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The University of Colorado Boulder’s 63rd annual Conference on World Affairs returns to campus April 4-8, with over 200 events including talks, panel discussions and a plenary address by Graham Nash and David Crosby, all of which are free and open to the public. Presenters from around the country and the globe will pay their own way to travel to Boulder to participate in what film critic Roger Ebert has dubbed the “conference on everything conceivable.”

“The Conference on World Affairs has a long history of addressing nuclear power and weaponry topics, and this year will be no exception,” said Bryan New, advertising and media liaison for the conference. “Among our 100 speakers will be some focused on nuclear non-proliferation, including Graham Nash, David Crosby, Harvey Wasserman and Joe Cirincione.”

Joe Cirincione

Joe Cirincione, Ploughshares Fund president and frequent media commentator, will deliver a talk entitled “Know Nukes” on Tuesday, April 5, at 2 p.m. in the University Memorial Center room 235. His books include “Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear
Weapons” and “Deadly Arsenals: Biological and Chemical Threats.” Cirinicione also serves on the World Economic Forum Global Council on Catastrophic Risks.

Long time activist and author Harvey Wasserman will deliver a plenary talk 
called “Dead and Deadly Nukes: From Fukushima to Solartopia” on Thursday, April 7, at 5 p.m. in the University Memorial Center’s center ballroom.
Wasserman is credited with coining the phrase “No Nukes” and cofounded NukeFree.org with Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash.

Nash and Crosby are scheduled to deliver the CWA’s closing plenary address entitled “Life Matters” on Friday, April 8 at 2:30 p.m. in Macky Auditorium, with introduction from KBCO’s Bret Saunders.

Crosby and Nash have been performing and recording together for over 40 years, most often as part of the iconic folk/rock super group CSNY, featuring Crosby, Nash, Stephen Stills and Neil Young. The two are committed social activists, with strong ties to the
 antinuclear movement. Along with Stills, they participated in the 1979 No Nukes concerts months after the Three Mile Island disaster. The CWA address will focus on social and political engagement.

As always, the CWA will offer a broad range of topics and speakers. Conference sessions encompass everything from music and literature to the environment and science, journalism, visual arts, diplomacy, technology, film, politics, business, medicine and human rights.

Highlights from the 2011 schedule include:

- The keynote address will be delivered by Liz Coleman, president of Bennington College and a leading innovator in higher

Liz Coleman

education, with an introduction by CU chancellor Phil DiStefano on Monday, April 4, at 11:30 a.m. in Macky Auditorium. The keynote address will be preceded by the CWA’s annual opening procession.Led by Coleman and DiStefano, the procession will advance at 11:10 a.m. through the avenue of international flags on display in Norlin Quad and into Macky Auditorium.

- The keynote address will be followed by a staged reading of the play Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins with celebrated Shakespearean actress Tina Packer reading in the role of Ivins. Ivins was a long-time participant in the
CWA. The co-playwright of Red Hot Patriot, Peggy Engel, is also a veteran conference presenter and she will participate in a variety of sessions at the 2011 CWA. This event also will be held in Macky Auditorium.

- Arizona state Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D) will join retired Arizona sheriff Richard Mack and Austin journalist Lou Dubose for a panel called “Arizona: Coming to a State Near You” in Macky Auditorium on Thursday, April 7, at noon.

- A plenary session will feature Bill Nack, whose New York Times bestseller “Secretariat” was made into a Disney film this past year. Nack will speak about his relationship with the most famous horse in racing history in the CWA session “Secretariat” on Friday, April 8, at 12:30 p.m. in Muenzinger Auditorium. Secretariat owner Penny Chenery will introduce the session, and historic film clips of the horse will be presented.

Members of the public attending the Conference on World Affairs are encouraged to use public transportation as there is no event parking on campus.

Free parking is offered on the third level of the Macy’s parking structure at the Twenty Ninth Street shopping mall in Boulder, located at the southwest corner of 30th Street and Walnut Street, from which a free HOP bus ride is available
to campus during CWA week. Free parking and bus service for the CWA are sponsored by the Twenty Ninth Street and Go Boulder.

The HOP will run on its normal route arriving 7 to 10 minutes between the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. The two stops nearest the Macy’s parking structure are at 29th Street and Walnut Street and 30th Street and
Walnut Street.

For a complete schedule and more information visit the Conference on World Affairs website at http://www.colorado.edu/cwa.

David Crosby and Graham Nash are scheduled to deliver the closing plenary address, entitled “Life Matters,” at this year’s Conference on World Affairs at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, April 8 in the University of Colorado-Boulder’s Macky Auditorium.  Popular local radio personality Bret Saunders of KBCO will introduce the two speakers.

Crosby and Nash have been performing and recording together for over 40 years, most often as part of the iconic folk/rock super group CSNY, featuring Crosby, Nash, Stephen Stills and Neil Young.

The full schedule for the 63rd Conference on World Affairs will be posted to the CWA website by the end of this week.

Simon Hoggart has been a familiar face at the CWA for over 20 years. As the political sketch-writer for The Guardian, Hoggart’s insights into the British Parliament and fluid mix of humor and politics have been a valued addition to the annual Conference.

This past fall, Hoggart released his memoir, A Long Lunch. He devotes a section of the book to his travels across North America, including his yearly trek to Boulder. The book has received rave reviews by the British media, including the Spectator, Sunday Telegraph and The Times. The New Statesman called it, “…the best journalistic memoir since the late Alan Watkins A Short Walk Down Fleet Street of a decade ago.”

Hoggart’s fascintation with Boulder and the CWA has not waned since first coming here in 1988.  He says, “The joy of the conference is that you meet people in fields you would never encounter anywhere else.” And as for Boulder, “I doubt if there is more beautiful scenery on earth.”

The 63rd CWA will feature a screening of the acclaimed documentary Budrus. Ronit Avni, the film’s producer, will be on-hand for introduction of the screening, followed by Q&A.

Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. The film has been featured at numerous festivals across the globe, including Tribeca, Berlin, and the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Ronit Avni is a filmmaker, human rights advocate, and media strategist with an expertise in Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolution efforts. She is the founder and executive director of Just Vision, a nonprofit organization that researches, documents, and creates media about Palestinian and Israeli grassroots leaders in nonviolence and peace building.

For a full biography of Avni and the other 100 participants coming to Boulder this April, visit our website at: www.colorado.edu/cwa

The theme of this year’s conference is “What Matters“. CWA Director Jim Palmer explains, “Given the distractions of modern life and the tsunami of information we’re bombarded with daily, it is easy to forget to ask the fundamental questions, the questions of value.  That is why our theme ‘What Matters’ matters.”

That theme will also serve as the title of this year’s keynote address, to be delivered by Elizabeth Coleman, president of Bennington College, one of the country’s leading innovators in higher education. Under her leadership, Bennington has experienced record fiscal health and launched new pioneering curricular programs—including the ambitious Center for the Advancement of Public Action, which encourages students to put the world’s most pressing problems at the center of their education.

Coleman’s keynote address will take place on Monday, April 4 at 11:30 a.m. in Macky Auditorium.

A biographical listing of participants confirmed to date is now online at www.colorado.edu/cwa.

The Conference has been a central part of my life for more than 40 years, and I will miss it terribly. Having lost the gift of speech, I can no longer participate in the ways that gave me such pleasure. The Cinema Interruptus sessions, so named by Howard Higman, taught me much more than I ever taught them.

I am leaving on a high point after bringing together Werner Herzog and Ramin Bahrani last year. Jim Emerson will carry on, and the audience as always will not let a frame pass unnoticed. Forty weeks is ten months, and that’s how long I lived in Boulder. I met so many good people and have so many good memories. Give my regards to Macky and to Daddy Bruce’s. And don’t be surprised if I turn up one year for the concert. I like that outboard aisle seat on the left, about six rows back…

-Roger Ebert

Jeff will be in Boulder April 4-8 for the 63rd Conference on World Affairs. To view other participants scheduled for this years CWA click here.

Sociopolitical satirists Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno of The Yes Men raise awareness of public issues through large scale hoaxes which often include impersonation of corporate and government representatives. They have produced two films documenting their work: The Yes Men and The Yes Men Fix the World, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Hinojosa is the host of the PBS series Maria Hinojosa:One-on-One and the weekly NPR series Latino USA. She has received numerous honors and awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine.

Be sure to save the date for these FREE public events leading up to the 63rd Conference on World Affairs April 4-8, 2011.

Joseph Cirincione will be returning to the Conference on World Affairs this coming April.  Cirincione is president of the Ploughshares Fund, a grantmaking foundation focused on ending the assembly and possible use of nuclear weapons.  The Fund has awarded over $60 million in grants since it was founded in 1981, making it the largest foundation in the U.S. that is focused on peace and security.

Joe previously served as vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress and as director for non-proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  Cirincione has written several books, contributed to the Council on Foreign Relations, and has been featured in the documentary films Why We Fight and Countdown to Zero. He has appeared on the The Colbert Report, and CWA veteran Rachel Maddow often features Cirincione as a guest on her show.