Lara Logan: "Apartheid to Afghanistan: Reporting from the Front Lines" | Press Releases

Open VISIONS Forum Lecture Series
8 p.m., Monday, October 3, 2011
Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts

Image: Lara Logan The Open VISIONS Forum series at Fairfield University continues its 2011-12 lecture season with Lara Logan , the award-winning chief foreign correspondent for CBS News, at 8 p.m., Monday, October 3, 2011.

Ms. Logan's lecture is entitled: "Apartheid to Afghanistan: Reporting from the Front Lines." With this appearance, Ms. Logan will be the featured guest for Fairfield's Sixth Annual Student Forum, and she will take questions from a panel of students after her talk. Single tickets are $45. Moffly Media is the exclusive media partner for Fall 2011 Open VISIONS Forum programming. (This lecture is nearly sold-out; only a limited number of tickets are available. For information, call the Quick Center Box Office: (203) 254-4010).

Lara Logan's bold reporting from war zones around the globe over the past 19 years has earned her a prominent spot among the world's best foreign correspondents. It has also placed her in extreme danger: In February, she was sexually assaulted and beaten by a mob while covering the Egyptian revolution in Tahrir Square, an incident she spoke candidly about on CBS' 60 Minutes , starting a nationwide conversation on the safety of women journalists in war zones.

"Compelling as a journalist and courageous as an individual, Ms. Logan brings her eye-witness testimony on the front lines of global conflicts from Kabul to Cairo," noted Dr. Philip Eliasoph, professor of art history, the forum's founder and moderator. "But instead of the flash news clip, or edited 60 Minutes segment, our audience will surely relish this opportunity to watch her think, respond and engage our community in an extended, deliberative format."

Lara Logan has been CBS News chief foreign correspondent since 2006, and 2011-12 will be her seventh season reporting for 60 Minutes . She joined the network in 2002 as a correspondent, and she reports regularly for the CBS Evening News , The Early Show , and Face the Nation . Her five-part series on U.S. Marines on patrol in Afghanistan for the CBS Evening News was named an RTDNA/Edward R. Murrow Award winner.

Ms. Logan's daily reports have been an integral part of CBS News' coverage of the war in Iraq, both before and after U.S. troops moved into the country. Sometimes, her dogged persistence and integrity lead to breaking news; sometimes, she's in the right place at the right time. Logan was the only journalist from an American network in Baghdad when the U.S. military invaded the city, reporting live from Firdos Square as the statue of Saddam Hussein fell. Since then, she has spent the majority of her time in Iraq and Afghanistan. She broke the story of the abuse of special needs Iraqi orphans on the CBS Evening News in June 2007, a report that made headlines around the world. Also that year, she reported from Pakistan on the death of Benazir Bhutto and its aftermath.

Lara Logan's reports for 60 Minutes have included an up-close look at combat in Afghanistan; a penetrating interview with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf after the assassination of Bhutto; a rare one-on-one interview with Gen. John Abizaid when he was the Commander of United States Central Command; and a report on the airport road in Baghdad, then the most dangerous piece of asphalt in the world.

Her reporting from the frontlines of Afghanistan and with the Green Berets searching for Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden appeared on 60 Minutes II and on the CBS Evening News , The Early Show and CBS News Radio, for which she served as a general assignment reporter. While reporting for a 60 Minutes II story about the intense battle being waged at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in 2005, Ms. Logan's vehicle, traveling with the U.S. military, hit a double-tank mine. The explosion seriously wounded two soldiers; she escaped with minor injuries. Her other 60 Minutes II reports included an interview with the King of Swaziland, who was being sued by the mother of a girl who was taken to be his 10th wife, and a report on legalized assisted suicide in Switzerland.

She has a long list of awards, including an Emmy Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and a Murrow Award, the last for a searing 2006 report on American troops under fire in Ramadi, a piece she and her producer shot themselves while embedded with a military unit. She had 14 years of journalism experience before joining CBS News. Ms. Logan served as a correspondent for GMTV , the weekday morning news program of Great Britain's ITV and as a freelance correspondent for CBS News Radio. She has been an assignment editor for ABC News in London and an editor/producer for NBC, CBS and the European Broadcast Union. In addition to her extensive work in Iraq and Afghanistan, she has covered embassy bombings in Nairobi and Tanzania, the conflict in Northern Ireland, the war in Kosovo, and deadly Mozambique floods, among many other stories.

A native of Durban, South Africa, she got her start working at newspapers there, eventually moving onto broadcast journalism as a senior producer for Reuters Television. Lara Logan holds a degree in commerce from the University of Natal and a diploma in French language, culture and history from the University de L'Alliance Francaise in Paris.

For ticket availability, Tickets are available through the Quick Center Box Office: (203) 254-4010, or toll-free 1-877-ARTS-396 (1-877-278-7396). Tickets can also be purchased online at fairfield.edu/quick .