NYT Columnist Nicholas Kristof to Speak at MCLA| 06:02PM / Friday, October 03, 2014 | |
 | | Nicholas Kristof |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, known for his human rights advocacy and his efforts to give a voice for the voiceless, will deliver this fall's Hardman Lecture at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in the MCLA Amsler Campus Center gymnasium on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m.
This lecture event, "Reporting the Truths of the World," is made possible through the Hardman Family Endowment. It is free and open to the public.
Those in attendance — to include MCLA's journalism students — will learn about Kristof's life as an activist journalist, both past and present, and how he has worked to make a difference in the world through the written word.
Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, also a New York Times journalist, are the authors of "Half the Sky," a national bestseller, and this year's First Year Experience community reading assignment at MCLA.
During this lecture, Kristof also will discuss the challenges and opportunities he faced as a writer and a journalist when he wrote "Half the Sky," a call to arms against the oppression of women and girls in the developing world.
"Half the Sky" takes its readers on an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the women who struggle there, including a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth.
Kristoff and WuDunn show how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad.
The Cambodian girl eventually escaped from her brothel and, with assistance from an aid group, built a thriving retail business that supports her family. The Ethiopian woman had her injuries repaired and in time became a surgeon.
In 1990, Kristof and WuDunn became the first husband-wife team to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism for their coverage of China's Tiananmen Square democracy movement.
Kristof won his second Pulitzer in 2006 for what the judges called "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 and WuDunn have written three best-selling books: "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," "China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power," and "Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia."
Oprah Winfrey devoted two full programs to their work, and they have been on countless other television programs.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu dubbed Kristof "an honorary African" for his reporting on conflicts there, and President Bill Clinton claimed "there is no one in journalism, anywhere in the United States at least, who has done anything like the work he has done to figure out how poor people are actually living around the world and what their potential is."
Kristof graduated from Harvard College, Phi Beta Kappa, and won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, where he studied law and graduated with first-class honors. He later studied Arabic in Cairo, Chinese in Taipei and Japanese in Tokyo.
After working in France, he began backpacking in Africa and Asia, writing articles to cover his expenses. Kristof has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to more than 150 countries. During his travels, he has caught malaria, experienced wars, confronted warlords, encountered an Indonesian mob carrying heads on pikes and survived an African airplane crash.
After joining The New York Times in 1984, Kristof served as a correspondent in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. He has covered presidential politics, interviewed everyone from President Obama to Iranian President Ahmadinejad, and was the first blogger on The New York Times' website.
Ben Affleck executive produced an HBO documentary about Kristof, titled "Reporter." Kristof has won innumerable awards including the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Anne Frank Award, and the Fred Cuny Award for Prevention of Armed Conflict. He serves on the board of Harvard University and the Association of American Rhodes Scholars.
Kristof and WuDunn recently released "A Path Appears," a narrative about making a difference in this country and abroad, in which they identify successful local and global initiatives and share stories from the front lines of social progress.
Kristof and WuDunn will embark on a book tour this fall to promote "A Path Appears."
He can be found on Facebook here and followed @NickKristof.
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