Gbowee to speak at 148th Commencement

Leymah Gbowee, Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning peace and women's rights activist, will address the Class of 2012 at Vassar's 148th Commencement ceremony on May 20, College officials said Tuesday. Gbowee achieved international renown after founding and leading Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, an organization that was instrumental in ending years of civil war and political oppression in her homeland. The group sparked a large popular movement that helped break the violently contested reign of despot Charles Taylor and led to the democratic election of the nation's first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in 2005.

"We're thrilled that Leymah Gbowee has agreed to be this year's commencement speaker," said President of the College Catharine Bond Hill in a statement. "Her life story of leading the struggle for peace, justice and human dignity in the most difficult circumstances is tremendously uplifting."

Gbowee's accomplishments represent an inspiring chapter in the history of a country scarred by political instability and war. Her efforts to end nearly 15 years of intermittent civil war demonstrate a remarkable vision of effective and courageous political mobilization. "As war ravaged Liberia, Leymah Gbowee realized it is women who bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts," her website reads. "She began organizing Christian and Muslim women to demonstrate together."

In 2002, Gbowee founded Mass Action to rally women from those previously divided sects to participate in small-scale protests against the continued political violence. Soon the movement grew exponentially, and protests began to draw hundreds of women at a time. In a strikingly bold display, the organization marched on the nation's capitol in massive numbers, demanding that President Taylor participate in peace talks with competing rebel groups to be held in Ghana.

Taylor consented to attend the talks in response to that protest and wide condemnation from the international community, but peace mediation stalled amid bickering among the factions represented. After several weeks without meaningful progress, Gbowee traveled to Ghana with a large delegation of women. Concerned the contentious negotiations might not produce any peace agreement at all, Mass Action supporters linked arms and surrounded the hall in which discussions were taking place. They refused to move until the talks successfully ended the violence still raging in Liberia. In her struggle to rid Liberia of war, Gbowee often employed unexpected measures. Her movement caught the attention of the international media when she organized a sex strike among her followers: Women agreed not to sleep with their husbands until peace prevailed.

The civil war ceased a few weeks after the protest in Ghana with a comprehensive peace agreement. In her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, Gbowee wrote, "What we did marked the beginning of the end." Soon after, Sirleaf, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Gbowee in 2011 for helping to halt war in Liberia, was elected in a contest marked by the absence of corruption.

Gbowee devotedly continues her activism, advocating for peace and the empowerment of women across the world, notably as the executive director of the Women Peace and Security Network. She has spoken before the United Nations Security Council and was awarded a Blue Ribbon Peace Award by the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is also featured prominently in the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which covers Mass Action's work to establish peace in Liberia.

Gbowee was one of several potential speakers the President's Office considered carefully prior to making a final decision. "What we've done in the last several years is maintain a list in the President's Office of (possible) commencement speakers," said Assistant to the President John Feroe. Because high-profile speakers often have complicated schedules that may prevent them from addressing the senior class in May, the administration considers a range of candidates in a given year. The President's Office also collaborates with the president of the senior class in the search for a commencement speaker. "After elections each spring, I meet with the class president to talk about the process and that the class president wants to do about soliciting opinions from class members," Feroe said.

Class of 2012 President Pamela Vogel '12 said she approached initial conversations with Feroe with some general suggestions rather than specific names. "The ideas I had come to the President's Office with were more about the kinds of people I thought would be good," she said. After expressing some of her own hopes, she contacted her classmates via email over the summer to ask for suggestions. Vogel said she received a great amount of helpful and poignant feedback. "There were some incredibly thoughtful responses," she said. "People would really map out how their suggestion was connected to Vassar."

Many recent commencement speakers, like Chip Reid '77 and Lisa Kudrow '85, have been directly connected to the institution. But Vogel stressed that Gbowee's work is related to the school because it resonates with the values of the Vassar community. "It's more about the fact that the ideals she stands for are very similar to the kind of things Vassar stands for," she said, noting the College's commitment to diversity and social consciousness. "I'm really thrilled that a woman of color was chosen," she said. "I think that's incredibly important."

Hill also spoke to the relevance of Gbowee's career for Vassar students. "[Her] story and her continuing advocacy for women's rights and the role of women in building just societies is one that inspires across a wide range of interests and disciplines at Vassar," she said in her statement. "It will be our distinct honor to have her with us for this occasion."