“Fair Trade in the Global Apparel Industry”

Day: Thursday, February 4, 2010
Time: 11:00 – 11:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
Registration Fee: FREE
The audio podcast is now available — click here.

FIBERcast, is a 45-minute audio program broadcast live from the University of Delaware, sharing the insights and knowledge of leaders in business, academia, and government on timely issues of importance to the international fashion and apparel industry. Join co-host Dr. Marsha Dickson of the University of Delaware and board member of the Fair Labor Association, for an insightful discussion about Fair Trade in the Global Apparel Industry. Dr. Dickson’s guests include Ms. Pushpika Freitas, founder and president of MarketPlace: Handwork of India, which supports fair trade products made by artisans in India, and Ms. Renee Bowers, buyer for Ten Thousand Villages, the largest fair trade retailer in the United States.

The FIBERcast guests will explore these and other important topics::

• What does fair trade really mean?
• How does fair trade benefit workers in developing countries?
• How do we know whether a product is fair trade or not?

During the FIBERcast, you will be able to e-mail questions to Dr. Dickson and her guests.

Pushpika Freitas is founder and president of MarketPlace: Handwork of India. Pushpika began her career by founding and directing the Leprosy Rehabilitation Center in Mumbai, India. Because of the passion she found in empowering women, she later founded SHARE (Support the Handicapped’s Rehabilitation Effort), a non-profit organization in Mumbai that works closely with MarketPlace. SHARE currently works with 14 cooperatives, primarily composed of women artisans. In 1986, Pushpika founded MarketPlace: Handwork of India, in Evanston, Illinois, to create markets and promotional campaigns to support fair trade products made by artisans in India.

Renee Bowers is a buyer for Ten Thousand Villages, the largest fair trade retailer in the United States. In this role, she builds long-term, sustainable relationships with artisans who lack employment opportunities and market access. Renee works primarily in India, where she partners with artisans to develop and produce product within the framework of fair trade. Renee has diverse experience within the international crafts sector. As a senior research fellow with the American Institute of Indian Studies, she worked closely with traditional puppeteers and puppet carvers in Karnataka, South India. She has also lived and worked in Latin America, where she conducted workshops on the use of low-cost, locally available arts materials.

Marsha Dickson is professor and chairperson of the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware. She has published in such journals as the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, and Business & Society and is internationally known for her research and teaching on social responsibility. Dickson is president of Educators for Socially Responsible Apparel Business. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Fair Labor Association, a non-governmental organization originally formed by President Clinton to improve working conditions in factories around the world. Recently, she was named chair of the Fair Labor Association's monitoring committee. In 2008, she received the University Continuing Education Association's Award for Outstanding Programming, Mid-Atlantic Region, for the University of Delaware's new certificate program in Socially Responsible and Sustainable Apparel Business. She recently co-authored the book, Social Responsibility in the Global Apparel Industry, with Profs. Suzanne Loker and Molly Eckman.

FIBERCAST registration is now closed.