Invitation: Informal Q & A with Dr. Sharon Hutchinson

Dr. Sharon Hutchinson, 2005 Nobel Prize nominee and professor of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Wisconsin, is an internationally recognized scholar, lecturer, author, anthropologist, and above all, humanitarian.

For the past 25 years, Sharon Hutchinson has conducted field work with the famed Nuer tribe of Southern Sudan. Her research, building on Evan-Pritchard’s, is chronicled in numerous journals and in her 1996 book, Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War, and State.

Over time, Sharon Hutchinson’s academic efforts have transformed into activism, and she has used her experiences with the Nuer culture to bring the plight of the Sudanese to the attention of the international community.

She has served with governmental agencies, such as the US State Department's Civilian Protection Monitoring Team and with USAID. She has also worked with human rights organizations like Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.

Dr. Hutchinson has reported extensively on the “oil-driven military violence” in Sudan, and taken part in a class action lawsuit against the Sudanese government and Talisman, a Canadian oil company. Recently, she put together her own money and resources to found the non-profit organization, Schools for Sudan, which, so far, has created three primary schools in southern Sudan.

“We have huge responsibility to give back to the place we study from,” said Hutchinson in a University of Wisconsin article. “That’s the wonderful thing about anthropology, whatever I’m learning, it goes immediately into my life.”

This is a unique opportunity to speak with a passionate and dynamic individual. Hutchinson welcomes discussion about her work as well as the “ethics of working in a war zone.”

In addition to these sessions, everyone is invited to attend her lecture, “Genocide in Darfur: Sudan’s Defiance of International Human Rights” on Monday evening at 7 p.m. in Lynch Hall.