Tawakkol Karman is a Yemeni journalist and the first Arab woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. With monikers such as the "Mother of the Revolution," "The Iron Woman," and "The Lady of the Arab Spring," Karman is known for her leadership and activism, including organizing hundreds of peaceful protests against Yemen’s authoritarian regime in the lead-up to the Arab Spring.

As a globally renowned advocate for democracy and human rights, Karman delivered the keynote address at the 2025 Community Movements Conference (CMC) organized by several students in the Global Development Studies program at Trent University. Karman shared her experience working on global issues, particularly those related the theme of this year’s conference: Forgotten Conflicts.

"If you believe in something, dare to dream that you can accomplish it. Wars and violence are between people daring to dream and those who want to crush those dreams. If you believe in something enough, others will join you, and dare to dream too," said Karman.

Fourth-year Global Development Studies (GDS) student Ella Roth who was a member of the organizing team for this year’s event says Karman was selected as the keynote speaker because of her commitment to youth-led change as a founder of the Peaceful Revolutionary Youth Council.

“[Karman] didn’t just speak at us; she connected with us, her passion and insistence that if you act, people will follow, was powerful. It tied what I am learning to real-world action and what it means to really protect democracy,” said Ella.

Nearly Two Decades of Discussing Democracy
For 18 years, the CMC has been a critical avenue for deepening both learning and engagement among GDS students at Trent, who learn about global conflicts, both past and present, through interdisciplinary studies of history, politics, and economics. The CMC puts learning in the hands of students and takes them outside the classroom to have critical conversations about the world around them.

Bringing together students, academics, diplomats, and renowned human rights activists, the student-run conference featured three days of conversations to inspire students expand their understanding of global power dynamics, oppression, poverty, social movements, and, ultimately, why the world operates, functions and reacts the way it does and how conflicts emerge and persist.

“CMC gives us the chance to bring important global conversations into our own backyard. We chose to highlight overlooked struggles in places like Sudan and Yemen, which aligns with what we’re learning: that some global crises don’t receive the same attention, even though the suffering is just as real,” Ella said.

Dr. Feyzi Baban, chair of the Global Justice and Development program and professor in Global Development Studies, says the long-running success of CMC reflects the strength of student leadership at Trent.

“Our undergraduate students not only organized this long-running academic conference, but also successfully brought a Nobel Laureate to campus this year. It is a defining example of the Trent difference. The initiative of our students, and the kind of hands-on, critical lobal engagement were on full display in this year’s conference,” said Professor Baban.