Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

University Lectures Hosts Humans of New York Founder, Pulitzer-Winning Authors

Monday, December 5, 2016, By Kevin Morrow
Share
EventsspeakersUniversity Lectures

featured speakers

The 16th season of the University Lectures will continue in the spring semester with two Pulitzer Prize-winning writers—Jhumpa Lahiri (“Interpreter of Maladies”) and Sonia Nazario (“Enrique’s Journey”)—and the creator of the immensely popular Facebook/Instagram sensation Humans of New York, Brandon Stanton.

Syracuse University’s premier speaker series brings to campus notable individuals of exceptional accomplishment who share their diverse global experiences and perspectives. The series was created through, and is supported by, the generosity of alumnus Robert B. Menschel ’51. The University Lectures are open to all.

The presentations by Lahiri (Tuesday, Feb. 7, 7:30 p.m.) and Nazario (Wednesday, April 5, 7:30 p.m.) are both free and will be held in Hendricks Chapel. Stanton’s lecture (Monday, March 6, 7:30 p.m.)—cosponsored by University Union—will take place in the Schine Student Center’s Goldstein Auditorium; this will be a ticketed event, with tickets going on sale in February; details will be announced at the beginning of the spring semester.

Jhumpa Lahiri

Lahiri was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for “Interpreter of Maladies” (Houghton Mifflin, 1999), her debut story collection exploring issues of love and identity among immigrants and cultural transplants. She delved further into the immigrant experience with “The Namesake” (Houghton Mifflin, 2003), which was made into a Fox Searchlight feature film in 2007.

Her book of short stories, “Unaccustomed Earth” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award (the world’s largest prize for a short story collection) and was a finalist for the Story Prize. Lahiri’s “The Lowland” (Alfred A. Knopf/Random House, 2013) won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.

Her most recent work, “In Other Words” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016), explores the often emotionally fraught links between identity and language.

Her appearance is sponsored in cooperation with the College of Arts and Sciences and the Humanities Center.

Brandon Stanton

With more than 22.5 million followers on Facebook and Instagram, it’s no surprise that Stanton has been called an Internet phenomenon. In late 2010, he started the photography blog Humans of New York with the goal of photographing 10,000 New Yorkers and plotting their photos on a map. When he started incorporating short stories with his photos, Stanton soon found he had created something much bigger.

In 2013, Stanton wrote a companion book, “Humans of New York” (St. Martin’s Press), that spent 45 weeks on The New York Times Bestsellers List. In 2015, he followed up with “Humans of New York: Stories” (St. Martin’s Press).

In early 2015, Stanton’s post about a boy from an underprivileged Brooklyn middle school in a crime-plagued neighborhood led him to initiate an online crowdfunding campaign to raise $100,000 to send the school’s students on field trips to Harvard to expand their idea of their potential. HONY’s followers raised more than $1 million for Mott Hall Bridges Academy, and the inspirational story garnered international media attention and earned Stanton a meeting with President Obama.

Stanton’s appearance is sponsored in cooperation with University Union.

Sonia Nazario

Nazario is an award-winning journalist, author and prominent advocate/activist who has drawn widespread attention to such critical social issues as immigration, racial discrimination, hunger and drug addiction, as well as U.S. foreign policy.

A reporter for more than 20 years, she is best known for “Enrique’s Journey,” her series of reports for the Los Angeles Times following a Honduran boy’s struggle to find his mother in the United States. It earned the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing and the George Polk Award for International Reporting. In book form, it later became a national bestseller.

Nazario’s coverage for The New York Times of the detention of unaccompanied immigrant children at the Honduran border in 2014 garnered global attention and led to her addressing the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

She has served on many boards, including the board of Kids In Need of Defense, a nonprofit launched by Microsoft and Angelina Jolie to provide pro bono attorneys to unaccompanied immigrant children.

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) are available at all lectures. For questions about accessibility or to request accommodations, contact the Equal Opportunity, Inclusion and Resolution Services (EOIRS) office at 315.443.4018.

The University Lectures welcomes suggestions for future speakers. To recommend a speaker, or to obtain additional information about the series, write to lectures@syr.edu.

For up-to-date information on the series, visit the University Lectures website, follow on Facebook, and join the University Lectures email list.

 

  • Author

Kevin Morrow

  • Recent
  • Student’s Mobile Upcycled Clothing Business Turns Trash Into Treasures
    Friday, August 22, 2025, By Diane Stirling
  • Q&A for “Will Work for Food,” a new book exploring labor and the food chain
    Friday, August 22, 2025, By Ellen Mbuqe
  • Chaz Barracks Fuses Art, Scholarship and Community in Summer Residency
    Thursday, August 21, 2025, By News Staff
  • Welcome Week 2025: What You Need to Know
    Tuesday, August 19, 2025, By Kathleen Haley
  • How Otto the Orange Spent Their Summer Vacation (Video)
    Tuesday, August 19, 2025, By News Staff

More In Campus & Community

Heartfelt Gift Recognizes Accomplished Alumna and 3 Generations of Orange

William Pelton and Mary Jane Massie have created the Barringer Pelton Public Service Graduate Scholarship to honor their niece, Jody Barringer ’95, L’98, G’08 (M.P.A.), and support future public servants. After working for a few years as an attorney focused…

Families Offer Words of Wisdom During Welcome Week Move In (Video)

Nearly 4,300 new undergraduate students arrived on campus this week, many of them with families and cars filled to the brim. As families help their children settle into their home away from home, they’re also sharing advice for the year…

Chaz Barracks Fuses Art, Scholarship and Community in Summer Residency

With a GoPro strapped to his helmet and a microphone clipped to his bike, Chaz Antoine Barracks spent the summer pedaling through Homer, New York, transforming everyday encounters into both scholarship and art. The filmmaker, media scholar and postdoctoral fellow…

The New York State Fair: Everything You Need to Know

Late August in Central New York not only means the return of students to the Syracuse University campus, but also the return of the New York State Fair. The fair is a 13-day festival of entertainment, agricultural exhibitions, cultural performances…

Department of Public Safety Celebrates Graduation of 9th Peace Officer Academy

On Aug. 14, the Department of Public Safety (DPS) welcomed families, friends and colleagues of the 9th Peace Officer Academy recruits to a graduation event. The ceremony, held at Drumlins Country Club, was the perfect culmination of their accomplishments over…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.