Journalist Bob Herbert to talk about America’s current challenges in Nov. 15 University Lecture

Award-winning journalist and author Bob Herbert will speak on the challenges facing modern-day America on Nov. 15 at Syracuse University in the final University Lecture of the fall 2011 semester.

Herbert’s presentation, “Wounded Colossus,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel and is free and open to the public. Reduced-rate parking is available in the Irving Garage. CART and sign language interpretation will be available for this lecture. Herbert’s presentation is sponsored in collaboration with the School of Education and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Herbert left The New York Times in March after an 18-year career as an op-ed columnist, in which he wrote a twice-weekly column on politics, urban affairs and social trends. He is now Distinguished Senior Fellow at the think tank Demos. He is currently working on a book, “Wounded Colossus,” about the challenges facing America today—challenges he will discuss in his presentation.

From January 1991 to May 1993, Herbert was a national correspondent for NBC and reported regularly on “The Today Show” and “NBC Nightly News.” A founding panelist of Sunday Edition, a weekly discussion program on WCBS-TV, Herbert was also the host of Hotline, a weekly hour-long issues program on WNYC-TV, both beginning in 1990.

Herbert previously worked at the New York Daily News beginning in 1976, in positions including general assignment reporter, national correspondent, consumer affairs editor, city hall bureau chief and city editor. In 1985, he became a columnist and a member of the editorial board. His column continued to appear in the Daily News until February 1993.

His career began in 1970 as a reporter, then night city editor in 1973, of the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.

Born in Brooklyn, Herbert earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the State University of New York (Empire State College). He has taught journalism at Brooklyn College and the Columbia University School of Journalism.

He has won numerous awards, including the Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City, the American Society of Newspaper Editors award for distinguished newspaper writing, the David Nyhan Prize from the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University for excellence in political reporting and the Ridenhour Courage Prize for the “fearless articulation of unpopular truths.”

Herbert is the author of “Promises Betrayed: Waking Up from the American Dream” (Times Books, 2005).

The Office of University Lectures welcomes suggestions for future speakers. To recommend a speaker, or to receive additional information about the University Lectures series, contact Esther Gray in the Office of Academic Affairs at 443-2941 or eegray@syr.edu. More information can be found at lectures.syr.edu or on Facebook at facebook.com/universitylectures.

During the spring 2012 semester, guests will include author Jonathan Franzen, in conversation with writer and professor George Saunders (March 6); novelist Zadie Smith (March 20); and environmentalist and author Terry Tempest Williams (March 29).