Lecture topic is Sudan’s fight for survival and the future for its citizens
(Cazenovia, NY – March 2013) Cazenovia College’s Washburn Lecture Series will present Ajak Deng, a survivor of Sudan’s long civil war, speaking of his personal story and his hopes for the future. The lecture, titled “Sudan’s Unending Civil Wars: The Inescapable Fight for Survival,” will be held in McDonald Lecture Hall, Eckel Hall on Lincklaen Street on Monday April 8 at 3:30 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public.
From 1983 – 2005 the country of Sudan engaged in what was essentially a civil war, with soldiers from northern Sudan attacking villages in the southern part of the country. About 20,000 children, Ajak Deng among them, were separated from their parents, and in many cases orphaned, as a result of those attacks. Many of those children came to the United States.
Deng settled in Sault St. Marie, Michigan, where he attended Sault Area High School. He graduated in 2002 and went on to earn undergraduate degrees in sociology and human services at Lake Superior State University. He recently completed a Master’s degree in sociology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He plans to earn a doctorate and return to the newly established independent country of South Sudan to teach.