Nuclear Legacy Week 2024: Commemorate. Educate. Empower.
Conference Schedule
Welcome to MEI's Nuclear Legacy Week 2024 Conference!
Chapel Capelle
The Descent of a Thousand Suns
Thursday, Feb. 29
Our Shared Nuclear Legacy
12:30 PM - Conference opens with exhibits and information at Jones Center Auditorium
Registration pickup*
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1:00 - Opening remarks / Speakers
Benetick Kabua Maddison, MEI Executive Director
Carolina Tarbwillin, RMI Office of the Consul General, Springdale
April L. Brown, PhD, MEI Cofounder & COO
Jessica A. Schwartz, PhD, MEI Cofounder & Academic Advisor, Associate Professor, Department of Musicology, UCLA
Seth Shelden, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
2:00 - Video, MEI and Youth for Nuclear Justice
Break
2:30 Youth Panel on Nuclear Legacy
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Corinne Salter, PhD candidate, LSU, Huel D. Perkins Fellow, Climate Pelicans Co-Founder, 2022, Yale Environmental Fellow, and 2022-2024 UCAR Next Gen Fellow, MEI Youth for Nuclear Justice Fellow
Aigerim Seitenova, Kazakhstan, Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, Founding Member STOP: Steppe Organization for Peace (Qazaq Youth Initiative for Nuclear Justice)
Oemwa Johnson, Kiribati, Reverse the Trend
Keita Takagaki, Japanese Youth Member of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Cofounder and Coordinator for the Youth Community for Global Hibakusha
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3:30 Break
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6:00 Film Screening, Downwind
Q&A with Ian Zabarte, Principle Man of the Western Band of the Shoshone Nation of Indians and Dr. Jessica Schwartz, MEI & UCLA
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Thursday's events held at Jones Center Auditorium
Address: Jones Center for Families, 922 E Emma Ave., Springdale, AR 72764
Friday, March 1
Health & Environmental Consequences of the Nuclear Legacy
Artwork by
Richard Laraya
9:30 AM - Panel on Health Impacts
Moderator: Lori Williamson, MEI Board President, Heartlands Genetics, Assistant Professor, College of Health Professions, UAMS
Albious Latior, Ozark Atolls
Paul Griego, National Association of Atomic Veterans
Kayleigh Warren, Tewa Women United
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11:00 AM - Panel on Environmental Consequences
Moderator: Corinne Salter, PhD candidate, LSU, MEI Youth for Nuclear Justice Fellow
Tina Stege, RMI Climate Envoy
Kayleigh Warren, Tewa Women United
Leona Morgan, Diné, Haul No!
Mari Inoue, Manhattan Project for a Nuclear Free World
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Lunch Break
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1:30 PM - Speaker: Ivana Nikolić Hughes, Ph.D., President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Director of Frontiers of Science and Senior Lecturer in Discipline in the Department of Chemistry, Columbia University
2:00 - Introduction by Franscine Anmontha, Rongelap/Utah, MEI Youth for Nuclear Justice Fellow, Reverse the Trend
Film Screening: Nuclear Savage
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Break
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Friday's events held at Jones Center Auditorium
Address: Jones Center for Families, 922 E Emma Ave., Springdale, AR 72764
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5-6 PM Community Reception preceding the NVRD commemoration
Center for Nonprofits at the JTL
Address: 614 E Emma Ave, Springdale, AR 72764
NVRD will be held at the Jones Center Auditorium
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Nuclear Victims' Remembrance Day commemoration
6-8 PM, Jones Center Auditorium
(5-6 PM, Community Reception, Center for Nonprofits at the JTL - 614 E Emma Ave, Springdale, AR 72764)
Castle Bravo, mural by Marshallese youth artists, 2021
Marcina Langrine and Marino Morris, emcees
Benetick Kabua Maddison, Executive Director, MEI
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Kristina Stege, Republic of the Marshall Islands Climate Envoy
Mari Ichida, Executive Director, Lucky Dragon Museum, Tokyo, Japan
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Paul Griego, National Association of Atomic Veterans
H.E. Charles Paul, Ambassador from the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the United States
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Youth Multimedia Presentation
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Sen. David Anitok, Republic of the Marshall Islands Presidential Envoy on Nuclear Justice and Human Rights
Moment of Silence
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Saturday, March 2
Environmental and Cultural Consequences of the Nuclear Legacy;
and Challenges and Opportunities
Marcina Langrine
TikTok
Events held at the Apollo on Emma
308 W Emma Ave, Springdale, AR 72764
Street Parking Available
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9:30 AM - Emily Mitchell-Eaton, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Colgate University
10:00 AM - Panel on Cultural Consequences
Moderator: Pam Kingfisher, Cherokee Nation, Nuclear Truth Project
Marcina Langrine, MEI
Aigerim Seitenova, Kazakhstan, Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy
Kayleigh Warren, Tewa Women United
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Break
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11:30 AM - Robin Narruhn, PhD, MN, RN
Associate Professor, College of Nursing, Seattle University
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Lunch Break
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1:00 PM - Panel on Treaties, Agreements, and Sovereignty
Moderator: Lilly Adams, Union of Concerned Scientists
Ian Zabarte, Principle Man, Western Band of the Shoshone Nation
Glenn Alcalay, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
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2:30 PM - Petuuche Gilbert, Acoma Pueblo, President of the Indigenous World Association
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Break
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3:15 PM - Roundtable on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
Moderator: Christian Ciobanu, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation/Reverse the Trend, TPNW Advisor to the Mission of Kiribati
H.E. Teburoro Tito, Ambassador to the United Nations from Kiribati
Zhangeldy Syrymbet, Counselor, Permanent Mission to the United Nations from Kazakhstan
Sam Lanwi, Deputy, Permanent Mission to the United Nations from the RMI, Geneva
Seth Shelden, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
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6:00 PM - Closing Reception
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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Meeting Hall
2925 Old Missouri Road, Fayetteville, AR 72703
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MEI wants to extend our heartfelt appreciation to our generous funders, partner organizations, and individual supporters who helped make this week possible: Ploughshares Fund, Christopher Hormel, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the United Council of Churches, Christian Ciobanu and RTT/NAPF, Kathleen Sullivan, Pam Kingfigher and Nuclear Truth Project, Lilly Adams, Petuuche Gilbert, Brian Campbell and PSR, the Affected Communities & Allies Working Group, Albious Latior, Glenn Alcalay, Holly Barker, and all MEI staff and board members.