Westmont Downtown

An Invitation from Westmont President Gayle Beebe

Click here for all 2023-2024 lectures

I hope you will join us for some meaningful “Conversations that Matter.” At Westmont, we believe in engaging the great issues of society and the vexing dilemmas of our global community as we prepare our students to take their place in the world.

This discussion series gives the larger Santa Barbara community more opportunities to hear from Westmont faculty. During these sessions, sponsored by the Westmont Foundation Board, professors from a variety of fields will address current issues facing our society from the perspective of their disciplines.

I’m proud to serve an institution with such outstanding faculty, and I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to hear them speak and engage in conversation with them.

Goals of Westmont Downtown:

To provide an opportunity for Westmont faculty to speak in their area of expertise.
To engage the community in meaningful, substantive and lively conversation.
To demonstrate the value of constructive dialogue with people of differing opinions.
To demonstrate the commitment of Westmont to the life of the mind and to invite the larger community to join that conversation.

Upcoming Westmont Downtown Lecture:

Talk Examines Recent Conflicts, Foreign Aid

Katherine Bryant, assistant professor of political science, will speak about "The Changing Geopolitical Landscape and the Role of Foreign Aid" at a Westmont Downtown Lecture on Thursday, Nov. 9, at 5:30 p.m. at the Community Arts Workshop, 631 Garden Street, in downtown Santa Barbara.

The event is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required. Free parking is available on the streets surrounding CAW or in nearby city parking lots. For more information, please call (805) 565-6051.

Foreign aid is one of the most commonly used tools of foreign policy, but the landscape in which states are operating is rapidly changing. This talk will explore how these major shifts in the geopolitical landscape are impacting foreign aid spending, particularly by the United States.

"Events such as the recent conflict in Israel-Palestine, the rise of China, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the challenges of climate change will likely have lasting impacts on the utility of this tool of statecraft," Bryant says.

Bryant, who's launched a study of the effectiveness of Christian aid organizations, focuses her research focuses on the efficacy of foreign aid programs and how political factors influence the behavior of organizations providing aid, especially multilateral agencies.

Bryant frequently leads Westmont students to the National Model United Nations in New York City, where several students have won awards.