“Witnessing 9/11: How Pictures Changed Us”

What: The Jan Cohn Lecture is an annual lecture dealing with topics relating to American Studies, culture, and history. The lecture honors the memory of Jan Cohn, G. Keith Funston Professor of American Literature and American Studies and the first woman to serve as Dean of the Faculty at Trinity College.
 
This year’s lecturer and Jan Cohn Visiting Scholar will be David Friend.  He will discuss his new book, Watching The World Change: The Stories Behind The Images of 9/11, which addresses the importance of photography, television, and the Internet in the 21st century.  In The New York Times Book Review, Garrison Keillor called Friend’s new book, “lucid, thoughtful and wide-ranging… In truth, Friend’s excellent writing conveys more of the truth of the day than photographs can.”

When: Tuesday, November 6 ~ 4:00 p.m.

Where: Rittenberg Lounge, Mather Hall, on the Trinity College campus

Background:  David Friend is Vanity Fair’s editor of creative development and former director of photography for Life magazine.  He won an Emmy and a Peabody Award as an executive producer of the CBS documentary, 9/11, which aired in 140 countries. As an editor, he broke the story identifying Mark Felt as Watergate’s “Deep Throat”; as a correspondent, he has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Lebanon, and elsewhere; as a curator he has mounted exhibitions at the International Center of Photography and other venues; as a writer, he contributes frequently to Vanity Fair, The Digital Journalist Web site, and his blog, watchingtheworldchange.com. Friend is the author of The Meaning of Life and More Reflections on the Meaning of Life. His cartoons have appeared in The Washington Post and Discover; his poetry in The New Yorker.

For more information, please contact the American Studies Program at 860-297-4228.