To: The Wellesley Community
From: President Paula A. Johnson
Re: The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer to Deliver Wilson Lecture March 19
Date: February 4, 2019
I am pleased to announce that award-winning journalist and best-selling author Jane Mayer will deliver the 2019 Wilson Lecture at Wellesley on March 19. The annual Wilson Lecture has a long tradition of bringing prominent people to campus to speak on the issues of the day.
Endowed by Carolyn A. Wilson, a journalist and war correspondent and a member of Wellesley’s class of 1910, the Wilson Lecture Series ensures that generations of Wellesley students are familiar with the most important public figures shaping the events of their time. In 1962, Katherine Anne Porter, best known for her novel Ship of Fools, delivered the inaugural lecture. Over the years, the Wilson Lecture has been given by some of our most innovative and influential thinkers, such as Elie Wiesel, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Toni Morrison, Chinua Achebe, Paul Farmer, William Julius Wilson, and Al Gore, among others.
Mayer will speak on the topic “Fake News and Alternative Facts: The War on Truth,” before answering questions from the audience. At a moment when journalists and their critical role in our democracy are under attack, Mayer’s voice is crucial. She has said, “On my best days, I feel I am directly involved in a vital dialogue with the American people, telling them truths they need to know for our democracy to work. Without facts, deception will win. Free people need a free press.”
Jane Mayer was the Wall Street Journal’s first woman White House correspondent, is a best-selling author, and currently serves as the chief Washington correspondent for the New Yorker, where she writes about politics, law, national security, and culture. At the Wall Street Journal she covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the last days of the Soviet Union, and the first war in the Persian Gulf. Known for holding powerful public officials accountable, Mayer is the author of the 2016 New YorkTimes best-seller Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, which the Times named one of the 10 best books of the year. She also wrote the 2008 Times best-seller The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, which was named one of the top 10 works of journalism of the decade by NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and one of the 10 best books of the year by the Times.
Registration for the lecture will open February 6 at 9 p.m. for students, faculty, and staff. Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. There will be a reception following the lecture with refreshments and an opportunity to greet Mayer.
We are privileged to host Jane Mayer as she defends journalism’s essential role in our democracy.
