Not only has Nicholas D. Kristof made a difference in the world as a reporter with the New York Times since 1984 and an op-ed columnist since 2001, he also is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for his coverage of Tiananmen Square and the genocide in Darfur. In addition, PBS recently aired a three-part series, based on the book “A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity,” written last year by Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn. The book specifically focuses on how to make a difference on attainable levels.
At 7:30 Monday, April 13, Kristof visits Elizabethtown College’s Leffler Chapel and Performance Center, as the 2015 Ware Lecturer to speak on just that subject.
Hope is like a path in the countryside. Originally, there is nothing — but as people walk this way again and again, a path appears.” — Lu Xun, Chinese essayist, 1921
Kristof grew up on a sheep and cherry farm near Yamhill, Oregon, but, while working in France after high school he caught the travel bug. He began backpacking around Africa and Asia, writing articles to cover his expenses. Kristof graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and studied law at Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, graduating with first-class honors.He then studied Arabic in Cairo and Chinese in Taipai. The journalist also speaks Japanese and other languages. He has lived on four continents, has reported on six and has traveled to 150 countries, all of the United States, every Chinese province and each of the main Japanese islands.
He also holds the honor of being one of just a few Americans to have visited every member of the “Axis of Evil” at least twice.
Not only have Kristof’s travels have brought him wonder but also run-ins in with malaria, mobs and an African plane crash.
As a journalist, Kristof initially covered economics and worked as a correspondent in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. He then covered presidential politics and was associate managing editor of the Times, responsible for Sunday editions. He was the very first blogger on its website.
Kristof’s columns, appearing every Sunday and Thursday, often focus on global health, poverty and gender issues in the developing world. Since 2004 he has written dozens of columns about Darfur and visited the area 10 times.
Today, Kristof has 1.4 million Twitter followers, 1.3 million on Google+ and 600,000 friends on Facebook. The first book written with his wife, “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” is a No. 1 best-seller. They have written two additional books, “China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power” and “Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia.”
Kristof and WuDunn, the parents of three children, are the first married couple to win a Pulitzer for journalism. Kristof won a 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.”
Through the years, he earned an Anne Frank Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, George Polk Award, Overseas Press Club award, Michael Kelly award, Online News Association award and American Society of Newspaper Editors award. “Reporter,” a documentary about Kristofer, premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2009.
The Judy S. ’68 and Paul W. Ware Lecture on Peacemaking is hosted annually by the Elizabethtown College Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking. Past lecturers have been Nobel Peace Prize recipients and former presidents from around the world.
This event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Call 717-361-4757 to reserve tickets now!