The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will host New York Times columnist, best-selling author and Carolina alumnus Frank Bruni as the annual Eve Marie Carson Lecture Series speaker on Nov. 5. Bruni’s talk “Digital Cocoons, Political Polarization and the Path Back to Common Ground” will take place at 6 p.m. in the Genome Science building auditorium (G100) on Carolina’s campus.
Bruni’s talk will focus on how the Internet, digital technology and the Balkanization of news and popular culture have prompted Americans to retreat into narrower niches that deprive them of common points of reference and a common purpose. He will discuss higher education’s influence on this deprivation and how a liberal arts education can be a powerful antidote to this trend.
Bruni’s career at The New York Times spans 20 years and includes stints as a White House correspondent, chief restaurant critic, Rome bureau chief and staff writer for the Sunday magazine. A Morehead-Cain scholar, he worked as a staff writer at The Daily Tar Heel and received a B.A. degree in English from UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1986. Bruni also earned an M.S. degree in journalism from Columbia University Graduate School for Journalism.
Bruni joins the notable list of previous Eve Marie Carson Lecturers, which includes Elizabeth Edwards, Greg Mortenson, Fatou Bensouda, Mika Brzezinski, Robert Gibbs and Jonathan Reckford
Carson (1985-2008), a Morehead-Cain Scholar, was the Student Body President during the 2007-08 academic year. She believed that one of the most fundamental aspects of the Carolina experience was attending lectures on campus and developed the Distinguished Speakers Series as part of a UNC Student Government project. In 2010, the series was later renamed in honor of her memory.
The series hosts speakers that enrich and challenge the entire student body. Eve Carson first established this program as the Distinguished Speakers Series. The lecture series continues to be a student-run and student-led effort to bring national and international men and women with distinguished ideals and accomplishments to UNC.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Carolina Women’s Leadership Council, Honors Carolina in the College of Arts and Sciences and UNC Student Government. The Carolina Women’s Leadership Council is a network of women alumni committed to supporting the University and mentor future generations of woman philanthropists at Carolina.
