National Farmworkers Awareness Week comes to UT for the first time this year.  UT's undergraduate anthropology association is hosting the event with help from Laxmi Haynes, representative of the Student Action with Farmworkers. NFA week runs from March 31 to April 4. 

The Undergraduate Anthropology Association plans to host a film screening of "Morristown" combined with a discussion session with Fran Ansley, college of law professor and member of East Tennessee Jobs with Justice April 1 at 7 p.m. in Hodges Lindsay Young Auditorium. "The Guest Worker" will be screened April 3 at 7 p.m. in Hodges media room 253.  Throughout the week, a petition will be circulating for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to end day slavery.

With National Farmworkers Awareness Week, I hope students will be able to learn more about the issues of immigration, globalization, and human rights, and take the initiative to make a difference in the lives of farmworkers all over the country.  Angeli Gabriel, senior in anthropology

UAA members will be asking students all week to sign this petition.  You can also sign the petition online.  The petition is to help the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida who are battling with mega-corporations to have their wages raised.

"I am a bit curious as to how NFA week will play out on campus because it touches on many sensitive issues; the most sensitive being the issue of immigration," Angeli Gabriel, senior in anthropology, said. "These events, with students and scholars from various disciplines, will provide people with a more in-depth perspective on an issue that they might have only briefly heard about through the news or not at all." 

"With National Farmworkers Awareness Week, I hope students will be able to learn more about the issues of immigration, globalization, and human rights, and take the initiative to make a difference in the lives of farmworkers all over the country," Gabriel said.