NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Wendell “Sonny” Rawls, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, will visit Vanderbilt University during the spring 2007 semester to teach Investigative Reporting in America.
Rawls is the second Pulitzer winner to visit campus to teach the course, which gives students insight into journalism from a recognized leader in the field.
Rawls began his career at The Tennessean and has also reported for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1977 along with Inquirer colleague Acel Moore for a report on atrocities inside the Farview State Hospital for the mentally ill in Waymart, Pa. While he was an editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, his staff won one Pulitzer and was nominated for four others in two years.
Rawls held the Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies at Middle Tennessee State University in 2001, and is currently executive director of The Center for Public Integrity and director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists at the center in Washington, D.C.
“Investigative journalism, the kind of in-depth reporting that uncovers truth and helps keep governments, elected officials and institutions accountable to citizens is central to maintaining a democracy,” Rawls said. “Our future will be enhanced by investigative journalists who can produce the most accurate and complete information accumulated and published with the highest standards. I‘m delighted to share experiences, methods, techniques, goals and ethical benchmarks with Vanderbilt students who may do their part to make government actions transparent and elevate levels of civic engagement.”
Joseph Hallinan of The Wall Street Journal taught Investigative Reporting in America at Vanderbilt during the spring 2006 semester.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu