Columnist Molly Ivins Named Mary Alice Davis Distinguished Lecturer

AUSTIN, Texas – Oct. 24, 2006 – Nationally syndicated political columnist Molly Ivins has been named the 2006 Mary Alice Davis Distinguished Lecturer by The University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism.

Ivins’ lecture, “The Future of Journalism:  Slow Death or Suicide?”, will take place at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 15 at the Hogg Memorial Auditorium. Tickets, limited to two per person, are free and available at Bass Concert Hall, the Erwin Center and Hogg Auditorium.

Ivins’ political column, distributed by Creator’s Syndicate, appears in more than 300 newspapers nationwide. She has reported for the Houston Chronicle, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the New York Times and the Texas Observer, and has been a columnist for the Dallas Times Herald and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Her freelance work has appeared in The Atlantic, Esquire, Harper’s, Mother Jones, The Nation, The Progressive and TV Guide, among others. She has written six best-selling books, the most recent being, “Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America,” and “Who Let The Dogs In? Incredible Political Animals I Have Known.”

A native Texan who often writes about First Amendment issues, she has won numerous awards, including the Smith Medal from her alma mater, Smith College; the Pringle Prize for Washington Journalism from Columbia University, where she attended journalism school; the First Amendment Award from the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press; the Nyhan Prize from the Shorenstein Center at the Kennedy School at Harvard University; and the Eugene V. Debs Award in the field of journalism. She also is a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Named for School of Journalism alumna Mary Alice Davis, who wrote for The Daily Texan in the 1960s, the lectureship was established by her family in 2005 to bring notable journalists to campus to discuss the role of journalism in society.

Davis worked as a columnist and editorial writer for the Austin American-Statesman. Before joining the American-Statesman she spent more than 20 years writing for the House Research Organization (a research organization for the Texas House of Representatives), most recently as editor. Prior to that, she worked as a reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

Remembered as a remarkable writer who championed the role of journalism in a democracy, Davis, died in 2004 from ovarian cancer. Ivins was diagnosed with stage III inflammatory breast cancer in 1999. It recurred in 2003 and again late last year. In January, she reported she was again undergoing chemotherapy. Her doctors have just concluded that once again, her disease is “in check.”

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Contact:

Erin Geisler

(512) 475-8071

erin.geisler@austin.utexas.edu