One of the nation’s leading critical thinkers, Fareed Zakaria, will deliver the University of Oklahoma’s Commencement address at 7 p.m. Friday, May 10, in The Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, 180 W. Brooks St. Zakaria is widely respected for his thoughtful analysis and ability to spot economic and political trends.
“Fareed Zakaria is truly an educator,” said OU President David L. Boren. “He uses his forum through the public media to educate a worldwide audience about the important issues we all confront and how we can work together to meet them.”
Highly sought as a speaker both at home and abroad, Zakaria is the editor-at-large of TIME and a Washington Post columnist. He also is host of Fareed Zakaria GPS, CNN’s flagship international affairs program, and its companion blog, Global Public Square, which have become a destination for those seeking smart commentary and civil conversation about the big ideas and global challenges of our time. Winner of a 2012 Peabody Award, the Emmy-nominated GPS features Zakaria’s panel discussions and one-to-one interviews with heads of state, intellectuals and business leaders. His columns and cover stories – on subjects from the future of energy and the Middle East to America’s role in the world – reach more than 25 million readers weekly.
Zakaria’s international bestseller The Post-American World is about the “rise of the rest” – the growth of China, India, Brazil and many other countries – and what it means for the future. The New York Times called it “a relentlessly intelligent book,” while the Boston Globe praised Zakaria for having “more intellectual range and insights than any other public thinker in the West.” His previous New York Times bestseller, The Future of Freedom, has been translated into more than 20 languages and was called “a work of tremendous originality and insight” by The Washington Post.
He has offered political analysis on ABC News, as a roundtable member of ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos and as host of Foreign Exchange on PBS. He also has appeared frequently on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Charlie Rose, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and BBC World News. Esquire Magazine called Zakaria “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation.”
Zakaria has won the Deadline Club Award for Best Columnist, a National Magazine Award and two Overseas Press Club Awards. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Slate. Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers.
Zakaria has spoken to audiences ranging from the World Economic Forum at Davos to the U.S. State Department to major universities, and has appeared on major television and radio news and discussion shows in the United States and abroad. In 2009, he spoke at OU regarding how the President should reshape America’s foreign policy and in 2010, about the challenges America faces in adjusting to a new world environment.
OU’s Commencement will be moved to Lloyd Noble Center, 2900 S. Jenkins Ave., in the event of severe weather.
