Noted Canadian historian, writer to address NU undergrads

Tribune, Dispatch, Sentinel, March 2-4, 2006

Dr. Michael Ignatieff, a journalist, novelist and historian who formerly served as a professor and as director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, will speak at Niagara University’s undergraduate commencement ceremonies Sunday, May 21, in Alumni Arena at the State University at Buffalo. Ceremonies begin at 12:30 p.m. Ignatieff will be awarded the honorary degree of doctor of humane letters as part of NU’s commencement ceremonies.

Dr. Samantha Nutt, a specialist in women’s health in developing countries and the founder and executive director of War Child Canada, will speak at commencement ceremonies for Niagara’s Graduate School on Saturday, May 20, in the upper level of the Gallagher Center. Ceremonies begin at 11 a.m.

A native of Toronto, Ignatieff won the recent federal election as the Liberal candidate in the Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding in Ontario. He is regarded by many as an eventual successor to Prime Minister Paul Martin.

A former senior research fellow at King’s College in Cambridge, he has held teaching posts at Cambridge, Oxford, the University of California, the University of London and the London School of Economics. A graduate of the University of Toronto, he continued his studies at Oxford University and earned a doctoral degree in history from Harvard University.

A specialist in ethically motivated conflict, Ignatieff has traveled to Rwanda, Angola, Zaire and Burundi. He has published his findings in “Warrior’s Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience,” “Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond” and “Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry,” which were published, respectively, in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

In 2003, he published “Empire Lite: Nation Building in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan,” followed by “The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror,” in 2004. His last novel, “Charlie Johnson in the Flames,” is the story of a troubled war correspondent in the Balkans. Four of his 17 books have won eight major awards.

A native of Toronto, Nutt spent her childhood in apartheid-era South Africa, where she witnessed institutionalized racial injustice. She later enrolled at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, eventually earning a medical degree at the University of Toronto, where she also pursued post graduate studies in medicine and public health. She has also studied hygiene and tropical medicine at the University of London, England.

Over the past decade, Nutt has helped children in some of the world’s most violent places, working closely with the United Nations and non-governmental organizations in such countries as Iraq, Afghanistan, The Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Burundi, Thailand and Burma. Her firsthand observations of atrocities that have been inflicted on civilian populations have intensified her efforts to provide direct medical and humanitarian support to war-affected women and children.

With her husband, Dr. Eric Hoskins, who serves as president of War Child Canada, she has persuaded dozens of leading artists to perform benefit concerts on behalf of the foundation. They have also persuaded hundreds of thousands of Canadian youths to organize concerts at the high-school level for the benefit of the foundation.

In addition to her work with War Child Canada, Nutt is a member of the medical staff at Sunnybrook and Women’s Health Science Center in Toronto and is a faculty member in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto.

In media polls conducted across Canada, Nutt has repeatedly been named as one of the most outstanding women in the country and a role model for young Canadians.

She and her husband, who are the parents of a baby born in September 2005, will both receive the honorary degree of doctor of humane letters at commencement ceremonies.