Dr. Carol Lilly
associate professor of history, 308.865.8757
Kathryn Bolkovac, co-author of a book turned successful Hollywood movie “The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors and One Woman’s Fight for Justice,” will be at the University of Nebraska at Kearney for a book signing and presentation on Monday, Jan. 28.
The film based on Bolkovac’s experiences will be showing at the World Theater at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25 and 26, and again at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 27. The film will be shown again at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 28, in Copeland Hall Room 131. Admission to the World Theater showings will be $5; the showing at UNK will be free and open to the public.
A UNK faculty-led panel discussion will take place Sunday, Jan. 28, after the 2 p.m. showing at the World Theater. UNK panelists will include Dr. Carol Lilly, director of the UNK International Studies Program; Dr. Suzanne Maughan, associate professor of sociology; Dr. Danielle Neal, assistant professor of criminal justice; and Dr. William Aviles, professor of political science.
“As part of the panel discussion, we plan to provide background information and facilitate discussion about private contractors used by the military, sex trafficking and the war in Bosnia,” Dr. Lilly said.
The book signing and presentation by Bolkovac will take place in Copeland Hall Room 131 at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 28. Bolkovac’s presentation will be free and open to the public.
Bolkovac was a Lincoln police officer in 1999 when she took a position as a United Nations International Police Force monitor in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Originally hired by the U.S. subcontractor, DynCorps, Bolkovac wrote that she was rapidly disillusioned by the attitudes, behavior and poor job qualifications of some of her colleagues, but was soon even more disturbed to find that not only they, but United Nations peacekeepers, were implicated in sex trafficking activities in Bosnia. Her story brought the issue of UN involvement in sex trafficking to the broader public, particularly once her memoir was made into a successful Hollywood film.
Among her other upcoming speaking engagements, Bolkovac will be giving presentations at Columbia University – Heyman Center for the Humanities in New York, the United Nations Bookstore in New York, the Netherlands Defense Academy at The Hague, the Norway Peace Council, Brandies University in Boston, Vanderbilt University in Nashville and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
