Author Todd Gitlin will visit Bradley’s Neumiller Hall at 8 p.m. on Oct. 21 for the annual Robison Lecture.
Gitlin is the author of 12 books, many of which are about societal issues such as poverty, media and governmental involvement. Others include two novels and a book of poetry.
Gitlin also contributed to many books and had many pieces published in periodicals such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He has been a columnist at the New York Observer and the San Francisco Examiner.
Olatunji Dare, who is a member of the communications department and responsible for bringing Gitlin to campus, said it isn’t often that someone of Gitlin’s status comes to campus.
“They’ve been talking about the imminent death of the newspaper industry for 40 years now,” he said. “Every passing year, if not month, foreshadows anew that frightening possibility. Dr. Gitlin will examine what this means from a sociological perspective.”
Gitlin wrote frequently for the underground press through the 1970s and from 2003 to 2006 he was a member of the Board of Directors of Greenpeace USA.
Gitlin is an advocate of education as well. He holds degrees in several areas from Harvard University, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley.
Currently, he is a journalism and sociology professor and the chair of the Ph.D program of Communications at Columbia University. He frequently travels around the world to lecture on culture and politics.
In September 2010, Gitlin’s newest book will be released. He and Liel Leibovitz wrote it about the idea of the chosen people in the United States and Israel.
Member of the Robison Lecture Committee Laura Garfinkel said Gitlin was a good choice for this year’s Robison Lecture speaker.
“The Robison Endowed Lectureship is designed to provide Bradley University with access to distinguished working news professionals and educators,” she said. “These professionals will present a more vivid view of print and broadcast news through their experiences and contributions to the field.”
The Robison lecture is put on every fall and is in memory of Mary Leslie Robison. She was an English professor at Bradley from 1957 to 1969. She was presented with a golden key award from the Illinois Association of Journalism Teachers in 1953.
Upon her death, a fund was established to create a series of Masters classes, classroom lectures, seminars, community presentations and workshops for professionals.
