Hunt, Swanee 1950–

views updated

Hunt, Swanee 1950–

(Swanee G. Hunt)

PERSONAL: Born May 1, 1950, in Dallas, TX; daughter of H.L. Hunt; married Charles Alexander Ansbacher (a symphony conductor); children: three. Education: Texas Christian University, B.A., 1972; Ball State University, M.A., 1976; Iliff School of Theology, M.A., 1977, Ph.D., 1986; Webster University, Ph.D., 1994.

ADDRESSES: Office—Women and Public Policy Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government 79 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge, MA 02138. E-mail—swanee_hunt@harvard.edu.

CAREER: Educator, writer, and composer. Hunt Alternatives Fund, president, 1981; Karis Community, cofounder and member, 1980–83; Capital Heights Presbyterian Church, minister of pastoral care, 1983; Community Mental Health Commission, vice-chair, 1983–87; member of Governor's Policy Academy on Families and Children at Risk, 1989–90; Colorado Coordinating Council on Housing and the Homeless, chair, 1989–92; U.S. ambassador to Austria, 1993–97; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, director of Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government, 1997–. Founder and chair of Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace, an initiative of Hunt Alternatives Fund. Composer of the The Witness Cantata, 1989. Has spoken at numerous conferences and meetings and has appeared on various radio and television programs.

MEMBER: Council on Foreign Relations, Women's Foundation (cofounder and member of board of directors), Mayor's Human Capital Agenda Council (chair, 1992–93), Denver Initiative Children and Families (cochair), United Nations Commission on Refugees, International Crisis Group, International Alert.

AWARDS, HONORS: Mental Health Association of Colorado award, 1984, 1994; National Mental Health Association award, 1985; Caring Connection award, KUSA-TV award, International Women's Forum award, and United Methodist Church award, all 1989; Martin Luther King, Jr., Humanitarian award, University of Colorado, and National Conference for Community and Justice award, both 1992; Mile High award, United Way, 1993; American Heritage award, Anti-Defamation League, 1995; Cordon Bleu du Saint Esprit Peace award, 1996; Humanitarian Lifetime Service award, Denver Holocaust Awareness, Together for Peace award, three Austrian government decorations, and Ambassador award, The Conflict Center, all 1997; Institute for International Education award, 1998.

WRITINGS:

This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace, foreword by William Jefferson Clinton, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 2004.

Articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the International Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and Denver Post. Author of syndicated column for Scripps Howard.

SIDELIGHTS: Swanee Hunt is the author of This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace. Based on Hunt's diplomatic and humanitarian work in the Bosnian region, as well as numerous interviews she conducted as a diplomat there, the book provides the testimony of twenty-six women who experienced the turmoil in Bosnia. A strong advocate for women having a bigger role in government and policymaking decisions, Hunt once pointed out to Thane Petersen during an interview in Business Week Online, "When I was the ambassador [to Austria], Bosnia was right next door, and there was a terrible refugee flood into Austria. What I noticed quickly was that the 60 people who were sent up from Croatia and Bosnia for the [peace] negotiations were all men—even though there were more women Ph.D.s per capita in the former Yugoslavia than in any country in Europe. It made me wonder why the warriors involved wanted to make sure there were no women." Through the women's voices in her book, readers gain an alternative perspective on the region and what happened there during the war and violence of the 1990s. The women come from various ethnic and religion backgrounds and include Serbs, Croats, Muslims, and Roman Catholics. In a review in the Boston Herald, Rob Mitchell noted that the stories "make a compelling case for the inclusion of women at the world's decision-making tables." Mitchell added, "It was not their war, but Hunt insists that is precisely why they should shape the peace." As a Publishers Weekly contributor noted, "Hunt succeeds in capturing, organizing and analyzing the complexities inherent in conversations with twenty-six very different people during and after an abhorrent war."