Journalist and writer Laura Ling speaking at Auburn April 3

Article body

The Cross-Cultural Center for Excellence will host Laura Ling, an award-winning journalist, web and TV host on Monday, April 3, at 6 p.m. in the Student Center ballroom.

Ling has dedicated herself to bringing attention to critical global issues, including slave labor in the Amazon, the drug war in Mexico, Internet censorship in China and women’s rights in Turkey.

In March 2009, Ling captured the world’s attention from a different standpoint when she was arrested and held captive in North Korea for 140 days after attempting to report on the trafficking of North Korean women. Granted a special pardon, she returned to the U.S. and documented her experience in her memoir, “Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and the Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home,” penned with her sister, Lisa.

The event is cosponsored by the Office of Inclusion and Diversity Cross-Cultural Center for Excellence, the Confucius Classroom, Office of University Writing’s Miller Writing Center and ePortfolio Project, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and the University Programs Council.

Diversity at Auburn University encompasses the whole of human experience and includes such human qualities as race, gender, ethnicity, physical ability, nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation, economic status and veteran status.

Related Media

Auburn University is a nationally ranked land grant institution recognized for its commitment to world-class scholarship, interdisciplinary research with an elite, top-tier Carnegie R1 classification, life-changing outreach with Carnegie’s Community Engagement designation and an undergraduate education experience second to none. Auburn is home to more than 30,000 students, and its faculty and research partners collaborate to develop and deliver meaningful scholarship, science and technology-based advancements that meet pressing regional, national and global needs. Auburn’s commitment to active student engagement, professional success and public/private partnership drives a growing reputation for outreach and extension that delivers broad economic, health and societal impact.