Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Tina Rosenberg will speak Thursday, Feb. 2, at the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ about how peer pressure can be used for positive change.

Rosenberg, author of β€œJoin the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World,” will talk at 3 p.m. in the Garden Key Room of the Student Union. The event, organized by the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Global Perspectives Office, is part of the 2011-2012 themes of β€œPeople Power, Politics and Global Change” and β€œCovering Crises from the Frontlines.” It is free and open to the public.

In her book, Rosenberg argues that peer pressure has the potential to help enact social change, improve education and oust dictators.

In 1987, she received a MacArthur Fellowship, which she used to move to South America. Her experiences there helped her write her first book, β€œChildren of Cain: Violence and the Violent in Latin America.” Later, she won the Pulitzer Prize for a book about the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, β€œThe Haunted Land: Facing Europe’s Ghosts After Communism.” 

She currently writes β€œFixes,” an online column on solutions to social problems for The New York Times.

In addition to the Global Perspectives Office, sponsors and partners include Lawrence J. Chastang and the Chastang Foundation, the Sibille H. Pritchard Global Peace Fellowship program, the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Global Peace and Security Studies Program, the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Nicholson School of Communication, ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ LIFE, the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Book Festival 2012 in association with the Morgridge International Reading Center, the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ Political Science Department, the ΒιΆΉΣ³»­΄«Γ½ International Services Center and the Global Connections Foundation.