E.N. Thompson lecture featuring Leymah Gbowee is Oct. 2

Leymah Gbowee, Liberian peace activist, social worker and women’s rights advocate, will present “Mighty Be Our Powers: Building Women, Building Peace” at 6 p.m. Oct. 2 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

The free public lecture is the second event in the 2019-20 E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues. The lecture was originally scheduled for Oct. 1 but was rescheduled due to travel issues. All tickets distributed for the Oct. 1 date will be honored Oct. 2.

To order tickets, click here or call the Lied Center box office at 402-472-4747. The forum is general admission, with seating on a first-come, first-served basis.

A recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, Gbowee currently serves as executive director of the Women, Peace and Security Program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. She is also the founder and president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, founding head of the Liberia Reconciliation Initiative, co-founder and former executive director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa, and founding member and former Liberian coordinator of Women in Peacebuilding Network/West Africa Network for Peacebuilding.

Gbowee’s leadership of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace — which brought together Christian and Muslim women in a nonviolent movement that played a pivotal role in ending Liberia’s civil war in 2003 — is chronicled in her memoir, “Mighty Be Our Powers,” and the award-winning documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.” She holds a Master of Arts in conflict transformation from Eastern Mennonite University and honorary doctorates from Rhodes University and American University.

Gbowee is an adviser for numerous organizations and has held distinguished fellowships at Barnard College and Union Theological Seminary. She is a sustainable development goals advocate for the United Nations and a member of the World Refugee Council. In 2016, she was awarded a Lifetime Africa Achievement Prize by the Millennium Excellence Foundation. In 2017, she was selected by U.N. Secretary General António Guterres to be a member of his High Level Advisory Board on Mediation. In 2018, she was appointed to the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council during Canada’s G7 presidency.

Anna W. Shavers, Cline Williams Professor of Citizenship Law, associate dean for diversity and inclusion, and acting dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law, will give a pre-talk at 5:30 p.m. in the Lied Center’s Steinhart Room.

The E.N. Thompson series opened with a lecture by human rights activist and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nadia Murad on Sept. 17. It concludes with a talk by Farah Pandith, a world-leading expert and pioneer in countering violent extremism, at 6 p.m. Oct. 8. A pre-talk will take place 30 minutes before Pandith’s lecture in the Steinhart Room.

Events are streamed on the Thompson Forum website. All events will also be livestreamed on NET, LNKTV City and LNKTV Education. Gbowee’s lecture will be broadcast on ALLO channel 23, Charter Spectrum 1303 and Windstream Kinetic 1080. Pandith’s lecture will be available live on ALLO channel 2, Charter Spectrum 1300 and Windstream Kinetic 1005. Both events will also be accessible on campus channel 4 and KRNU radio 90.3 FM. All talks are interpreted for people who are deaf and hard of hearing.

The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues is a cooperative project of the Cooper Foundation, Lied Center and the university. It was established in 1988 with the purpose of bringing a diversity of viewpoints on international and public policy issues to the university and people of Nebraska to promote understanding and encourage discussion.