Weisman is a deputy Washington editor and Congress editor at The New York Times. He has covered Congress, politics and economics for The Times. He worked for The Oakland Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, USA Today, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal before joining The Times. His new book, Semitism, is a rumination on the rise of anti-Semitism, racism and hate in the era of Trump, and what should be done to confront it.
His 2014 novel, No. 4 Imperial Lane, was a Chautauqua Prize finalist, Amazon Best Book of the Month and Great Group Reads Pick at the Women’s National Book Association.
Thornburg is director of the Reese News Lab and teaches classes in data-driven reporting and media economics. With funding from the Knight Foundation, Google and the National Science Foundation he develops tools and techniques that use data to lower the cost and increase the quality of local journalism. Before joining the school in 2007, Thornburg spent a decade in leadership positions in online newsrooms, mostly working on national and international news at The Washington Post.
The event is part of the Sylvia and Irving Margolis Lectureship on the Jewish Experience in the American South and is co-sponsored by the Duke Center for Jewish Studies.
