The Media School has released its list of professionals that will be speaking at IU during the fall semester as part of the Media School Speaker Series.
The 2015 fall semester speaker series will feature four guests instead of the usual three.
Award-winning author Dave Eggers, blogger and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, Public Broadcasting Service President and CEO Paula Kerger, and international NPR correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson are all set to speak about their careers as well as current issues in the media, according to the Media School’s website.
The Media School Speaker Series, which started in 2006, provides students and local residents with an opportunity to meet and interact with some of the top media professionals in the country.
The speaker series is free and open to the public.
Anne Kibbler, the Media School’s director of communications and media relations, is responsible for organizing the event. Kibbler said she has received more feedback on the announcement of this semester’s speaker series than on any of the other speaker series that she has organized in the past.
“It’s not an academic lecture,” Kibbler said. “Speakers have to be able to appeal to a general audience as well as the student body. I’m happy that we have a real variety.”
New York Times best-selling author and social activist Dave Eggers will speak Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the IU Auditorium.
The Kelley School of Business’ Common Read Program, Kelley Initiatives for Social Impact and the College Arts and Humanities Institute will co-sponsor Eggers’ appearance.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, a New York Times best-selling author and journalist will speak Friday, Oct. 23, in the Indiana Memorial Union’s Alumni Hall.
The School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the College Arts and Humanities Institute will co-sponsor Coates’ speech.
Paula Kerger, PBS president and CEO and director of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, will speak Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
WTIU will sponsor Kerger’s visit.
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, international NPR correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, will speak Thursday,Dec. 3 at the Buskirk-Chumley. In addition to her speech, IU’s Center on Congress will present Nelson with the 2015-16 Lee H. Hamilton Fellowship for Public Service.
The IU Center on Congress and the Institute for Advanced Study will co-sponsor Nelson’s speech.
In recent years, the Hutton Honors College has collaborated with the Media School to serve a breakfast or lunch at which students are given time for an informal Q-and-A session with speakers, Kibbler said.
“We try very hard to involve as many students as possible,” Kibbler said. “Either through the classroom or through the Q-and-A with the honors college.”
Kibbler said this collaboration has been extremely successful in the past, and she plans to incorporate it in this year’s speaker series as well.
“I love the speaker series,” Kibbler said. “It is a wonderful way to introduce students to really accomplished people in their field. I also like the fact that this is something that we open up to the general public. It’s really nice to bring the school out there into the community.”
