Media Contacts:
Alex Miller, University Scholars Program, 919/515-2835
Mick Kulikowski, News Services, 919/515-3470

Jan. 16, 2004

2004 Harrelson Lecture Features NPR’s Totenberg

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nina Totenberg

Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio's award-winning legal affairs correspondent, will deliver the 2004 Harrelson Lecture at North Carolina State University. Her reports air regularly on NPR's critically acclaimed newsmagazines, All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition.

The Harrelson Lecture, free and open to the public, will take place at 3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 2, in Stewart Theatre, which is located in the Talley Student Center. A reception will follow in the Grand Ballroom. Totenberg's visit to NC State is co-sponsored by the University Scholars Program.

In her lecture, “Supreme Court: Past, Present and Future,” Totenberg will discuss several of the court’s recent major decisions, including those concerning gay rights, affirmative action, and cases related to the division of state and federal powers. She will also discuss the current highly-charged climate on judicial nominations, which may well become a major political issue in the upcoming 2004 elections.

Totenberg's coverage of legal affairs and the Supreme Court has won her widespread recognition. In 1991, her ground-breaking report about University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill's allegations of sexual harassment by Judge Clarence Thomas led the Senate Judiciary Committee to re-open Thomas' Supreme Court confirmation hearings to consider Hill's charges. NPR received the prestigious Peabody Award for its gavel-to-gavel coverage – anchored by Totenberg – of both the original hearings and the inquiry into Anita Hill's allegations, and for Totenberg's reports and exclusive interview with Hill.

That same coverage earned Totenberg additional awards, among them: the Long Island University George Polk Award for excellence in journalism; the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for investigative reporting; and the prestigious Joan S. Barone Award for excellence in Washington-based national affairs/public policy reporting, which also acknowledged her coverage of Justice Thurgood Marshall's retirement.

In 1988, Totenberg won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for her coverage of Supreme Court nominations. She has been honored eight times by the American Bar Association for continued excellence in legal reporting and has received a number of honorary degrees. On a lighter note, in 1988 and 1992 Esquire magazine named her one of the "Women We Love."

A frequent contributor to major newspapers and periodicals, she has published articles in The New York Times Magazine, The Harvard Law Review, The Christian Science Monitor, Parade magazine, New York Magazine, and others.

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