Veteran journalist David Sanger to speak at SIUC

David E. Sanger, the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, will present a lecture next week at SIUC.

David E. Sanger

Sanger will discuss "China, Japan and India: The Rise of America's Strategic Competitors," at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 16, in the SIU School of Law Auditorium. Admission is free, and the public is welcome.

Sanger's appearance is part of Asian American Heritage Month events at SIUC.

Mike Lawrence, institute director, said, "David Sanger is a premier journalist with an extraordinary grasp of global and national issues. We welcome his insights on international and domestic matters vital to all of us."

Sanger also appears on PBS' "Washington Week with Gwen Ifill." Prior to his White House assignment, Sanger's coverage included examining the mix of economics and foreign policy. He also served as correspondent and bureau chief in Tokyo — covering and providing analysis on a variety of topics, including China's growth as an emerging industrial and military power, Japan's economic growth and North Korea's nuclear weapon's program. The award-winning reporter is a two-time member of Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting teams.

Sanger also regularly appears on public affairs and news shows including "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," "Charlie Rose" and "Face the Nation."

A graduate of Harvard College, Sanger reported from New York, Tokyo and Washington during his 25-year career at the New York Times. Named one of the newspaper's senior writers in 1999, he earned the Weintal Prize for his diplomatic reporting on Iraq and Korean crisis.

In 2004, Sanger and four colleagues shared the American Society of Newspaper Editors' top award for deadline writing for team coverage of the space shuttle Columbia disaster.

Sanger's first book, "The Inheritance: The World America Now Faces," is due to be released in January. It examines "the Bush administration's legacy, its successes and failures, and the complex challenges facing the next president," according to Sanger's publicists.

The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, Student Development, the School of Journalism, the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Undergraduate Student Government, the College of Engineering, WSIU, the Department of Political Science, the SIU School of Law and the Asian American Coalition of Illinois are sponsoring Sanger's lecture.

- Pete Rosenbery