New College's New Topics include 'Fleeing Atrocities' with two witnesses 80 years apart

New College of Florida will open its 2022-23 New Topics season on Oct. 26 with a special presentation on the climate crisis.

The upcoming lineup includes dynamic regional and national speakers covering a broad range of topics and is hosted by the New College Foundation.

"Climate Crisis Now! Learning and Landscape in a Changing Environment" features Chris Reed, a Harvard architecture professor who will talk about his award-winning work developing strategies of adaptation related to coastal resilience.

With an eye to the local context of the New College of Florida campus and its place on the Gulf Coast, Reed will explore the changing needs and agendas associated with creating a campus aligned with efforts to reimagine the role of higher education in community resilience.

All New Topics events will be held at Sanier Pavilion on the New College campus at 5:30 p.m. The programs:

1. • "Fleeing Atrocities: Witness Perspectives" on Jan. 25 in partnership with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Dr. Helen N. Fagin Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Collection.

The conversation features two witnesses of mass atrocities nearly 80 years apart: Holocaust survivor Louise Lawrence-Israëls and Rohnigya activist and survivor Wai Wai Nu. The discussion will be moderated by Naomi Kikoler, director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. The program will shine a light on the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya in Burma and the unique perspective and voice that Holocaust survivors can bring to contemporary issues.

• "The Bigger Picture: Entertainment Marketing in a Changing World" on Feb. 16. Smitty Smith (New College Class of 1970) and Jackson George (1995) will discuss Hollywood and the evolution of entertainment marketing in a rapidly changing world.

Smith, a movie industry veteran and CEO of the creative agency InSync Plus, and George, a creative advertising executive with Disney, will go behind the scenes to understand how Hollywood develops movies and markets their product to the consumer. Smith and George will also explore the influence of rapidly advancing technologies on the marketing and distribution of movies.

• "The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans" on March 21 with Cynthia Barnett, an award-winning environmental author.

Barnett will explore the long, rich and profound relationship between humans and seashells. Traveling from Florida to the Bahamas to the Maldives and beyond, Barnett uncovers the ancient history of shells as global currency, their use as religious and luxury objects, and the rarely appreciated but remarkable creatures that make them.

While shells reveal how humans have altered the climate and the sea down to its very chemistry, they are also sentinels of hope for coastal adaptation for climate change, alternative energy and other solutions that lie beneath the waves.

Tickets are $10. To learn more and register, visit ncf.edu/new-topics. For questions, contact the New College Foundation at foundation@ncf.edu or 941-487-4800.

Submitted by Marty Katz

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New Topics season features 'Fleeing Atrocities', 'Climate Crisis Now'