News from Trinity University

SAN ANTONIO – A former international head of state, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and a former United States cabinet member will visit Trinity University during the 2009-2010 academic year to present keynote lectures to the campus and San Antonio communities. All lectures will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Laurie Auditorium and are free and open to the public.

Headlining the Trinity University Distinguished Lecture Series are former president of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf on Sept. 17, 2009, and Thomas Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, on Feb. 16, 2010. In addition, Condoleezza Rice, United States secretary of state from 2005 to 2009, will be the featured speaker April 7, 2010, for The Flora Cameron Lecture on Politics and Public Affairs.

President Musharraf occupied what TIME magazine described as “the most dangerous job in the world,”

Pervez Musharraf

playing a crucial role in the global war on terror. His revealing memoir, In the Line of Fire, chronicles his struggles for the security and political future of his nation, with high stakes for the world at large.

In the course of his seven years at the helm of affairs in Pakistan, President Musharraf traveled widely all over the world and met many prominent leaders, and many of those leaders came to Pakistan to interact with him. Such top-level interactions allowed him to develop a sense of the geo-strategic realities of the world, and various conflict regions. It also crystallized his views and perceptions of key world issues. President Musharraf articulated one such thought to bring harmony into distraught regions in the form of a “strategy of Enlightened Moderation.”

He had a vision for Pakistan and still believes that it is a nation with all the resources, the potential, and all the human capacity to be transformed into a progressive, moderate, prosperous Islamic state.

Thomas Friedman

Photo Credit: Fred R. Conrad of The New York Times

Mr. Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times and winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, has been called “the country’s best newspaper columnist” by Vanity Fair.

His latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America, is a #1 New York Times bestseller. His previous books include The World is Flat, Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism, The Lexus and The Olive Tree, and From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won the National Book Award.

Mr. Friedman appears in his own segment, “Tom’s Journal,” on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer and is a frequent guest on programs such as Face the Nation and Charlie Rose. His TV documentaries, Searching for the Roots of 9/11, The Other Side of Outsourcing, and Addicted to Oil, have aired on the Discovery Channel.

Condoleezza Rice

From January 2005 to 2009, Dr. Rice served as the 66^th secretary of state of the United States. Before serving as America’s chief diplomat, she served as President George W. Bush’s national security advisor from January 2001 to 2005. She is currently the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution and professor of political science at Stanford University.

Dr. Rice has authored and coauthored several books, including Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft with Philip Zelikow; The Gorbachev Era with Alexander Dallin; and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army.

She has served on several local and national boards of foundations and charitable organizations. Dr. Rice is currently a member of the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She earned her bachelor’s degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver, her master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

The Trinity University Distinguished Lecture Series is made possible by an endowment gift from Mr. and Mrs. Walter F. Brown of San Antonio. The Flora Cameron Lecture on Politics and Public Affairs is made possible by an endowment gift by Mrs. Flora C. Crichton of San Antonio.

For more information, contact Mary Anthony in the Office of University Communications at 210-999-8441.