The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues, the premiere lecture series in Nebraska, celebrates its 36th year in 2024. It was conceived by then-President E.N. “Jack” Thompson in 1988 as a program to increase Nebraskans’ understanding of the people and cultures of other countries, and the challenges that face us all. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln agreed to co-sponsor the Forum, and the Cooper Foundation board pledged major funding. The Cooper-UNL Forum on World Issues was launched that fall. In 1990, the foundation and the university renamed the series in honor of Jack Thompson.
Jack’s early experiences and varied career informed the creation of the series. As a graduate student he received the Columbia School of Journalism Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship which allowed him and his wife Katie to spend two years in London, Geneva, and Berlin while he reported for the Associated Press. The first-hand experience of witnessing the build-up to World War II would affect their thinking for the rest of their lives. As a staff member at the State Department, he was a Special Assistant at the Conference on the Founding of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945. He then worked for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, before returning to Nebraska in 1950.
“Jack demonstrated all we consider the most essential of United Nations colleagues, an intellectual who was committed throughout his life and who understood the importance of global thinking and action.” Natalie Hahn, New York City
Jack Thompson (first on the right in the row behind the table)
shares a smile with other staffers at the United Nations conference
in San Francisco, 1945
Since its founding in 1988, the Thompson Forum has brought hundreds of experts to share their knowledge with Nebraska. World leaders, historians, scientists, authors, journalists, artists, and activists have given us their views on topics such as human rights, national and global security, the environment, democracy, terrorism, the arts, medicine, science, water, and more, covering every region and every continent on the globe.
Speakers have included world leaders such as former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, Nobel Peace Prize winners Desmond Tutu and Elie Wiesel, journalists David Brooks and Lynsey Addario, activists Bill McKibben and Jose Antonio Vargas, former government officials including John Bolton, Samantha Power, and Robert MacNamara, artists Yo Yo Ma, Misty Copeland, Bono, and many more. We have featured accomplished Nebraskans including Chuck Hagel, Bob Kerrey, Ted Sorensen, Joel Sartore, Michael Forsberg, and Mary Pipher.
(Archbishop Desmond Tutu gives a
Thompson Forum address on April 26, 2000)
The Lied Center for the Performing Arts has been a primary co-sponsor of the series since it opened in 1990, and the Thompson Forum Partners with community organizations and university departments for every presentation.
For many years, the Thompson Forum has partnered with Humanities Nebraska to present the Governor’s Lecture in the Humanities in Lincoln, featuring authors, journalists and historians such as Azar Nafisi, David Halberstam, Jon Meacham, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Candice Millard, and Amy Tan. From 2002 – 2013, the Thompson Forum presented the annual Lewis E. Harris Lecture on Public Policy, now within UNL’s College of Business, and from 2007 to 2017 it hosted the Wilson Dialogues, sponsored by Chuck and Linda Wilson to feature debates on important issues from differing points of view.
Housed within the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Honors Program, the Thompson Forum is managed by a collaborative and multi-disciplinary team and a robust committee of educators and community leaders. Forum activities that complement mainstage speakers include Cooper Conversations that connect Honors students with local leaders for in-depth discussions, youth panel presentations on relevant topics, and workshops for students and the public.
The Thompson Family Fund
The Thompson Family Fund is a fund at the Cooper Foundation that supports programs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), particularly the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues. E.N. “Jack” and Katie Thompson established the fund in 1999.
(Jack and Katie Thompson in the late 1990s)
For a complete list of the E.N. Thompson Forum speakers dating back to 1988, go to Forum Speakers.