Prominent Scholar Edward Weisband to Speak at UNCA

Prominent scholar Edward Weisband will give a talk on "Accountability and Transparency in the Pursuit of Rights and Standards" at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7, in UNCA’s Owen Conference Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Weisband is the Edward S. Diggs Endowed chair in the social sciences at Virginia Tech University and director of the recently established Global Accountabilities: Center for Social Monitoring at Virginia Tech. He specializes in the study of world political economy with an emphasis upon international normative and accountability standards, in particular, the role and effectiveness of international institutions in promoting and monitoring such standards during the present era of globalization. In recent years, he has addressed issues pertaining to core international labor standards and human rights.

Weisband also serves as a senior consultant to a number of government and intergovernmental agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Education and the International Institute of Human Rights in Stasbourg, France.

Weisband is author of several landmark books, including "Resignation in Protest: Loyalty to Team Versus Loyalty to Conscience," which the New York Times named one of the 100 most important books of 1975. His first book, "Turkish Foreign Policy: Small State Diplomacy and Great Power Politics," was published in 1972 but remains an essential text in Turkey on the subject of its own emergence as a sovereign state.

The talk is sponsored by UNCA’s Belk Human Rights Lecture Series, the WNC Chapter of the United Nations Association-USA and the WNC Chapter of the World Affairs Council.

For more information, call Mark Gibney, UNCA Belk Professor of Humanities, at 828/251-6553.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Mark Gibney, UNCA Belk Professor of Humanities, 828/251-6553
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526