BGSU News Service

BOWLING GREEN, O.--Bowling Green State University will present an honorary degree to Thomas E. Gouttierre of Omaha, Neb., an internationally recognized authority on Afghanistan, during spring commencement exercises.

Gouttierre, who was raised in Maumee, Ohio, is a graduate of Bowling Green, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1962. He currently serves as dean of international studies and programs at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and as director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies there.

He will receive an honorary doctor of international relations degree in recognition of his distinguished career in international education, international relations, diplomacy and conflict resolution.

The degree will be presented during graduation exercises for students in Bowling Green’s College of Arts & Sciences at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 12, in Anderson Arena on campus. In addition to being honored, Gouttierre will deliver the commencement address. His speech is titled "Embracing Mentors/Taking Chances."

Gouttierre went to Afghanistan in 1964 as a Peace Corps volunteer. He returned to the United States in 1967 and earned a master’s degree in Islamic Studies at Indiana University. In 1969 he went back to Afghanistan as a Fulbright Scholar. He stayed on to work for the Fulbright Foundation’s Afghan-American Education Commission after the conclusion of his two-year fellowship.

In 1974 Gouttierre became director of the Center of Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, which has become the leading institution for Afghan studies in this country.

Gouttierre has testified on the Afghan War before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations and the U.S.-Russian Task Force on Regional Conflicts. He also has appeared before committees of the British Parliament, the French National Assembly and the Norwegian Sorting and the United Nations.

In addition, he served as a senior political affairs officer on a U.N. peacekeeping mission to Afghanistan in 1996-97 and was a member of the International Rescue Committee’s Citizens Commission on Afghanistan Refugees. (Posted 5-8-01)