Aurora University To Host Barbara Ehrenreich, Author, Journalist, Social Critic Sept. 17

AURORA, Ill, August 30, 2007—Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist, historian, and social critic, will present “Nickel and Dimed” at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 17, at Aurora University.

Part of the 2007-2008 Arts and Ideas series at the university, the program is free to the public in Crimi Auditorium at the Institute for Collaboration, 407 S. Calumet Ave. in Aurora.

Sponsors of her presentation are MetLife and Nicor, gold sponsors; Harris Aurora and Human Resource Management Systems, LLC, silver sponsors; City of Aurora and Sikich, bronze sponsors; The Beacon News and Comcast, media support.

Ehrenreich has authored 14 books. In 2001, her Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America became a New York Times bestseller, and has since sold over one million copies.

Nickel and Dimed, a trenchant examination of working-class poverty, chronicles Ehrenreich's own attempt to live on minimum wage. The book is now required reading at more than 600 colleges and universities, from University of the Ozarks to Yale University to Western Wyoming Community College.

In 2005, Ehrenreich's Bait and Switch, also a New York Times bestseller, exposed the ever more prevalent phenomenon of white-collar unemployment.

A frequent contributor to Harper's and The Nation, Ehrenreich has been a columnist at the New York Times and Time magazine. In 2004, she received the Nation Institute/Puffin Foundation Prize for Creative Citizenship, given annually to an American who challenges the status quo "through distinctive, courageous, imaginative, socially responsible work of significance."

Ehrenreich's most recent book, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, was published in January of this year. She resides near Key West, Fla.

During the afternoon, Ehrenreich will participate in the second annual Aurora Community Symposium in Perry Theatre, located in the Aurora Foundation Center for Community Enrichment. Sponsored by the university and the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley, the symposium will feature Ehrenreich in a special panel discussion with individuals representing health and wellness, education, social work and the local social services community.

The annual symposium is designed to provide a venue for invite guests to exchange ideas, foster deeper understanding and stimulate the development of collaborative solutions to shared problems.

Ehrenreich will also visit selected AU classes during her campus visit.

Her appearance is part of AU’s 2007-2008 Celebrating Arts and Ideas series, an array of entertaining and diverse experiences to instill a deep appreciation of the arts.

For more information or to make reservations for the Sept. 17 evening lecture, call the university at 630-844-5486 or email artsandideas@aurora.edu.

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