Humans of New York creator part of University Lectures spring lineup

Brandon Stanton will appear as part of a collaboration between University Union and University Lectures, UU officials announced Sunday night in a press release. Two other notable names round out the spring University Lectures in Hendricks Chapel: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri on Feb. 7, and an award-winning journalist and activist Sonia Nazario on April 5.

With more than 22.5 million followers on Facebook an Instagram, Stanton’s talk may be of particular interest to students. His talk will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the lecture – not normally required for the open University Lectures in Hendricks Chapel – go on sale in February, with more details to come at the beginning of the spring semester.

“The hardest part of first grade is 'eleven plus eleven' because a lot of the class don't be knowing that."

A photo posted by Humans of New York (@humansofny) on Oct 26, 2016 at 3:59pm PDT

A former Chicago bonds trader, Stanton moved to New York after losing his job. In late 2010, he started the photography blog Humans of New York with the goal of photographing 10,000 New Yorkers. His moving street portraits, which were accompanied by a short personal story from the subject, caught on. In 2013, Stanton wrote a companion book to his blog, which spent 45 weeks on The New York Times Bestsellers List.

Beyond receiving numerous “likes” and “shares,” Stanton has seen his success manifest in more obvious ways. In early 2015, Stanton’s post of a boy from an underprivileged Brooklyn middle school led him to raise $100,000 through crowdfunding to send the students on field trips to Harvard. Stanton’s followers raised more than $1 million for Mott Hall Bridges Academy, and the attention and earned Stanton a meeting with President Obama.

Stanton has since taken his movement on the road, traveling to various countries and cities to take photos. According to the Humans of New York Instagram account, he is currently capturing Macomb County, Michigan.