Posted: Thursday, November 7, 2024

The University of Evansville (UE) proudly presents award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and author Sebastian Junger as the Snyder Lecture Series keynote speaker.

The event will take place on Thursday, November 14, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. in Shanklin Theatre. Junger's lecture is free and open to the public.

Sebastian Junger is widely known for his work as a journalist and author. His book The Perfect Storm became an international bestseller and was later adapted into a blockbuster film. He is also recognized for his Academy Award-nominated documentary Restrepo, which chronicles the intense experiences of soldiers in Afghanistan, co-directed with the late Tim Hetherington. Junger's exploration of the psychological impact of combat, the bonds of brotherhood, and the challenges soldiers face upon returning home has made him a leading voice on these critical issues.

Junger's latest book, In My Time Of Dying, is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the ultimate unknowable mystery. For years, Junger traveled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk, yet the closest he ever came to death was in 2020. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital and began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day and was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived. This experience spurred Junger - a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical - to undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die.

The Snyder Lecture Series is a platform that brings influential and thought-provoking speakers to the University of Evansville each year. Junger's experience as a war correspondent, filmmaker, and author aligns with the university's commitment to fostering dialogue on important social and global issues.