Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post editor set to deliver annual Dole Lecture

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward is scheduled to speak at Kansas University next month.

Woodward, an associate editor at The Washington Post, will deliver the 2011 Dole Lecture at 2:30 p.m. May 15 at the Dole Institute of Politics.

Woodward, along with Carl Bernstein, reported on the Watergate scandal that won The Washington Post a Pulitzer Prize in 1973.

He has also written several books, the most recent of which focused on President Barack Obama’s handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bill Lacy, director of the Dole Institute, said he became acquainted with Woodward while the journalist was working on a book about Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign.

Lacy said Woodward called to congratulate him after he accepted the job as Dole Institute director, and offered to help in any way he could.

“Since 2004, I’d just kind of been waiting for the right time to impose upon his time,” Lacy said.

With the recent focus on international affairs and a new armed conflict beginning in Libya, the timing seemed right, Lacy said.

Woodward will participate in an interview with Lacy, and they will discuss Watergate, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the situation in Libya.

Woodward has spoken at KU before, when he accepted the 2000 William Allen White Foundation’s national citation.

The event is free and open to the public, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors will open at 1:45 p.m.