Nnimmo Bassey receives 2024 Wallenberg Medal

2024 Wallenberg Medalist Nnimmo Bassey at podium. Photo by Erin Kirkland, Michigan Photography, University of Michigan.

Nnimmo Bassey—architect, poet, and African environmental activist—addressed a packed Robertson Auditorium at the U-M Ross School of Business on Tuesday, September 10th, as he accepted the 2024 Wallenberg Medal for his outstanding humanitarian work. “One of our key struggles has been to gain an understanding of the mindset that permits inequalities in our societies. The…

2023, Lucas Benitez

Lucas Benitez, a co-founder of the Florida-based labor and human rights organization the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and a key organizational leader and member of the CIW’s Fair Food Program worker education team, received the 2023 Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan on October 10, 2023.

Wallenberg Lecturer Benitez Advocates for Farmworkers’ Rights

By Katie KeltonThe University RecordOctober 12, 2023 The exploitation of laborers is a disease that remains rampant throughout the world, says Lucas Benitez, a co-founder of the Florida-based labor and human rights organization the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. To combat these abuses of human rights — including physical and sexual assault, child labor and wage…

University of Michigan to Award Wallenberg Medal to Lucas Benitez on October 10, 2023

Benitez has been called “one of the most visible farmworker leaders in the US” by the “Los Angeles Times,” and his work reflects the ongoing need for frontline advocates for vulnerable people in our society. Lucas Benitez, a co-founder of the Florida-based labor and human rights organization the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and a key organizational…

Honoring Those Fighting to End Gun Violence

On November 14 at 7:30 p.m. the 2018 Wallenberg Medal was presented to youth activists from March For Our Lives (Parkland, FL) and The B.R.A.V.E. Youth Leaders (Chicago, IL) for their fight against gun violence.

Ruth Gruber, Photojournalist Art Exhibition

The exhibition will be on display from Feb. 7 through March 12, 2018, in the Duderstadt Center Gallery on U-M’s north campus. Ann Arbor, MI | January 15, 2018 Ruth Gruber, Photojournalist celebrates the remarkable life, vision, and heroic tenacity of a 20th-century pioneer and trailblazer. The exhibition will be on display beginning Feb. 7 and…

Bryan Stevenson to Receive Wallenberg Medal

The 2016-2017 Wallenberg Medal will be awarded to civil rights lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson on Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rackham Auditorium on the University of Michigan campus. After the medal presentation, Stevenson will give the 25th Wallenberg Lecture. Stevenson is committed to serving the legal needs of…

Exposing the Real Russia under Putin: “Don’t walk the streets. Don’t eat the food. Don’t talk.”

The 2015 Wallenberg Medalist, Masha Gessen, will give the Wallenberg Lecture on November 3 at 7:30 pm in the Rackham Auditorium. Gessen is a highly acclaimed journalist, author, and vocal critic of Vladimir Putin and his government’s corruption, repression of human rights, and intervention in former nations of the Eastern Soviet Bloc, Ukraine, and Syria.…

Masha Gessen to Receive Wallenberg Medal

The 2015 Wallenberg Medal will be awarded to Russian and American journalist, author, and activist Masha Gessen on Tuesday, November 3, at 7:30 p.m., in Rackham Auditorium on the University of Michigan campus. After the medal presentation, Gessen will give the 24th Wallenberg Lecture. Gessen is a prolific writer about political and cultural affairs in…

Seventy Years Ago

On January 17, 1945, Raoul Wallenberg was arrested by forces of the Soviet Union in Debrecen, Hungary. He disappeared and was never seen again. But his conviction endures that one person can make a difference.