This special engagement will consist of a keynote followed by Audience Q&A
On any given week, the international criminal justice system sees wrongful convictions, prosecutorial misconduct, aggressive interrogation techniques, and cases that test the limits of our empathy and morality. Perhaps no case in the 21st century better encapsulates these systemic issues than that of Amanda Knox. In late 2007, Knox created international headlines when she stood accused of the murder of her roommate and fellow study abroad student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy. After nearly 4 years in prison and 8 years on trial, she was finally acquitted of the crime, but the scars left by the ordeal ran deep.
Rather than retreat into obscurity, however, Knox has tirelessly devoted the time since to shedding light on the pervasive issues of wrongful conviction, public shaming, and our frequently imperfect methods of seeking truth. Through her writing, journalism, and public advocacy, Knox delves deep into these universal topics while also speaking to the specific social crises highlighted by her harrowing experience—the epidemic of misogyny, controversy-hungry tabloid culture, “fake news” and misinformation, and our increasingly elusive sense of empathy. Thoughtful, passionate, and revelatory, Amanda Knox is no longer waiting to be heard.
Amanda Knox is an exoneree, journalist, public speaker, and author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Waiting to Be Heard. Between 2007 and 2015, she spent nearly four years in an Italian prison and eight years on trial for a murder she didn’t commit. Amanda and her husband Christopher produce and host Labyrinths, a podcast about the winding, unexpected paths in people’s lives. She is a featured contributor to www.CrimeStory.com, where she interviews other leaders in the criminal justice reform movement. She also routinely helps raise money for the Innocence Project, and currently sits on the board of the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice, whose mission is to humanize the incarcerated.