ISHMAEL BEAH
"A Long Way Home: A Story of Redemption and Hope"

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
7:30pm MSU Strand Union Ballrooms
Bozeman, Montana

Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone on November 23, 1980. When he was eleven, Ishmael’s life, along with the lives of millions of other Sierra Leoneans, was derailed by the outbreak of a brutal civil war. At thirteen, after his parents and two brothers were killed, Ishmael was recruited to fight as a child soldier. He fought for over two years before he was removed from the army by UNICEF and placed in a rehabilitation home in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. After completing rehabilitation in late 1996, Ishmael won a competition to attend a conference at the United Nations to talk about the devastating effects of war on children in his country. It was there that he met his new mother, Laura Simms, a professional storyteller who lives in New York. Ishmael returned to Sierra Leone and continued speaking about his experiences to help bring international attention to the issue of child soldiering and war affected children.

In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story. At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. This is, at last, a story of redemption and hope.

Sponsors:

• MSU Leadership Institute
• ASMSU
• Office of the President
• MSU Parent Family Association
• Zoot

Tickets on sale starting January 30 for $5 for students and $8 for adults at all TicketsWest Outlets .

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"ERIC WEINER — National Correspondent for NPR.org
"The Geography of Bliss" more information

Monday, March 3, 2008
7:00 pm in MSU Strand Union Building Ballroom A
Bozeman, Montana
FREE & OPEN to the public

Author, Peabody Award winner and NPR correspondent Eric Weiner takes the audience on a whirlwind tour of countries that are quietly pursuing the most American of obsessions - the pursuit of happiness - or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness."

Weiner doesn't profess to know what happiness is, but with a beguiling mixture of psychological insight, scientific research, geopolitical analysis and wry humor, he successfully shows us where happiness is.

Are people in Switzerland happier because it's the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Singapore benefit psychologically by having their options limited by the government. Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy?

With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.

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JOHN (JODY) KRETZMANN, PhD
“Building Vital Communities from the Inside Out”

Tuesday, March 25, 2008
7:00 pm in MSU Strand Union Ballroom D
Bozeman, Montana
FREE & OPEN to the public

An evening lecture with John (Jody) Kretzmann, Co-Director of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute at Northwestern University (Chicago, IL) and author of “Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets.”  Kretzmann has international recognition as an inspiring, straightforward, and wise advocate of strength-based approaches to building healthy local communities.  This event is sponsored by MSU Leadership Institute, ASMSU Hopa Mountain, MSU’s Horizons Program and Opportunity Link.  For more information about Jody Kretzmann visit northwestern.edu/ipr/people/kretzmann.html

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SHIRIN EBADI
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE-WINNING IRANIAN ACTIVIST/LAWYER
"Iran Awakening: A Story of Revolution and Hope"

Wednesday, April 16, 2008
7:30pm MSU Strand Union Ballrooms Bozeman, Montana

An Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her significant and pioneering efforts in democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children. She is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize.

In her research, and as an activist, she is known for promoting peaceful, democratic solutions to serious problems in society. She takes an active part in the public debate and is well-known and admired by the general public in her country for the legal defense of victims of the conservative faction's attack on freedom of speech and political freedom.

Ebadi is an activist for refugee rights, as well as those of women and children. She is the founder and leader of the Association for Support of Children's Rights in Iran. The writer of a number of academic books and articles focused on human rights, she has had several books translated into English, including The Rights of the Child: A Study of Legal Aspects of Children's Rights in Iran, published with support from UNICEF, and History and Documentation of Human Rights in Iran. In 2006, Random House published her memoir, Iran Awakening, with the young Iranian-American co-author Azadeh Moaveni.

As a lawyer, Ebadi has been involved in a number of controversial political cases. She was the attorney of the families of the writers and intellectuals who were victims of the serial murders in 1999-2000. She has worked actively, and successfully, to reveal the principals behind the attack on the students at Tehran University in 1999 where several students died. As a consequence, Ebadi has been imprisoned on numerous occasions.

With Islam as her starting point, Ebadi campaigns for peaceful solutions to social problems, and promotes new thinking on Islamic terms. She has displayed great personal courage as a lawyer defending individuals and groups who have fallen victim to a powerful political and legal system that is legitimized through an inhumane interpretation of Islam. Ebadi has shown a willingness and the ability to cooperate with representatives of secular, as well as, religious views.

Ebadi earned a law degree from the University of Tehran. In the years 1975-79 she served as president of the city court of Tehran, one of the first female judges in Iran. After the revolution in 1979 she was forced to resign. Previously a professor at the University of Tehran, she now works as a lawyer.

Tickets on sale starting March 19 for $5 for students and $8 for adults at all TicketsWest Outlets and at www.ticketswest.com

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DR. JANE GOODALL, PhD, DBE
Founder, Jane Goodall Institute
UN Messenger of Peace
"Reason for Hope"

Monday, April 28th, 2008
6:00 pm
Brick Breedan Fieldhouse

In her presentation, Dr. Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, environmentalist and humanitarian, will address current work at the Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania, where research into our closest relative-the chimpanzee-has been ongoing since 1960. She also will discuss the Jane Goodall Institute programs that have evolved to conserve precious forest habitat and to improve the lives of people living adjacent to Gombe National Park and in other parts of Africa.

Dr. Goodall will also speak to the exciting work of her global youth program Roots & Shoots, which is active in more than 100 countries worldwide. Through this powerful and innovative program, youth of all ages, preschool through college, improve their communities through service learning projects that promote care and concern for people, animals, and the environment. As a United Nations Messenger of Peace, Dr. Goodall will address her reasons for hope in these complex times and ways in which every individual can make a difference every day.

Sponsors:

• Department of History & Philosophy's Wallace Stegner Chair
• MSU President's Office
• MSU Provost's Office
• College of Letters & Science Dean's Office
• ASMSU/MSU Leadership Institute
• The Tributary Fund

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