Ishmael Beah, former child soldier of Sierra Leone and author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, will deliver a lecture of the same name at the University of Notre Dame at 7p.m. March 16 (Monday) in the McKenna Hall auditorium.
The event, which will be followed by a book signing and reception, is free and open to the public.
Born in Sierra Leone in 1980, Beah moved to the United States in 1998 and finished his last two years of high school at the United Nations International School in New York. He graduated from Oberlin College in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and many other non-government organization panels on children affected by the war. His work has appeared in Vespertine Press and LIT magazine.
Beah’s address is sponsored by Notre Dame’s International Student Services and Activities and will serve as the keynote kick-off for International Festival Week, March 23 to 28. The event also is supported by Notre Dame’s Africa Faith and Justice Network, African Student Association, Center for Civil and Human Rights, Center for Social Concerns, Department of Africana Studies, Graduate Student Union, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Multicultural Student Programs and Services, Office of International Studies, and Office of Student Affairs.
Contact: Bethany Heet, director, International Student Services and Activities Programs and Immigration Services, 574-631-3825, bheet2@nd.edu __
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on March 05, 2009.