World Issues Forum

America’s Constitutional Crisis

Jamie Mayerfeld, Professor and Chair of Law, Societies & Justice, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington.
Johann Neem, Professor of History, Western Washington University.

This panel will explore whether Trump’s actions since re-election have created a constitutional crisis. Drawing on John Locke and the American Founders, the panelists will ask whether we still live in a republic or whether we have entered a new era in which we are governed by force rather than law. These questions get to the heart of what it means to live in a free society today.

Therapeutic and Restorative Practices in State and Tribal Court Systems

Raquel Montoya Lewis, Associate Justice, Washington State Supreme Court

Justice Montoya-Lewis will discuss her experiences as a trial and appeals court judge in both tribal and state courts and share what state and federal courts can learn from tribal courts. Through her work in multiple systems, Justice Montoya-Lewis has professional experience with both tribal and state systems and has worked with tribes to develop tribal courts that reflect the values and traditions of indigenous communities in the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest. She will provide a general overview of state and tribal court systems, as well as discuss the differences between therapeutic and restorative practices in both systems.

Life in Gaza After October 7th

Farah Kamal, college student in Gaza, publisher of a Palestinian cookbook and artist, whose work has been exhibited in the USA.

Omar Skaik, IT worker, husband, and father of three children in Gaza

Gaza refugees Omar Skaik and Farah Kamal join us to talk about life in Gaza after October 7th, 2023. Omar was a busy young father who worked in IT while Farah was about to start college as an art student when their world fell apart.

Traces of Enayat: What the Archive Remembers

Iman Mersal, Professor of Arabic Language and Literature. Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Alberta, Canada.

Drawing on Traces of Enayat, this discussion examines various approaches to engaging with the archive and confronting its absence. It explores how the lack of an archive can itself reshape narrative—altering our positionality and expanding the possibilities for telling stories that resist the flattening of the past.

Event Registration Page: https://foundation.wwu.edu/event/traces-enayat-what-archive-remembers.

Lummi Nation's Fight for Consultation on Projects in Canada

John Gailus is a Founder and Director of Cascadia Legal LLP in Victoria, BC

Gailus is a member of the Cumshewa Clan of the Haida Nation. He has a varied law practice focused on consultation, Aboriginal and treaty rights litigation, Indian Act issues and economic development, both on and off reserve. John has served as counsel in all levels of Court, including the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions. John is an Adjunct Professor in the University of Victoria Faculty of Law where he teaches the Indigenous Lands, Rights and Governance course.

Adventure Learning Grant Student Experiences:  Armenia, Ghana, Mexico and Beyond

Fairhaven College Students and ALG Recipients:

Drew Aposhyan

Drew Aposhyan is a student at Western Washington, finishing a concentration at Fairhaven college centered around creative writing. He is interested in writing all kinds of things. He dreams of a world in which writing could be his source of income. He does not seem to live in that world.

In the 2024/5 school year Drew went on an ALG funded exploration of his family history, the experience of diaspora, and the implications of forced immigration. This exploration took him from the Caucasus countries of Armenia and Georgia, through Turkiye and into the Balkans.

Hadley Hudson

Hadley Hudson is a horse girl, yoga lover, animal enjoyer, & student She is pursuing a self made concentration titled Art, Anthrozoology, and Ethnoecology: Animals and People across Cultures, Time, and Place. Hadley is inspired by the intersections of art, social justice, people and animals.

While on Adventure Learning Grant, I visited Italy, The Netherlands, South Africa, Lesotho, Ghana and Portugal. I spent the longest amount of time in Ghana and was there for six months. Throughout my travels, I explored themes of relations to the Atlantic Ocean as a black American in Africa, worked with and rode horses, volunteered at a big cat sanctuary, and got my 200 hour yoga certification!

Colleen Ryan

Colleen is a Western student pursuing a Fairhaven concentration in Socioecology. She is most interested in human relationships with land and the interrelated histories, futures, knowledges, cultural practices, craft, art, politics and economies that spring from those relationships, as well as what it takes to make meaningful change toward better lives and futures for people and environment. She is also an artist, with a primary (but not sole) focus on textiles and a deep interest in material, craft, and the political implications of artmaking.

Over the 2025 - 2026 school year, Colleen traveled to Japan and Mexico on the Adventure Learning Grant, with a project focused on art and craft, especially weaving traditions, as a window into human relationships with place and cultural histories. She worked with artisans and artists to learn about both physical making processes as well as the worlds of knowledge about land, plants, material, culture, and lifeways that are inextricable from the making process.