Alworth Center for Peace and Justice lecture series resumes in-person for 2021

The College’s Peace and Justice lecture series will return to an in-person format with the broadest theme to date “The World Beyond Our Borders.” This year’s series will be offered in collaboration with the Alworth Institute for International Studies at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

Dr. Tom Morgan, director of the Alworth Center for Peace and Justice, organizes the annual event and spends several months reflecting on the theme. He describes “The World Beyond Our Borders” as the most ambitious lecture series he has coordinated to date.

“The U.S. has four percent of the world’s population which means there is enormous significance beyond our borders,” he said. “I thought it would be useful to present a series of points of view that are not American, points of view that show America through somebody else’s eyes.”

Morgan approached his counterparts at UMD and, “just like Churchill,” the two institutions sat down and divided up the globe between them.

During the 2021-22 season, the College will host four lectures focused on Russia, Latin America, the Middle East and western Europe. UMD will host three lectures focused on India, China and Africa; they will also host the final lecture summarizing U.S. foreign policy. Morgan characterized each of the College’s lecturers as preeminent voices in their respective fields.

By presenting a series of points of view that are not American, he hopes attendees can begin to see themselves in a wider context and understand the human story in a bigger way.

“It enriches our lives to hear voices from the outside,” he said. “That collective experience for our students and our community can be transformative.”

The complete 2021-22 lecture series includes:

• Tuesday, Oct. 5: “Russia Against the West (and with the Rest)” with Angela Stent
• Tuesday, Nov. 2: “21st Century Dispatches from Latin America” with Timothy Lorek and Andra Chastain
• Tuesday, Feb. 8: “How the European Union Rules the World” with Anu Bradford
• Thursday, March 24: “Rivalry Between Saudi Arabia and Iran” with Kim Ghattas

Stent will be speaking from her home in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, Oct. 5, but guests are invited to stream her lecture in person in the College’s Mitchell Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. All of the College’s lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Tom Morgan.

The Alworth Center for the Study of Peace and Justice seeks to bridge social and political barriers to bring together people of all ages and philosophies to work toward the common goals of peace and justice. The Center is funded in part by the Manitou Fund, the Global Awareness Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation and Reader Weekly.