Bob Graham Center for Public Service

Nicholas D. Kristof, one of the most respected columnists on foreign affairs working in the world today, discussed his work and his outlook for the year ahead during a special discussion at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service on February 28.

Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times since 2001, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner whose op-ed columns appear twice a week. But, he is particularly well known for travels that bring scrutiny to human rights issues around the world, including child trafficking and gender rights.

A Rhodes Scholar who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College, Kristof has studied Arabic in Cairo and Chinese in Taipei. He caught the journalism bug as a high school student working in France and began backpacking around Africa and Asia, writing articles to cover his expenses.

Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, then also a Times journalist, won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1990. They were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer for journalism. He won a second Pulitzer in 2006, for commentary for what the judges called “his graphic, deeply reported columns that, at personal risk, focused attention on genocide in Darfur and that gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world.” Most recently, he and WuDunn are the authors of Half the Sky: From Oppression to Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

Kristof has been a pioneer at the Times in his use of social media. He was the first blogger on the Times website and also tweets, has a Facebook fan page and a channel on YouTube. He also created his annual “Win-a-Trip” contest in which a lucky student is selected to go on a reporting trip with him. A documentary about him, “Reporter,” premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and has been shown on HBO.

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