Guest Speaker Robert Jensen - Tuesday, Feb. 2nd @ 7 pm

Author and educator Robert Jensen will be speaking at Last Word on the evening of Tuesday February 2nd. Event begins at 7pm.

Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism and director of the Senior Fellows Honors Program of the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin.

Jensen joined the UT faculty in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. in media ethics and law in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a professional journalist for a decade. At UT, Jensen teaches courses in media law, ethics, and politics.

In his research, Jensen draws on a variety of critical approaches to media and power. Much of his work has focused on pornography and the radical feminist critique of sexuality and men’s violence, and he also has addressed questions of race through a critique of white privilege and institutionalized racism.

In addition to teaching and research, Jensen writes for popular media, both alternative and mainstream. His opinion and analytic pieces on such subjects as foreign policy, politics, and race have appeared in papers and on websites around the world.

Jensen’s latest book, All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, was published in 2009 by Soft Skull Press. He also is the author of Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007); The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, 2005); Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); and Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2001); co-author with Gail Dines and Ann Russo of Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (Routledge, 1998); and co-editor with David S. Allen of Freeing the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives on Freedom of Expression (New York University Press, 1995).

Jensen is the co-producer of the documentary film "Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave, the Other still Dancing," available from the Media Education Foundation.

Jensen also is the co-writer/producer of an educational slide show in PowerPoint about pornography, “Who wants to be a porn star? Sex and violence in today’s pornography industry.” Information about the show is available at http://stoppornculture.org/ or by writing to stoppornculture@gmail.com. He was a consultant to the directors of the documentary "The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality, and Relationships."

Jensen can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu and his articles can be found online at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/index.html.