The 50th annual Hanify-Howland Memorial Lecture will be given by husband-and-wife duo Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture, which recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves in the realm of public service in honor of Edward Hanify, a member of the graduating class of 1904, and Weston Howland, will address challenges facing America today. The talk, titled “Why Students Should Care About the World—& Change It,” is free and open to the public.
Husband-and-wife duo Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are journalists and focus on a unique brand of reporting centered on human rights abuses and advocacy. They are the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism for their coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement; they co-wrote “China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power” (Vintage, 1995) and penned the best-selling “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” (Vintage, 2009). Addressing worldwide maltreatment, marginalization, and brutality towards women, “Half the Sky” draws a compelling picture of the trials and triumphs of women struggling for opportunity and equality. Called “electrifying” by The Washington Post, the book inspired a special four-hour PBS series of the same name. Their most recent book, “A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity” (Knopf, 2014), is a narrative about making a difference in the U.S. and abroad— a road map to becoming an effective global citizen.
A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The New York Times, Kristof is often called a “reporter’s reporter” and was the subject of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival documentary “Reporter.” He has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to 140 countries, all 50 states, every Chinese province, and every main Japanese island in order to offer a compassionate glimpse into global health, poverty, and gender in the developing world. As part of the “Half the Sky” documentary series, Kristof travelled around the world along with celebrity activists America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union, and Olivia Wilde to meet inspiring individuals confronting the global oppression of women.
The first Asian American to win a Pulitzer Prize, WuDunn is a business executive, entrepreneur, and best-selling author. She has special expertise in Asia, entrepreneurship, global women’s issues, and philanthropy. As an investment banker, she currently helps growth companies, including those operating in the fields of new media technology, entertainment, social media, healthcare, and the emerging markets, particularly China. In conjunction with “Half the Sky,” she helped launch the development of a robust multimedia effort, creating a thoughtful, effective philanthropic strategy that includes an online social game for Facebook, the PBS documentary series, and outreach with many Nongovernmental organization.
Since 1965, the Hanify-Howland lecture series has brought a host of distinguished speakers to Holy Cross who have exemplified in their work the spirit of public service that the series was established to encourage. Past speakers include astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, retired Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft, U.S. Air Force; Clarence Thomas ’71, associate justice of the United States; Ruth Wedgwood, director of the Program in International Law and Organizations at Johns Hopkins University; investigative journalist Bob Woodward; Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the bestselling books “Freakonomics”(Harper, 2009) and “Superfreakonomics” (Harper, 2011); award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien; and Governor Jon Huntsman.
In keeping with the traditional practice of the Hanify-Howland Series, Kristof and WuDunn will conduct a seminar on campus, which will allow students to interact with the speakers in an intimate and intellectually stimulating environment.
Related Information
- Hanify-Howland Memorial Lecture Series website
- Video, Photo Gallery: Students Meet With Neil deGrasse Tyson in Exclusive Seminar
