BBC World Affairs Correspondent Mike Thomson, author of Syria’s Secret Library: Reading and Redemption in a Town Under Siege (Public Affairs 2019), will present the 30th Annual Mortenson Distinguished Lecture on Monday, November 16.

Mike Thomson is one of the BBC’s most distinguished and experienced World Affairs correspondents. During his career, he has interviewed many military and political leaders including Margaret Thatcher, George Bush, Joseph Kabila, King Hussein, Meles Zenawi and most recently the Liberian President, George Weah. His agenda-setting reporting has taken him to many of the world’s biggest trouble spots. These range from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to Somalia, Eastern DR Congo, Darfur and the FARC controlled jungles of Colombia.

Mike has won more than 20 major awards for his work. These include: News Journalist of the Year (Sony Radio Academy 2012); Broadcast Journalist of the Year (One World Media Awards 2008) and War Correspondent of the Year (Prix Bayeux Calvados Awards 2008-Radio) These prestigious prizes are in addition to four Amnesty International Media Awards (three of them in consecutive years), five Sony Radio Academy Awards and four Foreign Press Association Awards.

CO-SPONSORS
Department of Journalism
Center for Global Studies through support from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI NRC Program
Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
School of Information Sciences
Mortenson Center for International Library Programs
University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign

Leran more at https://www.library.illinois.edu/mortenson/lectures/.