Paid summer internship with The Washington Bus

The Washington Bus is offering an interesting paid summer internship opportunity.

The Washington Bus is a statewide non-partisan movement-building organization that seeks to increase the political power and participation of young people across Washington State, while developing the next generation of leaders and organizers.

The Washington Bus is now recruiting Summer Fellows for a ten-week paid political, social justice, political power-building, and organizing program for young people. The Fellowship is part-time and is open to 18-25-year-olds in Washington state. Fellows spend the summer organizing young people, working on issue campaigns, turning out the youth vote, and learning about social justice, power building, and politics in Washington state. Fellows leave the program having made an impact on Washington Bus campaigns, with the skills to make real change in their communities, and a network of Bus family and friends to support them beyond the program.

The Washington Bus Fellowship is a 20-hour-a-week, 10 weeks long program starting the week of June 11th, 2024. This program is based in Seattle and housing will be provided for folks who aren’t from the Seattle area or can’t commute regularly. The priority consideration deadline is Wednesday, April 3rd, and the final application deadline is Saturday, April 20th at 11:59 pm. Fellows are paid $20 per hour throughout the program, or can opt to use that money as scholarship funds towards higher education (to be paid directly to the college/university).

For more information and the link to apply, visit: 2024 Summer Fellowship Application (google.com)

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Edgar Espino at edgar@washingtonbus.org or text at 360-567-5109.

Faculty Participate in World Affairs Council Speaker Series

Two PPPA faculty members, Prof. Etga Ugur and Prof. Sana Khalil, will be offering public presentations in the coming months as participants in the World Affairs Council Speaker Series. The public is invited to these free talks.

Dr. Etga Ugur, Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at UWT, will lecture on “Israel-Palestine In Context: A Regional Political Perspective.” His talk will offer a political and historical context to recent events in Israel and Palestine. The event will be held at the Connelly Center at Bellarmine Preparatory School at 7PM on Thursday February 8th.  More details about the event, and a link to RSVP, can be found on the World Affairs Council’s website.

On April 24th at 6:30pm, Dr. Khalil, Professor of Economics at UWT, will lecture on “Climate Change: Costs and Consequences”. Her talk will explore the economic dimensions of climate change and the broader consequences for individuals and societies.  This event will be held at the Wheelock Library in Tacoma.  More details about the event, and a link to RSVP, can be found on the World Affairs Council’s website.

PPPA Alums Share Experiences With UWT Community

Invited to UWT’s Alumni Speaker Series, two PPPA alums recently returned to campus to discuss their personal stories, along the way providing students with college and career advice.

On January 11th, Dee Sonntag, who was recently elected to the Tacoma Municipal Court, visited us. Dee graduated magna cum laude in 2013 with a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. While a student, she started the Pre-Law Society, then was selected to be her class’s Commencement Speaker.  Post graduation, Dee attended the University of Washington School of Law, then worked for both the Seattle City Attorney’s Office and the Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel.  A year ago she was elected to the Tacoma Municipal Court.

Prior to Dee’s visit, last November 16th, NIck Brooks came to campus to talk with the UWT community.  Nick graduated a couple of years ago with a degree in Politics Philosophy and Economics. Before UWT, Nick served in the Air Force for 21 years. Since graduation, he’s been active in the non-profit community, and has served on community boards such as with the Tacoma Pierce County Black Collective, and the historical preservation group Buffalo Soldiers of Seattle. Nick also has long experience as a entrepreneur and property developer.  Nick is also active as a father of five, and a coach of various youth sports teams.

It’s always great to see our former students back on campus!

Internship in the Nation’s Capitol Deadline Nov 20th

Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02) is seeking applicants for the Spring 2024 internship program in his Washington D.C. office. The paid in-person internship will run from January through May. Internship duties will include (but are not limited to): leading tours of the Capitol, answering phones, attending briefings, conducting legislative research and other tasks to assist staff.The ideal candidate for this internship can carry out independent research and has strong written and verbal communication skills and attention to detail. Interns must also have a positive and collaborative attitude.The internship will offer students and young professionals invaluable experience on our nation’s legislative process. Ties to Washington state are preferred, but not required. Women, people of color and LGBTQIA+ persons are strongly encouraged to apply.All interested applicants should email their resume and cover letter in a single PDF to Danielle Hall at Danielle.Hall@mail.house.gov<mailto:Danielle.Hall@mail.house.gov> with the subject line “Spring 2024 Internship”. Please indicate availability in your application. Deadline November 20th but applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.Best,Danielle Hall (She/Her)Staff AssistantRep. Rick Larsen, WA-02Danielle.Hall@mail.house.gov

Karen Lin Interns with Pierce County Council

Economics & Policy Analysis graduate Karen Lin recently completed a summer internship with Pierce County Council (PCC). Karen is the second EPA student to participate in PCC’s new paid summer internship. During Karen’s internship, she worked directly with the County Council and its professional staff.  One of the main projects she worked on was building an inventory for all the housing intervention services throughout Pierce County. Toward the end of her internship, the Council asked her to present this inventory to its committee meeting on homelessness.
During her internship, Karen took advantage of many opportunities made available to her by County staff, such as touring different facilities within the county to better understand the local government.  She also learned about career opportunities with the County. “I am glad to have taken this opportunity to work for the council,” Karen commented.  “It has allowed me to grow as a person and given me the experience of working in government administration.”
Meanwhile, EPA faculty continue to work closely with Pierce County Council, and to extend internship opportunities with it. If interested, contact Prof. Katie Baird (kebaird@uw.edu).

Calling all students interested in public policy and economic analysis

Thinking of graduate school?  Consider applying to the Public Policy and International Affairs’ (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute, which is a new summer program at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy. The application closes on November 1, 2023.

The PPIA program promotes the participation of underrepresented groups in domestic and international public service. This program is fully-funded, with a curriculum that includes economics, policy analysis, implementation, quantitative methods, and community engagement – all designed to sharpen students’ quantitative, analytic, and leadership skills.  You’ll also gain exposure to public service in the Pacific Northwest through experiential learning opportunities, mentorship, field trips, and engagement with community-based practitioners, regional leaders, and elected officials. This institute offers a terrific learning opportunity as well as enhances your credentials for graduate school in a public policy field.

What: Junior Summer Institute (JSI)

Who: Rising seniors of all majors

When: June 19-August 2, 2024

BENEFITS

  • Seven week residential program hosted by the University of Washington’s Evans School
  • Full tuition and housing with a meal plan
  • Stipend up to $1,000
  • Books and course materials
  • Mentorship from professionals working in fields of public policy, management, and governance
  • Scholarship at a PPIA graduate school

REQUIREMENTS

  • Graduating between December 2024 and August 2025
  • Demonstrated interest in public policy and commitment to career in public service sector
  • History of work involving historically underserved or underrepresented communities

INTERESTED?
There will be a PPIA Program JSI Informational Webinar on Friday, October 6th from 9am – 10:30am (Pacific Time – Los Angeles).  Use the following link to RSVP. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://bit.ly/JSI2024Webinar__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!j5yxBbnZzzd-3kTgKy5BFR1GfZ2zVwhHRrPNLphlaqgRUC0aH1_nEyNVgt4rfbqjL6HabwxAdNr8$

Veganism and the Dangers of Categorization

This is a follow-up guest post from UWT Alum Lucas Waggoner

On February 28, Ed Winters, or Earthling Ed, gave a talk here at the University of Washington Tacoma. He spoke on veganism and ethics.

Winters discussed how animal rights are about the acknowledgment of rights related to non-human animals. He argued that non-human animals are “deserving of applicable and relevant rights” directly related to the nature of animals, rather than simply applying broad human rights to animals.

One of the more compelling points Winters raised was the way in which broad categorization is employed to alter the reactions people have to animal suffering. He explained that we “assign traits” to make it appear that all animals of a certain kind “are the same.” That way, we don’t think of an animal on an individual level, even if interacting with that animal. We deny animals the right to be viewed or perceived as individuals, despite the fact that no two animals are truly the same.

This act of categorizing animals and denying them individuality helps make their suffering more “palatable” to humans. Despite humans lacking the capacity to truly know what any given animal experiences in life or how it experiences events, distinctions are made regarding consciousness. And the distinctions between which animals it is moral to harm, or under what circumstances harm is accepted, quickly become — according to Winters — arbitrary.

One example he offered was how people tend to respond to animal abuse. A person kicking an animal is typically met with disdain, regardless of a person’s stance on either animal testing or animal consumption. However, when people subject animals to similar levels—or often drastically worse levels—of suffering for animal testing or animal consumption, the responses are not as overwhelmingly against the actions. And the “arbitrary distinctions” people are left with, he argued, lack any coherent moral distinction.

Lucas Waggoner is a UWT alum, writer, and English teacher at the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland

Veganism as a “Propaganda” or an Opportunity to Create a Better World for All?

A guest post from UWT Alum Lucas Waggoner

Ed Winters — known worldwide for his extensive efforts as a vegan educator, an author, and as a public speaker — is giving a talk on ethics and veganism. Presented as part of the guest speaker series for TPHIL 361 Ethics in Society, the talk will be held virtually at UW Tacoma on February 28, 2023 (Zoom link), Ed Winters aka Earthling Ed | Viva! The Vegan Charitystarting at 8:00 am.

An outspoken advocate for animal rights, “Earthling Ed,” has spoken across the globe and on virtually every platform imaginable. While he found popularity and notoriety initially through his early lecture called “You Will Never Look at Your Life Again,” he has since taught ethics courses at Harvard University and given numerous Ted talks.

Most of his work follows a consistent and steady theme: evaluating the classical arguments given opposing veganism as a philosophy to test their merits. One-by-one, he presents each argument against veganism. He then examines it to determine whether, under proper scrutiny — often by way of analogy — the argument possesses real merits. Through this method, he has led countless people in his audiences to accepting a vegan lifestyle.

Ed Winters is also well-known for his extremely successful 2022 book, This Is Vegan Propaganda: (And Other Lies the Meat Industry Tells You). Beyond challenging common misconceptions about veganism, the book also discusses an element of the production of meat and other animal products that is rarely discussed in conversations about veganism: the human cost in production. This includes issues such as dangerous working conditions, pollution in primarily lower-income areas, and all manner of abuse from supervisors.

The book, like Winters’ other work, is deeply rooted in ethics. “Veganism”, he explains, “is an ethical stance against needless animal exploitation — it’s not specifically about diet.” It is more of “a social justice issue that recognizes that non-human animals deserve autonomy, moral consideration and the recognition that their lives are far more valuable than the reasons we use to justify exploiting them” (p. 12).  Every dimension of Winters’ work highlights questions of a person’s ethical obligations to both animals and nature. Typically, when trying to expose any flaws in the logic for anti-vegan argumentation, he questions whether the positions they hold are viable in a moral sense.

One of his more compelling arguments is the connections he draws between the aforementioned human cost and the nature of animal suffering within the factory farm system. Namely, he discusses how both the exploitation and abuse of humans working at farms, like that of animals, is systemic. The abuses aren’t isolated cases — they aren’t mere aberrations. The suffering is inherent to the way the system functions. The modern system of factory farming exists because of the suffering of both the animals being bred and slaughtered, as well as the humans abused and exploited in those processes.

I encourage you to take the opportunity to hear this provocative and engaging speaker.

Lucas Waggoner is a UWT alum, writer, and English teacher at the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland

 

The Protests in Iran: A World Affairs Council-Tacoma Talk by Saghar Amini

“Woman, Life, Freedom” is the slogan that has galvanized tens of thousands of citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran to participate in protests since a young woman’s death in police custody in September, 2022, after her arrest for improperly wearing hijab.  On Feb. 8, the World Affairs Council-Tacoma and Bellarmine Preparatory School co-hosted a talk by Saghar Amini, a recent graduate of UWS with a degree in political science with a focus on international security.

Since the protests broke out, Ms. Amini has been actively organizing and attending protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Seattle area.  Ms. Amini explained that while reformist presidents have come and gone in Iran over the past decades, the death of Mahsa Amini (no relation) proved a breaking point for many Iranians who have lost hope for change.  Current protests differ from previous ones in that people of all ages, genders, economic classes, ideologies and religions have been activated and are finding common cause against the Islamic Republic of Iran. By calling it the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ms. Amini emphasized that she was drawing a line between the Iranian people and their government, making the point that the Supreme Leader, the  President and the Parliament, whose “principles of identity” revolve around mandatory hijab, anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism, do not represent the will of the Iranian people.

Protest in Bellevue this past fall (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)

Ms. Amini emphasized that the current protests in Iran represent a domestic Iranian issue and that foreign governments should not intervene. But she said that people around the world can offer support by sanctioning the Iranian leadership, and by emphasizing human rights.  The American people can help by keeping the protests in the news and by attending protests such as have been held in Seattle, Los Angeles, and other cities around the country.

The World Affairs Council-Tacoma has long included a PPPA faculty member on its board. For upcoming events, see: https://www.wactacoma.com/

Dr. Andreas Udbye on the Nordic Model

As part of an ongoing series sponsored by the World Affairs Council-Tacoma in collaboration with UW Tacoma, On January 11, Dr. Andreas Udbye presented a talk at UWT titled, “The Nordic Model: What Is It and Can’t We Just Copy It?”  Dr. Udbye, Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Puget Sound, discussed findings that the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) consistently receive the highest scores on global ratings such as the Human Development Index, World Happiness Report, and Democracy Index. Meanwhile the US rankings continue to slide downward. Given this, Dr. Udbye’s talk posed the question of whether the US should adopt and emulate more of the Nordic policies in an effort to stem the decline.  Andreas Udbye

The main focus of the talk was on key aspects of the Nordic Model, including policies related to social welfare, education, health care, and economic equality, examining the ways in which these contribute to the top ten rankings enjoyed by all of the Nordic countries in the World Happiness Report. Dr. Udbye also shed light on the evolving history of these policies in different countries, including some recent strains tied to growing consumerism and resistance to taxes by wealthier citizens.  Although the title of the talk asked whether the US could “copy” these policies, the talk left relatively unexplored the role culture plays as an underpinning for the Nordic Model, leaving the question of the adaptability and feasibility of the Nordic Model for the US open for further consideration.

Dr. Udbye’s talk inspired a lively Q and A session, and questions remained even after the session was called to a close.  For upcoming World Affairs Council-Tacoma talks by UWT faculty and other local scholars, visit https://www.wactacoma.com/