|
For Immediate Release
September 12, 2002
Nebraska Wesleyan University Announces
Fall Symposium Commemorating Sept. 11 Anniversary
Renowned International Speakers
to Address Issues of Religion, Conflict and Human Rights
Lincoln, Neb.– Nebraska Wesleyan
University will present Visions and Ventures II: Conflict and Healing
September 18-19.
Initiated by Nebraska Wesleyan University
students and funded primarily by the Student Affairs Senate, the
Symposium will feature presentations by internationally known speakers
on the topics of religion, international conflict and human rights.
The university community, high school classes, educators and members
of the public are invited to reflect upon the events of Sept. 11,
2001 and engage in a dialogue addressing the global challenges of
the 21st century.
Artist Luke Powell will set the stage
with his highly acclaimed photography exhibition, “Afghan Folio,”
in Wesleyan's Elder Gallery. A public reception is scheduled for
Wednesday, Sept. 18 from 5:30-6:45 p.m., prior to the first lecture
of the symposium. The university community welcomes a diverse group
of speakers that include Dr. William F. Schulz, executive director
of Amnesty International, and Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi
and founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.
On Sept. 26, Nebraska Wesleyan University
will continue its commemoration of Sept. 11 with an address by former
New York City Deputy Fire Commissioner and 1973 Nebraska Wesleyan
alumna Lynn Tierney. Tierney’s address, entitled “Through
the Tunnel: From Crisis to Comfort,” will be held in conjunction
with Wesleyan Weekend 2002.
All presentations are free and open
to the public. (A schedule of events
and complete biographical information (including
photos) regarding the presenters follows.)
Nebraska Wesleyan University Symposium
Visions & Ventures II: Conflict and Healing
Schedule of Public Events
(all “public events” are free and open to the public)
Thursday, August 22 through Friday,
October 4, 2002
Luke Powell, “Afghan Folio” Photography Exhibition (Elder
Gallery)
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
| 5:30 p.m. |
Gallery Reception, “Afghan
Folio” (Elder Gallery) |
| 7 p.m. |
Dr. William F. Schulz, “Torture,
Terror and Tyranny: The State of Human Rights Today” (O’Donnell
Auditorium) |
| 8:30 p.m. |
Book Signing Reception (Elder Gallery) |
Thursday, September 19, 2002
|
9 a.m.
|
Dr. Riffat Hassan, “Challenges Confronting
Muslims and Americans After September 11th” (O’Donnell
Auditorium)
|
|
1 p.m.
|
Mattingly Distinguished Visiting
Scholar Lecture:
Dr. Martin Marty, “Faith, Education and Non-Violence in
Today’s World” (O’Donnell Auditorium) |
| 7 p.m. |
Arun Gandhi, “Lessons from
Grandfather” (O’Donnell Auditorium) |
| 8:30 p.m. |
Book Signing (Elder Gallery) |
Thursday, September 26, 2002 (in
conjunction with Wesleyan Weekend 2002)
1 p.m. Lynn Tierney, “Through the Tunnel: From Crisis to Comfort”
(O’Donnell Auditorium)
Campus/Lincoln Facility Locations
Elder Gallery and O’Donnell
Auditorium are located in the Vance D. Rogers Center for the
Fine Arts, 50th Street and Huntington Avenue. Elder Gallery is open
10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 1-4 p.m. Saturday and
Sunday.
Nebraska
Wesleyan University Symposium
Visions & Ventures II: Conflict and Healing
Biographical Information
Luke Powell's “Afghan Folio”
is a set of photographs (dye transfer prints) that documents the
vanishing beauty of pre-industrial landscape and culture in Afghanistan
and picks up the thread of older artistic traditions. The collection
has been on exhibition in the Asia Society Galleries in New York,
the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., Manesh Hall in Moscow and the
United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. An
alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Yale
Divinity School, Luke Powell has traveled extensively throughout
Asia and Europe, capturing traditional landscapes and intimate,
tranquil scenes in pre-industrialized areas. Members of the Paris
press have dubbed him a “peace photographer” because of
the serene nature of his images, which are often taken in lands
now associated with violence.
For a print quality photo to use for
publicity click here.
The executive director of the Nobel
Prize-winning human rights organization Amnesty International USA,
Dr. William F. Schulz, has dedicated his career to a wide
range of social issues. An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister,
Dr. Schulz came to Amnesty International in 1994 after fifteen years
with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA),
including eight years as its president. He led the first visit by
a U.S. member of Congress to post-revolutionary Romania in January
1991; the delegation was instrumental in the subsequent improvement
in the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Romania. From
1985-93, Dr. Schulz served on the Council of the International Association
for Religious Freedom, the oldest international interfaith organization
in the world. He has also been a tireless campaigner for women's
rights, racial justice and the abolition of the death penalty. Dr.
Schulz has been quoted widely in prestigious newspapers and appears
frequently on national and international television programs. He
is the author of several books, including most recently In Our
Own Best Interest: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All.
For a print quality photo to use for
publicity click here.
A pioneer of feminist theology in the
context of the Islamic tradition, Dr. Riffat Hassan is Professor
of Religious Studies and Humanities at the University of Louisville.
Dr. Hassan has been extensively involved in interreligious dialogue
with Jews, Christians and Muslims, and has been a consultant to
numerous international agencies and women's organizations on the
issues of human rights and women's rights. Dr. Hassan, who was born
into a Saiyyad Muslim family living in Lahore, Pakistan, served
as deputy director of the Bureau of National Research and Reference
for the Federal Government of Pakistan from 1969 to 1972. In 1999,
she founded the International Network for the Rights of Female Victims
of Violence in Pakistan (INRFVVP), a non-profit organization which
has played a noteworthy role in highlighting the issue of violence
against girls and women, especially with reference to “crimes
of honor.”
For a print quality photo to use for
publicity click here.
Dr. Martin E. Marty is the Fairfax
M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History
of Modern Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School,
where he taught for 35 years and where the Martin Marty Center has
since been founded to promote "public religion" endeavors.
The author of over fifty books, Dr. Marty won the National Book
Award for Righteous Empire. He is past president of the American
Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History and
the American Catholic Historical Association. Dr. Marty has served
on two U.S. Presidential Commissions and was director of both the
Fundamentalism Project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and the Public Religion Project at the University of Chicago. A
native of West Point, Nebraska, Dr. Marty is an ordained minister
in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
For a print quality photo to use for
publicity click here.
Gandhi: few names in world history
evoke such powerful images of integrity, courage, social harmony
and—perhaps most of all—hope. Arun Gandhi carries
within himself the same guiding principles as his grandfather, the
legendary peace fighter and spiritual leader, Mohandes K. Gandhi,
also known as Mahatma Gandhi. For Arun, growing up in apartheid
South Africa as a person of Indian heritage meant racial confrontations
with both blacks and whites. At age twelve, Arun was sent to live
with his grandfather, who at the time was leading the people of
India in their revolutionary, nonviolent struggle for independence
from British rule. The eighteen-month stay transformed Arun from
an angry youth to young man empowered by his grandfather’s
philosophy of nonviolence. In 1991, Arun and his wife, Sunanda,
founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, headquartered
at Christian Brothers University in Memphis. Author of the forthcoming
book Legacy of Love: My Education in the Path of Non-Violence,
Arun is an internationally acclaimed speaker who offers first hand
insights on one of history's most influential leaders.
For a print quality photo to use for
publicity click here.
A prominent public affairs and crisis
management professional in the City of New York, Lynn Tierney
(’73) was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the New York
City Fire Department in 1996. On Sept. 11, 2001, Commissioner Tierney
helped with operations at the Command Post in the lobby of the World
Trade Center Tower One; she narrowly escaped injury during the collapse.
Since that day, Commissioner Tierney has worked tirelessly to support
the families of the 343 uniformed service members lost in the rescue
and recovery efforts. She personally authored eulogies for more
than eighty uniformed service members killed in the tragedy. Ms.
Tierney continues to serve on the Board of the Twin Towers Fund,
a charity established by then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to support
the families of uniformed service members lost that day. Ms. Tierney
currently directs the community service and public interest agendas
of several major corporations as Director of External Affairs at
Arnell Group, the world's leading marketing and branding firm.
For a print quality photo to use for
publicity click here.
|
