E.N. Thompson Forum: Recent Episodes
Rob Gifford
Videos and lectures related to the E.N. Thompson Forum lecture series at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Governor’s Lecture in the Humanities, Humanities NebraskaAcclaimed author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife and others, including 2024’s illustrated nature journal The Backyard Bird Chronicles, a #1 New York Times bestseller.
Leilani Farha is the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing and Global Director of The Shift. Farha has helped develop global human rights standards on the right to housing, including through her topical reports on homelessness, the financialization of housing, informal settlements, rights-based housing strategies, and the first UN Guidelines for the implementation of the right to housing. She is the central character in the documentary PUSH regarding the financialization of housing. Farha launched The Shift in 2017 to advance the movement through advocacy, research and campaigning.
This interactive event will feature local students and young professionals sharing their lived experiences as immigrants and refugees. Each panelist will tell their story, presenting a multi-dimensional picture beyond what’s portrayed in the news. Panelists will then respond to questions on a range of relevant topics, moderated by Karla Hernandez Torrijos, the inaugural Student Storyteller in Residence with the Center for Great Plains Studies. Karla is an undergraduate student, poet and workshop facilitator whose writing “interrogates our understanding of home, displacement, and the liminal space in between.”
Martha Schwartz is a landscape architect, urbanist, and climate activist. Her work and teaching focuses on the urban public realm landscape and its importance in making cities “climate ready”. For more than 40 years, Martha Schwartz Partners has completed projects around the globe, from site-specific art installations to public spaces, parks, master-planning and reclamation. Schwartz is also a tenured Professor in Practice at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and recently founded MAYDAY. Earth, a non-profit focused on communications and education about Nature Based and Geoengineering Solutions.
Tyler Riewer is Creative Director at charity: water, a $100M nonprofit organization that uses data and storytelling to connect donors to their impact and dream up new ways to think about sustainability in the water sector. As of today, charity: water has funded 91,414 projects to bring clean and safe water to 14,762,215 people. Riewer leads a team of designers and storytellers, and travels the globe capturing stories about local partners. He studied Advertising and Journalism at Nebraska and started his career at marketing agencies Archrival and Grady Britton.
Dr. Ali S. Khan is Dean and Tenured Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health, and a Retired Assistant Surgeon General. He served at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 23 years before retiring as the director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. At the CDC, Dr. Khan led and responded to numerous high-profile public health emergencies, including Ebola, the Asian Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina. In 2016 Dr. Khan published “The Next Pandemic: On the Front Lines Against Humankind’s Gravest Dangers” with William Patrick.
Candice Millard’s talk will touch on her four New York Times bestselling books. In her most recent book, “River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile” focused on English explorers Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, Millard tells a story of courage and adventure, set against the backdrop of the race to exploit Africa by the colonial powers. This book also profiles Sidi Mubarak Bombay, the formerly enslaved local guide who played a pivotal role in the expedition. Millard’s essays have appeared in the Guardian, National Geographic and TIME.
Echo-Hawk is President of the Pawnee Nation Business Council. He is an author, attorney, and and well-renowned legal scholar. A Pawnee Indian with a BA, Political Science, Oklahoma St. Univ. (1970) and JD, UNM (1973), he practices law in Oklahoma.
At this Cooper Conversation, young activists from UNL and Lincoln come together to discuss their activism, what motivates them, and how to move forward. Panelists will address the intersection of their own communities’ fight for racial justice, focusing on a rise in performative activism, allyship, burden of representation, and microaggressions. Moderated by Meyri Ibrahim, UNL political science and journalism major.
Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, teacher, and author, credited with creating a new form of theater. Smith received the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal and the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. Her acting credits in television include Shonda Rhimes’s new “untitled project,” For the People, Blackish, Nurse Jackie, and The West Wing, and her film credits include The American President, Rachel Getting Married, Philadelphia, Dave, Rent, and Human Stain.
Wadhia is Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar and Clinical Professor of Law at Penn State Law in University Park. Her research focuses on the role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law and the intersections of race, national security and immigration. Wadhia will talk about immigration reform, and the need to adopt a legal and policy framework that considers the factors driving disparate immigration enforcement–policies that affirm and include, as opposed to punish or exclude.
This kickoff event will include faculty from the departments of History and English, the Humanities in Medicine Program, and the Center for Great Plains Studies to focus on different groups and periods of racial reckoning and action.
Bancroft is one of the world’s preeminent polar explorers and an internationally recognized educator who is dedicated to inspiring women and girls around the world. Through her various roles as explorer, educator, speaker and philanthropist, Bancroft shares stories related to outdoor adventure to inspire a global audience to pursue their individual dreams.
Focused on solutions and action, today’s youth are not afraid to face problems that threaten their future. Join us for a Cooper Conversation featuring and hosted by youth activists as they seek to inspire the broader community.
Learn more about the panel on the E.N. Thompson Forum website.
Pre-talk video for the discussion "Naming the Beast: Climate Change and our Youth Taking Action."
Martinez is a powerful voice in the global youth- led environmental movement. From the age of six, Martinez has spoken around the world, from the Rio+20 United Nations Summit, to the General Assembly at the UN. A musician and activist, he is also known as a fashion model, philanthropist, and cross-cultural icon.
Margaret Huettl, Assistant Professor of History and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, introduces the November E.N. Thompson Forum speaker Xiuhtezcatl Martinez.
Pre-talk video by David Forsythe for Doris Kearns Goodwin's E.N. Thompson Forum talk "Leadership in Turbulent Times"
Pipher, PhD, is the author of 10 books, including #1 New York Times bestseller “Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls” and most recently, “Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing As We Age.” In 2013, she published “The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in Our Capsized Culture” about environmental activism in Nebraska.
Introduction to writer Mary Pipher in advance of her E.N. Thompson Forum talk "Trauma and Recovery: A New Story of Interconnection and Action..."
Farah Pandith is an author, foreign policy strategist, and former diplomat. A world-leading expert and pioneer in countering violent extremism, she is a frequent media commentator and public speaker. She served as a political appointee under Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, and most recently she was the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities, serving both Secretaries Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. She has served on the National Security Council, at the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in various senior roles. She has also served on the Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council, chairing its task force on countering violent extremism.
2011 Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist, trained social worker and women’s rights advocate.
She currently serves as Executive Director of the Women, Peace and Security Program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, and is the founder and current President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, the founding head of the Liberia Reconciliation Initiative, and co-founder and former Executive Director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-A). She is also a founding member and former Liberian Coordinator of Women in Peacebuilding Network/West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WIPNET/WANEP).
Jana Eggers is a math and computer nerd who took the business path for a career. She’s CEO of Nara Logics and active in customer-inspired innovation, the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, and Autonomy/Mastery/Purpose-style leadership. Her passions are working with teams to define and deliver products customers love, algorithms, and their intelligence, and inspiring teams to do more than they thought possible. In her talk, she will address the ways that AI is already present in our lives, helping us understand what artificial intelligence is, where it’s heading, and why we should embrace it.
Nadine Strossen expertly dissects Constitutional law to share current challenges to our civil liberties today, stimulating thoughtful consideration of democratic ideals. https://enthompson.unl.edu/
In 2015, Misty Copeland became the first African American female Principal Dancer in American Ballet Theatre’s 75-year history. Hear from this artist, author, entrepreneur and humanitarian about how she broke barriers and her work to inspire young people everywhere.
Since 1922, the National Communication Association has sponsored international student exchange tours for the purpose of promoting debate, discussion, and intercultural communication. Renowned for their wit, humor, and eloquence, members of the United Kingdom’s English-Speaking Union tour the United States each year, debating the best and the brightest at our institutions of higher learning. The list of tour alumni include a British Prime Minister, a Leader of the Opposition, an Archbishop of Canterbury, and many senior politicians, journalists, and businesspeople. It promises to be educational and entertaining for those interested in communication, civic engagement, international relations, and global politics. The event will be moderated by Aaron Duncan, UNL Director of Speech & Debate.
Are there a higher set of drivers in the global economy than we commonly pay attention to? Is the election of Donald Trump really just one part of a much larger, global pattern of events that is still unfolding and will affect us for years to come? Mark Blyth, the political economist noted for predicting both Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, walks you through the disparate dynamics in both the U.S. and Europe that will forever alter politics as usual and send shockwaves through the global economy. Dr. Blyth also tells you what this shift of power means to financial markets, the fate of the EU, and the political and economic climate in the U.S. His straight-talking, no-holds-barred and frequently entertaining analysis tells it like it is, with powerful predictions of what’s to come.
Sonia Shah is an investigative science journalist and author of critically acclaimed and prize-winning books on science, human rights, and international politics. Her most recent book, “Pandemic: Tracking Contagions from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond,” was selected as a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. Her critically acclaimed 2010 book, “The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years,” was based on five years of original reportage in Cameroon, Malawi, and Panama and was called a “tour-de-force” by the New York Times.
New York Times Op-Ed columnist David Brooks has a unique gift for bringing audiences face to face with the spirit of our times, and he does so with humor and insight. A regular analyst on PBS NewsHour and NPR’s All Things Considered, he is a keen observer and commentator on politics and foreign affairs. His newest book, “The Road to Character,” tells the story of ten great lives that illustrate how character is developed and models how we can all strive to build rich inner lives.
The first Asian-American reporter to win a Pulitzer Prize, Sheryl WuDunn has journeyed through several industries, from banking to journalism and book writing. Her latest book, “A Path Appears,” is about spreading opportunity and making a difference in the world. Her previous book, the best-selling “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” (co-written with her husband, Nicholas Kristof,) had an immense impact on exposing the plight of oppressed peoples around the globe, sparking activism and a new sense of awareness worldwide. Thanks to the book’s popularity and global impact, it soon grew into a multi-platform digital media effort that now includes a highly popular documentary series on PBS, mobile games and an online social media game on Facebook.
http://enthompson.unl.edu/
Wes Moore knows that being a leader—both in your personal life and in the business world—comes down to one thing: personal responsibility. Drawing on his experiences as a leader in the public and private sectors and in the military, Moore explains that embracing your own personal responsibility – and holding yourself accountable for your choices – is a quality that makes great "transformational leaders": leaders who create a vision, then inspire and empower those around them to execute that vision. In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in an armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore. Moore couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen? With stories of heart-wrenching losses and moments of surprising redemption, Moore describes a generation of boys trying to find their way in a challenging and, at times, hostile world. More at https://enthompson.unl.edu/
Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who in 2014 was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, which is frequently referred to as the ‘alternative Nobel.’ His 1989 book “The End of Nature” is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has been translated into 24 languages; he’s gone on to write a dozen more books. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized twenty thousand rallies around the world in every country save North Korea, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone XL Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement. http://enthompson.unl.edu/
In 2011, journalist Jose Antonio Vargas “outed” himself as an undocumented immigrant in an essay published in The New York Times Magazine. The article stunned media and political circles and attracted worldwide coverage. Vargas has since testified at a United States Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration reform, and has been at the forefront of challenging the media's coverage of undocumented immigrants. His film, “Documented,” chronicles his own journey while closely exploring the plight of other undocumented immigrants in America and the politics that surround the hotly contested issue of “legal status.” CNN debuted the film in June 2014.
This Wilson Dialogue will explore the global environmental and financial effect of carbon emissions and proposed regulation. Experts Lewis and Metcalf will debate the pros and cons of carbon regulation through taxation, cap and trade, and other measures. What is the carbon footprint of your household, employer and nation? How would proposed regulation impact you? Join the dialogue to find out. More at http://enthompson.unl.edu/
Milton Chen is senior fellow and executive director emeritus at the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit operating foundation in the San Francisco Bay Area that utilizes its multimedia website, Edutopia.org, and documentary films to communicate a new vision for 21st century education. He served as executive director of GLEF for 12 years, and during his tenure, GLEF and Edutopia, greatly expanded their editorial publishing efforts, including the award-winning Edutopia magazine. Learn more at http://enthompson.unl.edu/
Analog telephone calls degraded with distance; digitizing communications led to the Internet. Analog computations degraded with time; digitizing computing led to the PC. Today's most advanced manufacturing remains analog: the designs are digital, but the processes are not. I will introduce emerging research on digitizing fabrication, and explore the implications of anyone being able to make (almost) anything.
Lecture Summary * Zhao’s book of the same title, “Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization,” addresses these and other questions. * At a time when globalization and technology are dramatically altering the world we live in, is education reform in the United States headed down the right path? * Are schools emphasizing the knowledge and skills that students need in a global society? Or, are they undermining students’ strengths by overemphasizing high-stakes testing and standardization? * Are education systems in China and other countries as superior as some people claim? * American education is at a crossroads. We need to change course to maintain leadership in a rapidly changing world. How should we redesign our educational system?
In moderated debate style, Bacevich and Chollet will discuss the following topics and take questions from the audience.
- What is the right size and role of the U.S. military today?
- Drones, surveillance and technology – how and when should they be used?
- Does the all-volunteer military influence America’s willingness to intervene globally? Would a draft reduce U.S. military involvement?
- Is the permanent commitment of U.S. troops abroad in peaceful nations necessary and sustainable?
Reporter Hedrick Smith spent 26 years at the New York Times, where he was among the team that produced the Pulitzer Prize-winning Pentagon Papers. He also spent several years as the Times’ Moscow bureau chief, for which he won a Pulitzer for international reporting from Russia and Eastern Europe. That experience also yielded his bestselling book “The Russians.” Another of his books, “The Power Game: How Washington Works,” is considered a modern classic and essential reading for DC’s power players. Since 1989, Smith has created more than two dozen primetime specials for PBS, on topics ranging from Duke Ellington’s Washington to “Inside the Terror Network.” He has won numerous awards—among them two Emmys—for this television work.
E.N. Thompson Forum website
Susan Glasser is the new Editor of POLITICO magazine. Previously she was editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy, the magazine of global politics, economics and ideas. During her tenure at its helm, the magazine won numerous awards for its innovative coverage, including three digital National Magazine Awards. Previously, Glasser covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a foreign correspondent and editor at the Washington Post. She was also editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, and with her husband Peter Baker, co-authored the book “Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution.” She is a graduate of Harvard University.
E.N. Thompson Forum website
Journalist David Wessel is economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and writes the newspaper’s weekly “Capital” column. His book, “In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic,” was a New York Times notable book in 2009. Wessel has shared two Pulitzer prizes, one for a series on the persistence of racism in Boston (Boston Globe, 1983) and the other for a series on corporate wrong-doing (The Wall Street Journal, 2002). He frequently appears on National Public Radio and WETA’s Washington Week. A 1975 graduate of Haverford College, Wessel is also the co-author of “Prosperity,” a 1998 book on the American middle class.
Learn more at http://enthompson.unl.edu/
In her presentation, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi will tie the efforts she’s made on behalf of women and religious minorities to the world of religious freedom, all while focusing on the importance of human rights throughout. This unique program will help the audience understand the importance of tolerance, perseverance, and belief in human rights for all; and most importantly share easy tools anyone can use to make a difference.
http://enthompson.unl.edu/
Since the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 was adopted, the U.S. government has paid more attention to human rights violations committed against members of religious minorities in hot spots throughout the world. Implementing this policy has encountered both resistance and assistance from traditional diplomats, foreign governments, and NGO representatives. In this lecture, Felice Gaer, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, will discuss what has been accomplished and what is needed to bolster this vital human rights concern.
The death penalty continues to generate intense debate, including in Nebraska — one of 33 states that authorize capital punishment. In this debate, Nebraska Solicitor General J. Kirk Brown and University of Colorado Boulder professor Michael Radelet will explore such questions as whether the death penalty is humane, fairly applied, reduces violent crime, or is cost effective. They’ll also examine impacts on the condemned person, the legal and judicial systems, victims’ loved ones, and the taxpaying society at large.
Contemporary Africa is a victim of colonial and neo-colonial violence. Africa is also its own worst enemy, with several intrinsically viable states engulfed in a destructive synthesis of military aggression, economic chaos, cultural animosity and religious warfare. This lecture will address the encounter between positive and negative forces and ideologies in African states. It will include consideration of ‘lessons to be learned’ from the South African transition for other situations of conflict in Africa and elsewhere in the world.
Pietra Rivoli is a professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. She teaches finance and international business in the undergraduate, graduate, and executive programs. Her main interests are social issues in international business and in China, and she was recently honored by the Aspen Institute as a Faculty Pioneer, an award that recognizes leadership in integrating social issues into business education.
Rivoli's recent book, "The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy," has been widely acclaimed by both the popular press and the academic community as a path-breaking study of globalization. It was named one of the best business books of the year by the Financial Times, Booz Allen Hamilton, Foreign Affairs and Amazon.com. It was also designated by the American Association of Publishers as the best scholarly book of 2005, in the category of Finance and Economics. The book has been translated into 14 languages and the second edition was published in 2009.
Laurie Garrett is one of America's premier authorities on healthcare and disease prevention, and a powerful advocate for a forceful response to threats to human health. Currently the senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, she is the author of "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance" and "Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health." She is the only person ever to have been awarded all three of the Big "Ps" of journalism: The Peabody, The Polk (twice), and The Pulitzer.
Charles and Linda Wilson Dialogue on Domestic Issues
Chuck Hagel served two terms in the United States Senate, from 1997-2009, representing the state of Nebraska. He was a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and Intelligence committees. He also served as the chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the Senate Climate Change Observer Group.
Hagel is a distinguished professor at Georgetown University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is co-chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board; Chairman of the Atlantic Council; a member of the Secretary of Defense's Policy Board and Secretary of Energy's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future; and is a member of Public Broadcasting Service board of directors. He is also the author of "America: Our Next Chapter," an examination of the current state of the nation that provides substantial proposals for the challenges of the 21st century.
Mr. Zhang Yesui was born in Hubei Province in October 1953. He graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. He has been Vice Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the United States of America.
Christine Todd Whitman is the president of the Whitman Strategy Group, a consulting firm that specializes in energy and environmental issues. WSG offers a comprehensive set of solutions to problems facing businesses, organizations, and governments; they have been at the forefront of helping leading companies find innovative solutions to environmental challenges.
Whitman is also co-chair of the Republican Leadership Council, which she founded with Senator John Danforth. The RLC's mission is to support fiscally conservative, socially tolerant candidates and to reclaim the word Republican. She is also the author of "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America," which was a New York Times bestseller.
Whitman served in the cabinet of President George W. Bush as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from January 2001 until June 2003. Prior to that appointment, she was the 50th governor of the New Jersey, serving as its first woman governor from 1994 until 2001.
E. Benjamin Skinner is the first person in history to witness negotiations for the sale of human beings on four continents. In his book "A Crime so Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern Day Slavery," Skinner tells the story of individuals who live in slavery, those who have escaped from bondage, those who own or traffic in slaves, and the mixed political motives of those who seek to combat these crimes.
Rob Gifford first went to China in 1987, as a 20 year old undergraduate, to study the Chinese language. He has spent much of the last twenty years living in and reporting on the rise of China, most recently as Beijing Correspondent of National Public Radio. In his recently-published book, China Road, he records a two month journey along Route 312, the Chinese equivalent of Route 66. The road flows three-thousand miles from east to west, passing through the factory towns of the coastal areas, through the rural heart of China, then up into the Gobi Desert, where it merges with the old Silk Road. The highway witnesses every part of the social and economic revolution that is turning China upside down.
Richard Behar has garnered 20 journalism awards over a career spanning 25 years. He was called "one of the most dogged of our watchdogs" by the late syndicated columnist Jack Anderson. Behar spent nine years with Fortune magazine, preceded by six years at Time and six years at Forbes. Prior to that, he was a stringer/researcher at the New York Times. Behar has also done assignments for BBC, CNN, FoxNews.com, Fast Company, and PBS.
Shirk, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for China, knows many of today's Chinese rulers personally and has studied them for three decades. In her Thompson Forum lecture, Shirk will give an update on the state of China's internal politics and the fears that motivate its leaders. Susan L. Shirk is Director of the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, and Professor at UC-San Diego's Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. A leading authority on China, she has written numerous books and articles on this subject, including pieces that have appeared in Washington Post, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal.
Born in the U. S. to Chinese parents, Kuo lives in China and identifies equally as American and Chinese. Formerly director of digital strategy for the Beijing office of a global advertising agency, Kuo has worked as a technology and business writer for publications such as Time, TimeAsia, China Economic Review, Asia Inc., and the South China Morning Post, and currently serves as an advisor for Youku.com, a leading video sharing company in China. Kuo co-founded China's most famous rock band, Tang Dynasty, and continues to be active in the Chinese music scene.
As President and CEO of The Asia Foundation, Bereuter oversees an organization with 17 offices across Asia focused on improving civil society, women's empowerment, economic reform and development, international relations and more. Bereuter joined The Asia Foundation in 2004 following his resignation as Congressman representing Nebraska's First District, a position he held for 26 years. While in Congress, Bereuter co-founded the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and chaired a task force on the transition of Hong Kong and the House Delegation to the 40-country NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Colin G. Campbell is Chairman and President of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation which, in 2007, convened the World Forum on the Future of Democracy. Since then, the Foundation has used both technology and face-to-face contact to engage thousands of people worldwide in a conversation about the roles, responsibilities and rights of citizens in a democracy.
Estimates of the number of illegal immigrants in the United States range from 11 million to more than 20 million. Most recommendations for immigration reform center on the issue of a path to citizenship for these people. Opponents say this is amnesty, a strategy which proved ineffective in previous immigration legislation. Supporters say legalization is both a necessity and a moral obligation. In the second annual Wilson Dialogue, Dr. Michael Olivas, William B. Bates Distinguished Chair of Law at the University of Houston, and Dr. Vernon Briggs, Professor Emeritus in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, will discuss the issue of a path to citizenship.
F.W. de Klerk, former president of South Africa, delivered the E. N. Thompson Forum lecture on Feb. 10 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His talk, "Bridging the Gap: Globalization without Isolation," was also the Lewis E. Harris Lecture on Public Policy.
Sarah Chayes, a former National Public Radio reporter, delivered the E. N. Thompson Forum lecture "Notes from Afghanistan," at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Chayes has lived and worked in Kandahar, Afghanistan, since 2001, when she covered the fall of the Taliban for NPR. In 2002, she left journalism to help rebuild the shattered country whose fate will help determine the shape of the 21st century, working first with Afghans for Civil Society, and currently with Arghand, a cooperative producing skin-care products from local fruits, nuts and botanicals.
Theodore C. 'Ted' Sorensen, former special counsel and adviser to President John F. Kennedy and a widely published author on the presidency and foreign affairs, practiced international law for over 36 years as a senior partner, and now of counsel, in the prominent U.S. law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Sorensen is a Lincoln native and graduate of UNL and the University of Nebraska College of Law. His memoirs, "Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History," were published in May, 2008.
Dubbed "Mr. Justice" by the Times of London, Dworkin's pioneering scholarly work has had worldwide impact. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University and a Professor of Law at University College London.
Commentator, editor, teacher, public servant, best-selling author and adviser to presidents, David Gergen has been an active participant in American national life. He served as director of communications for President Ronald Reagan and also held positions in the Nixon, Ford and Clinton administrations. Gergen currently serves as editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report and as a regular television commentator. He is also a professor of public service at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of its Center for Public Leadership. In 2000, he published the best-selling book "Eyewitness to Power: The Essence: of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton."
Bruce Babbitt was Governor of Arizona from 1978-87 and Attorney General of Arizona from 1975-78. As governor, he brought environmental and resource management to the forefront in the state. He negotiated and steered to passage the Arizona Groundwater Management Act of 1980, which remains the most comprehensive water regulatory system in the nation. He was also responsible for creation of the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Clinton, Babbitt led the creation of the forest plan in the Pacific Northwest, restoration of the Florida Everglades, passage of the California Desert Protection Act, and legislation for the National Wildlife Refuge system. As a certified fire fighter, he brought his front line experience to creating a new federal wild land fire policy that emphasized the role of fire in maintenance and restoration of natural ecosystems. He pioneered the use of habitat conservation plans under the Endangered Species Act and worked with Clinton to create 22 new national monuments. He is the author of "Cities in the Wilderness," recently issued by Island Press, in which he lays out a new vision of land use in America. He currently serves as a director of the World Wildlife Fund.
Bruce Babbitt was Governor of Arizona from 1978-87 and Attorney General of Arizona from 1975-78. As governor, he brought environmental and resource management to the forefront in the state. He negotiated and steered to passage the Arizona Groundwater Management Act of 1980, which remains the most comprehensive water regulatory system in the nation. He was also responsible for creation of the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Clinton, Babbitt led the creation of the forest plan in the Pacific Northwest, restoration of the Florida Everglades, passage of the California Desert Protection Act, and legislation for the National Wildlife Refuge system. As a certified fire fighter, he brought his front line experience to creating a new federal wild land fire policy that emphasized the role of fire in maintenance and restoration of natural ecosystems. He pioneered the use of habitat conservation plans under the Endangered Species Act and worked with Clinton to create 22 new national monuments. He is the author of "Cities in the Wilderness," recently issued by Island Press, in which he lays out a new vision of land use in America. He currently serves as a director of the World Wildlife Fund.
Known as "The Green Evangelist," Reverend Richard Cizik calls climate change a crisis of "biblical proportions." Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). His responsibilities include setting NAE's policy direction on issues before Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court, as well as serving as a national spokesman on issues of concern to evangelicals. A conservative both politically and religiously, Cizik is on a mission to convert tens of millions of Americans to the cause of conservation, using a right-to-life framework and spreading the doctrine of "creation care" to evangelical Christians. Thanks to his leadership, NAE released a manifesto urging its members to adopt eco-friendly living habits and exhorting the government to lighten America's environmental footprint. The organization also circulated a charter calling on its member network and top-level Beltway allies to fight global warming. Educated in political science and public affairs, Cizik also received a Master of Divinity from Denver Seminary and an honorary Doctorate of Ministry in Christian Leadership from the Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. Cizik was ordained by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in 1992 and, in addition to his work for NAE, maintains an active preaching and speaking schedule.
Physicist Amory Lovins is the Co-founder, Chairman, and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), an independent think-and-do-tank that creates abundance by design. RMI works with individuals and organizations of every imaginable kind to help them use energy and resources efficiently while being ever-better stewards of the environment.
Physicist Amory Lovins is the Co-founder, Chairman, and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), an independent think-and-do-tank that creates abundance by design. RMI works with individuals and organizations of every imaginable kind to help them use energy and resources efficiently while being ever-better stewards of the environment.
Is ethanol a genuine answer to climate crisis and energy woes or a smoke-and-mirrors solution with no real benefit? Designed to explore all sides of this many-faceted issue, the inaugural Charles and Linda Wilson Dialogue on Domestic Issues brings together two noted experts for a moderated debate on this topic of critical interest to our nation and our state.
Is ethanol a genuine answer to climate crisis and energy woes or a smoke-and-mirrors solution with no real benefit? Designed to explore all sides of this many-faceted issue, the inaugural Charles and Linda Wilson Dialogue on Domestic Issues brings together two noted experts for a moderated debate on this topic of critical interest to our nation and our state.