The 2015 Ware Lecture on Peacemaking will be presented by Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.
As in past years, Dr. Oya Dursun-Ozkanca, associate professor of political science and director of the international studies minor, will lead a Ware lecture-related student book club discussion. This year, the book is A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity, which Kristof penned with his wife, and fellow Pulitzer winner, Sheryl WuDunn.
Dursun-Ozkanca wanted the book to be recent and appeal to students’ interests. A Path Appears is Kristof and WuDunn’s most recent work, published in September of 2014.
The book combines existing scholarly research and on-the-ground reporting that discovered several highly successful organizations, which function either on a local or global scale, that fight inequality. Kristof and WuDunn also identify powerful “game-changers,” such as early childhood education, that have the potential to affect lasting transformation.
A major theme present in A Path Appears is the ability of everyday civilians to craft solutions to the social problems plaguing the world. Dursun-Ozkanca wants the book discussion to “encourage students to think along these lines” and realize that, by taking “baby steps,” they can create serious change. “You don’t need to make large donations for change to take place,” she said.
The students attending the discussion will be given questions to ponder along with their complementary copies of the book. They will meet Monday, March 30.