Former ‘Newsweek’ bureau chief to talk on world’s hot spots

“Reporting the World: a Life of Public Engagement” is the title of a talk scheduled for 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in the Union’s Christie Theatre. Scott C. Johnson is an American journalist who worked for 12 years as a Newsweek foreign correspondent and bureau chief. He has reported from more than fifty countries and published articles on topics ranging from Iraqi insurgents and electoral violence in Kenya to the Central American child migrant crisis. Johnson’s first book, a memoir titled The Wolf and the Watchman: A Father, A Son, and the CIA, was nominated for the National Book Award. (Copies are available for loan at the Cofrin Library and sale at the Phoenix Bookstore on campus.) Johnson has spent much of the last decade in the Middle East, covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in Africa, reporting on politics and current affairs. His free public presentation next Thursday was scheduled in conjunction with the University’s Common Theme for 2014-15, “Engaging in Public Life.”