INFORMATION FOR
The futility and horror of war will be the topic of a lecture by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges on Tuesday, February 23 at William Paterson University in Wayne. His talk is based on a famous speech denouncing the Vietnam War by the Rev. Martin Luther King delivered on April 4, 1967 in Riverside Church in New York City.
Hedges’ lecture, “Empire of Illusion,” will be held from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the William Paterson University Commons Ballroom A. He will focus on the relevance of King’s speech as the nation fights wars on two fronts. The public is invited to attend. Admission is free.
The talk is part of the University’s annual observance of African Heritage Month and is sponsored by the University’s Gandhian Forum for Peace and Justice, which seeks to engage high school, college, and university students and teachers in innovative and practical ideas, actions, and programs that promote peace and justice through cooperative engagement, dialogue, and respect for opposing views and opinions.
Hedges has spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. He served for eight years as the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. Hedges shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for his coverage of terrorism, and received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. He was named Online Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club for columns he wrote for Truthdig.
Hedges is the author of nine books, including most recently Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
The event is co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Program, the Latin American and Latino Studies Program, the Race and Gender Project, the Departments of Anthropology, Communication, English, and Political Science, the College of Humanities and Social Science, the Cotsakos College of Business, and the Office of the Provost. For additional information, call Stephen Shalom, professor of political science, at 973-720-3433 or email shaloms@wpunj.edu.
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