BRATTLEBORO — On Sunday, Sept. 27, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., the Windham World Affairs Council (WWAC) presents Nobel laureate Jody Williams, who will speak on “Stepping Up and Taking Action on Killer Robots and the New Nuclear Arms Race.”
Williams will present for 20 minutes, then lead a moderated online discussion. Registration is required on Zoom. The event will also be live-streamed on the WWAC Facebook page.
Williams, who grew up in Brattleboro, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for founding and leading the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, an unprecedented cooperative effort that assembled governments, United Nations bodies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and more than 1,000 non-government organizations in 90 countries to pass the Ottawa (Mine Ban) Treaty.
A staunch defender of human rights globally, Williams studies modern warfare to promote new understanding about security today. She recently penned a chapter on “Nukes, Land Mines, and Killer Robots” in A World Free From Nuclear Weapons: The Vatican Conference on Disarmament, a book released this summer to commemorate 75 years since the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan and boost Pope Francis's global efforts to ban nuclear arms as part of a new framework for international peace.
Williams helped establish the Nobel Women's Initiative in 2006 to use the visibility and prestige of the Nobel prize to spotlight, amplify, and promote the work of grassroots women's organizations and movements around the world.
The next WWAC lecture will be held on Zoom Sunday, Oct. 25, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., when its annual Galbraith Lecture is a special pre-election discussion with Ambassador Peter Galbraith on “U.S. Standing in the World Today.”
Webinar registration for this talk will be posted on WWAC's website in October.