Keynote speaker

Eric Schlosser
Photo by Kodiak Greenwood

This year's Commencement Speaker is award-winning journalist, producer, and playwright Eric Schlosser.

Schlosser's investigative journalism exposes issues ignored by mainstream media — from the fast food industry to the plight of migrant workers to the possibilities of nuclear disaster. He is best known for books that delve into the darker side of these subjects: "Fast Food Nation" (2001); "Reefer Madness" (2003); and his most recent "Command and Control" (2013), about nuclear weapons in America.

He is currently working on a book about the American prison system. His investigative pieces have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.

In addition to investigative journalism, Schlosser has written plays and worked for an independent film company. He served as executive producer and co-wrote the feature film adaptation of "Fast Food Nation." He was also executive producer of "There Will Be Blood," co-producer and co-narrator of the documentary "Food, Inc.," and executive producer on the documentaries "Food Chains" and "Hanna Ranch."

Schlosser graduated from Princeton University with a degree in American history, and went on to study British imperial history at Oxford. He is the son of Connecticut College alumna Judith Gassner Schlosser '52.