March 24, 2022

This paid event listing is sponsored by Augustana University.

A few free tickets remain to hear directly from a former ambassador to Russia who will be in Sioux Falls next week – but you’ll want to reserve yours soon.

Ambassador Michael McFaul will speak March 31 at the Boe Forum on Public Affairs, a program of Augustana University overseen by the Center for Western Studies.

FIS Director Michael McFaul bids Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy farewell. Photo by Rod Searcey, michaelmcfaul.com 

McFaul will address the invasion of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the implications of this geopolitical crisis for the future of NATO and Europe.

“Ambassador Michael McFaul is one of the most knowledgeable individuals on the topic,” said Dr. Harry Thompson, executive director of the Center for Western Studies. “Augustana students, faculty and staff are looking forward to hearing directly from an expert on the dominant news item of the day.”

President Barack Obama and members of the American delegation, including National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones, Undersecretary for Political Affairs Bill Burns and NSC Senior Director for Russian Affairs Michael McFaul, meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at his dacha outside Moscow on July 7, 2009. Official White House photo by Pete Souza, michaelmcfaul.com 

But the Boe Forum also is geared toward the public, as envisioned by founder and former South Dakota Gov. Nils Boe.

“Gov. Boe placed the Boe Forum under the guidance of the Center’s community-university board of directors and charged the board with bringing to Sioux Falls and the surrounding state areas individuals who would address events, issues or problems of current worldwide or national concern and of broad public interest,” Thompson said.

“Gov. Boe’s community-university vision is distinctive and the reason he placed the Boe Forum with the community-university board of directors.”

In previous years, the Center for Western Studies has hosted speakers such as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Vice President Al Gore, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein among many others.

“We are thrilled to host such a timely speaker this year,” said Kamryn Miller, education assistant for the Center for Western Studies.

“We think people will leave with an enhanced perspective on the situation and look forward to offering up our few remaining tickets.”

Ambassador Michael McFaul appears on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on March 9, 2022. michaelmcfaul.com 

The Boe Forum will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 31, in the Elmen Center on the campus of Augustana University, with doors opening at 6 p.m. Tickets are free to the public and can be found at augie.edu/boe.

The Boe Forum is the premier public affairs program of the Center for Western Studies. The mission of the Center is “improving the quality of social and cultural life in the Northern Plains … achieving a better understanding of the region, its heritage and its resources … and stimulating interest in the solution of regional problems.”

Other Center for Western Studies programs that deal with current issues are the annual Dakota Conference and the Public Affairs Book Series. CWS is the oldest university-affiliated book publisher in South Dakota, starting in 1978. Public affairs titles include “Conservation on the Northern Plains: New Perspectives,” 2017; “The Interior Borderlands: Regional Identity in the Midwest and Great Plains,” 2019; and “Heartland River: A Cultural and Environmental History of the Big Sioux Valley,” 2022. Its art galleries and annual Artists of the Plains show in downtown Sioux Falls focus on contemporary artistic expressions.

Augustana University’s Boe Forum to focus on ‘Russia and the Future of Europe’