News Briefs
Crossing the border
Border issues between America and Canada will be discussed at a half-day conference next Tuesday. Portland State University is hosting a the conference, entitled “U.S. – Canadian Immigration and Border Issues.”
The conference is sponsored by a grant from the Canadian government and is free and open to the public. Don Devoretz, an economist at Simon Frazer University and a principal in the Canada Metropolis Project will present “Canada’s Border After 9/11.” Barry Edmonston, a leading authority on U.S. immigration policy and director of PSU’s Population Research Center will explain “Who the Immigrants Are Who Come to the U.S., and What They Do After They Get Here.” Bryan E. Burton, consul and program manager from the Canadian Consulate in Seattle is scheduled to speak on “The Canada – U.S. Smart Border Declaration: Making the Border Work.”
Paul Hribernick, an immigration attorney with Black Helterline, will serve as a moderator before a question and discussion period. The conference will take place Tuesday, March 5, from 9:30 a.m. to noon in Smith Memorial Center, Room 238. Discussion periods will follow both Barry Edmonston’s and Byran Burton’s lectures. Contact Richard Lycan, PSU Center for Population Research and Census, at 503-725-5158 or [email protected] for more information. Media interested in attending should call David Santen at 503-725-8789.
Reducing violence
Portland State’s Center for Public Health Studies will research a youth violence reduction program in California. The center will use a 21-month, $250,000 grant from The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) to evaluate the impact of a 10-year, $60 million program designed to reduce and prevent youth violence in California.
The project will develop and apply an innovative “social capital model” to assess a decade of public education and policy programs.
The social capital model explores ways that community groups are able to work together to overcome obstacles to meaningful social change, and examines a number of indicators relating to resources, networking, access to power and collaboration.
In the case of California’s violence-prevention initiative, this model will show how new policies to reduce the availability of guns, once thought not even possible to implement, are now are in place in more than 50 local and county jurisdictions as well as the state level.
Relating economically
Dr. Ellis Krauss of UC San Diego will talk on “Beyond Bilateralism: US and Japan Economic Cooperation and Conflict in Multilateral Asia.” Co-sponsored by Japanese Consulate of Portland. The event takes place March 1, from 6 to 8 p.m. in Smith Center’s Multicultural Center, Room 228. The lecture is free and a reception will follow.
Womanist empowerment
The PSU department of black studies will present Washington Post features writer Dr. Kristal Brent Zook. She will discuss popular culture and politics in a lecture titled, “Welfare Mamas and Golddiggas: A Womanist Defines Empowerment, Dependence, and the True Meaning of Prostitution.” The lecture will cover issues of popular culture and representations of African American women in film, television and hip-hop. The event will take place Thursday, March 7 from 4 to 6 p.m. in Smith Center, Room 228. This event is free and open to the public.
Reflections Bookstore and Caf퀌� will be on hand selling Zook’s most recent publication, “Color By Fox: the Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television.” Call 503-725-3472 for more information.
—Aaron Miles
