Campus News

Rockford University welcomes Anna Rosling Rönnlund on Monday, October 15, 7 p.m., Maddox Theatre, as part of the University’s Fall Forum Series and presented with Rockford’s Connect2Peace organization. Rönnlund is co-founder and board member of the Gapminder Foundation, whose mission statement is to fight devastating ignorance with a fact-based worldview everyone can understand. Rönnlund is also co-author of the book Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think with her father-in-law Hans Rosling and husband Ola Rosling. Following the event, the book will be available for purchase outside of the University Bookstore. Maddox Theatre is located in the Clark Arts Center on the University’s campus, 5050 East State Street, Rockford. Clark Arts is accessible.

The book caught the attention of Bill Gates who says that it is one of the most important books that he has ever read. In an April 2018 interview with Time Magazine, Gates goes on to say that, “Factfulness is his [Hans Rosling] final effort to help people identify areas where things are getting better and spread that improvement. It explains more clearly than almost anything else I’ve read why it’s so difficult for people to perceive progress. “Factfulness” is defined as the stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. In this interactive conversation presented with Rockford’s Connect2Peace organization, you’ll hear 10 instincts that distort our understanding of the world and how the thinking habit of factfulness can help. You’ll also learn about Dollar Street, an innovative data visualization program devolved by Rönnlund that uses data to depict how people really live.

This event is free and the public is welcome to attend. Tickets are required and seating is limited. To reserve tickets, contact the Box Office at boxoffice@rockford.edu. The complete Fall 2018 Forum Series is available on the University’s website at www.rockford.edu/artslectures/forum/.