganda director

Thursday, February 13th

Susan Bissell, Chief of Child Protection, Programme Division, UNICEF

A native of Canada, Susan first served UNICEF in 1987, in New York, in what was then called the Division of Information and Public Affairs. Thereafter she returned to the University of Toronto to complete a Master’s degree in law, economics and international relations. Susan then resumed her work at UNICEF, in the Sri Lanka country office, focused on children in especially difficult circumstances (CEDC). From there Susan moved to Bangladesh and maintained her CEDC concentration, positioning UNICEF particularly on child labour at a time when it was attracting considerable international attention.

In 1997, Susan again commenced academic work, in a doctoral degree in public health and medical anthropology at the WHO Key Center for Women’s Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne. While completing her doctorate, Susan also worked with Trudie Styler and the Bangladeshi film team Catherine and Tareque Masud to produce the documentary “A Kind of Childhood.” The film screened widely at film festivals in North America, Europe, and Asia, and appeared on Canadian, American, and British television. In 2005, it had a second screening at the London Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Susan came back to UNICEF in 2001 as the Chief of Child Protection in India. In 2004, she transferred to the Innocenti Research Center, where she led a research unit and a number of studies. These included a 62-country study on the implementation of the general measures of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and global research on the Palermo Protocol and child trafficking. Susan was also a member of the Editorial Board of the report of the UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children, which was released in 2006.

In 2009, Susan was appointed to her current position in New York, heading all of UNICEF’s Child Protection work. She oversees a team of professionals guiding efforts for children affected by armed conflict, child protection systems strengthening to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children, and a range of other matters. UNICEF is active in child protection in 170 countries, and the New York team offers leadership, strategic vision, and technical support.

Susan was recently awarded an honourary Professorship at Barnard College/Columbia University. She also received the Dr. Jean Mayar Global Citizenship Award from Tufts University in 2012. This Susan was honoured to accept on behalf of her UNICEF Child Protection colleagues around the world.

In 2009, Ms. Bissell was appointed to her current position in New York, heading all of UNICEF’s Child Protection work.  She oversees a team of professionals guiding efforts for children affected by armed conflict, child protection systems strengthening to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children, and a range of other matters.  UNICEF is active in child protection in 170 countries, and the New York team offers leadership, strategic vision, and technical support.

Ms. Bissell was recently awarded an honourary Professorship at Barnard College/Columbia University.  She also received the Dr. Jean Mayar Global Citizenship Award from Tufts University in 2012, as well as the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.  Ms. Bissell was honoured to accept both of these awards on behalf of her UNICEF Child Protection colleagues around the world.

Tuesday, February 18

Susan Cook, Executive Director of the Committee on African Studies at Harvard University

Susan Cook is the Executive Director of Harvard’s Committee on African Studies. Cook’s fourteen years in Africa include teaching and curriculum development in Botswana, research on the immediate aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, and most recently, serving as Research Executive in the Royal Bafokeng Nation in South Africa. Cook has published widely on traditional leadership in Africa, the anthropology of the corporation, urban hybrid languages, and comparative genocide. Cook was Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pretoria, Visiting Assistant Professor for Research at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, and Director of the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University. Cook earned her PhD in Anthropology from Yale University, and her BA (Honors) in Literature and Society from Brown University.

Wednesday, February 19

Kate Otto, global health consultant

Kate Otto is a global health consultant who has worked in Indonesia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique and Haiti for several development institutions including The World Bank, USAID, and various grassroots organizations. She designs, deploys, and researches innovative mobile phone-based technologies to improve health service delivery in areas of HIV/AIDS care, maternal and child health and nutrition. Kate is also the author of Everyday Ambassador: Creating Connections that Last in a Digitally Distracted World,  a 21st-century guide to crossing borders, barriers and comfort zones—and making a positive difference and fostering thoughtful social change. She writes for The Huffington Post, Christian Science Monitor and on her website, www.EverydayAmbassador.org. Kate graduated from New York University with a BA in International Relations and an MPA in Health Policy and Management, and will begin pursuing her MD at the NYU School of Medicine this fall.

Thursday, February 20

Anne I. Muyanga, Founder, Global Village Children’s Project

For more than two decades, Anne has been a social activist for the right of orphans, especially the girl child, to an education and ultimately a dignified future. She started with two orphaned girls by providing care, paying for their school tuition and scholastic materials, counseling them and other needs. Anne moved to the U.S.A. to pursue higher education, but was constantly deluged with pleas from orphans in Uganda for a chance at an education. Having benefitted from a very rich upbringing facilitated by the collective involvement of the whole community, she felt the urgent need to rally the global community to participate in raising these orphans. Therefore, in 2004 Anne founded Global Village Children’s Project (GVCP), in Waltham, MA. With help from volunteers, she is providing school tuition, scholastic materials, medical care, love, counseling and stability for many more orphans in Wanyange, Uganda. She is the author of Kisa, a children’s book celebrating Ugandan childhood. Kisa is available on Amazon.com.

Tuesday, February 25

Timothy Longman, Director of the African Studies Center and associate professor of political science at Boston University.

Professor Longman’s research interests center on state-society relations, focusing in particular on religion and politics, identity politics, human rights, transitional justice, and gender. His book Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda was published in 2010 by Cambridge University Press, and his book Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda, will be published by Cambridge in 2015. He has previously held research and teaching positions at Vassar College, the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, the National University of Rwanda, the University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. Professor Longman has served as a consultant in Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo for USAID, the State Department, the Department of Justice, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and Human Rights Watch, for whom he served as director of the Rwanda field office 1995-1996. He has conducted research in Rwanda, Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Africa.

Wednesday February 26

Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Lecturer on History and Literature, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, and Director of the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School

An award-winning scholar, teacher, and public servant, Dr. McCarthy received his A.B. with honors from Harvard College, and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University. A historian of politics and social movements, he has published four books, The Radical Reader: A Documentary History of the American Radical Tradition (New Press, 2003),Prophets of Protest: Reconsidering the History of American Abolitionism (New Press, 2006),Protest Nation: Words That Inspired a Century of American Radicalism (New Press, 2010), and The Indispensable Zinn: The Essential Writings of the “People’s Historian (New Press, 2012).

Thursday, February 27

David Bangsberg, MD, MPH Professor, Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine; Professor, Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Global Health and Population; Director, MGH Center for Global Health, Dept of Medicine,  Division of Infectious Diseases; Associate Member, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard; Professor, Mbarara University of Science and Technology

My research focuses on HIV in impoverished populations. In 1996, I launched a series of studies in HIV+ homeless and marginally housed individuals in response to concerns that poor adherence to HIV antiretroviral treatment in the urban poor would create new strains of drug resistant virus. I described the challenges in providing antiretroviral therapy to the urban poor, developed valid measures of adherence, defined the risk of antiretroviral resistance by level of adherence, and developed effective interventions to improve adherence in the HIV+ urban poor. These studies mitigated what we now recognize were exaggerated concerns regarding HIV drug resistance in the urban poor and helped shift the debate from withholding treatment to maximizing treatment effectiveness.

In 2001, I led a series of investigations to address similar concerns that the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy to poor regions of the world would similarly lead to unacceptable levels of drug resistance due to the challenges of adhering to antiretroviral therapy in settings of extreme poverty. I was senior author on study published in JAMA which found that HIV+ people living in sub-Saharan Africa are better able to adhere to antiretroviral therapy than their counterparts in North America. This work was deemed by the editors of The Lancet as among the most important medical findings for 2006 and was described by President Bill Clinton at the “nail in the coffin “on the debate as to whether poor people living in Africa can successfully take their HIV treatment. I founded and continue to lead the HIV research program at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Mbarara, Uganda. This program focuses on structural barriers to treatment access and treatment adherence, including transportation to health care settings as well as the competing demands of securing food for HIV+ individuals and their families.

As Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health. I coordinate MGH’s global health care, education and research programs with the goal of extending MGH’s impact to a global community in its third century. More information is available on our website: http://massgeneralcenterforglobalhealth.org/

Sam Martinborough, Executive Director, Mssng Lnks

Mssng Lnks is an afterschool choral program for inner-city youth focusing on African-American musical history and storytelling.  The Witness Uganda Fall Tour inspired Mssng Lnks to create a song cycle responding to moments of community action around Boston.

Saturday, March 1 (following the 7:30 performance)

Laura D’Asaro and Rose Wang, Co-Founders at Six Foods

Laura D’Asaro and Rose Wang are 2013 Harvard College graduates and co-founders at Six Foods (http://sixfoods.com). At Six Foods, we believe that six legs are better than four. Currently, the livestock industry produces 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all forms of transportation combined. It uses 70% of arable land in the world and 50% of the water in the United States. Considering that the demand for meat is expected to double by 2050, we need an alternative, environmentally-friendly source of protein. In response, we make delicious food from insects as a healthier and more sustainable protein source. We believe that insects are the food of the future, and we want you to taste why! Join us for a discussion about culture, food, and why we eat what we eat. Then try our Chocolate Chirp Cookies and our cricket chips, or Chirps, for yourself!

Wednesday, March 5 (following the student matinee)

Brendan Shea, Education & Community Programs Manager, A.R.T.

A.R.T. staff will discuss the Witness Uganda Fall Tour and the projects that were initiated as a result of Matt and Griffin’s journey around Greater Boston.  Several schools in attendance will add their recollections and inspirations from the Fall Tour to frame the experience of seeing the “finished product” on stage.

Wednesday, March 5 (following the 7:30PM performance)

Jacqueline Bhabha, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights , HSPH; Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer, HLS; University Adviser on Human Rights Education, Director of Research, FXB Center; Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

Jacqueline Bhabha is FXB Director of Research, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.  She received a first class honors degree and an M.Sc. from Oxford University, and a J.D. from the College of Law in London.

From 1997 to 2001 Bhabha directed the Human Rights Program at the University of Chicago.  Prior to 1997, she was a practicing human rights lawyer in London and at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.  She has published extensively on issues of transnational child migration, refugee protection, children’s rights and citizenship. She is the editor of Children Without A State (2011), author of Moving Children: Young Migrants and the Challenge of Rights (forthcoming, Princeton University Press, 2014), and the editor of Coming of Age: Reframing the Approach to Adolescent Rights (forthcoming, UPenn Press, 2014).

Bhabha serves on the board of the Scholars at Risk Network, the World Peace Foundation and the Journal of Refugee Studies.  She is also a founder of the Alba Collective, an international women’s NGO currently working with rural women and girls in developing countries to enhance financial security and youth rights.

Friday March 7

Amy Brakeman and Fatoumata Fall

I’m Fatoumata Fall. I was born and grew up in Senegal till I was 15 years old, when I joined the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in South Africa Johannesburg for 2 years. At ALA, I met a group of young Africans, my classmates, from 40+ nationalities who were and still are extremely dedicated to solving some of the African continent’s biggest challenges. We experimented with various initiatives and shared important lessons of leadership and vision for our continent, of entrepreneurship and how to improve livelihoods, and most importantly, we shared lessons and anecdotes about our common African histories. After ALA, I joined Harvard College here in Cambridge and now I’m a senior applied mathematics concentrator. I am looking forward to the next steps going back home and using what I learnt from various cultures and countries to participate in my home region’s development.

Tuesday, March 11

Lynn S. Auerbach, Ph.D, Founder and Co-Director of the Connect Africa Foundationan

CAF’s mission is to strengthen families by providing educational sponsorship to orphans and business loans to their guardians. A decade ago, Lynn Auerbach realized her life-long dream to help struggling families in Africa. As a clinical psychologist she had spent two decades working with diverse populations in the Boston area, helping to empower individuals to improve their lives. After raising her family, Lynn traveled to Uganda to explore how her special gifts and experience might serve orphaned children and their caregivers. In Uganda, the AIDS pandemic has left many families with an elder grandmother as the sole provider for numerous grandchildren. After building relationships with local families, Lynn learned that empowering caregivers with modest financial support in the form of micro loans and educational sponsorship helped to mobilize extended families to care for orphaned children and improved the long term sustainability of the entire community. In 2005 Lynn founded the Connect Africa Foundation and began living and working in Kyalliwajala to support the villagers. In addition to providing for tuition, uniforms, school supplies, healthcare and personal hygiene items, CAF’s programming includes mentorship, life skills training, field trips, community gatherings, monitoring of reports cards and participation in teacher conferences. Lynn and her co-director Kalule Charles work hand in hand with the families that Connect Africa supports to create new possibilities for them. Since its inception, CAF has supported 86 students, with 49 students in school today.

Wednesday, March 12, following the 7:30PM performance

Christine W. Letts, Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School

Christine W. Letts is the Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). She has extensive experience in private, nonprofit, and public management. Letts joined the faculty of HKS in 1992 and was the founding Executive Director of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations (now the Hauser Institute for Civil Society at the Center for Public Leadership).  From 2005-2011 she was the Senior Associate Dean for Executive Education. After graduating from Connecticut College with a degree in history, she started her career working in New York City government. After receiving her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1976, she joined Cummins Engine Company in Columbus, Indiana and spent 10 years in labor relations and manufacturing management roles, the last of which was Vice President – Columbus Plant Operations. Her final job at Cummins was President of the Cummins Engine Foundation and Vice President of Corporate Responsibility. In 1988, Letts became the first Secretary of the Indiana Department of Transportation, and later led the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. She co-authored Virtuous Capital: What Foundations Can Learn from Venture Capitalists (Harvard Business Review 1997), High Performance Nonprofit Organizations (John Wiley and Sons 1999) and Social Entrepreneurship and Societal Transformation (The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science September 2004). Letts also chairs and teaches nonprofit management in several Executive Education programs including Strategic Management for Leaders of Non-Governmental Organizations (delivered in Turkey) and Strategic Frameworks for Nonprofit Organizations (delivered online). She co-teaches a new course in Philanthropy for students of Harvard College and the Harvard Kennedy School and is involved in several global philanthropy research projects.

Thursday, March 13

Jonathan Walton, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church and Professor of Religion and Society, Harvard University

Social ethicist and scholar of American religions Jonathan L. Walton joined the faculty of Harvard Divinity School in July 2010 and was appointed Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church beginning July 2012. Formerly an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of California, Riverside, Walton earned his PhD in religion and society from Princeton Theological Seminary. He also holds a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary as well as a BA in political science from Morehouse College in Atlanta. His research addresses the intersections of religion, politics, and media culture. Drawing on British cultural studies, Walton explores the interrelationship between the media used by Christian evangelists and the theologies thereby conveyed. He argues for forms of theological innovation within the productions of religious broadcasting that are enabled—perhaps even generated—by the media that evangelists use, and he asks what the implications are for the study of evangelical Christianity when one attends to these particular forms of religious and theological performance. His first book, Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism (NYU Press, 2009), is an important intervention into the study of American religion, as it disrupts commonly held assumptions that associate evangelical broadcasting with white, conservative evangelical communities. Professor Walton has also published widely in scholarly journals such as Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation and Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. His current research interests include the development of neo-Pentecostalism in the postwar era and the cultural impact of the prosperity gospel movement in varying global contexts.

Saturday, March 15, following the evening performance

Shannan Smith, Board Member, Uganda Project

A multi-passionate artist,activist and entrepreneur, Shannan Smith has served as board member of Uganda Project since 2008.  Shannan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theater and Dance from Spelman College and a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from The New School. She brings her international experience in cultural diplomacy and social enterprise to her role with Uganda Project. Spearheading projects that connect artists and experts to the mission of Uganda Project, it is Shannan’s hope that more individuals realize the positive impact one can make with their own unique talents and passions.