Bob Graham Center hosts Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign affairs columnist

February 23, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Nicholas Kristof, one of the most respected columnists on foreign affairs working today, will discuss his work and outlook for the year ahead Feb. 28 at the University of Florida’s Bob Graham Center for Public Service.

Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times since 2001, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who writes op-ed columns that appear twice a week. But, he is particularly well known for travels that bring scrutiny to human rights issues around the world, including child trafficking and gender rights. He will speak at 6 p.m. in Pugh Hall’s Ocora.

This event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required for entry. Visit www.bobgrahamcenter.ufl.edu to reserve and print tickets.

A Rhodes Scholar who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College, Kristof has studied Arabic in Cairo and Chinese in Taipei. He caught the journalism bug as a high school student working in France and began backpacking around Africa and Asia, writing articles to cover his expenses.

Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, then also a Times journalist, won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1990. They were the first married couple to win Pulitzers for journalism. Kristof won a second Pulitzer in 2006, for commentary 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.” Most recently, he and WuDunn are the authors of “Half the Sky: From Oppression to Opportunity for Women Worldwide.”

Kristof has also been a pioneer at the Times in his use of social media. He was the first blogger on the Times website, and has a Facebook fan page, Twitter account and a channel on YouTube. He also created his “Win-a-Trip” contest in which a lucky student is selected to go on a reporting trip with him. A documentary about him, “Reporter,” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and has been shown on HBO.

The Bob Graham Center for Public Service is a community of students, scholars and politically engaged citizens, devoted to enhanced citizenship; the training of current and future public and civic leaders who can identify problems and spearhead change; and the development of policy on issues of importance to Florida, the United States and the global community.