University of Georgia alumna Deborah Blum, a Pulitzer Prizewinning science writer with The Sacramento Bee, will deliver the spring Charter Lecture at UGA on April 14.
By Sharron Hannon
University of Georgia alumna Deborah Blum, a Pulitzer Prizewinning science writer with The Sacramento Bee, will deliver the spring Charter Lecture at UGA on April 14.
Blum will speak on "Sex on the Brain," the title of her forthcoming book on gender biology scheduled to be published in August by Viking. Her talk will be at 4 p.m. in the Chapel.
Blum won the Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting in 1992 for a series on primate research, a subject she pursued in a 1994 book titled The Monkey Wars. She also served as co-editor of A Field Guide for Science Writers, released earlier this year by Oxford University Press.
"It's exciting to have a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist speak on campus, particularly one who has achieved such a stellar record in the challenging area of science reporting," says Susette Talarico, chair of the Charter Lecture committee. "We are particularly pleased to welcome an alum back to UGA for this lecture series."
Blum received a bachelor's degree in journalism from UGA in 1976 and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin in 1982. She was a general assignment reporter for newspapers in Georgia and Florida before switching to science writing, first for The Fresno Bee, then The Sacramento Bee, where she has been on staff since 1984.
Her numerous writing and reporting awards include the 1996 National Award for Non-Deadline Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.
In the introduction to Sex on the Brain, Blum describes the study of gender biology as frustrating, promising and "blessedly interesting.
"There's no limit to the questions we can ask," she writes. "The big grandiose ones--why do we have two sexes at all? The small ones--is there a scientific reason why boys get intense about Legos and girls (as company studies show) do not? How easy is that to change? Do we want to?"
The Charter Lecture series, established in 1988, honors the ideals expressed in the charter which founded the University of Georgia as the first chartered state university in the United States. A committee of senior faculty members selects speakers for the series. Charter Lecturers also meet with students and faculty while on campus.
