UNO to Host Dual International Conferences

OMAHA - Two conferences that focus on international issues will convene at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) this weekend, beginning Friday, Oct. 3, and running through Saturday, Oct. 4.

Returning for it’s 37th year, UNO’s Annual Global Studies Conference will have a theme of national security and globalization in the 21st century. The conference will include panels on the U.S. strategy in the Middle East; ISIS and Afghanistan; healthcare in West Africa; human rights; and more.

The key speaker for this year’s conference is Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering. Pickering’s diplomatic career spans more than five decades and includes serving as ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Currently, Pickering serves as Vice President at Hills and Company.

Pickering’s address will take place at the Thompson Center on Friday, Oct. 3, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Reservations for the event are currently filled, but media are encouraged to attend.

More information can be found at world.unomaha.edu/gsc.

In addition to the Global Studies Conference, UNO will host the 39th Annual European Studies Conference, which will feature 30 different panels on the multifaceted perspectives on the past, present and future of the European continent. Topics of discussion will include the broader issues art, history, languages and literature in addition to current events.

Patrice McMahon, associate professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will address the European Studies Conference in the Milo Bail Student Center at noon on Friday, Oct. 3, with her presentation, “25 Years After: What the Revolutions in Europe Have Taught Us.”

Winner of the 2012 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Education, McMahon’s research is at the intersection of international security, conflict and human rights. Lunch will be served during presentation, which will take place and is open to the general public at no cost, but requires an RSVP.

To RSVP, please contact Tatyana Novikov, 402.554.4840, or visit www.unomaha.edu/esc.

For additional information on either the International Studies Conference or European Studies Conference, please contact Charley Reed, UNO media relations coordinator, at 402.554.2129 or unonews@unomaha.edu.

Thomas R. Pickering
Pickering is currently Vice Chairman at Hills and Company and retired as Senior Vice President International Relations and a member of the Executive Council of The Boeing Company in 2006. Pickering joined Boeing in January 2001, upon his retirement as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, where he had served since May 1997. Pickering holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service.

In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he was U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Pickering also served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Pickering received a bachelor's degree, cum laude, with high honors in history, from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine in 1953. In 1954, he received a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Melbourne in Australia, and received a second master's degree in 1956. In 1984, he was awarded an honorary doctor-in-laws degree from Bowdoin College, and has received similar honors from 12 other universities. In 2012, he chaired the Benghazi Accountability Review Board at the request of Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton.

Patrice McMahon
McMahon is associate professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research is at the intersection of international security, conflict and human rights. She is the author of “Taming Ethnic Hatreds: Ethnic Cooperation and Transnational Networks in Eastern Europe” and has recently finished a book that is under review called “Partners in Peace? Nongovernmental Organizations in Peacebuilding in the Balkans and Beyond.” She has been involved in four other book projects, including most recently co-edited book, “At Home and Abroad: How States Respond to Human Security.”

McMahon’s research has also appeared in Foreign Affairs; Political Science Quarterly; Human Rights Quarterly; Human Rights Review; Democratization; PS and Ethnopolitics; and has been supported by the American Council for Learned Societies (ACLS), the U.S. Department of State, the National Research Council, the National Council for East and Eurasian Research (NCEER), the Soros Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. At UNL, she has received several teaching awards, including the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Education (2012); the Outstanding Educator of the Year Award (2009-10); the “best class at UNL,” (2007); and the Arts and Science College Distinguished Teaching Award (2005).

About the University of Nebraska at Omaha

Located in one of America’s best cities to live, work and learn, the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is Nebraska’s premier metropolitan university. With more than 15,000 students enrolled in 200-plus programs of study, UNO is recognized nationally for its online education, graduate education, military friendliness and community engagement efforts. Founded in 1908, UNO has served learners of all backgrounds for more than 100 years and is dedicated to another century of excellence both in the classroom and in the community.

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