The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Ms. Leymah Gbowee, will be our guest the evening of February 16, 2012, on our Marion campus. The public is welcome to join us for her talk at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel Auditorium [Updated Venue]. During Liberia's recent civil war, Ms. Gbowee was responsible for mobilizing the women of Liberia into an organized peace movement that was heavily responsible for the end of the war in 2003. She will share with us about the peace process in Liberia, as well as her recent appointment by President Sirleaf (the first female president in Africa) as head of the new peace and reconciliation initiative in Liberia. Ms. Gbowee will also be speaking about her organization, Women Peace and Security Network Africa, which emerged out of the efforts of Liberia's women.
Ms. Gbowee's story represents the stories of ordinary Liberian women and mothers who acted in community, out of exhaustion, through the power of prayer, and with enduring hope for themselves and their children. Ms. Gbowee's memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War, was published this year. Ms. Gbowee officially received the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 2011.
We are grateful to the Sagamore Institute and their Senior Fellow, Mr. Donald Cassell, for the opportunity to share in Ms. Gbowee's visit to Indiana. This visit is sponsored by the Provost's Office of Indiana Wesleyan University. Questions should be directed to Lisa Toland, the Associate Director of the John Wesley Honors College, at lisa.toland@indwes.edu
