This event will feature a moderated discussion with authors of recent books related to international development. Many in the international development world have lived and traveled extensively, engaged with people from all parts of the world and in a broad range of situations, have encountered countless challenges, witnessed success and failure, and learned from it all. And some have been able to corral their experiences, insights, and ideas into books. Our panel of authors will look at their varied experiences and stories. Lee Gutkind, the “godfather behind creative nonfiction,” will moderate the discussion with Amb. Rick Barton, author of Peace Works: America's Unifying Role in a Turbulent World, Alex Dehgan, author of The Snow Leopard Project and other Adventures in Warzone Conservation, and Lola Shoneyin, author of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives. 

The Bernard K. Rothenberg Fund was established by Miriam Korn Rothenberg '45 in memory of her husband in 1994. The Bernard Rothenberg lectureship brings distinguished individuals whose work has impacted the area of biology and public policy to the Bryn Mawr campus for a day.

The Snow Leopard Project and other Adventures in Warzone Conservation

12:30–13:00 Wednesday 14 February 2020

Postwar Afghanistan is fragile, volatile, and perilous. It is also a place of extraordinary beauty. Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Alex Dehgan arrived in the country in 2006 to build the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Afghanistan Program, and preserve and protect Afghanistan’s unique and extraordinary environment, which had been decimated after decades of war. 

An evolutionary biologist and former diplomat working for the Wildlife Conservation Society, Dehgan’s efforts were central to the creation of the first Afghanistan National Park Program. In his book, The Snow Leopard Project: And Other Adventures in Warzone Conservation, Dehgan takes readers along with him and his team through some of the most dangerous places in postwar Afghanistan as they work to establish the country’s first national park, complete some of the first extensive wildlife surveys in thirty years, and act to stop the poaching of the country’s iconic endangered animals, including the snow leopard. 

Dehgan will reflect on innovative approaches to advancing the environment and security in some of the most politically and ecologically fragile places in the world, while exploring connections between conservation and political stability. This talk will also consider the larger changes of the political landscape and evolving US positions towards Afghanistan, while showing spectacular imagery from Afghanistan that never crosses our televisions or computers.