The Woodrow Wilson School will co-sponsor a panel discussion titled "Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization" at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 5, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall, on the Princeton University campus. A book signing and reception in Shultz dining room will immediately follow the event.

Panelists include Melissa Draper, co-author and editor of the book "Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization," and Assistant Director of the Democracy Center; and Benjamin Kohl, an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair in the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University. The Democracy Center works globally to advance social justice through investigation and reporting, training citizens in public advocacy, and leading international citizen campaigns.

Draper earned her masters in International Relations at Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies with a concentration in women's issues in development.  A graduate of Dartmouth College, she worked with women in grassroots organizations in Bolivia and also in rural Maharashtra, India. Melissa has lived in Bolivia for almost five years.

Kohl is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University. He is co-author, with Linda Farthing of "Impasse in Bolivia: Neoliberal Hegemony and Popular Resistance"(Zed, 2006) and "From the Mines to the Streets: An Activist’s Life" (under review), and articles on neoliberalism, privatization, democratization, planning and urbanization. His current focuses on the persistence of neoliberalism in post-neoliberal states and neoliberalism and urban form.

“Dignity and Defiance” is the story of one country, Bolivia, but it is representative of many countries around the world. The book tells the story of Bolivia's famous Water Revolt against Bechtel, and its aftermath. It travels to jungles and jails to trace the human impact of the U.S. war on drugs. It documents the disaster left behind by an Enron/Shell oil spill and traces how International Monetary Fund economic policies led to bloodshed on the steps of the Bolivian Presidential Palace.
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This event is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Program in Latin American Studies.  It is free and open to the public.