DeKalb isn’t usually thought of as a place for royalty, but on Friday, NIU was home to a prince.

His Royal Highness Prince Norodom Sirivudh of Cambodia, who is the step brother of King Norodom Sihanouk, participated in a panel discussion Friday as part of the campus’ Theatre in Context humanities festival.

The panel discussion was called “Contemporary Perspectives on ‘The Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia.'” The panel also included Judy Ledgerwood, an NIU anthropology professor and Cambodian expert, and Kheang Un, an NIU political science graduate student and a Cambodia native.

“It keeps me young meeting new students,” Sirivudh said.

Ledgerwood gave a brief overview of Cambodia’s history before the panel discussion began.

“After 1979, [Cambodians] were forced into rural cooperatives with little food and no medical care,” Ledgerwood said. “In 1979-1981, they were caught in a civil war between 200,000 Vietnamese soldiers.”

Panel members discussed the Kingdom of Cambodia under King Norodom Sihanouk from 1954 to 1970, the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, the United Nations-sponsored elections in 1993, the Cambodian People Party and the new elections in 1998.

“It was hard to be in the country without being caught in the crossfire,” Un said.

Sirivudh said they can’t forget the past but want to promote nationality.

“Cambodia has a great culture,” he said. “Today, we’re together to think about the future.”

The prince also discussed the ideas surrounding a Cambodian heritage museum in Chicago to honor the ones who died in “the killing fields.”

According to a March 30 Chicago Tribune article, the memorial is part of a planned expansion of the Cambodian Association’s community center on West Lawrence Avenue. The wall of 80 glass columns almost 20-feet long will have the names of up to 4,000 victims inscribed in the glass. It will face the east toward Cambodia and end with a panel of white, the color of mourning in the Cambodian culture.

“There is a need for a memorial,” Ledgerwood said. “A lot of people don’t know about what happened in Cambodia.”

Even though the country’s citizens have experienced tremendous suffering, Sirivudh stresses that it’s important not to forget the positive part of Cambodia.

“The best thing Americans can do for Cambodia is visit there and see its culture,” he said.Discussing the Kingdom of Cambodia under King Norodom Sihanouk from 1954 to 1970, the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, the United Nations-

sponsored elections in 1993 and the Cambodian People Party and the new elections in 1998, Prince Norodom Sirivudh of Cambodia (pictured) was part of a panel that included Judy Ledgerwood, an NIU anthropology