ST. MARY’S CITY, Md. (Feb. 09, 2010) — St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s 2009-2010 Nitze Senior Fellow, human rights activist John Prendergast, has passionately fought for many years to end genocide and other crimes against humanity in Africa, particularly in the countries of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Recently on “60 Minutes” and often quoted in national media, Prendergast gives his second of three public lectures, “Stopping Genocide: Darfur and Beyond” at 8 p.m. Tuesday, February 16, 2010, in Daugherty-Palmer Commons on the SMCM campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.
During the Clinton years, Prendergast was director of African Affairs at the National Security Council and special advisor at the Department of State. He authored eight books on Africa, including New York Times bestseller Not on our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond, and is finishing two more, one on his 25 years in the Big Brother program and one on human rights and peace activism. Prendergast co-founded The Enough Project in 2007 to promote peace, and travels regularly to Africa's war zones on fact-finding missions, peace-making initiatives, and awareness-raising trips.
Each year, St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) invites an accomplished writer, journalist, or other professional figure to be the Nitze Senior Fellow and to make several visits to the campus to give lectures and meet with classes. Last year, former Washington Post correspondent T.R. Reid was the Nitze Fellow. Other previous Fellows include Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former lieutenant governor of Maryland; David Sanger, the New York Times chief correspondent for the White House; and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward P. Jones.