TORONTO, February 18, 2004 -- Award-winning author and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Shashi Tharoor will speak at York University during a centennial commemoration of the birth of diplomat and Nobel laureate, Dr. Ralph Bunche.

A symposium on Dr. Bunche’s leadership in public service will be held on March 22, 2004 at the Keele Campus. Dr. Tharoor’s lecture will be given at 1:30 p.m. in the Senate Chamber. York honoured Bunche with an honorary doctorate in 1970 and was asked to contribute to worldwide celebrations of the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Dr. Tharoor, who heads the Department of Communications and Public Information, has worked at the UN since 1978 and was named a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 1998. In addition to serving with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Dr. Tharoor has been Director of Communications and Special Projects in the Office of the Secretary-General and Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. From 1991 to 1996, Dr. Tharoor led the team responsible for UN peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia.

Dr. Tharoor is also a celebrated author who has written six critically acclaimed books and numerous articles and reviews for publications around the world. His most recent work Nehru: The Invention of India is a scholarly reappraisal of the life of India’s first Prime Minister released in November 2003. His 1992 novel Show Business was made into the motion picture Bollywood.

A national of India, Dr. Tharoor has won numerous journalism and literary awards including a Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. He is an elected fellow of the New York Institute of the Humanities and a member of the Advisory Board of the Indo-American Arts Council.

Dr. Bunche, an African American, received his doctorate from Harvard in 1934 and was the first person of colour to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as Director of the Division of Trusteeship in the early years of the UN. He was awarded the 1950 prize for his role as a mediator in Palestine in 1948.

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For further information, please contact:

David Fuller
Media Relations
York University
416-736-2100, ext. 22091
dfuller@yorku.ca

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