Journalist activists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

World-renowned human rights advocates and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn launch the fall season of BC's Park Street Corporation Speaker Series on Sept. 15 with their talk “Reporting on Gender Inequities and Global Health.” 

The husband-and-wife duo combine journalism and activism, with a brand of reporting centered on human rights abuses and advocacy. The first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism for their coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement, they co-wrote China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power and the best-selling Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

Kristof, a New York Times columnist, has traveled extensively in his reporting. WuDunn, an established author and speaker, is senior managing director at Mid-Market Securities, a firm that raises capital for growth businesses, including those in emerging markets. Their appearance is co-sponsored by BC's Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics. 

Directed by Professor of English Amy Boesky and Jesuit Institute Director and Canisius Professor James Keenan, S.J., the Park Street Series – which seeks to engage students in exploring values and ethics related to health and healthcare practices – continues its academic year theme of “Health, Humanity and Ethics: Histories and Futures,” with a Nov. 3 appearance by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, who researches and writes on disability studies, American literature and culture, bioethics, and women’s studies.

On Nov. 17, the series will host Susan Reverby, a Wellesley College historian who has researched the infamous 40-year “Tuskegee” syphilis clinical study and edited a prize-winning book on the subject. Her talk will address the lessons of Tuskegee and similarly controversial research studies in Guatemala. 

On Dec. 1, Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, who directs the Harvard Global Health Institute, will present “Preventing the Next Global Pandemic: Lessons from Ebola and Zika.”   A nationally and internationally recognized expert in assessing and improving healthcare delivery systems whose research focuses on the quality and costs of healthcare, Dr. Jha co-chaired the Harvard-LSHTM independent panel on the global response to Ebola, and over the past five years has served as an advisor to ministries of health and large NGOs on the design and evaluation of policy.

All events take place at 7 p.m. in the Murray Room. For more information, see the Park Street Corporation Speaker Series website.

–News & Public Affairs