E.N. Thompson Forum On World Issues

E.N. Thompson Forum On World Issues

For tickets to this year's EN Thompson Forum, CLICK HERE.

Over the past two decades, the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues has established itself as one of the preeminent speakers series in higher education. Past Thompson Forum events have featured, among many others: Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; Holocaust survivor and peace activist Elie Wiesel; Camelia Sadat, the daughter of Anwar Sadat and founder of the Sadat Peace Institute; Maki Mandela, daughter of the former South African president; the Rev. Peter Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University; Hedrick Smith, journalist and expert on the former Soviet Union; Kennedy Administration Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara; and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues is a cooperative project of the Cooper Foundation, Lied Center for Performing Arts, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 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 debate.

2020-2021 Schedule
2019-2020 Schedule
2018-2019 Schedule
2017-2018 Schedule
2016-2017 Schedule
2015-2016 Schedule
2014-2015 Schedule
2013-2014 Schedule
2012-2013 Schedule

Programming Committee

Program Committee members are globally-minded university and community leaders who are responsible for developing the Forum theme and for generating speaker ideas.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE

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UNL Faculty Discussion

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 - 7:00 P.M. | KIMBALL RECITAL HALL

Global and Historical Moments of Reckoning with UNL Faculty

Partnership with UNL's College of Arts & Sciences

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.

Ng’ang’a Wahu-Mũchiri, "Perspectives from Africa" 
Dierdre Cooper Owens, "Race, Gender, and Women’s Health"
Will Thomas, "American Families Challenging Slavery"
Margaret Jacobs, "Indigenous Reckoning Around the World"

Moderator: N'Kenge Friday

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Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia

NOVEMBER 2, 2021 - 7:00 P.M. | LIED CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS

"Facing Immigrant Exclusion: Then and Now"

Partnership with the Nebraska College of Law

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.

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Anna Deavere Smith

FEBRUARY 9, 2022 - 4:00 P.M. | LIED CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS

"A Conversation on Race and the Arts, Moderated by Sändra Washington"

Partnership with the Lied Center for Performing Arts

Smith is a dramatist and actress who has been credited with creating a new form of theater. She has, for four decades, used theatre and movies to reveal the effects of inequality and discord on American communities.

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Forum Youth Panel

MARCH 22, 2022 - 7:00 P.M. | THE BAY 2005 Y ST, LINCOLN, NE 68503

"Performative Activism: Youths Reckoning with Racial Justice"

Partnership with the University Honors Program

Activists within the UNL and Lincoln communities come together to discuss racial justice. What they’ve done, what they do, and how to move forward.

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Walter Echo-Hawk

APRIL 6, 2022 - 7:00 P.M. | LIED CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS

"Reckoning and Reconciliation on the Great Plains"

Partnership with the Center for Great Plains Studies

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.

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