Duke Writes Symposium
The theme of this year's Duke Writes Symposium is Compose Yourself: Writing for Change. The symposium gives upper class students a unique opportunity to practice applying academic writing skills to new situations beyond conventional course work. All sophomores, juniors, and seniors are eligible and attendance is free of charge. The event will be held November 2 from 12:30 - 4:30 in Perkins Library.
This year the focus is on how students can use writing to bring about change in their own lives and as a tool to engage with others. Keynote speaker and Duke alum Jimmy Soni, the 27-year-old Managing Editor of online news site The Huffington Post, will discuss his experience with how writing can shape the world.
The application period for this symposium is now closed.
Symposium Schedule
12:30 - 1:00 pm Registration
1:00 - 2:00 pm Opening Remarks and Keynote Speech
2:00 - 2:15 pm Break
2:15 - 3:45 pm Concurrent Workshop Sessions
3:45 - 4:00 pm Break
4:00 - 4:30 pm Debrief and Closing Reception
Keynote Speaker: Jimmy Soni
Jimmy Soni is the Managing Editor of The Huffington Post Media Group,a position he assumed at age 26. Prior to this, he served as Chief of Staff for Arianna Huffington, the President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post. He has also worked as a speechwriter and policy aide for the Mayor of Washington, DC. He began his career at the management consultancy McKinsey and Company, where, among other projects, he worked with the firm's internal think tank, the McKinsey Global Institute. He is the co-author of a new biography of Cato the Younger, Julius Caesar's arch nemesis, titled Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato. The first such biography of this ancient Roman Senator, it was released in October of 2012. Jimmy's writing and commentary have appeared in The Atlantic and NPR, among other outlets. Jimmy is a 2007 honors graduate of Duke University, where he studied as a University Scholar and was awarded a William J. Griffith Award for campus leadership. Upon graduating, Jimmy was awarded the George J. Mitchell Scholarship for graduate study in Ireland.