Future Forum Presents: Rich Oppel, Jr.
When: Thursday, July 29, 2010, 7:00 pm
Where: Atrium, 10th Floor :: LBJ Library and Museum :: 2313 Red River Street
Contact: Sarah McCracken [sarah@lbjfoundation.org...]
On Thursday, May 20, join us for an after-hours tour of the new exhibit CRONKITE: Eyewitness to a Century, followed by a talk by Rich Oppel, Jr. Oppel is a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, currently based in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Rich Oppel Jr. grew up mainly in the South, came to Texas in the early 1990s to work for the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and he's really never left Texas. After the Star-Telegram, he worked for the Dallas Morning News in Dallas and then in Austin, where he was a member of the newspaper's bureau covering state politics. He left in 1999 for the New York Times, but returned a year later to become the Times' Dallas correspondent, covering the nation's energy crisis. In 2002 he joined the Times' bureau in Washington, D.C., and then began doing rotations in Iraq the following year.
Oppel has been working continually as a conflict correspondent since 2004 - in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, with brief stints in Lebanon and Israel. He was part of a team of reporters that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting two years ago. For a little over a year now he has been one of seven reporters covering Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Times. He still keeps a home in Austin, and returns here several weeks out of the year during his breaks from Kabul and Islamabad.
Join us before the talk for an after-hours tour of the new exhibit CRONKITE: Eyewitness to a Century, starting at 6:30 p.m. At 7:00 p.m., we'll move to the Atrium for Oppel's talk. He will be discussing the main issues we face now in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including the summer offensive in Kandahar. He will also answer questions from attendees.
A reception will follow. Please RSVP online if you plan to attend. Non-members will be charged a $10 guest fee at the door.