Can one person make a difference, and if so, how?

The Raoul Wallenberg Institute at the University of Michigan will host its inaugural event — a roundtable discussion on the question of “Can one person make a difference, and if so, how?” — on Jan. 21.

The discussion will take place at 5 p.m. at the Rackham Amphitheater and will include an intergenerational group of panelists who will consider the historical impact of individuals such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Raoul Wallenberg, as well as the movements they joined, created or motivated through their actions.

Panelists will include:

• Holocaust survivor Irene Butter, professor emerita of health management and policy in the School of Public Health.
• Matthew Countryman, associate professor of history and of Afroamerican and African studies in LSA.
• Elliot Ratzman, research fellow of the Wallenberg Institute.
• Sooyun Christina Kim, U-M undergraduate student.

The event will be the first in a series of roundtable discussions on contentious questions of religious, ethnic, national and moral significance sponsored by the institute.