2024 Genocide Awareness Lecture featuring Loung Ung

“Ordinary Citizens, Extraordinary Leaders: Creating Change Through Activism and Volunteerism” featuring Loung Ung

Lecture Description : Peace is not a wish. Peace is not something you want, dream of, and wait for others to deliver. Peace is an action. Many, many actions. Whether in one’s heart, community, or world, peace requires our daily actions. With over three decades of experience as a student activist, a professional agent of change working on campaigns to end violence against women, landmines, and child soldiers, Loung will explore how we can all lead in our daily lives to make a difference in our world.

About the speaker : Loung Ung was only 5 years old when the Khmer Rouge soldiers stormed into her native city of Phnom Penh. Four years later, in one of the bloodiest episodes of the 20th century, some two million Cambodians – including both of Loung's parents, two sisters, and 20 other relatives – had been killed. Ung herself went on to become a bestselling author and an activist who has devoted herself to helping her native land heal from the traumas of war. She has worked as an activist to end violence against women, child soldiers, and more. Loung's bestselling memoir, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, was a 2001 recipient of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians’ Association award for Excellence in Adult Non-fiction Literature, and it is widely taught in high schools and universities across the U.S. and internationally. She is also the co-screenplay writer of the critically acclaimed 2017 Netflix Original Movie based off this memoir that was produced and directed by Angelina Jolie. Selected as one of the "100 Global Youth Leaders of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum, Ung has also been featured in numerous publications, television shows, and radio shows.

This event is free and open to the public but registration is required. Registration for in-person seating opened 2/28 and will close on 3/27 (or sooner if seats fill up). Alternatively, you may register to join us via livestream. REGISTER HERE

Please note that photography and videography are prohibited at this event. Please contact cohencenter@keene.edu with any questions.

Note: The Cohen Center is also hosting a reception and book signing with Loung Ung earlier in the day on April 3 (3:00-4:30pm) on campus. This is a great chance to meet our speaker and have her sign a book! Learn more here.

This event is part of a special series of events in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and is sponsored, in part, by Ken Burns, Perry Cohen, Rick & Jan Cohen, and Kapiloff Insurance Agency, Inc. We encourage you to learn more about the Center’s history and work, and we hope you will consider supporting our existing and emerging programs as a sponsor.

This event is part of the Cohen Center calendar.