WASHINGTON, PA (Oct. 31, 2012)—Nicholas Kristof, journalist, author, op-ed columnist and a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, will discuss his book, “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” at a public lecture Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in Washington & Jefferson College’s Dieter-Porter Life Sciences Building.
This is the first in the newly created J. Robert Maxwell ’43 Visiting Scholar Series. The lecture is free and open to the public.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Harvard College, Kristof studied law at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, graduating with first class honors. After joining The New York Times in 1984, initially covering economics, he served as a Times correspondent in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. He rose to be the associate managing editor of The New York Times, responsible for Sunday editions. His columns have often focused on global health, poverty and gender issues in the developing world. In particular, since 2004, he has written dozens of columns about Darfur and visited the area 11 times. Kristof is a member of the board of overseers of Harvard University and a member of the board of trustees of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars.
In 1990, Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, earned a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for their reporting on the pro-democracy student movement and the related Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. They were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer for journalism. Kristof has also received the George Polk Award and an award from the Overseas Press Club for his reporting which focuses on human rights and environmental issues. In 2006, Kristof won his second Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary “for his graphic, deeply reported columns that, at personal risk, focused attention on genocide in Darfur and that gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world.” Kristof was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize again in 2012; altogether, he has been a Pulitzer finalist six times.
“Half the Sky,” co-written with WuDunn, covers topics such as sex trafficking and forced prostitution, contemporary slavery, gender-based violence, and rape as a weapon of war and method of justice, as it shines light on the multitude of ways women are oppressed and violated in the world.
Maxwell is a lawyer, community leader, and trustee emeritus of W&J. He received a Certificate in Meteorology from the University of Chicago in 1943, and then entered the U.S. Navy, serving until the end of World War II as a lieutenant with duty primarily in the South Pacific. After the war, he entered Harvard Law School and graduated in 1949 and embarked upon a new career in law. His career has included numerous positions of leadership in the legal profession over the past forty years and received an honorary doctorate degree from W&J.
Keep in touch with Kristof on Facebook: (www.facebook.com/kristof) and Twitter: (@NickKristof).
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