By Tre Shuttlesworth News Editor
Former Irish President Mary Robinson will lecture in this year’s Alice Pope Shade Lecture next week as she presents How Faith has Impacted My Life – An Evening with Mary Robinson.
Robinson is most notable for her tenure as the first female Irish president from 1990-97. She has since been an active member of the push for climate justice.
She currently leads the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. The Foundation aims to be “A center for thought leadership, education and advocacy on the struggle to secure global justice for those people vulnerable to the impacts of climate change who are usually forgotten – the poor, the disempowered and the marginalized across the world,” according to the organization’s website.
In addition to her climate justice efforts, Robinson was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom by former United States President Barack Obama in 2009. Obama praised her for her work as “an advocate for the hungry and the hunted, the forgotten and the ignored.”
The Shade Lecture is made possible through a coordinated sponsorship of Susquehanna’s Department of Religious Studies and the Office of the Chaplain who sponsor annual lectures featuring notable religious scholars and leaders.
Recent lecturers as part of the Shade Lecture series include former Senator and vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, Liberian Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee and retired United Methodist Church bishop Reverend William H. Willimon.
According to Susquehanna’s website page on the Shade Lecture, lecturers are selected by the Department of Religious studies “on the basis of their scholarship and their ability to engage students and members of the community meaningfully.”
The lectures explore religion’s role in civic, social, spiritual, political, moral and environmental aspects of public life.
The lectures are made financially possible through the Alice Pope Shade Fund. This fund was established in 1983 by Rebecca Shade Mignot ‘54, the daughter of Shade.
Robinson will speak Monday, Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Degenstein Campus Center Theater. Admission is free and open to the public.
