The Gandhian Forum for Peace & Justice
William Paterson University
presents
Chris Hedges
speaking on
Empire of Illusion
Tuesday, February 23, 2009, 12:30-2:00 p.m., University Commons Ballroom A
William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ
In his famous speech at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967, the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. passionately spoke out against the Vietnam War. Today, 43 years later, our
country is still involved in distant wars. And one of today's most eloquent voices exposing the
futility and the horror of war is Chris Hedges.
Chris Hedges spent two decades as a foreign reporter
covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and the
Middle East. He served for eight years as the Middle
East bureau chief of The New York Times, where he
shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory
Journalism, for coverage of terrorism. His 2003 book
reflecting on his experiences as a war correspondent and
on the implications of war for us all—War Is a Force
That Gives Us Meaning—was a finalist for the National
Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.
In 2002 Hedges received the 2002 Amnesty
International Global Award for Human Rights
Journalism, and in 2009 the Los Angeles Press Club
named him the Online Journalist of the Year.
Other books by Hedges include: What Every Person
Should Know About War (2003); Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America
(2005); American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (2007); I Don't Believe in
Atheists (2008); Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians (with Laila Al-Arian; 2008);
and, most recently, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
All are invited!
Co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Program, Latin American and Latino Studies Program, the Race and Gender
Project, the Departments of Anthropology, Communication, English, History, Political Science, and Sociology, the
College of Humanities and Social Science, the Cotsakos College of Business, and the Office of the Provost.
For more information, contact Prof. Steve Shalom, 973-720-3433, shaloms@wpunj.edu.