Join us April 23-27, 2024, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UCSC Right Livelihood Center. We will inaugurate UCSC’s new role as Global Secretariat of the Right Livelihood College network, launch an international student network, launch faculty-laureate research clusters, and more. Events are free and open to the public.
About Right Livelihood
Since 1980, the Right Livelihood Award, known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize,’ has recognized courageous changemakers boosting urgent and long-term social change. There are 194 Laureates from 76 countries, including Greta Thunberg, Daniel Ellsberg, Vandana Shiva, Amy Goodman, Bill McKibben, and Wangari Maathai. In 2009, the Right Livelihood College (RLC) was formed as a global capacity-building initiative linking Laureates and universities – activists and academics. Established in 2013, UCSC’s Right Livelihood Center is the only campus in North America in the global RLC network, which spans five continents, including Bangkok (Thailand), Bonn (Germany), Cordoba (Argentina), Lund (Sweden), Mumbai (India), Port Harcourt (Nigeria), Valdivia (Chile), Zurich (Switzerland), and a partnership with the Global Campus for Human Rights, a network of 100 universities worldwide. The Right Livelihood Center at UCSC is housed at the Institute for Social Transformation.
By linking students and faculty with Laureates and the movements they are part of – some of the world’s most successful changemakers – we build solidarity with global movements and become more effective in our social and environmental change work. In May 2023, UCSC was invited to become the next Global Secretariat of the RLC to lead and coordinate this global network, providing us with a unique opportunity to increase student engagement and make major contributions to people and the planet.
Conference background
As our societies emerge from the pandemic amidst the intertwined crises of climate change, democratic backsliding, and economic inequality, and as the Global Secretariat role rotates to UC Santa Cruz, we seek to strengthen the RLC into a more effective catalyst for the urgent global change now needed. By convening Right Livelihood Laureates and student leaders from across the network for intensive and sustained discussions, we plan to co-create a common vision and specific roadmap to guide the next phase of RLC’s evolution.
This is an open call for student and youth activists across the United States and the world to serve as delegates at the conference. We are excited by the vast amount of UCSC students who will participate in the events, but as the Right Livelihood Center at UCSC is the only Right Livelihood affiliated university in North America, we want a diversity of perspectives represented at this conference. Our international conference will mark the launch of our Right Livelihood International Student Network because we believe we will be stronger by accomplishing our goals together. All delegates will participate in the creation of a declaration of the principles and plans of the emerging network. We encourage all students/youth activists to RSVP for whichever events they can attend.