Terrorist threats, intelligence agencies and the WikiLeaks embassy cables represent just a few of the topics on which Scott Shane of the New York Times’ Washington Bureau has reported throughout his career. Through the Goldfarb Center-sponsored Lovejoy Journalist-in-Residence program—made possible by a grant from the Knight Foundation—Shane will visit the Hill the week of April 10.

Shane, who began working at the Times in 2004, will give a lecture entitled “The WikiLeaks Story: Technology, Secrecy and the Right to Know,” at 7 p.m. on April 11 in the Ostrove Auditorium. He is also the author of “Dismantling Utopia: How Information Ended the Soviet Union.” 

Shane is well known for his work on “torture memos.” One of Shane’s articles, “Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation,” published in June 2008, garnered a great deal of public attention after bringing to light the brutal interrogation techniques supported by members of the Bush administration. Shane described how C.I.A. officers used waterboarding—which, according to the Times, uses water “to cut off oxygen and to create both the feeling and fear of drowning”—in hopes of gaining information from Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the main suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In an interview with NPR, Shane explained that in this case, “the interrogators exceeded the guidelines they were given.” 

In addition to meeting with students, Lovejoy Journalists-in-Residence such as Shane “explore and develop the themes raised by that year’s winner of Colby’s Lovejoy Award for courageous journalism,” as stated on the College’s website. This year, Alfredo Corchado received the Lovejoy Award for his journalistic coverage of the drug trade, crime and violence on the U.S.-Mexican border. Vanity Fair’s Maureen Orth, who gave a lecture on the Hill on March 14, was the most recent Journalist-in-Residence to visit the College. 

During his fellowship at the College, Shane will hold office hours in Diamond 311. He welcomes students and professors who want to drop by and talk about journalism or any aspect of his career.