Plan to Attend the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College

I’d encourage your participation in the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College, March 1-3, 2012.

Details are here, and more suggestions are in the last paragraphs of this post. Here is some preliminary background. Since 2007, the author has been involved with the Festival and the World Citizen organization identified below.

(Photos are from the 2011 Festival. Center photo is Dr. Geir Lundestad, Director of the Nobel Peace Prize Institute, Oslo.)

The Nobel Peace Prize Forum has a very long history, 23 years, beginning in 1989, and since the beginning has been a cooperative venture between the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Institute, Oslo, and the five upper midwest Norwegian Lutheran Colleges of Luther (Decorah IA), St. Olaf (Northfield), Augsburg (Minneapolis), Concordia (Moorhead) and Augustana (Sioux Falls).

Following the 2011 Forum (held at Luther College, Decorah), the five colleges and Nobel Institute agreed to move the Nobel Peace Prize Forum (primarily for college level and above) to Augsburg College for 2012 and 2013. 

In addition, the previous Nobel Peace Prize Festival (primarily for K-12 school age students and always at Augsburg) will be integrated into the Forum and have a specific day.

The Nobel Peace Prize Forum/Festival relationship with the Norway Nobel Peace Prize is unique in the world.

This year's Forum will be the first under the new model. 

The Festival was co-founded in 1996 by Augsburg and World Citizen and was also sanctioned and supported by the Nobel Peace Prize Institute in Oslo.

World Citizen is dedicated to Peace Education in the most at-home sense of those words. More information on both the previous Festivals and World Citizen are accessible here and here.

World Citizen has a long history in the Twin Cities dating back to 1982. World Citizen founder, Lynn Elling, co-founded the Nobel Peace Prize Festival.  Many Twin Cities students and teachers have been involved in Festival and World Citizen activities. 

(A similar conference for the four Swedish Nobel winners [Economics, etc.] is held at Gustavus Adolphus each year. Details here.)

There is understandable confusion about the Oslo and Stockholm Nobels, best explained by the respective websites, here and here. It is not a matter of competition between Norway and Sweden; rather it was intended by Alfred Nobel himself.)

All details about the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College in Minneapolis are available here and will be updated regularly.

HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTED WAYS TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS YEAR'S FORUM AT AUGSBURG:
 

As one who has experienced both Forum and Festival at Augsburg, I would highly recommend this years activity, and urge your support, which you can provide in several ways:
1. By participating yourself (you can register on-line)
2. By letting others know about the event.
3. By contributing financially either as an individual or through your company or other institution.

Whatever you do, I encourage your support of this fine program.