LU-MRRL Lecture Series

You are invited to the upcoming LU-MRRL Lecture Series event, "Helping People in Rural Bolivia, Mozambique, and Colombia: Results of a 27-Year Study on How People in some of the Poorest and War-Ravaged Places on the Globe Improve Their Lives." This event is scheduled for Tuesday, September 9 from 6:30-8 pm at the Art Gallery, Missouri River Regional Library (214 Adams Street, Jefferson City). This talk will feature Dr. Brian Norris, Associate Professor of Political Science.

     

The complete program summary from Dr. Norris is below:

     

"Recent news cycles have focused on the dismantling of USAID and the negative and potentially existential threat that this might present to some of the most vulnerable populations on the globe. This is no doubt true in important cases, for instance, the US’s PEPFAR program’s delivering AIDS therapy in Zambia, or USAID’s building water systems and latrines in rural El Salvador. However, evidence from more than a quarter century of working in rural areas of developing countries suggests that local factors—including local forms of government, local leaders’ decisions, and rural areas’ relations with nearby cities—are more important than international aid, important as it is, in influencing human well-being in the poorest areas of the globe. My research is based on work I did as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Bolivia in the late 1990s, on interviews in rural areas affected by civil war in Colombia and Mozambique funded by a Fulbright global scholar award between 2022 and 2024, and other observations from 39 professional trips to developing countries over the years. This presentation contains a slideshow."

     

For more information please visit the MRRL website: https://www.mrrl.org/event/lu-mrrl-lecture-series-45393

     

All lecture series events are free and open to the public. Parking is also free, and it is available adjacent to the library and across the street. For questions please contact Madeline Matson (matsonm@mrrl.org), Dr. Christine E. Boston (bostonc@lincolnu.edu), or Dr. Hannah Bowling (bowlingh@lincolnu.edu).