UK to host journalism national figures March 20

The University of Kentucky Office for Institutional Diversity, in partnership with The Atlantic and other community and university partners, will host Jenisha Watts, senior editor at The Atlantic, and Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief at The Atlantic, for a talk titled “The Future of Journalism and the Health of our Democracy.” The event will take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 20, in the Singletary Center Concert Hall and is free and open to the public.

The focus of their lecture will be on American democracy and the pivotal role journalism plays in shaping and influencing it. This thought-provoking lecture will provide students and faculty with a valuable opportunity to engage with influential national figures in journalism and our very own alum – Jenisha Watts.

Jenisha Watts

Jenisha Watts is a senior editor at The Atlantic. Before joining The Atlantic in 2020, she was a culture editor for ESPN’s The Undefeated and a features and commentary editor for espnW. She has also and edited articles for ESPN The Magazine and held editorial roles at Time Books, Essence, and People. Watts obtained her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kentucky College of Communication and Information in 2008.

Jeffrey Goldberg

Jeffrey Goldberg is the editor in chief of The Atlantic, and is the moderator of Washington Week with The Atlantic on PBS. He joined The Atlantic in 2007 as a national correspondent and in 2016 was named the 15th editor in chief of The Atlantic, which was founded in 1857. In 2022 and 2023, The Atlantic won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence; this is the highest honor bestowed by the magazine industry. Under his leadership, The Atlantic has won the first Pulitzer Prizes in its history — three over the past three years — and set new audience and subscription records during his editorship. In 2020, Goldberg was named editor of the year by Adweek, which also named The Atlantic magazine of the year. 

Before joining The Atlantic, Goldberg served as the Middle East correspondent and then the Washington correspondent for The New Yorker. Earlier in his career, he was a writer for The New York Times Magazine and New York magazine. He began his career as a police reporter for The Washington Post. Goldberg is the author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror. A former fellow of the American Academy in Berlin, he also served as a public-policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and as the distinguished visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Goldberg is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Magazine Award for Reporting, the Daniel Pearl Award for Reporting, the Overseas Press Club’s award for human-rights reporting, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Prize for best investigative reporting. 

To RSVP for this event, click here. 

This event is part of the university's year-long commemoration of the pivotal anniversary of the integration of our institution. In 1949 — 75 years ago — Lyman T. Johnson broke the color barrier at UK becoming the first Black American to attend classes at the university. Read more about Johnson's legacy in this message President Eli Capilouto shared with the campus community here. More programming and events will take place throughout the year to mark this important anniversary. You can follow along on UKNow, Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram and on digital signage across campus.