Holly Kuhl, a senior global cultural studies major, was inspired recently to look into a very interesting field after college; organic farming.  She has been researching Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) and is considering it as an option for a career.This is similar to what Vandana Shiva researches and works for.  Shiva is a physicist, ecologist, activist, editor, author and defender of the environment; not to mention the seventh most powerful woman in the world, according to Forbe’s Magazine.”Recently, the global and cultural studies major had a film series that’s all about environmental issues and world health as well,” Kuhl said in an interview in the Point Café on Friday.”And she actually spoke in the video, the film is called Dirt, so [Shiva] was one of the featured speakers in the film so it was a nice little preview.”On November 2, 2011 Point Park will be hosting Shiva. “She’s, foremost, an advocate for independence of famers, sustainability and justice in the production of food,” Channa Newman, professor of French and Cultural studies, said in her office last Tuesday.Shiva is fourth in a series of speakers hosted by the Global Cultural Studies program and Humanities and Human Services Department. Past speakers include Ralph Nader and Lewis Lapham.”The aim is to highlight very important global issues and have them presented by people, speakers, who have devoted their lives to public service,” said Newman.Shiva, born in Dehradun, India received her M.A. in the philosophy of science from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Then she obtained her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Western Ontario.  She is very passionate about the rights of farmers and is concerned about matters such as biodiversity and genetic engineering.           “She is very much interested in [people relating to their environments] but doing so from the perspective of understanding how farming can be recreated, how agriculture can be recreated; away from a corporate model, away from a large-scale industrial model,” J. Dwight Hines, Assistant Professor of Global Cultural Studies, said in his office last Thursday.Shiva created a nonprofit organization in India called Navdanya.According to their website, Navdanya’s mission statement is to empower the communities belonging to any religion, cast, sex, groups, landless people, small and marginal farmers, deprived women and children or any other needy person to ensure that they have enough to eat, they live in a healthy environment and are able to take action independently and effectively to become self-reliant through sustainable use of natural resources and fairness and justice in all relationships.”Shiva will be speaking to Point Park University and the public in the George Rowland White Theatre in the university center at 6 p.m. on Nov. 2.  She will be discuss her interdisciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy. Shiva will also be privately speaking to only Point Park students on Nov. 3, at 9 a.m. in Lawrence Hall room 409.  She will be available to answer more specific questions and interact with students on a more personal level.”I’ve heard from other people in our major, and just through classes…about some of the things she did, and that she was just a really great speaker and a really smart person,” Kuhl said.Shiva will be there “just to talk to students,” said Newman. “That’s usually what we do with our speakers… we really want it to be open to the public, but then also have something to provide to our students.”