Bernard Lefkowitz, independent journalist and author of Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb, will lecture at Hamilton College on Thursday, Oct. 18, at 8 p.m. in the Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Lefkowitz, who teaches non-fiction writing at Columbia Journalism School, will visit as a guest of Hamilton's Public Affairs Journalism class.
Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb, (1997) is an account of how an affluent New Jersey suburb shaped the values and behavior of a group of high school athletes convicted of raping a retarded young woman. The New York Times selected Our Guys as one of the "notable books" of 1997; it was selected as one of the best books of 1997 by Publishers' Weekly, The New York Public Library and NPR's "Fresh Air" program. It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and for the Edgar Prize awarded by the Mystery Writers of America. Our Guys was awarded the "New Vision" prize as the best nonfiction paperback book of 1998 by the Quality Paperback Book Club/Book of the Month Club.
Lefkowitz has taught at Columbia University since 1980, first as an adjunct associate professor in the Graduate School of Journalism and now, since 1990, in the Writing Program of the School of Arts. He was formerly a newspaper reporter for the New York Post then New York Newsday, for which he covered the six-month Glen Ridge rape trial.
Lefkowitz is also the author of Tough Change: Growing Up on Your Own in America (1987), which appeared on the New York Times Book Review list of recommended reading. He also wrote the book Breaktime: Living Without Work in a Nine-to-Five World, and has written numerous articles for national publications such as Esquire, Newsweek, New York, Sports Illustrated and The Washington Post.
Lefkowitz has also researched and directed a broad range of policy analyses, evaluations and national studies for many foundations and public agencies, including The Ford Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation and the U.S. Peace Corps.
Lefkowitz's visit is sponsored by English 270, Public Affairs Journalism; the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center; the Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture; the Departments of English and Rhetoric and Communication, and the program in Communication Studies.
