Louise Knight will be speaking in the Grey Tower Castle Mirror Room on Thursday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. about her newest biography on Jane Addams. The event is co-sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the Arcadia University International Peace and Conflict Resolution master’s program. The program is coordinated by student Amanda Nosel, who is working with the Philadelphia branch of WILPF.
“Louise Knight is visiting on Thursday to present and discuss her recently released biography chronicling the life of Jane Addams,” says Nosel. “This is Knight’s second biography on Addams. Addams was essential in the women’s suffrage movement in the United States as well as women’s issues worldwide. Addams co-founded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), which is the longest surviving women’s peace organization in the U.S. Addams also founded Hull House, the first settlement house in the U.S. She was the first American female to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, and she eventually expanded WILPF to the international organization it is today. Throughout her career, Addams tackled such issues as women’s rights, abolitionism, and putting an end to wars on a global level. She corresponded and gave advice to several presidents, such as FDR, and continued to lobby for fair treatment for the entirety of her life.
“I thought Arcadia would be a perfect location for Ms. Knight to speak as Arcadia is so immersed in international education, and Jane Addams spent her life educating people in affairs both domestic and international. I’m very excited to have Ms, Knight visit Arcadia and discuss how issues addressed by Addams in the 1900s are still relevant to current world events of today.”
Nosel extends special thanks to Dr. Warren Haffar, Dean of International Affairs and Director of the IPCR program; Judith Dalton, Assistant Dean for Multicultural Affairs; and Dr. Norah Shultz, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
“The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom was founded in 1915 during World War I, with Jane Addams as its first president,” according to its website. “WILPF works to achieve through peaceful means world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, an end to all forms of violence, and to establish those political, social, and psychological conditions which can assure peace, freedom, and justice for all.”
Hey Amanda: this is a very well written article and I give you credit for being a talented writer, among other talents! We’ve been passing around the article that was in Arcadia’s Bulletin Monday after the event and getting more rave reviews as Libby sent it to someone at National WILPF and they’ve been spreading it. Little ripples become big waves! See what you’ve started……….Dory