Sebastian Junger to Speak at Johnson State College

October 27, 2016

Acclaimed journalist, filmmaker and New York Times best-selling author Sebastian Junger will speak at Johnson State College from 8 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10. The talk, $10 for the general public and free for military veterans and JSC students, faculty and staff, will be at Dibden Center for the Arts.

Junger is the author of “Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging,” “The Perfect Storm,” “Fire,” “A Death in Belmont” and “War.” A contributing editor to Vanity Fair and special correspondent for ABC News, he has produced several documentaries about war, including the feature-length “Restrepo,” which was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

He also founded and directs the New York-based nonprofit Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues (RISC), which teaches freelance journalists in war zones how to respond to medical emergencies on the battlefield. Junger established the organization a year after his colleague and friend Tim Hetherington was killed while covering the conflict in Libya; had other journalists on the ground been trained in medical interventions, Hetherington likely would have been saved.

Junger’s book “Tribe” is JSC’s 2016 “common book,” a shared reading that is the basis of class discussions and college events during the fall semester. All first-year students read the book and participate in related activities as a way to connect with peers and engage in college life. The book examines how war, hardship and certain natural disasters make us more connected by drawing us together in a common cause. As Junger writes in the introduction, the book is about why many people find that “war feels better than peace, hardship can turn out to be a great blessing and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it. What they mind is not feeling necessary.”

Tickets to Junger’s talk may be purchased starting Oct. 31 by calling the Dibden Center box office at 802-635-1476. All proceeds will benefit RISC.

For more information, contact Matt Hayes, Johnson State College: 802-635-1474, Matthew.Hayes2@jsc.edu

Photo credit: TED Salon