With an eye on the issues of widespread apathy, the College of Arts and Sciences is debuting the 2011 installment of the “Symposium Against In- difference” with a theme that is geared toward influencing global activism.

This year’s series of lectures and events is titled “Symposium Against Global Indifference: Awakening to Action” and will feature a total of 12 events spanning the upcoming academic year, according to Dr. Dawn Weber, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Started in 2003 as a biennial series dedicated to overcoming apathy on various issues, the focus of this event is to encourage individuals to think at their own level by posing the question, “how can you make a difference in situations and crises around the globe?”

Assistant Professor of Religion Dr. Craig Hovey said that the events comprising the symposium will explore issues that may seem distant due to their occurrence in other countries.

“We’ve looked for events that try to put a human face on these kinds of distant realities,” Hovey said.

Weber said that the year- long symposium has been a year in the making and is distinct from previous symposiums in their themes and their week long and semester-long lengths.

“This year, we wanted to really focus all year long on this issue,” Weber said. “So, not only have we done that, but we’ve also reached out to collaborate and to partner with other departments in a closer way to help them fund some individuals that fit in with the theme that they wanted to bring in, as well.”

Hovey said the symposium has been left open-ended for the very reason that Weber stated.

“We’ve intentionally kept it broad this time so that all of the different departments can think about this idea of global indifference and then say, ‘What is it that our discipline thinks is of value and what can we bring to the table in that discussion,'” Hovey said.

He said that through the College of Arts and Sciences’ efforts to reach out to different departments, several of the events will be cosponsored by the Departments of Art, Religion, Foreign Languages, Social Work and Biology/Toxicology. There will also be co-sponsorship from the Honors Program, the Multicultural Programming Committee and the Ashland Center for Nonviolence.

The first event of the year will feature Kelsey Timmerman, author of the book “Where Am I Wearing?”

Presenting in the Hugo Young Theater on Thursday, September 22 at 7:00p.m., Timmerman will discuss his various trips to places in Central America and Southeast Asia to meet and talk to the actual workers that make the clothes he wears.

According to Hovey, Tim- merman spent time in such places as Honduras and Cambodia and asked them, “What’s your life like and what’s it like to make these clothes?”

Weber said that Timmerman will be cosponsored by the Honors Program and he will be spending time with students in classes and over lunch and dinner.

“That’s the plan for each of these speakers: to be here on campus for more than an evening, but to spend a day, two days, sometimes even three days working with students in smaller groups,” Weber said.

On the same day of Timmerman’s lecture, Weber said that attendees will be able to visit the opening of “Life on the Border: The Karen People of Burma,” a photo exhibit that will be hosted in the Coburn Gallery through October 16 and is cosponsored by the Department of Art and the Multicultural Programming Committee via a grant from the committee.

In addition to the photo gallery and the various other lectures on topics ranging from the gendered politics of HIV prevention to the roles of religion and biology in global peace. There will also be two films screened in the Hawkins- Conard Student Center Auditorium November 1 and 9.

The first film, “The Age of Stupid,” will explore climate change while the second film, “Of Gods and Men,” will feature a true story of faith and doubt felt by French Trappist monks in Algeria when faced with threats of violence from terrorists and the military.

“Of Gods and Men” will be co- sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embas- sy and the French Ministry of Culture.

There will also be a three-person panel held on Tuesday, October 11 in the Student Center Auditorium titled “Globalization: Who Benefits? Who Suffers?”

Hovey said that this panel will likely have local implications.

“When you go to the part of Ash- land where there used to be all kinds of factories…you see what globalization has done to that part of town,” Hovey said. “Globalization has its advocates, it has its detractors, and then those peo- ple like Timmerman just complicated a whole lot for us and show us how it’s not particularly simple but that even things that happen a world away impact

us in this town.” Hovey also said that the Ashland community was kept in mind when organizing the symposium’s schedule, designing it for both the university and the local community.

Weber said that the symposium, as a whole, will have implications with the university, specifically as a precursor to the global competency requirement that will go into effect the fall of 2012.

“We’re really focusing on global indifference this year and starting next fall, we have this global competency requirement,” Weber said. “I think it helps to build not only momentum for that, but to help the entire campus-wide community of students and faculty and staff and administrators really focus on the fact that we’re so connected globally today and what we choose to engage in or not engage in one country really does impact the others.

To help spread the word and draw more people to these events, Weber had a movie-style trailer made for the symposium. Words like “globalization,” “climate change” and “human trafficking” and location names such as Haiti, Burma and New Orleans crawl across the screen, interspersed by images of protesters, poverty-stricken people and places ravaged by natural disasters.

At the end of the trailer, along with the symposium name, two questions are displayed (“Can I make a difference? How can I get involved?”), followed by an encouragement to “Discover your inner activist.”

Ultimately, Hovey and Weber hope that the symposium has a larger influence and effect on all who attend its events.

Hovey hopes the symposium will “broaden our horizons, and at the same time embolden us to feel as though we’re part of the world that we’re not overwhelmed by.”

Weber said that she wants students to become actively engaged and be a part of solutions to problems.

“No matter how large a globalissue or problem is, you, as a single individual, are not too small to make a difference,” she said.

Weber cited a man from Akron, OH, who saw a need to help with those affected by sex trade in other countries and felt compelled, as an individual, to try to make a difference. This man’s story, “Remember Nhu,” will be presented February 7 in the Student Center Auditorium and will explore the Christian nonprofit organization for which the event is named.

“That’s the sort of thing that I really hope comes out of this, is that people really spend serious time and reflection and not only think about ‘how can I as an individual make a difference?,’ but that they then take an action to do something,” Weber said.

For more information on the symposiums and its events, contact Hovey at (419) 289-5208.