New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, will deliver a speech titled “American Foreign Policy: The Middle East and the Global Economy” during Elon University’s Fall Convocation at 6 p.m., Monday, Sept. 29 in the Koury Center on campus. His speech is part of the Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture Series, which brings some of the nation’s most accomplished writers and journalists to campus.
Friedman has been recognized for his outstanding reporting from the Middle East. He received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting from Lebanon and earned the award again in 1988 for his coverage of Israel. His most recent book, “Longitudes & Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11,” a New York Times bestseller, is a collection of the columns for which he won his third Pulitzer Prize.
Friedman won the 1989 National Book Award for nonfiction for “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” which also earned the 1989 Overseas Press Club Award for the best nonfiction book on foreign policy. The book was also on The New York Times bestseller list for a year. Friedman’s next book, “The Lexus and the Olive Tree,” won the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for the best nonfiction book on foreign policy.
Friedman became foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times in 1995. Previously, he served as chief economic correspondent in the Times’ Washington bureau, covering foreign policy and trade policy. Friedman covered the transition and first year of the Clinton administration as chief White House correspondent and also served as chief diplomatic correspondent, covering former Secretary of State James Baker and the end of the Cold War.
Friedman earned a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and attended Oxford University on a Marshall Scholarship. He earned a master’s degree in modern Middle Eastern studies from Oxford.
Tickets for convocation are $12 or free for those with valid Elon identification. Tickets may be purchased by calling the McCrary Theatre box office at (336) 278-5610. The box office is open from 12:30 p.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday.
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