Scholars and policymakers will convene Sept. 9 and 10 (Friday and Saturday) at the University of Notre Dame to discuss the Free Trade Agreement for the Americas (FTAA) and other similar pacts, and to develop guidelines for the appropriate level of future trade integration inLatin America.

TitledThe Sequencing of Regional Economic Integration: Issues in the Breadth and Depth of Economic Integration in the Americas,the conference will be held at the Mendoza College of Business under the sponsorship of Mendoza, the Kellogg Institute for International 91ÊÓƵ, The Coca-Cola Company, and the Inter-American Development Bank.

In light of the breakdown in progress of the FTAA, the conference aims to provide a forum for scholars and policymakers to consider better models for the process of economic integration.

Although there are many examples of regional economic integration from around the world, national and international policymakers still lack a solid understanding of the process by which a region decides to move toward broader and deeper integration.

Conference participants hope to better frame economic and political issues and develop a better sense of which agreements should be pursued. Ideally, it is hoped the conference will lead to a set of guidelines to aid the process of economic integration.

The conference will include contributed papers and discussions by prominent academic trade economists and political scientists as well as speeches and panel discussions by prominent policymakers from the International Monetary Fund, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank and other institutions.

Conference organizers include Jeffrey Bergstrand, associate professor of finance at Notre Dame and a Kellogg faculty fellow; Antoni Estevadeordal, principal economist in the Trade and Integration Department of the Inter-American Development Bank; and Simon Evenett, professor of international economics at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and a non-resident fellow of the Brookings Institution.

More information is available at or .

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Guatemalan human rights activist Helen Mack Chang has been awarded the 2005 Notre Dame Prize for Distinguished Public Service inLatin Americaby the University of Notre Dames Kellogg Institute for International 91ÊÓƵ. The award will be presented Sept. 7 (Wednesday) at a ceremony inGuatemala City.

Mack is the founder ofGuatemalas Myrna Mack Foundation, which she formed in a quest for justice for the brutal murder of her sister Myrna Mack and for the thousands of other citizens who lost their lives at the hands of the countrys military.

An anthropologist, Myrna Mack was stabbed to death Sept. 11, 1990, by members of a military death squad in response to her investigations of the destruction and massacre of entire indigenous communities by the Guatemalan military.

Since the Myrna Mack Foundations establishment in 1993, Helen Mack has succeeded in making significant progress in the fight for human rights, reform of the judiciary system and fortification of the rule of law. In addition, she obtained the conviction of one the soldiers accused of committing the crimeand several years later, the conviction of one of the three officers accused of masterminding Myrna Macks murder.

Ms. Mack is a symbol of the impact one courageous person can have in the political process,said Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., president emeritus of Notre Dame and a member of the prize committee.Since her sister, Myrna Mack, was brutally murdered by members of the military, she has become an unlikely champion for human rights and justice in a country where that can be a hazardous occupation.

As part of the prize, Mack will be awarded $10,000, with a matching amount donated to the Myrna Mack Foundation. Dr. José García Noval, vice president of the Myrna Mack Foundation, will accept the matching cash award on behalf of the foundation.

Mack is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including the Swedish Parliaments Right Livelihood Award, known as analternative Nobel Prize.

Established in 2000 by Notre Dames Kellogg Institute and funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation, the Notre Dame Prize has been awarded to some of the leading political, civil and religious figures inLatin America. Among the previous recipients are Sofía Macher, former commissioner of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who received the award jointly for the peaceful transition of power in Brazil; Latin American Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga; former Chilean President Patricio Aylwin Azócar; and Enrique V. Iglesias, president of the Inter-American Development Bank.

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