MEDIA CONTACT: Wendy Leopold at (847) 491-4890 or at w-leopold@northwestern.edu

April 27, 2004

Pulitzer-Prize Winning Sociologist to Deliver Van Zelst Lecture

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Pulitzer Prize-winning sociologist and American Prospect magazine co-founder Paul Starr will deliver the 21st annual Van Zelst Lecture in Communication Wednesday, May 19, at Northwestern University.

Titled “The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications,” his lecture will be presented at 8 p.m. in the auditorium of Annie May Swift Hall, 1920 Campus Drive, Evanston. It is free and open to the public.

Starr, professor of sociology at Princeton University, has written extensively on American society, politics and public policy. In 1990, he co-founded The American Prospect, a liberal magazine about politics, policy and ideas, with former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and writer Robert Kuttner. The magazine sponsors www.movingideas.org, a Web site about policy.

Starr served as a senior advisor at the White House in 1993, where he worked on the formulation of the Clinton health plan. His 1994 book “The Logic of Health-Care Reform” laid out the case for a system of universal health insurance and managed competition.

Starr was awarded the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction and the Bancroft Prize in American History for “The Social Transformation of American Medicine.” His latest book is “The Creation of the Media” (Basic Books, 2004).

The Van Zelst Research Chair in Communication was established at Northwestern's School of Communication in 1981 with an endowment from Mr. and Mrs. Theodore W. Van Zelst. It provides a professor with the opportunity to devote a year to research on an important issue in communication, and provides funds for the Van Zelst Lecture.

The Van Zelst Lecture is designed to increase our understanding of significant trends in the field of communication. For further information about the lecture, call (847) 491-3751.