Date: Aug 14, 2009

Hofstra's First Fall Define '09 Event Features Pulitzer-Prize Winning Journalists Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof

Husband-Wife Team to Appear on Day of Book Release

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY –
Who: New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and authors Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof
What: Discuss their book, Half The Sky – Turning Oppression into Opportunity for
Women Worldwide
When: September 8, 2009 from 3-4:30 p.m.
Where: Monroe Lecture Center Theater, South Campus
Why: This event launches the first Define ’09 event of the fall semester and celebrates the release of their book about women in the developing world.

To attend this event, please register at hofstra.edu/academics/define09/define09_events.html

WuDunn is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who has reported from inside some of the toughest regimes in the world, from Myanmar to North Korea. As a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, WuDunn covered China and won a Pulitzer with her husband, Kristof, for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in Beijing and the military crackdown that ended it. WuDunn and Kristof were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer for journalism, and she was first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer.

WuDunn was previously a banker, which provided her with background knowledge of finance and the global economy as well as having earned her MBA from Harvard University.  She was the lead correspondent for The New York Times covering the Japan financial crisis.  Her longtime coverage of the economic development of China and other emerging markets has given her a broad understanding and many first-hand examples of how change in centrally-planned economies can come about peacefully through growth.

Kristof  has been a columnist for The New York Times since 2001, and is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who writes op-ed columns that appear bi-weekly. Kristof graduated from Harvard College, Phi Beta Kappa, and then won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, where he studied law and graduated with first class honors. He later studied Arabic in Cairo and Chinese in Taipei. His journalism career launched when he backpacked around Africa and Asia, writing articles to cover his expenses. Kristof has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to 140 countries, all 50 states in America, every Chinese province and every main Japanese island.

“Define '09: New Challenges, New Solutions," is a year-long series of programs designed to examine the new presidential administration, its policies and initiatives, the challenges we currently face and ways of addressing our country's most pressing issues.  This initiative is designed to keep Hofstra students and community engaged in politics and civic engagement, building from the success of Educate '08 and the hosting of the October 15 debate.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from about 150 undergraduate and more than 160 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business; engineering; communication; education, health and human services;  and honors studies, as well as a School of Law. With a student-faculty ratio of 14-to-1, our professors teach small classes averaging 22 students that emphasize interaction, critical thinking and analysis. Hofstra offers a faculty whose highest priority is teaching excellence. The University also provides excellent facilities with state-of-the-art technology, extensive library resources and internship programs that match students’ interests and abilities with appropriate companies and organizations.  The Hofstra community is driven, dynamic and energetic, helping students find and focus their strengths to prepare them for a successful future.

###