"Half the Sky"

The ILR School is a sponsor of a debate at noon Thursday between a Pulitzer Prize winner and the Cornell Forensics Society, based at ILR.

Free and open to the public, "Half the Sky: A Debate About Women and Development" will be held in the Statler Auditorium at the School of Hotel Administration, which is hosting the event.

Cornell Trustee Sheryl WuDunn '81 will debate Elizabeth Conlan '11, a forensics society member and student at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Emily Zhang '11, a forensics society member and student at the College of Arts and Sciences.

Conlon said the idea for a public debate with WuDunn resulted "from reading and being inspired by 'Half the Sky' and from a desire to raise awareness and spur discussion on women's issues at Cornell, which I believe to be a surprisingly gaping hole in our college discourse."

WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof, her husband, are co-authors of "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide." It was published in 2009.

An alumnus of Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences, WuDunn is an investment adviser. Kristof is a columnist for The New York Times. They won a Pulitzer Prize together for their coverage of China while working as correspondents for The New York Times.

In addition to ILR, the event is being sponsored by the Cornell Forensics Society, The Sisterhood -- a student group promoting the discussion of women's issues through events and publications, the Society Advocating More and Better Argumentation -- a group known as "SAMBA" that supports quality competitive debate by hosting workshops, sanctioning tournaments, presenting awards and fund raising, and Balch Hall's Womyn's Center.

For more information about the Thursday debate, contact Conlan at ekc29@cornell.edu.