Coming Events
Upcoming events at the SOJC
Unless otherwise indicated, for more information about any of these events, contact Kathleen Larson, event coordinator/communications assistant: (541) 346-2494; klarson@uoregon.edu.
Thursday, April 12: Johnston Lecture
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc presents “Journalism for the Long Haul”
4:00 p.m.
282 Lillis Hall, 925 East 13th Avenue
Reception to follow in the Atrium of Allen Hall,
1020 University Street
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, a 2006 MacArthur Fellow, is the author of Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, which was chosen by more than twenty publications including the New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, People, and The Economist
as one of the “Best Books of 2003.” Considered a contemporary classic of immersion journalism, Random Family has been described as a “nonfiction Middlemarch of the underclass” (The Los Angeles Times) and the “literary equivalent of a 100-mile dash” (The Washington Post). Her current project, Give It Up, concerns the lives of standup comedians and will be published
by Random House. LeBlanc, the school’s twenty-first Johnston Lecturer and a graduate of Oxford University and Yale Law School, is currently a visiting scholar at NYU.
Thursday, May 10: Celebrate Ethics in Journalism
Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism
10:00 a.m. awards presentation
Panel discussion immediately following
Browsing Room, Knight Library, 1501 Kincaid Street
Established in 1999 by Ancil Payne, the Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism at the School of Journalism and Communication honor the journalist of integrity who encourages public trust in the media by courageously practicing the highest standards of the profession in the face of political or economic pressures. Awards are given in three categories: News Organization, Individual, and Collegiate Media. Winners will be announced in April. Visit payneawards.uoregon.edu for details.
Ruhl Lecture
Leonard Pitts Jr. presents “A Legacy of Drums”
4:00 p.m.
Alumni Lounge, Gerlinger Hall, 1468 University Street
Book-signing and reception to follow; Books will be available for sale.
Leonard Pitts Jr., the thirty-first Ruhl Lecturer at the SOJC, is a columnist for the Miami Herald and author of Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood (1999: Longstreet Press). A 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary, Pitts writes regularly on pop culture, social issues, and family life in his syndicated column. In 2001, he received from the American Society of Newspaper Editors the ASNE Award for Commentary and was named Feature of the Year Columnist by Editor and Publisher magazine. In 2002, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists awarded Pitts its inaugural Columnist of the Year award. Also in 2002, GLAAD
Media awarded Pitts the Outstanding Newspaper Columnist award. Pitts’ column, “We’ll Go Forward From This Moment,” an angry and defiant open letter to the terrorists in response to the September 11 attacks, circulated the globe via the Internet and has since been set to music,
reprinted in poster form, read on television by Regis Philbin, and quoted by Congressman Richard Gephardt as part of the Democratic Party’s weekly radio address. Pitts’ work also has appeared in Musician, Spin, TV Guide, Reader’s Digest, and Parenting.