Athens, Ga – Journalist José Antonio Vargas, who became a catalyst for the debate on immigration after revealing his status as an undocumented immigrant, will lecture at the University of Georgia April 26 at 8 p.m. in the Tate Student Center Grand Hall. The University Union Student Programming Board will sponsor the event.
In a New York Times essay published June 2011, Vargas described how he was sent from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in the U.S. at age 12, did not learn of his undocumented status until age 16 and went on to become a successful multimedia journalist. His article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” drew both praise and condemnation, with some calling for his deportation.
Vargas began his professional career at the Washington Post, where he wrote on topics ranging from video-game culture and the HIV/AIDS epidemic to the role of technology and social media in the 2008 presidential election. He won a Pulitzer Prize as part of a team covering the Virginia Tech shootings.
In 2009, he joined the Huffington Post as a senior contributing editor, launching its Tech and College sections. He left to write for magazines, including a profile of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for the New Yorker, and he adapted his AIDS articles for an independent documentary film “The Other City.”
After exposing his status, Vargas founded the nonprofit Define American project to promote dialogue about the nation’s immigration system.
Tickets are free for students with valid UGACards who pay activity fees on the Athens campus and $5 for non-students. They are available at the Tate Student Center cashier window, Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information, call 706/542-6396 or see http://union.uga.edu.
The University Union Student Programming Board is a registered student organization within UGA’s Division of Student Affairs.
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