Global Hopscotch:
The Borderless World and the Search for Home
Rekha Basu
Des Moines Register Columnist
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
Sun Room, Memorial Union
8:00pm
To be preceded by the
CEAH opening reception beginning at
6pm.
Our decisions and policies, many originating right here in
Iowa, have an impact on people thousands of miles way. Whether it's the
farm subsidies program, our policies on immigration or reproductive and
human rights, or our environmental practices, we contribute to the condition
and livelihoods of people around the world whose decisions, in turn, affect
us in multiple ways.
In what ways do our actions as citizens affect the rest of the world?
What does it mean to be a good global citizen in an era of globalization?
Can you be pro-American yet loyal to more than one country? What is a
cultural or ethnic identity? Is the "melting pot" ideal still relevant for
immigrants, or is the patchwork quilt a better metaphor?
Rekha Basu has been a columnist for The Des Moines Register
since late 1991, focusing on human rights, racial and gender issues and
commenting on cultural trends.
Basu's column appears thrice weekly on the Registers opinion pages and is
syndicated by Gannett News Service. Her byline has appeared in The New York
Times, USA Today, The International Herald Tribune and The Nation, among
other publications.
In May 2008, Basu received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from
Grinnell College. She has a masters degree in journalism from Columbia
University, another masters in political economy from Goddard Cambridge
Graduate School (where she subsequently taught), and a BA in sociology from
Brandeis University. She graduated from the United Nations International
School in New York.
She is a frequent public speaker and has made guest appearances on C-Span,
CNN, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and National Public Radio.
Born in India to United Nations parents, Basu grew up
internationally.
She has worked as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist at newspapers
in Iowa, New York State and Florida.
Basu was awarded the 2008 Women of Influence award from the Des Moines
Business Record, the Iowa Interfaith Alliance award and the Iowa Farmers
Union media award. She is also the recipient of the 2007 Master Columnist
award from the Iowa Newspaper Association, the 2007 Iowa Associated Press
Managing Editor's award for best column writing, the Des Moines YWCAs 2006
Mary Louise Smith Award for Racial Justice; the 2003 Cristine Wilson Medal
for Equality and Justice from the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame, the 2002 Best
of the Register commentary award, and a 2001 South Asian Journalists
Association award for an essay on a Bangladeshi Muslim victim of the Sept.
11 attack on the World Trade Center. She has won first place in the Vivian
Castleberry Award for commentaries on women's issues and has been a frequent
Best of Gannett honoree.
Basu made her Des Moines stage debut this spring playing a spiritual guide
named Maryamma in the StageWest production of Miss Witherspoon.
Rekha Basu