South African Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron will visit Northwestern next week to speak about racial justice, democracy and media freedoms.

Cameron, who has worked closely with the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications’ South Africa journalism residency program in the past, will give a lecture Jan. 20, on South Africa’s transition to a more egalitarian country, Medill Prof. Douglas Foster said. Foster will also interview Cameron at the McCormick Foundation Center Forum on Jan. 21 focusing on media freedoms in developing countries. Both events will be open to the public.

Medill Dean Brad Hamm invited Cameron to speak as an outgrowth of the Medill South Africa residency program that started 12 years ago. Cameron has worked closely with Medill students on the program in the past.

Cameron, who is the first openly HIV-positive justice in South Africa, has worked to advocate for labor rights and racial and LGBT equality.

“He’s somebody that’s thought deeply about how you create communities of people who can cross lines of culture, language, race, background, because that’s what the South African experiment is about,” Foster said.

Cameron’s visit, which will be his first to NU’s Evanston campus, will coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

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