The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education and the JoAnne Boyle World Affairs Forum are proud to host a public lecture, “Genocide in Darfur: Sudan’s Defiance of International Human Rights,” by visiting scholar Dr. Sharon Hutchinson, 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee and professor, Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The lecture, followed by a question and answer session, will be held Monday, March 26 at 7 p.m. in the Lynch Lecture Hall (Lynch Hall) on Seton Hill’s Greensburg, Pa. campus. The presentation is free and open to the public. For more information on the lecture, please contact the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at 724-830-1033.

Dr. Sharon Hutchinson served with the U.S. State Department’s Civilian Protection Monitoring Team in the Sudan for four months in 2002/2003, during which time she reported extensively on the “oil-driven military violence conducted by the Government of Sudan in the Nuer and Dinka regions.” She has conducted field research in the area since 1980 and is the author of the book “Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War and the State” in addition to numerous research papers and articles on the Sudan and its people. Fluent in six languages, Dr. Hutchinson has spoken on her experiences and research all over the world. In addition to being named a Nobel Peace Prize nominee in 2005, Dr. Hutchinson has been the recipient of myriad awards from such prestigious organizations as the Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation, the Pew Evangelical Scholars Program, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education (NCCHE) was established on the campus of Seton Hill University in 1987. Seton Hill initiated this national Catholic movement toward Holocaust studies in response to the urging of Pope John Paul II to recognize the significance of the Shoah, the Holocaust, and to "promote the necessary historical and religious studies on this event which concerns the whole of humanity today." The NCCHE has as its primary purpose the broad dissemination of scholarship on the root causes of anti-Semitism, its relation to the Holocaust and the implications from the Catholic perspective of both for today's world. Toward this end the Center is committed to equipping scholars, especially those at Catholic institutions, to enter into serious discussion on the causes of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; shaping appropriate curricular responses at Catholic institutions and other educational sites; sustaining Seton Hill's Catholic Institute for Holocaust Studies in Israel through a cooperative program with Yad Vashem, the Isaac Jacob Institute for Religious Law and Hebrew University; encouraging scholarship and research through conferences, publications, workshops for educators, and similar activities; sponsoring local events on the Holocaust and related topics in the University and the community and enhancing Catholic-Jewish relations.

The JoAnne Boyle World Affairs Forum was named by the University faculty and is dedicated to Seton Hill University President JoAnne Boyle, who consistently encourages every member of the academic community to be an informed global citizen. The forum series brings speakers and artists to Westmoreland County to address global issues.

Seton Hill University, founded by the Sisters of Charity, is a coeducational Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pa. Chartered in 1918, Seton Hill offers more than 30 undergraduate programs and nine graduate programs, including an MBA. Seton Hill brings the world to its students through its distinguished lecturers and nationally and internationally renowned centers. Recognized three times by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the nation’s Top 100 Entrepreneurial Universities, Seton Hill has also been named one of the Best in the Northeast by The Princeton Review and one of Pennsylvania’s Top 100 Businesses by Pennsylvania Business Central. In addition, Seton Hill has been named a University of Distinction by Colleges of Distinction, an organization founded by a group of concerned parents, educators and admissions professionals. For more information on Seton Hill please visit www.setonhill.edu or call 1-800-826-6234.

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Media contacts:

Wilda Kaylor, Associate Director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education
724-830-1033 / kaylor@setonhill.edu

Becca Baker, Associate Director of Media Relations
724-830-1069 / 724-689-3599 (cell) / bbaker@setonhill.edu