Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

D Y S O N Y E A R I N R E V I E W 2 0 2 3 – 2 0 2 4 12 I n November 2023, Dyson faculty Emily Welty, PhD, and Ma hew Bolton, PhD, joined faith leaders from the World Council of Churches (WCC) on a human rights trip to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, highlighting the ongoing impact of US nuclear testing. The US government detonated 67 atmospheric nuclear tests in the Pacific country in the 1940s and 1950s, equivalent in power to more than 5,400 Nagasaki bombs. Welty and Bolton, a married couple who serve as co-directors of Dyson's International Disarmament Institute, listened to affected communities, including college students, a ists, government officials, and healthcare professionals. They learned that catastrophic humanitarian, human rights, and environmental legacies persist today in the Marshall Islands, including health problems, displacement, cultural trauma, and environmental contamination. "The effects of nuclear violence in the Marshall Islands are a racial and climate justice issue," said Welty, who directs the Peace and Justice Studies program at Dyson College. "Exposure to ionizing radiation raises the risk of cancer and yet there is no oncology unit in the Marshall Islands." Radioactive material—including contaminated soil from the Nevada Test Site in the States—stored at Runit Dome, Enewetak Atoll, is also at risk from the rising seas caused by global climate change. Upon their return to the US, Welty and Bolton brought their experiences directly to Pace students, in their respective classes, Global Politics of Disarmament and Arms Control, and Reconciliation and Transitional Justice, illustrating the real-life consequences of these subjects. Students' Experiential Learning at the UN Welty and Bolton have also advocated in diplomatic spaces, such as at the United Nations headqua ers in New York City, calling on governments to join the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and assist communities affected by nuclear weapons production, use, and testing. "We don't have to just accept passively the way things are," said Bolton, Professor of Political Science. "With nuclear weapons, we can stop treating them as normal. There is a human story at the center, and we must share the experiences and voices of those who have been most affected." In October 2023, as pa of Bolton's Global Politics of Disarmament and Arms Control course, Ellis Clay '25, Jasmine, Antje Hipkins '24, and Jasmine Cintrón Soto '25, double majors in Peace and Justice Studies and Political Science, delivered statements to the UN General Assembly First Commi ee. Advocates for Nuclear Disarmament Working to eliminate the use of nuclear weapons in pa nership with students and organizations across the globe. Professor Ma hew Bolton, PhD, with Daniel Högsta, Deputy Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

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