Eugene Robinson, awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in recognition of his Washington Post columns on the 2008 presidential campaign, will talk with the university community and general public from 1-2:30 p.m. Friday at Hatcher Graduate Library, Room 100.
He also will speak at 9:30 a.m. the same day at University Graduate Exercises at Hill Auditorium. On Saturday, Robinson will receive an honorary doctoral degree from his alma mater U-M at Spring Commencement.
Robinson’s journalism career began during his student days when he served as co-editor-in-chief of The Michigan Daily (1972), the first African American to do so. Once out of college, he took a professional news job was with the San Francisco Chronicle. His first major assignment was the trial that followed the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst.
He has worked as an editor and bureau chief with the Washington Post; as a cable news commentator on programs including MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “Hardball with Chris Matthews”; and as author of three books, including “Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America” (2010).
Robinson joined the Washington Post in 1980 and served as London bureau chief, foreign editor. He currently is an associate editor and columnist. He was the Post’s South America correspondent in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1988-92), where he learned to speak Spanish and Portuguese. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard (1988) and was elected to the Council on Foreign Relations (1994).
This event is sponsored by the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies and The Michigan Daily. Attendees are asked to enter Hatcher Library from the Diag.
