Amnesty International’s Adotei Akwei to Discuss Women’s Rights in Africa for Women's History Month Event

On Monday, March 20 at 4:30 p.m. Purchase College, SUNY will welcome Purchase alumnus Adotei Akwei, Managing Director, Government Relations for Amnesty International USA, to give the Mary Edwards Memorial Lecture in conjunction with the Gender Studies program at Purchase.

Adotei Akwei will address human rights in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the critical challenge of women’s rights. He is a political analyst, an experienced advocate, and campaigner on civil, political, economic, and social rights and US foreign and security policy. He has spoken on behalf of Amnesty International to media outlets around the world in addition to testifying before both houses of Congress. He received his master’s degree in international relations from the College of William and Mary and his bachelor’s degree in political science from Purchase College in 1984.

The event, which is open to the public, will take place in The Red Room of the Student Services Building on campus. Tickets are free. Visit www.purchase.edu for more information.

“We are honored to welcome Adotei Akwei back to Purchase College for this event,” said Suzanne Kessler, Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “It is inspiring for our students and faculty to hear from an alumnus who has spent his career focusing on safeguarding human rights around the world.”

About the Mary Edwards Memorial Lecture

Professor Mary Edwards was a founding member of the Purchase College faculty and was instrumental in developing the Women’s Studies Program. Following her death in 1994 her family and friends created an endowment to fund an annual lecture to honor Professor Edwards’s commitment to her students and to the elimination of social and political inequality.

About Purchase College–SUNY

Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspiration for Purchase was to create a dynamic campus that combined conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences, in order to inspire an appreciation for both intellectual and artistic talents in all students. Today, Purchase College–SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu