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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 12, 2004
CONTACT: Roland Ruiz, Director of Public Relations, St. Philip's College, 210/531-4851

NEW YORK TIMES WAR CORRESPONDENT TO SPEAK AT ST. PHILIP’S COLLEGE
Chris Hedges to Kick Off 2004-2005 President’s Lecture Series

Author and veteran war correspondent Chris Hedges will kick off the 2004-2005 St. Philip’s College President’s Lecture Series with a guest lecture on Thursday, Oct. 28, at 11 a.m. in the Watson Fine Arts Center Theatre on the college’s main campus (1801 Martin Luther King Drive). The lecture is free and open to the public. A book signing will immediately follow.

Hedges, a New York Times reporter who’s spent 15 years covering conflict and crises throughout the world, will address the topic: "The Mythology of War: Reflections of a Veteran War Correspondent." He is the first of three guest lecturers scheduled to speak at the college during the academic year as part of the St. Philip’s College President’s Lecture Series. The college-sponsored program provides a forum for the community to hear noted speakers' perspectives on a broad range of local, regional, state, national, and international issues. Other speakers scheduled to speak in 2004-2005 include: human rights activist Harry Wu and race and gender activist Nontombi Naomi Tutu, daughter of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Hedges was the Central American Bureau Chief for the Dallas Morning News and later the Middle East Bureau Chief for that newspaper, based in Jerusalem, from 1988 to 1990. He was the Middle East Bureau Chief for The New York Times, based in Cairo, from 1991 to 1995 and later the Balkans Bureau Chief for the "Times" from 1995 to 1998. He was a member of "The New York Times" team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the paper's coverage of global terrorism and he received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism.

His debut book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, has been reviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Hedges has also appeared on a variety of programs such as "Charlie Rose," "The News Hour," "CBS Sunday Morning," "Fresh Air," "Talk of the Nation," CNN and PBS's "Religion and Ethics." He has lectured at numerous colleges and institutions including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, University of California at Berkeley, The Council on Foreign Relations, Bates College, New York University and Colgate University.

Hedges holds a BA in English literature from Colgate University, a master of divinity from Harvard University where he was a Nieman Fellow during the academic year 1998-1999 and has taught at Columbia University and Princeton University.

St. Philip’s College, one of the Alamo Community Colleges serving the greater Bexar County region, is a comprehensive community college designated as both an Historically Black College and an Hispanic Serving Institution. St. Philip’s College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.