We are excited to bring you our third lecture in the Soft Landing Missoula Presents series! We will present “Eritrea: the Country, Culture, and Circumstance” on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the University Center Theater, located on the 3rd floor of the University Center on the University of Montana (UM) campus.
Sponsored by UM’s African-American Studies Program, UM’s Political Science Department, and Montana Model UN, this presentation will feature two distinguished speakers: Kimberly A. Maynard, Ph.D. and Solomon M. Gofie, Ph.D., (see bios below) and will be followed by a Q&A period. These two amazing speakers will talk about everything from location, demographics and geography, to why people are leaving Eritrea and how. They will also discuss how can we do a great job at welcoming our new neighbors by knowing a little bit more about their culture and customs! We are really excited for this one!
Please RSVP to our Facebook event page! And, as a helpful tip, we recommend arriving to the University Center Theater (third floor) early as we have filled the space to capacity in past lectures.
Download the poster for the event – PDF.
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Dr. Maynard’s journey has taken her from smoke jumping in Missoula to work in natural disasters and, ultimately, war zones. Her fieldwork includes 30 years as a practitioner in crisis management, conflict recovery, and peacebuilding. During 20 of these years, she worked in the Horn of Africa’s war-torn regions. She began by providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and displaced persons and then went on to study the drivers behind forced migration and the means to transition from crisis to peace and renewal. Dr. Maynard holds a doctorate in International Affairs and has worked with the US Agency for International Development, the United Nations, the Red Cross, World Bank, and non-governmental organizations in conflict zones around the world. Dr. Maynard is currently UM’s Mansfield Fellow in International Affairs and works part time with USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives.
Dr. Gofie is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. His areas of research include state, society and human rights, migration and transnational involvement in the Horn of Africa, conflict resolution, citizenship and political communities in the Horn of Africa; he has recently published scholarly articles and book chapters on these topics. Dr. Gofie is currently a visiting adjunct faculty at UM’s Department of Political Science, teaching courses on human rights and politics in Africa.