Nobel Peace Prize nominee Jane Hamilton-Merritt to speak at St. Norbert College

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From St. Norbert College, March 17, 2006
by Mike Counter, mike.counter@snc.edu, (920) 403-3089

Jane Hamilton-Merritt, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her work on behalf of the Hmong people of Laos, will be speaking at St. Norbert College on Monday, April 3 at 7 p.m. in the Fort Howard Theater. This event is free and open to the public. A photojournalist, educator, activist and author, Hamilton-Merritt was raised on farms in Ohio and Indiana and received a bachelor's and master's degree in history and English from Ball State University and a doctorate in Southeast Asian studies at Union Institute in Cincinnati. She worked as a freelance war correspondent in Vietnam for six years, she taught journalism at the university level from 1979 to 1997, and was a visiting faculty fellow at Yale University from 1991 to 1992. In 1969 Hamilton-Merritt was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her series on young soldiers, in 1980 her article in Reader's Digest broke the story of the chemical and biological warfare in Laos, and in 1993 published a book, "Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans and the Secret War for Laos, 1942-1992," a book she had been working on for 14 years. In 1998 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts on behalf of Hmong people. For more information, call the St. Norbert College Peace & Justice Center at (920) 403-3881.