UCSB Arts & Lectures will host a free virtual Thematic Learning Initiative event with Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen. Titled Hopeanomics and How Social Entrepreneurs are Transforming Grassroots Activism, the event happens 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 16.
Registration is required at https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/Details.aspx?PerfNum=4762. The virtual event replaces the postponed in-person event originally scheduled for Jan. 12.
A Harvard graduate, Nguyen is CEO and founder of Rise, a social movement accelerator that teaches grassroots organizing. She helped draft the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights following her painful experience navigating the justice system as a rape survivor.
“The most powerful tool we have is our voice,” says Nguyen.
Nguyen’s 2021 viral video ignited worldwide coverage on anti-Asian hate crimes and is credited as a pivotal moment for the Stop Asian Hate movement.
She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for penning her own civil rights into existence by unanimously passing the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, which was signed into law by President Obama in October 2016. (The measure was one of just a handful of bills in U.S. history to pass unanimously through Congress.)
A millennial-driven social change incubator for citizen lawmaking, Rise has drafted and passed 33 laws that codify 84 million sexual violence survivors’ civil rights. Rise’s “Hopeanomics Guide” is an organizing curriculum that serves as a blueprint to drive democracy and scale hope that can be applied to other social issues, empowering ordinary citizens to pen their own civil rights into existence.
In recognition of her work, Nguyen is a Heinz Laureate, Nelson Mandela Changemaker, Forbes 30 Under 30, Foreign Policy 100, Time 100 Next, Frederick Douglass 100, and Marie Claire Young Woman of the Year. Previously, she served at NASA and the State Department under the Obama administration.
For tickets and more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures, 805-893-3535 or visit www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
Arts & Lectures’ Thematic Learning Initiative provides opportunities for those interested in delving deeper into the issues raised by A&L artists and speakers. Participants in the free prorgam can connect with others at intimate salon-style discussions, film screenings, and added public events.
Learn more about Arts & Lectures’ Creating Hope series at https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/CreatingHope.aspx.