Last modified: Thursday, January 18, 2007
Halberstam, Deford and Robbins highlight IU School of Journalism spring lecture series
Acclaimed photojournalist James Nachtwey to give Ernie Pyle Lecture
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 18, 2007
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Three distinguished journalists will discuss a variety of topics, ranging from the pressures of succeeding in college to the influence of Vietnam on the war in Iraq, as part of the Indiana University School of Journalism's spring lecture series.
The school also announced that James Nachtwey, one of today's most influential photojournalists, will present its Ernie Pyle Lecture.
All of the lectures are free and open to the public.
Award-winning photographer Nachtwey will discuss his work documenting conflicts around the world at 7 p.m. on Feb. 1 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave. Books and DVDs featuring Nachtwey's work, including Inferno, Nachtwey's landmark 382-photo collection, will be available the night of the presentation. He will sign copies after his lecture.
Alexandra Robbins, a best-selling author, will speak on the topic, "The Overachievers," at 7 p.m. on Feb. 28 in the Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. 7th St. She also will hold a book signing after her lecture.
David Halberstam, a renowned social and political commentator, will speak on "Iraq in the Shadow of Vietnam," at 7 p.m. on March 19 in the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
Frank Deford, one of today's most popular sportswriters, will speak at 7 p.m. on April 11 at Alumni Hall in the IMU.
Frank Deford
Deford's work has appeared in virtually every medium. He is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he has written for more than 30 years. He is a commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition program and is a regular correspondent on HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.
He is the author of 14 books and served as the national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for 15 years. His daughter, Alexandra, was diagnosed with the illness in the 1970s. After her death in 1980, Deford chronicled her life in the award-winning book Alex: The Life of a Child (Viking, 1983). His other books include the novel Everybody's All-American (Viking, 1981), which was made into a movie staring Dennis Quaid and Jessica Lange. He has been voted U.S. Sportswriter of the Year six times and GQ magazine has called him, "the world's greatest sportswriter." He also has won both an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award.
David Halberstam
Halberstam won a Pulitzer Prize at age 30 for his prophetic reporting for the New York Times in the early days of the Vietnam War. Thirty-eight years later, his bestseller, War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals (Scribner, 2001), was a runner-up for the Pulitzer.
He also has reported extensively on sports, publishing books on Michael Jordan in 1999, Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World That He Made (Random House) and on New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, The Education of a Coach (Hyperion, 2005). He is the author of numerous other best-selling books, including The Powers that Be, The Fifties, The Best and the Brightest and The Reckoning.
James Nachtwey
Nachtwey is one of the world's most widely published and influential war photographers, but it wasn't until after he graduated from Dartmouth College that he became interested in photography. Influenced by imagery from the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement, Nachtwey taught himself photography, and in 1976, he began working as a newspaper photographer in New Mexico.
In 1980, he moved to New York to begin work as a freelance magazine photographer. His first foreign assignment was to cover civil strife in Northern Ireland in 1982 during the IRA hunger strike. Since then, Nachtwey has worked on extensive photographic essays in Nicaragua, Lebanon, Indonesia, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, the West Bank and Gaza. In 2001, he created a photo essay of the World Trade Center wreckage for Time magazine, where has worked as a contract photographer since 1984.
He has had solo exhibitions at the International Center of Photography in New York, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris and the Palazzo Esposizione in Rome, among others. He has received the Robert Capa Gold Medal an unprecedented five times, and has also been awarded the World Press Photo Award twice and Magazine Photographer of the Year seven times.
Alexandra Robbins
Robbins, a New York Times best-selling author, has written for a variety of publications including The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan and Salon. She is the author of five books, including Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities (Hyperion, 2004), Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power (Little, Brown and Co., 2002) and The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids (Hyperion, 2066). She has been spotlighted numerous times in the national media, including appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show and 60 Minutes.
For more information, visit the School of Journalism's Web site at https://journalism.indiana.edu.
