Indiana University East will host a presentation by Earlham College alumnus Jim Cason, association secretary for Campaign for Friends Committee for National Legislation (FCNL). The event includes the presentation and dialogue on FCNL’s work to secure Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and other issues.

The event will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 2, in Whitewater Hall, room 132. The event is free and open to the public.

Sponsors for this event are the IU East School of Humanities and Social Sciences, IU East American Democracy Project, and Indiana Campus Compact Faculty Fellows Program.

Paul Kriese, associate professor of political science, said Cason is visiting in connection to one of the classes he is teaching this semester, Intro to American Government.

“This class looks at how ordinary citizens can become involved in the local communities,” Kriese said. “The only way that democracy works is that if we work at democracy. Cason will focus in on how local citizens can make a positive impact in the life of their community.”

Kriese said the FCNL is a Quaker lobby and the oldest religious lobby in the US. It concerns itself with social and economic and political issues of interest to the ordinary citizen.

Cason is responsible for directing and overseeing the full range of FCNL’s campaigns, communications, and community building work. He has more than 30 years of experience working for social change as a journalist, non-profit leader, and lobbyist.

Before joining the FCNL, Cason was the U.S. correspondent in Washington, DC for La Jornada, Mexico’s second largest daily circulation newspaper, and previously served as senior editor for AllAfrica.com, the largest distributor of news and information about Africa in the world. He was also a research and writing fellow for the MacArthur Foundation, examining the role of U.S. development assistance in southern Africa and was once the associate director of the Africa Fund. He has served on the board of several national African organizations and worked as an advisor to a number of specific campaigns.

For more information about this event, contact Paul Kriese, associate professor of political science, at (765) 973-8374 or e-mail pkriese@iue.edu.