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Malcolm Gladwell ~ Distinguished Speaker Series

November 13, 2013 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Free

Free tickets will be available for graduate students at the SBI Ticket Office (221 Student Union). 1 per UB ID.

Malcolm Gladwell has an incomparable gift for interpreting new ideas in the social sciences and making them understandable, practical and valuable to business and general audiences alike.

He’s become so successful at this that, in 2005, TIME Magazine named Malcolm one of its “100 Most Influential People.” He was chosen for Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” 2010 and 2009 list, and is ranked number ten on “The Thinkers 50” 2011. And Newsweek chose him for the “Top 10 New Thought Leaders of the Decade.”

His first two books, both New York Times #1 best sellers, were The Tipping Point and Blink. With his first book Malcolm embedded the concept of “The Tipping Point” in our every-day vocabulary and gave organizations new tools for understanding how trends work. This 2013 UB Reads selection describes that magic moment when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.

In Blink he analyzed first impressions — the snap judgments that we all make unconsciously and instinctively — and he explores how we can master this important aspect of successful decision-making.

In Outliers, Gladwell suggests an exciting new approach to helping people succeed by using the factors that really foster success. Outliers debuted as a #1 best seller for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, Barnes & Noble, and Publisher’s Weekly.

Gladwell’s October 2013 book, David and Goliath, will be a topic of his upcoming lecture at UB and it explores the concept of the underdog. Gladwell uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty, the powerful and the dispossessed. He examines the battlefields of Northern Ireland and Vietnam, takes us into the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, and digs into the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms–all in an attempt to demonstrate how fundamentally we misunderstand the true meaning of advantages and disadvantages. When is a traumatic childhood a good thing? When does a disability leave someone better off? Do you really want your child to go to the best school he or she can get into? Why are the childhoods of people at the top of one profession after another marked by deprivation and struggle?

Malcolm is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. His editor describes his work as a new genre of story, an idea-driven narrative that’s focused on the everyday and combines research with material that’s more personal, social and historical. Gladwell put together a collection of his best writing for his best-selling fourth book, What the Dog Saw. He was previously a reporter for The Washington Post.

Details

Date:
November 13, 2013
Time:
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Cost:
Free
Event Category:
Website:
http://www.student-affairs.buffalo.edu/special/speakers.php

Venue

Alumni Arena
Alumni Arena, University at Buffalo
Buffalo, 14260
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Organizer

GSA Administrative Team
Phone
(716) 645-2960
Email
slfrank@buffalo.edu
View Organizer Website