Feb. 24: ‘Being Wrong’ common reading author visits

Schulz,-credit-Michael-Polito--80PULLMAN, Wash. – Kathryn Schulz, author of “Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error,” will present the free, public Common Reading Invited Lecture at Washington State University at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 24, in Beasley Coliseum.

“Being Wrong,” the 2013-14 common reading selection, is being used in dozens of first-year and other classes on campus.

“Her book has been well received by the WSU community and many interesting conversations have been, and are being, inspired by it,” said Susan Poch, co-director of the common reading program, part of the Office of Undergraduate Education.

Schulz,-credit-Michael-Polito---200
Kathryn Schulz photo by Michael Polito

“Being Wrong” touches on topics ranging from neurology to social bias to the roots of comedy and narrative. Karen Weathermon, also co-director, believes the book has been a good fit, especially in two ways.

“Schulz’s basic premise is that while most of us abhor being wrong, it actually presents an opportunity to realize something new about ourselves, our world, our beliefs,” she said. “At our research university, things often go presumably ‘wrong’ in a researcher’s work. When we look into why they went wrong, it often happens that new paths open to different discoveries.

“The book has also been a good fit for students,” she said. “Being able to see their own challenges and failings as opportunities for growth is a valuable skill to develop.”

Schulz is a journalist, public speaker and book critic for New York Magazine.

In 2012, she won the National Book Critic Circle’s Nona Balakian Prize for Excellence in Reviewing. She was a 2004 recipient of the Pew Fellowship in International Journalism (now the International Reporting Project). She has been featured in a TED Talk and on YouTube.

She has reported from throughout Central and South America, Japan and, most recently, the Middle East. Her freelance writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, TIME Magazine, the Boston Globe, the “Freakonomics” blog of The New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy and the New York Times Book Review, among other publications.

She is former editor of the online environmental magazine Grist and former reporter and editor for The Santiago Times, of Santiago, Chile, where she covered environmental, labor and human rights issues.

A graduate of Brown University and a former Ohioan, Oregonian and Brooklynite, she lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

For more information on the common reading program, visit http://commonreading.wsu.edu.

 

Contacts:

Karen Weathermon, co-director, WSU Common Reading Program, 509-335-5488, kweathermon@wsu.edu

Susan Poch, co-director, WSU Common Reading Program, 509-335-7767, poch@wsu.edu