SUNY New Paltz Writing Board to Host Lively Speakers Panel

NEW PALTZ — A panel discussion on political activism and journalism will take place March 29 in SUNY New Paltz’s Parker Theatre from 7:30 until 9:30 p.m. Award-winning journalist and author Juan Gonzalez of the New York Daily News will highlight a panel which includes journalist and professor Karl Grossman, and Annette Fuentes, a free-lance journalist who specializes in health issues.

“We’ll have a lively discussion among three committed journalists and activists who have spent a large part of their careers telling stories no one wanted to tell,” said the panel’s moderator, Jessica Siegel, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Media at New Paltz.

Panelists will discuss topics including activism within the objective, mainstream press, and the impact of corporate media mergers on dissenting voices in the press both mainstream and alternative.

Gonzalez’s most recent book, Harvest of Empire, was published by Viking Press (2000). It addresses the complexities of the Latino experience in the United States.

Grossman is the author of The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet (Common Courage Press, 1977). His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Newsday, The Nation, and the Columbia Journalism Review. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY College at Old Westbury, where he teaches investigative reporting and environmental journalism.

Fuentes is a free-lance writer, as well as a contributing editor to In These Times. She has written for The Village Voice, The Nation, and El Diario.

In addition to taking part in the panel discussion, Gonzalez will direct a workshop for New Paltz students in journalism and feature writing classes. “The debate between activism and objectivity raises profound questions for the writer,” said Patricia Sullivan, head of the university’s Writing Board. “It speaks to point of view and purpose important issues for students as they learn to write.”

The panel discussion is being sponsored by the Writing Board, the SUNY New Paltz Foundation, and the Office of Academic Affairs. It is free and open to the public.

For additional information, please contact Peter Kaufman, an assistant professor in the SUNY New Paltz Department of Sociology, at (845) 257-3503 or kaufmanp@matrix.newpaltz.edu.