February 20, 2025 – Using Storytelling to Facilitate International Humanitarian Law (Installment 2)
This event, hosted in partnership with the American Red Cross, will explore IHL using Star Wars films and TV shows to model how to use fiction as a method to teach IHL. Links to classroom resources will be highlighted by Canadian Red Cross legal experts, alongside teachers currently implementing humanitarian activities in their classrooms.
Prepare for the jump to lightspeed as we journey from the Death Star to Dagobah in the 2nd installment of our learning series on using story to teach IHL with examples from Star Wars.
Date: February 20th, 2025
Time: 7:00pm – 8:00pm EST
Learn more about our speakers below:
Thomas Harper: Thomas Harper serves as the Senior Legal Advisor in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) for the American Red Cross. In that capacity, he leads the Red Cross IHL Program, which carries out the nation’s mandate to disseminate IHL to the American public under the Geneva Conventions.
Thomas has spent his adult life in uniform, having originally enlisted in the U.S. Army after high school. He has spent more than 12 years as an Army Judge Advocate officer (military attorney), serving in a variety of roles including as a prosecutor, Special Victim Counsel, and as an Operational Law attorney in Afghanistan, where he practiced IHL in a combat environment. He still serves in the U.S. Army Reserve, where he holds the rank of Major.
Thomas also writes and podcasts for The Legal Geeks, an American Bar Association Top 100 legal blog, where he uses Star Wars to teach about a wide variety of legal topics, including IHL. Thomas regularly uses Star Wars as a lens to teach about complex IHL topics on the national stage, having presented at some of the largest pop culture conventions, including San Diego Comic-Con and Star Wars Celebration (Disney’s official Star Wars convention).
Leigh Muething: Leigh Muething is a grade 9 - 12 English and social studies teacher at Horton High School in Mi'kma'ki (Nova Scotia). He has a degree in International Development Studies from the University of Guelph, and a special interest in human rights education. Over the years he has worked and studied in a variety of diverse locations including India, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan and Nunavik. He first worked with the Red Cross in 1997 to support the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Leigh has seen that students are especially motivated to learn when they see real-life connections to what they are studying in school. His current focus is on connecting classroom learning to human rights education and practice.
Yasaman Ahanin: Yasaman Ahanin is the Training and Education Coordinator with the IHL Unit at the Canadian Red Cross. She provides logistics and training support for IHL dissemination through the Canadian Red Cross’ targeted engagement in Canada with stakeholders ranging from academia and teachers, to armed and police forces. She was previously the Bilingual Program Coordinator for the YMCA of Greater Toronto and has experience as a Youth Outreach Worker, and an Instructor Therapist in a special-care facilities. Yasaman holds a Diploma in Behavioural Science Technician from George Brown College and Honours BA in International Development and History from Trent University. During her free time, she enjoys camping, hiking, and anything outdoors.
If you have any questions about this event, please contact us at humanitarianeducation@redcross.ca.